Two Brian’s at Siloam (Again only Different)

Although she wasn’t going to overnight with me, Cindy, joined me on Thursday afternoon, July 22nd, as I travelled to Siloam Springs State Park. We had not been to this park for two years so it was nice to see that the wild life was as plentiful as ever.

Cindy, in the car, had to go slow to let wild turkeys clear the road and this young deer didn’t seem particularly concerned about having a few humans sharing the park with her. The operative word here is FEW. This park, like many other Illinois State Parks, appears to have a lot fewer campers this season. While this makes it nice and quiet for those of us enjoying the parks, its a bit worrisome when we consider where the state is looking to make future cuts with its current budget woes.

Cindy’s ulterior motive in making the 30 mile trip from our house to help set up at the campground was the promise of the evening’s dinner out at Mike’s Place in the small nearby town of Liberty, IL. (Actually she did not trust me to park the RV without hitting a tree as I have hit two different trees while parking in this park). We’ve yet to have a bad meal at Mike’s or a meal small enough that we were able to also handle one of his awesome homemade desserts at the end. I had homemade ham and beans and cornbread. We’ve still not made it to Mike’s on Sunday when he has some really interesting entrees such as duck and quail on the menu….still on the ‘futures’ list.

After Cindy left, Thursday evening and Friday morning I spent my time doing small fix-its and maintenance around the RV. You know the small things that seem to never get fixed or taken care of, like lubricating the steps or loosening up the push button on the shower head, that type of stuff. I also got the boat out and put our new license stickers on it (an Illinois requirement) and put new string on the fishing poles to get ready for the two Brians.

I have history from a few years back of taking "Brian's" to Sil0am for a night of camping and fishing. (see 2008 and 2007). One Brian was my nieces’ son and the other was the son of the best man and matron of honor in our wedding. This trip my nieces’ son, Brian, came to Siloam but the other original Brian is from Atlanta and could not make it to Siloam. So, this year the second Brian is a friend of the other Brian. Confused? Anyway I had two Brians with me again but they were not the same two Brians.

The two Brians got to Siloam shortly after lunch on Friday and could not wait to get out on the lake in the boat.

They did not catch any fish but had a good time paddling around the lake.

Later, after everyone was hot and tired, we went back to the campsite for our traditional foil dinners. (Yes, Brian E. I did burn it!) While we were finishing dinner Jim and James stopped by to check on Brian and to sit and chat awhile.

It was extremely hot that day so there was a lot of refreshing going on while we discussed the days events and planned our day for tomorrow.

KP