Traversing Our Way to the Chicago Area

Since we didn’t get a chance stop and see the Baird’s as our next destination, we rerouted to Paducah, KY and stayed for a night at the Fern Lake Campground.

Not a bad place to spend the night. We stayed about fourteen hours before heading north to Decatur, IL to stay with Katrina’s brother Bret and his wife Tracey.

It was an uneventful 220 mile drive (except however when Bear is along for the ride).

that got us into the Decatur area with enough time to unhook and have Katrina drive the truck over to Krekel’s to get some double sliders! She grew up on them and I have grown very fond of them over the years! I have to say that my smash burgers on the Blackstone are getting pretty close!

Bret and Tracey share a driveway

with their friends who show horses and have a beautiful barn that we could park by. To boot, they have water and sewer!

Wahoo! That was boondocking!

They even had two Texas Cattle pups who just turned ten weeks:

We had never heard of the breed before. Newt (brown) and Gus (tri) looked like Australian Shepherds to us.

Bret found Katrina some pickleball play and while she was out we went to dinner at the South Side Country Club. It was fun to be back there as Katrina and I had our wedding reception there. Fundamentally it was the same place but had a lot of cosmetic changes over the past 36+ years.

Bret joined us in the Busse Bus for a nightcap and convo. You can tell that we are early on in our adventures this summer as we continue to forget to take pictures. Hence, no picture of Bret. However, we did get to visit with two of Katrina’s brothers over the past few days. And in the words of Meatloaf “Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad”.

The next morning Katrina and I packed up slowly as we didn’t have to be at our next destination until mid afternoon. While we were getting ready Tracey stopped by and brought us some popcorn from Dell’s. Yummy!

Although it was a quick stop we really enjoyed our stay. Thank you Bret and Tracey!