...with a husband and 5 sons, I am truly outnumbered....stories and thoughts on life from a mom in a houseful of little men!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Land O' Lincoln and Fireflies

July 17, 2014

It was hard to leave Stevens Point, Wisconsin.  Very hard.  We consoled ourselves with ridiculously-sized ice cream cones at Belt's (large size is 2 lbs of ice cream,) a last visit with my cousins Jack & Kami, and the fact that we will now be within driving distance to return for visits.

*insert shocking picture of ice cream cones which is not yet in my possession*

This journey has been wrought with gut-wrenching farewells at every stage, yet there is still something about it all that is so peace-filled and "right."  I'm so thankful for that peace.

And so, we continued south, out of Wisconsin, and into Illinois, "Land of Lincoln".  What can I say about traveling through Illinois?  Hmm...well, the first night, we stayed outside of Rockford.  We found an out-of-the-way RV campground, and I must say our jaws dropped as we drove off the highway and into the countryside.  We were met with new shades of green, and lush, rich, life-filled country.  The trees were enormous, and created tunnels with the roads to drive through.  Our campground had many such trees, as well as large spans of grassy lawns to play.
This particular Maple tree was so huge, that Nicholas, Noah, and I could not reach all the way around it together.  What a charming place, so filled with life.  Birds of all kinds twittered and sang.  The boys saw their first Cardinal.  Gray squirrels frisked about.  Geese ambled around by the river.  The boys found that upon walking up to a little pond, literally hundreds of little frogs bounded back into the water with each step toward the edge. 

Just as we were leaving, a couple of the boys discovered crab apples.  They stuffed their pockets full of tiny green apples from off the ground, bound and determined to feed them to the deer when we get to Tennessee.  For now, they are stuffed in our little camper fridge.  Oh boy. 

The following day, which was yesterday, we moved on down through Illinois.  There's not much to say about that.  :) 


We stayed in Effingham last night, and the landscape was not anything like what we saw in Rockford.  We enjoyed our campground though, and the highlight of that night was definitely fireflies! 
Sunny morning outside Effingham, IL
I will mention that we had a special lunch out at Cracker Barrel today.  It felt really special somehow...like a taste of what's to come for us.  Rockers on front porches, sweet tea, old-fashioned hymns, and down-home cookin'.  The boys were VERY excited to try catfish.  We're getting closer to journey's end, as the roadsigns say and the crickets so noisily proclaim tonight.

No comments: