It could have been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

While in Nebraska, my brother helped me plan a route east that avoided Chicago traffic.  When I set it up on Map Quest, however, I must have done something very wrong, because my directions (which I didn’t look at until the night before our Chicago-avoidance trip) included 3 U turns in 2 miles.  Not a good thing when you are driving nearly 40 feet of vehicle and tow bar.   

JIm and I decided that on our way out of Bourbonnaise, we’d fill our ever-hungry RV at a gas station, stop at a Starbucks across the street so we could use their WIFI and look up Don’s route on both my laptop and Jim’s IPhone, and then hook up the tow car and rig in a nearby parking lot.  But we couldn’t find the Starbucks or the gas station.  Heading back to where we thought the Starbucks was, we turned down a dead end street;  luckily, Jim is good at the art of the 7-point turn.  Then, when we got to Starbucks, Jim’s IPhone died.  

Our luck turned when we found a Verizon Store where the IPhone was easily fixed.  And the trip was was pretty and easy (Thanks, Don -- you are the King of the traffic avoidance route)

So now we are at Chain O’Lakes State Park in Albion, Indiana, in western Indiana about 20 miles north west of Fort Wayne. The park is two miles wide and four mile long and has 13 lakes, nine of which are connected by channels. It would be fun to come back here with kayaks. 

Bev on a bridge over a channel connecting two lakes at Chain O’ Lakes State Park in Albion, Indiana.

Jim and Cooper in front of Sand Lake.  Moments after this photo was taken, Cooper jumped off this pier into deep water, moss and muck.  In the 9 years I’ve known Coop, he’s never jumped into water over his head so I’m not sure what the enticement was. 

Cooper modeling his mud bath.  Jim washed him off and put him in the Honda to dry before we let him back in the rig.  The Honda smells great.