Of Mormons, starship captains, and phantom baseball players

May 25--Prairie du Chien, WI

Yesterday I woke early to the sound of rain on the roof. And when you're sleeping in an overcab bunk in an RV, the roof is about a foot above your head, and the rain tends to hit with a resounding thunk. I got us out and on the road by about 7:30, and headed the scenic route to Nauvoo, IL.

It turns out the rig handles very well in the rain. I had changed the windshield wiper blades, and they worked well as well. Still, the scenery was pretty--maybe more so, with a bit of mist. Missouri may be hilly, but when I crossed over the river to Illinois it flattened out quickly. I took the smaller roads up through lots of small towns (which tend to be a few houses, a church, maybe a gas station/convenience store, and probably some grain elevators), although it was good to know that most of the stations offered diesel. I haven't had any problems as of yet finding diesel when I need it, and I'm still going by the Western rule: you get to half a tank, you fill up. This still allows me to go about 300 miles, which is turning out to be just a bit less than a full day's run for me in this rig. I'm still getting wonderful MPG--around 19 or so. Can't hardly argue with that!

The road to Nauvoo runs at river level, and was quite pretty (even if I did have someone ahead of me who was driving even more slowly than I do!). The town itself was where Joseph Smith and the rest of the Mormons set up shop (literally) after being forced out of other places and right before moving to Utah (Joseph Smith was lynched while in jail near Nauvoo, and everyone up and left after that--can't hardly blame them). The town site itself is pretty empty, with some original houses still scattered here and there. I went to the visitor's center, which was full of young enthusiastic Mormon missionaries who were willing to talk my ear off, if I let them. I looked at the exhibits (not many), grabbed a pamphlet or two, and then headed back to the rig. I drove to the Joseph Smith homestead and got to see his grave, which wasn't quite as overdone as I had expected. If it hadn't been raining, this might have been a nice place to sit for a while--there are lots of things to do, and everything is free, as long as you don't mind a bit of prostlytizing (spell?) with your fun.

I headed back across the river (on a bridge with an 8-ton limit--my rig is about 5.5 tons, which didn't stop me from worrying) and then continued north through Iowa through the rain. I'd noticed something while looking at the map last night: Riverside, Iowa, is celebrating itself as the future birthplace of Jim Kirk from "Star Trek". So I made a quick detour and got to see the town's not-quite-trademark-infringement copy of the Enterprise, although I couldn't find the stone celebrating this "fact". Then I ate at A&W--yum!

The rain stopped just past Riverside, but then the wind started. Again strong, again broadside to the rig, again blowing me all over the road. Grr. I headed north and west, to the Field of Dreams. Yep, where they filmed the movie. The site is off a small road (although well signposted) and is free, although I did give a donation. The field itself seems small, and it really loses something without the corn (needless to say, the corn isn't really grown yet, although it is planted). There are actually quite a few houses nearby, and the field itself was full of young couples with kids, tossing balls around. I sat for a while and walked around, and then headed out yet again.

The RV is quite nice, but it sure seems top-heavy and sways like crazy if the road is uneven. Going out of the parking lot, there was some serious sway that caused some books to fall out of the cabinets (I need to get better latches) and land on the cat crate. No damage, but I think it convinced the cats that, while the RV is fine, travelling isn't (Nell spent a lot of time yesterday meowing piteously after I put her in the crate, and Puck has been known to mutter a bit himself about things).

This is when I started looking for a campground. It seems that the majority of the campgrounds in this part of the world are actually mini-trailer parks, and many don't have transient spaces or are rather skeevy. I pulled into three campgrounds in three different towns before I just decided to go to one that was listed in my campbook. I crossed the river yet again to Prairie du Chien, and then found that the campground wasn't posted. Luckily I found the road it was one, and found that this was also a semi-permanent campground. It does have a good-sized transient area, under some trees, and I was so tired that it didn't much matter at this point--at least the long-term trailers look nice. The wind picked up, and it started to rain again, but I slept quite well. It got down to about 60 degrees, and about 62 inside, which is delightful, although it does make sleeping a bit trickier, since when it's get cold then both cats want to curl up as close to me as possible, and that makes it hard for me to change positions. Oh well!

This morning it's cloudy but not raining yet; I'm listening to NPR over the computer, and should probably go catch the cats so I can get ready to go. Heading north and then west today--it's Laura Ingalls day(s)!