SharivilleLife stories from Shari

Jerry gently woke me up this morning, it’s always better to do it that
way, with a cup of coffee in hand, thats good too, and said ” we got
to get going”. I looked out the window and it was snowing.  The snow
was lovely, big fluffy flakes floating down.  As we left the RV park
the trees looked like someone has sprinkled powdered sugar all over
them. It sure got the cats attention, they were looking out the
windows trying to figure out what that was floating down.  Judy Lou,
you were right, we needed to hitch up and head out, and we did.  We
headed south and drove out of it within an hour.  Needless to say we
forgot the scenic route and just hit the interstate. We have been
trying to out run winter since we left home and it finally caught up
with us.

We had brunch in Missouri.  We also found the mighty Mississippi.  I
forgot just how big and beautiful that river is, but then I love
rivers most of all.  Like all states the landscapes change soon after
crossing the boarders. We left the evergreens behind in Iowa, and
replaced them with decidious hard wood trees.  They are just now
beginning to change color.  The roadsides have rocky banks, just like
in the Branson area, oh, thats right , Branson is in Missouri, but not
near here.

We needed to fuel up so we found a Pacific Pride station where Jerry
likes to fuel up. It happened to be on the Illinois  side of the
river.  So while Jerry put on 100 gallons of diesel I found a state
park called Pere Marquette on the Illinois side. So we decided to go
there.  We are going to take on St Louis from behind, the approach
that is.  This, of course, meant taking the scenic route along the
Illinois River, through lots of charming little towns.  Still lots of
corn fields, but now lots of pinto bean fields.  I had just said that
the Mid West seems to grow lots of animal food while California grows
lots of people food.  Now we have pinto beans. I can say I really do
miss the warm Calif weather.  The locals everywhere we go, are
complaining about the unusal cold weather.  We left the Amana Colonies
in Iowa this morning and it was 28 degrees and the highest it got here
in Illinois was 50 degrees.  Burrr!!

We drove into this park, and were ready to stop for the day and Wa
La, we got the very last spot. It’s a really nice place, lots of
people here, they even have a lodge.  It just happens to be where the
Illinois and Mississippi Rivers converge. We will be staying here for
at least 2 days.  The scenery is totally beautiful. Tomorrow we will
sightsee in the big city and maybe even ride the Big Arch, can’t wait.
From here to where, we are not sure.  It’s suppose to rain for the
next week from here to the east coast. Guess we will figure it out in
a couple of days.  More later,    Hugs,  S and J.