We Are In The Chicago Area!

We arrived at our campground in the Chicago area Saturday afternoon.  Dad was able to get Goldie out of the wooded campsite without any problems.  Our neighbor said she was impressed.  We only hit rain for about ten minutes, so we were very happy.  The drive was an easy one.  We were on toll roads the whole way.  The total was $58.   That's crazy, don't you think?   We left around 7:30 a.m. and arrived about 2 p.m. with two stops.  We gained an hour during that time because we left the Eastern Time Zone.  We are happy to be back in Central Time.

In line to pay another toll.

 We passed through Elkhart, IN.  Dad was drooling because they build a lot of RVs there.  He has always wanted to take a tour.  Then, we passed by the RV Hall of Fame.  Mama didn't know there was such a place.  Dad said he didn't know it was so close to the highway.  Dad has a rule that we only stop at rest areas and gas stations on our travel days because it's just too hard to stop with a motor home. I think he would have stopped if he had known it was so easy to reach.

We had a heck of a time finding a campground here.  There is nothing that is close to downtown Chicago.  That is normal for campgrounds and big cities.  We read a lot of reviews.  We wanted to find something that was close to a train station so Dad could take the train to work. Unfortunately, it is still a 25 minute drive to the train station.

The campground itself is very nice.  It's a members only campground.  You have to belong to a club to stay here.  Many of the people have paid dues to stay here.  We thought the place would clear out yesterday, but it looks as if most of the campers stay put and the people just leave.  The place is basically full.  Most of the people have golf carts that they drive around.  We feel like outsiders because we don't have one.  There is a 24 acre lake that is really pretty.

The lake.

Scout on one of the docks.

Paddle boats in the distance.  Mama says she knows I would jump off as soon as I got on one.

There is a 2 acre beach that would be so cool for us, but no dogs are allowed.  It is a fenced area and it looks like a race track with water in the middle.  We would love to play there, but you know we would get kicked out of the campground if we were caught.

Mama is happy because the laundry room is an easy walk.  We are at a 50 amp site, so we can run both air conditioners.  We couldn't do that in OH because we were in a 30 amp site.  We were in the shade and it was cooler there, so it wasn't a big deal.  It's hot here, so it's really nice to be able to run both air conditioners.  Mama is really happy that the electricity is included in our rate.  We can run the AC as much as we want and not worry about a huge bill.


Our experience so far, is that people are not as nice here as in Ohio.  No one seems to want to pet us.  What is up with that? 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Loves Exploring New Campgrounds

Another Cool And Rainy Day

Yesterday, we took several walks. We sometimes drop Scout off when she gets tired and she missed out meeting an older couple that gave me treats. They live here in the summer and then they go to Florida for the rest of the year. They are really nice. Everyone but that man that glares at us because his dogs have a barking problem have been nice to us. We met another man this morning that talked to us for a long time. We got bored with him since we were on a mission to walk before the rain returned.  Mama mentioned how much we like the cool weather and he said it was hot.  Dad said someone said to the same thing to him yesterday.  Hot?  Seriously, it is in the 70's and 80's.  I guess it depends on what you get used to.  It is 71 in the RV this morning.  We have the windows opened.  Mama had to close the front door though because someone below us has a fire going and the smoke gives her migraines.  Yes, we camp and Mama can't be around campfires.  LOL   It hasn't been an issue until we got here. 

Mama wanted to mention that if you ever go to Washington DC, she recommends going to Ford's Theater. That is where Lincoln was shot. She was there several years ago and the man who gave the tour was really good. His talk was very vivid and Mama felt like she was really there when it all happened. She then went across the street where Lincoln was taken after he was shot and saw the bed that he died in. She has also been to Springfield, IL and toured all the Lincoln things there. She also recommends seeing the Holocaust Museum. It is very sad to see, but should be so that we don't forget what happened.  Washington DC has so much to see and do.  We definitely didn't have enough time there.

Here's a view coming into our campground.

Another view of the road in the campground.

Some of the campers in the main camping area. They are not in the woods like us.

There is a national park near us, Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It is only 10 miles from us. We visited there on Sunday.  We only saw a small part of it.  We hope to go back and do some hiking.

Scout and I walking at Cuyahoga Valley Naitonal Park

Train Depot

Train that visitors can take in the park.  The folks are going to go back and ride it.

Creek in park

Saturday night, the folks ate at Rocknes.  It is an upbeat, fun type of restaurant.  Mama ordered a Mini Max Hamburger.  Basically, it looks like McDonald's Big Mac, but comes with a steak knife in it to hold it together.  It has a secret sauce on it.   It is bigger than a Big Mac.  Mama said it was good.  Guess what?  She was so excited about eating it that she forgot to take a photo.  She said she will have to go back and eat there again so she can take a photo.  Dad had a cheeseburger.  He liked it too.


 Mama make a Hawaiian Pizza last night, but once again forgot to take photos.  We are going to have to tape the camera to her, I think.   She said the pizza was good.  It had BBQ sauce, bacon bits, ham, pineapple and cheese.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Needs To Learn To Use A Camera Since Mama Keeps Forgetting

Ohio Is Cool!

The weather here is so nice.  It is like it is fall, but it's not.  We are supposed to get rain from Thursday thru Sunday thought.  That is new.  It was supposed to be a nice weekend with temps in the 70's. It is still going to be in the 70's but with rain.

Dad says his commute is an easy one.  The traffic isn't bad and it's a straight shot from here to there.  I think it still takes him like 40 minutes thought.

Mama went to Wal-Mart last night to get their prescriptions re-filled and she said it was easy.  It was a challenge in Florida and Texas because English was not the first language of the people she dealt with there. She normally just orders her prescriptions on the Internet but since she is changing states, it is not allowed on their website. It seems silly.  She had two big pet peeves about the Wal-Mart in Texas. The first was the lines were always long. The cashiers moved very slowly and did not care.  No one in line seemed to care either.  It was like silent waiting in the lines.  They didn't play music in that store.  Maybe music would have made people move faster?  The second thing was people didn't not return their carts to the corral areas.  They just left them in the parking spots. Carts were all over the parking lots. It was a mess and irritated Mama every time she went there. The people she met outside of the RV park were not very nice and sometimes downright rude. The people here seem much friendlier.  Mama likes driving around here.  It is a lot like home.  Life seems to move at a slower pace here and we are taking it all in.

The dogs here are kept on leashes, but boy do they like to bark.  One man gives us dirty looks every time we walk past his site because his dogs bark at us. Is that our fault?  It is not like we go out of our way to walk past him. He is on the main street. He is a long term person, but maybe this is just his summer home and maybe he will be leaving soon. We have found that there are a lot of people that have homes here, but don't stay here all the time.  We found out that there is a lady who has three greyhounds who comes here, but she is not here right now.  We hope she comes while we are still here.  It is rare for us to see other greyhounds camping.

Another photo of me in DC.

This guy was on the front porch of the store at the campground.  He scared me at first.  I wanted to pee on him, but Mama said no.

We saw the pot belly pig that lives here last night. Scout was very interested in him. Mama didn't have her camera or she would have taken a lot of photos. Scout's eyes got big and she just starred at him. Dad told us that is where bacon comes from and Scout licked her lips.   Hmmm.....bacon!

We are behind on our restaurant reviews.  We will try to catch you up on that tomorrow as well as the sightseeing we did last Sunday.

Best Bully Sticks is having a 10% of sale.  We just got the email.  Use code AUG10. You can click the link below to get there. We are not ordering this time since we still have some and Mama needs to check with the campground to be sure it is okay for us to get mail here.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks It Is Exciting When Dogs Bark At Him

Weather Is Great In Ohio!

We have our windows and door open today!  The high  is expected to be 79.  The low tonight will be around 59. We may need to turn the heat on.  LOL  The hottest day this week will be 84 according to the weather people.

I told you we were in the woods!

Mama put our Greyhound flag out and also put the tablecloth on the picnic table. She said it makes it look more homey.

That tree with the ribbon is the tree that gave us so much trouble getting int our site.

I'm just chilling with the door open today.

We have our hummingbird feeder out, but so far no visitors.  Mama thought about getting some bird feeders but the raccoons would probably raid them.  She still may do it to give her something to worry about.

The only real downside to our site is that it is really far from the laundry room.  It is too far to walk and even if Mama got the cart that she wants for the laundry, it will be hard to push along the gravel road. She will have to do it at night when she has a car. She is concerned that the machines will be all tied up, so she may just go to town to do it.  They only have the laundry room open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. here. 

We didn't have storms here after all.  We were walking with Mama yesterday and she felt a drop of rain and told us we needed to head back.  We wanted to sniff more and within a minute, we were under a big downpour. We were drenched!  Mama looked really funny with here hair so wet. She said "I was having a good hair day, too!"  She doesn't have many good hair days these days, so it was pretty sad.

Grandma sent us a photo to show us that a tree in our yard at home was hit by a storm on Saturday night.  Poor tree!  Grandpa is going to cut the limb out for us.  I bet the tree is going to look pretty bare when the limb is removed.

A tree at our house.  Our grass looks pretty dead.  They are having a drought there.

Grandma and Grandpa are coming to visit us here in Ohio!  Mama said that she and Daddy are checking out all the restaurants so that they know where to take them. Both places they ate this weekend were good.  Mama will tell you more about the restaurants later.

The beach at the campground. No dogs allowed!

Me waiting for Dad to get us checked in.

Fire engine rides take place on Saturday nights.

Another view of the lake.

This is the fishing lake.

Scout walking by the lake this morning.  She is not sure about Ohio yet.  She hasn't wanted to walk much here.

Another view of the fishing lake.

The park is nice and most sites are not wooded like ours.  We really like being in the shade although it is so shaded that it is dark inside the motor home.  Scout says it is great for sleeping.

There is a fenced area here for it. It has agility stuff in it though, so it's not good for running.  Mama says she might try to get us to try out the agility equipment. She can try, but we are not interested.

We will tell you more about DC tomorrow. We are so behind on our blogging.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Enjoying The Cooler Temperatures