Champaign and Urbana, Illinois

We arrived at D&W Lake camping and RV Park In Champaign late yesterday afternoon, about 4:00 and are all set up.  Anne-Marie and I dashed off to Sara and Michael’s for dinner, and to see Grace, our now four year old Granddaughter.  The plans for the upcoming week are a shopping trip for the girls, and a farmers market tomorrow morning downtown in Urbana, Illinois.  We fueled the van yesterday, and the falling gas prices and some expert driving had the cost at about 43 cents per mile, for moving the trailer. 

This morning, Anne-Marie got into the shower, and had the unpleasant experience of discovering that yesterday when we were setting up the trailer, we forgot to turn on the hot water heater.  She got partially wet, and as the shower water got cooler and colder, she turned the water off, stepped out of the shower stall, and looked at the hot water control switches, and turned them to on.  The water tank is real quick to heat, and it is to be turned off for travel, but it needs to be switched on after setup.

Upon checking in at the RV Park, here in Champaign, we were told that the weekly rate is the rate for six nights and the seventh is free, but we were not told that internet is not included with the weekly rate.  This park subscribes to Tengo Internet services, and upon check in, the customer is given a unique passcode to log into the wireless services, but the free service is for only overnight campers.  The weekly rate for the internet service is nearly the rate of the seventh nights stay at the RV Park, the only savings is for the owner of the RV Park.  With our Wi-Fi antenna, I am able to reach a tire store, a MacDonald's, and a Pilot Gas station, all about a half mile away, but the signals are secured, or right on the edge of not working.  I have now internet through the tire store, so we are in good shape.

Our home in Champaign, showing the Wi-Fi antenna deployed.
We have traveled through about 700 miles of soybeans and corn, and the northern states are having a real problem with dry weather hurting the crops.  In Minnesota, Anne-Marie and I were driving by miles of a crop that we couldn’t identify, it looked like onions, but taller, and it had branches on the main stalk, and after we got to Wisconsin, we were told that it was really sick corn, with no  moisture from rain.  The farmers are complaining about the lack of rain here in Illinois, but the crops look good compared to up north.