Monday 07Oct08

It being close to the fall equinox, the hours of daylight are almost equal to the hours of darkness. We noticed as we turned in early last night that daylight did not arrive again until almost 7:00 am. We were very surprised, then delighted, when early in the evening our automatic skylight whirred to life all on its own and began to close. The heavy evening fog had rolled in from Lake Erie and was beginning to engulf our site. The moisture sensor in the exterior skylight frame noticed the change and promptly took action keep us dry. By late in the day yesterday the rolling mountains of western Pennsylvania had given way to the alluvial plains of the great lakes. The deciduous trees continue to line the roadway, but fewer and fewer of the bright colors dotted among them. We spent last night at an unremarkable Geneva-on-the-lake State Park in Ohio, right on the shores of Lake Erie 40 miles east of Cleveland. Geneva is known as the birthplace of Roy Olds, the inspirational founder of Oldsmobile.

We are still discovering things about our camper and our provisioning. This morning we got a nostalgic blast of home when we opened the specially packaged bag of home made granola from David’s mother. Spreading some whole wheat bread with raspberry jam from her as well we had warm thoughts of upstate New York and family members we left behind.


We headed straight west past Toledo and the curving obliquely intersecting county roads rapidly settled down to a predicable grid, reminding me of the original plattes with which this land was settled. Across Ohio we sped, into and across Indiana. The forests of the east began to give way to the larger farms and endless cornfields of the mi-west. Inexplicably dried corn fields remained un-harvested mile after mile after mile. I’d like to believe this is for some reasonable purpose, other than corn subsidies which support the farmers to grow the corn independent of whether they harvest it or not. Perhaps it is due to the unseasonably warm temperatures and lack of rain Today the temperature soared into the low 90’s as we roared along the highway.

We passed just south of Chicago as the tracker-trailer rigs began to get larger and longer. Now it is not uncommon to see triple-long rigs roaring past us as we seem to troll along as a measly 70 mph. The highway begins to follow the Illinois River just west of Joliet and ahead of schedule, we make our stop for the night at quiet Starved Rock State Park just east of LaSalle.