Turn Right

April 1, 2024 – Day 17

Chester Frost Park, Hixson TN – Giant City State Park, Makanda Illinois

Today was decision day, do we do the 600 mile drive to Ennis, TX? Or, completely change plans and head to Makanda IL and hope that the prediction of better weather is accurate and hope that some of the walk-in sites would still be available when we got there. At 9AM Paul called the campground to inquire about open walk-in sites. The ranger said they had just gotten in. When they left on Friday there were still 20 sites available. They needed to go to the park to check.

The decision hasn’t been easy one. This forecast map made the choice for us. That white dot is Makanda, IL and Ennis TX (aka Dallas) is not as clear as Makanda. The storm was huge down south, and thin up north. You could tell this by looking at the previous days forecast.

(susan here: this has been an impossible choice because there’s no way to know weather. You can only guess and hope that the weather people have it right. They may call themselves “accuweather” or what have you but they’re not always accurate. Sometimes the inaccurate forecast works in your favor and sometimes it doesn’t. This time it worked in our favor.)

Paul told the ranger he would call back in an hour. In retrospect, the campground was in Central Time Zone, so it was only 8AM there, no wonder they didn’t know! So at our 10AM he called. They had 17 sites available! Yay!!! North it is! But first a stop for gas. Onward! We had to head west, and even dip south into Georgia for a few miles, and crossed the Tennessee River a few times before we could head north.

And went through some deep cuts.

And sharp curves.

And we were glad we weren’t behind this monster of a wide load taking up both lanes!

The navigator ate while the driver, well, drove. The scenery was changing, and was really nice. Sorry about the reflections. We’ve mentioned this before but it’s much harder getting pictures in the RV versus the Subaru when we’re on the road.

Soon it was time for gas. We stopped at our usual haunt, the Pilot/Flying J with RV lanes just outside of Clarksville. We didn’t see the last train. We did see one of the emptiest Flying J stations we’ve ever encountered.

We cancelled all the campsites between Chattanooga and Ennis. One took pity on us when we said we would disappointed that we’d miss the Tina Turner museum. So they wrote a note in our file, crediting us for one night in the future. That was real nice of them as they have a no refunds policy.

We pulled into the Illinois campground at 5pm but it’s 6pm by our bodies. And didn’t we just have a DST change a few weeks ago? (susan here: remember me noting in some other entry that at some point that time becomes irrelevant? You sleep when you’re tired and eat when you’re hungry. We’re at that point.)

Taking the “Goldilocks approach” Susan drove the Jeep around, map in hand, looking at the walk-in campsites. The good news was there were many available.

We tried a promising one. It was too small plus it sloped more than we wanted to deal with or had blocks & wood to level with. We try have less than 8″ of slope to be able to level our coach.

We tried another one, after a bit of rolling about to find the most level spot we decided that it might work even if it was only ok. Susan was filling out the paperwork and Paul eyed the next one over. It looked better.

We pulled out of the 2nd site and backed into the 3rd site. (susan here: hmm. We’re on our 3rd campground for this eclipse and the 3rd site at the 3rd campground. Things really do come in threes.) It was pretty tight because of a big tree, the post with the number on it, and the power pedestal. This was (almost) just right. It was a nicer site but it wasn’t any more level. We used all the wood and plastic blocks we had to get it leveled (and bought more at Lowes). Isn’t it wacky how this looks like we should be unlevel? We really were dead level according to our Level Mate Pro. We love that device!

It was late. We were tired, cranky and hungry. We took a frozen lasagna, popped it into the oven and called it a day. Makanda, IL wasn’t on our radar until a few days ago and yet here we are waiting on the eclipse.

Daily: 349

Total: 1,627

Driving Miles/Day: 232

Overall Miles/Day: 96

mpg: 6.39