It's been a few years since last we went camping. But Sally has just retired and autumn weather was still great so she wanted to go. She researched parks and decided we should try Morrison-Rockwood State Park. It sounded like a nice park with fishing and facilities.
It was a real adventure getting there. We plugged the address into the Garmin and the road degraded step by step. Four lane down to two lane. Two lane down to blacktop, down to oiled and rocked, down to oiled, down to gravel, down to dirt road so narrow that the brush rubbed the car on both sides at the same time.
We were dragging the trailer so we had no possible way to turn around. We passed a few signs that said it was Illinois DNR property. We followed a dozen wild turkey trotting down the road before they darted off into the woods. About 500 feet ahead we came to a drive and I was able to start in and back out to turn around. I drove back to a gate with a sign that said Morrison-Rockwood State Park. When I pulled in I saw the gate was locked! backed out and continued on as we were. Eventually we came to a large brick home with multi-car garage and out-buildings. And a couple of large dogs came out to greet us. I wasn't about to get out to go to the door.
I backed up to make a three point turn again and up the "road" came a pickup. The lady pulled into the end of the driveway and got out. She asked what we were doing here. I said, "We are obviously lost, looking for the state park."
For the first time in my life, in a real conversation, I heard her say, "You can't get there from here. There used to be an entrance down at the end of the drive but they closed it." She gave us very good directions and it was about five miles around the horn to get to the gate.
None of this was error on our part or Garmin. It seems that the State of Illinois Department of Natural Resources has never updated the address for the park. It was wrong on the web site and apparently wrong for the Garmin.
It was a very nice park as we drove in. Since it was after Labor Day and the middle of the week, the park was nearly empty.
We finally decided that site 79 had a large enough, flat, soil area for our tent and staked our claim.
Sally kicks back and reads the material she printed from the Internet. Trying to decide what we should do for fun.
We built a campfire and had a quiet evening. No loud music, no dogs, no kids. Just the frogs singing and the moon rising.
One of my favorite parts of camping is hobo pies. Pizza hobo pies and Ruben hobo pies are a real treat
After dinner was cleaned up we had the fire to sit by. It was getting really cool (about 50 degrees) and the fire felt good.
No blinding lights either. Just a glow from our candle light and lamp.
The next day I went fishing. It was really more like feeding the fish.
Then we had another hobo pie dinner and campfire.
On our way home we came across a covered bridge. Not an antique but a modern construction of an old plan.
We both enjoyed the trip and hope to do this more often.
