Urgent Care, Tonic (& gin), Onawa Blue Lake Iowa

5/26/16. Yep, the autoimmune bronchia crud reared its ugly head again necessitating a Z-Pac antibiotic. Should be good to go mañana. Ann has the same crud but a different antibiotic. Every time we head out West we get this's stuff, probably due to the new flora and the stuff it gives off.
Summing up our reaction to Illinois & Iowa: the people are kind, the countryside vast, boring, and corn, corn, corn, as far as the eye can see. It's tiny this time of the year, but the tens of thousands of acres of this stuff blows your mind. We saw no other crop, just corn. Animal food, people food---some of a dubious nature I.e. high fructose corn syrup in practically everything & of course ethanol---proudly advertised on gas pumps. There must be mucho "bread" to be made with corn---no pun intended.
At Onawa Blue Lake KOA. Great site on the beautiful Blue Lake. Last PM's camp site, a few hundred yards off I-80 was the pits. Endless 18-wheelers & their awful rumble strip & "air breaking" noise. Thank God we had AC & could close up the EGG a mask the noise.
Off to South Dakota mañana and phase one of the trek to the The Badlands, Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore; etc.
Believe me, what we're doing takes a toll on you, but it's worth it in the grand scheme of things. No pain no gain & all that tripe, but often the pain trumps the gain & you simply hope for a better mañana.
There may be a couple of photos---one of boring Iowa corn fields & one of the EGG with Blue Lake in the background.
Later.....

Onawa photos

Great spot. Looks like rain.

REVERSE ELITISM

I THINK I'M SPECIAL BECAUSE I HAVE THIS LITTLE GOOFY EGG AND THESE DUDES AND DUDESSES HAVE THESE JUMBO RIGS THAT CAN'T GO ANYWHERE ESCEPT BIG CAMPGROUNDS, KOA'S AND STUFF. Then again , I don't.......just different and with less money. That being said (for some reason)....maybe it's my fascination with juxtapositions and how we all perceive things differently and how this is cool.

Day three: Arrived at Kickapoo State Pk. Close to Peoria, Ill., which is on the Strip Mine River---so named because they once had coal mines and barged it down this river. It's a great spot. I'm going to wait until just before dark and the warden has left and flick a few lures out in the Strip Mine. It has a reputation: large river catfish
Getting into the trailering groove. It takes a couple of days. Note the photos of Kickapoo and how they relate to paragraph one, above.
Later......






1111

The Badlands (How bad are they?)

5/22/16-- Day one of the trek to The Badlands,Yellowstone & vicinity was a bummer: Two hours in gridlock at Va./W.Va. line due to flipped 18 wheeler. Lots of angst all-around; bozos riding on the shoulder trying to butt in line; screaming babies; hollow- eyed, dehydrated, old folks looking at you from their rear window. Alas....it finally occurred to the highway patrol that a simple detour would get the traffic moving, so two hrs later, off we went----not to our planned campground, but instead, to the Hampton Inn and their swimming pool.
5/23--Made it to Cowan Lake State Pk. Ohio, which is just east of Dayton. Whew...I'm very, very tired. Too much caffeine during gridlock; too little sleep last PM.
Later.....

Kerfluffle Wake-Final Sequel

Freddy, the widower, adores $50 single malt scotch. It was time for the wake. The setting was a gazebo at the end of a long pier extending far out over low kuntry marsh grass---the place Freddy and Coleen had spent hours at dusk for years and years. Thirty or forty people were on hand. Lots of subdued, pre-wake chatter. No laughter.
A fellow eased up next to me and whispered, "Where the hell is Freddy? I saw him going in a liquor store about an hour ago. Surely to God he'll show up for his own wife's wake won't he?"
"Yep. He'll be here. What sort of shape he'll be in is another question."
A half- hour passed. Two folks left. Those left were milling about, irritated, and mumbling"
"There he is!" The fellow dispatched loudly.
Approaching the gazebo, I couldn't help from noticing the high-end, canvass, leather-trimmed man bag hung over his shoulder.
Pumping his hand endearingly, I said, "What's in the man bag, single malt?"
"It's Coleen."
"Whoops..."

THE WAKE LIVES!!!!!!!

   In the preceeding blog I mentioned a wake and a kerfluffle (sp?). To get the whole picture you need information I'm not at liberty to convey via the "blob-o-sphere" or any other medium other than:

              NEWS IN BRIEFS

             (or, read my shorts)

     Fear and Loathing--The Wake Lives

   Thinking the wake was dead, we'd thrown in the crates, hooked up the EGG, and were about to head home. Then low and behold, we learned early this AM that the "kerflufflette" had sorted things out, somewhat, and the wake lives!!! She's heading up this ashes- spreading confab and she said on her phone she's en route to Hunting Island,SC where she's AIRBNB'ed a house for us near-do-wells, and where our dear, dear friend is to have her ashes  spread.  

    I can't imagine how it's going to go down. Again....I'm guessing the dead lady---a sweet, kind, saint sort of a person---is watching and chuckling. More about this in the next blog.

     I've attached a couple of Low Kuntry photos. Glad we're too early for mosquitos and noseeums. That's why they call it the Low Kuntry--'cause when it heats up and the bugs get holt of ya, you be feeling mighty Low. 

Later.....

SHAKEDOWN CRUISE 2016

   Whereas, having spent far too much on the "Medical Conveyor Belt"...a spot ole farts unwittengly find themselves...being shuttled first to one doctor, then another, and still another ad infinitum, we cast ourselves off, threw some crates in the truck, hooked up the EGG and got the hell outta Dodge. (Note: there is no brake on this conveyor belt and the leap off can be deadly, thus placing one back on the belt) Alas.....

   So here we are at Edisto Beach, SC. Temp. 65, NE Wind 15-20. Invigorating for beach walking but a small price to pay in that one forgets Donald Trump, all goofy current events, and dwells on subjects like: Where is the good seafood? I asked a park dude raking the sand (for some reason) and he said, "You go out the gate, take a "rite", go for 7.2 miles, and thar's this seafood shack that cooks out back on Thurs. & Fridays. You gotta set at a picnic table though, but it's the best seafood in these-here parts."

We're gonna check it out, but first a good long walk on the beach to work up an appetite.  More later about this.

   This Sunday, we're supposed to tag a friend's wake on to the end of our stay here at Edisto Beach. It's to be held at Hunting Island State Pk, SC, but it seems to have morphed into a kerfluffle and my not occur. I'm guessing the dead person is having a chuckle over it all. What a dear soul she was & like us all, soon to be lost in the vast expanse of time. Pardon this Billy Shakespeare quote, for I use it a lot, but as he put it: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and oue little life is rounded with a sleep."

Later.....