Haven’t been able to post in a couple of days because (a) we wuz busy and (b) we had no internet.

Friday evening we had the end of the rally potluck…all the food was great and then we chatted with friends until way too late.

Saturday morning we got up early and finished packing and hitching at the Amana Colonies RV Park…after hugs and stuff with Lynn and Ed, Bill and Linda, and many new friends we were on the road by 0900 for the 200 mile trip to Rockford. On arrival there we got backed into site 115 at the Blackhawk Valley RV Park which is a pretty nice park by the river in Rockford. After a minimal setup for our 2 night stay we changed clothes and headed off for the 75 mile drive to Madison WI for the Madison Symphony performance of the Saint Saëns symphony. It was a pretty decent performance, very nice organ although it was lacking just a bit in the lower registers…we didn’t really understand why as it looked plenty powerful from the pipes in the loft that we could see. The orchestra played very nicely and a good time was had by all. After that it was the 75 mile drive home and we got sidetracked by the car wreck on the way.

Just a out midnight about 3/4 mile from our park we were heading down Blackhawk Road at the limit of 45 with another car in front of us a couple hundred yards. Suddenly a pickup came blowing through a stop sign on a side road almost hitting the car in front of us. The car swerved to the left to miss him and the truck to the left to get behind the car. This resulted in the truck getting airborne over a drainage ditch, into the far side of the ditch and up into somebody’s yard. We turned around and yelled at the truck to see if he was OK…got no answer so given that it was late and we had no idea what the guy was on we called 911 to report it. The dispatcher couldn’t believe we just didn’t go over and check on him…we were somewhat concerned that he might be drunk or have a gun or something but finally Neil went over to check. The couple from the house was outside and the 3 of them decided he was drunk or drugged up. Neil reported this to the dispatcher who sent help.

Neil saw the deputy coming so flagged him down (he would have missed the location of the accident otherwise)…then the deputy got all pissed off because we flagged him down. One thing led to another and pretty soon we had 5 or 6 cop cars, a fire engine, and an ambulance on scene but the driver had vanished by that time. The cops got his description from Neil and the other couple and the K9 unit showed up. We were told to sit down in the car and wait. By 0030 we were tired and a supervisor showed up so Neil gave him our contact info for a statement if they wanted one and we went home to bed. Still haven’t heard from the cops though…maybe they don’t care since it was a single car accident.

Here’s a shot of the organ at Overture Hall in Madison where the concert was held.

Sunday we just lazed around.

Monday we got up early (again, seems to be a recurring theme the past couple of weeks) and drove another 200 miles to Elkhart IN where we parked at the MorRYDE factory. MorRYDE makes the independent suspension on our rig and after two years we figured that since we were passing through anyway an inspection and such was warranted. We parked in their 50 amp only parking area (we had taken on water before leaving Rockford) overnight and right on time at 0700 this morning Neil backed into the service bay. Wednesday Connie has a webinar to attend and Neil needs to get the oil changed in BAT so we’ll hang here at MorRYDE tonight and tomorrow as well. Our final bill was $556 for alignment of 4 of the 6 wheels and inspection/lube on all 6…everything was fine other than the rear two axles needing alignment. Good thing we caught it before any uneven tire wear.

Don’t know what we’ll do tomorrow…Connie has it under dynamic observation. Neil is going to get BAT oiled and she has a webinar for training at 1200…after that we’ll either head halfway to Cuyahoga or stay here again tomorrow night.

Cyas.