Long Drive
We hung around the park in Peru until about 10:30 when the sky started to lighten up and the rain became a drizzle. We hooked up in our raincoats which I think we've done just one other time in 3.5 years.
The trip from Peru, IN to Zion, IL is 250 miles that I figured would take us six hours because we wanted to travel red roads. That's really an easier drive....until you get lost. In most little towns across the country the main drag will take a couple of right turns to take you through the business district. In Monticello, IN we took the first few turns OK and then stopped for gas. Now if you're driving a motorhome towing a car you have to be pretty focused on the gas station when you pull in...gotta be sure you can pull out.
We got in, filled up and made a tough U-turn to get back on the road. In a few blocks we realized that we were not on US 24, our red road. We pulled over and looked at our maps but didn't have enough detail to figure out where we'd gone wrong but we could sure see we were headed in the wrong direction. Now where do we turn this rig around and back track.
Mr. DeLorme to the rescue (thanks Tom). I booted up the computer and zeroed on on the town. Oops! When we pulled into the gas station we'd missed the turn for US 24. Lucky for us we quickly found a wide spot in the road and got back on track. OK...why wasn't I using the GPS mapping and direction feature on DeLorme. We've tried it a couple of times but it seems a bit of a hassle to have the computer set up and listen to lady Microsoft tell us what to do. After yesterday I think I'll try it again.
I do use the software to print out lots of detail city and interchange maps...too bad I didn't do that for Monticello :) I did have several maps printed of the freeway interchanges to get us through the Chicago area and that was very helpful. It took us a bit over six hours to get to Zion and by the time we got gas, dumped the tanks and got set up it was past dinner...we ate out :) There's a Culver's around the corner and a Butterburger really hit the spot.
And then the cold wind came. It went down to 52 degrees. The furnace went on, the electric heater came out and the blue velour blanket went on the bed. Not only was it cooler but the wind was blowing about 25 mph. That warm, sunny weather back in SoCal sounds real good right now!