Sleeping in the Land of Lincoln

Day 1
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Clarksville, MD to Danville, IL
681 Miles

We hit the road at 5:15 in dawn’s early light, which we thought was appropriate for two guys from Baltimore, and were very pleased with how well our drive went—no traffic anywhere. In fact, we made such good time that we drove an additional 125 miles before stopping for the night, figuring that any miles we put behind us today would be fewer we would have to drive tomorrow, allowing us more time to enjoy Omaha.

We drove through intermittent heavy rain in Western Maryland and West Virginia. Then Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana were dry and mostly cloudy.

We enjoyed reconnecting with the Appalachian Mountains which might best be described as oversized ski moguls with zero flat land between them. Wheeling, WV, was a densely populated, industrial town of multi-story, red-brick buildings crowded along the Ohio River. It reminded Frank of Huntington, WV, except the valley that Huntington is built in is much wider.

The Appalachian Mountains gradually gave way to hilly farm country; not nearly as flat as that of Northern Ohio.

In the afternoon we passed through Indianapolis, which we thought was a nondescript city with a few tall buildings but very little else going for it as far as we could tell at 65 MPH.

We arrived at Kickapoo State Park on the eastern edge of Illinois and set up the trailer with just 20 minutes to spare before a mild thunderstorm rolled through. It was nice to hear the pitter-pat of rain on the pop-up’s vinyl roof.

Although we slept well in the trailer, the rains came calling. Boy did it rain! At one point, Frank said it sounded like someone was in the trees above the camper pouring bucketfuls of water on the roof. Thankfully we stayed dry. We were worried abou the tenters just down the loop from our site, though. Actually, we couldn't imagine that they didn't get flooded.

Tomorrow: Iowa.