This week’s travels took us about 70 miles west of home, to three of Illinois’ state parks. It was a very short & easy trip on Interstate 80, and fortunately, wasn’t windy like our trip a few weeks ago!

We are camping at Starved Rock Family Campground which has an interesting history – it was a campground for many years, and then was sold to a sand mining company who mostly used it to store equipment and they stripped away most of the important campground features (y’know, electric & water hookups…things like that!). When the mine closed and the property was for sale, a local family bought it (in 2022) to restore it as a campground. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but the location is fantastic although perhaps a bit too convenient to I-80 (we can hear traffic most of the time – live and learn that I chose a site a bit too close to the front of the campground. The ones in back are surely quieter!)

Tuesday morning was dedicated to a ton of small projects in the trailer. We had a mental list of about 15 things we wanted to get done based on what we learned on our first trip…mostly just conveniences like organizing stuff, putting up hooks, etc…but a few that were more maintenance-like. The pull-down sprayer in the kitchen sink, for example, wasn’t weighted correctly and was impossible to return all the way into the faucet, so Mark fixed that. We wanted to be able to charge our devices while in our recliners (I know, that really doesn’t sound like camping!), but there was no easy access to electrical. This required Mark to unscrew one of the recliners from the floor, tip it forward, climb behind it, and add an extension cord and power strip to the outlet that powers the recliners. Now we have all the power we need at our fingertips! One of my favorite improvements is the addition of motion-activated lights in the pantry. Now, when we open the door, we can actually see what’s in there…what a treat! And they’re USB rechargeable so we won’t be replacing batteries all the time!

While RoVer Too was in storage, Mark was able to fix the leak in the hot water tank that was causing the water pump to cycle during our last trip, so it was good to know that was no longer an issue! I had mentioned last time that RoVer Too ‘shakes’ a bit when someone is moving around inside. Mark tested out an RV stabilizer which may have helped a little bit, but we’ll keep trying to see if there’s something better. 

Tuesday afternoon we ventured to Starved Rock State Park. The park is named for a Native American legend which claims that the Illinois tribe died of starvation at this location. The park lies on the Illinois River, one of the major Mississippi River tributaries, and has 18 canyons formed by glacial meltwater and stream erosion.

Our first hike was a short but steep one from the visitor center up to Starved Rock which is a 125 foot sandstone butte. From the top, there’s a nice view of the Illinois River and Starved Rock Lock & Dam.

From there, we drove to another section of the park to hike out to St. Louis Canyon. WOW! It’s a box canyon and truly surrounds you – I’ve never seen anything quite like it. There’s a small waterfall (fortunately there was some heavy rain over the weekend, otherwise it may have been completely dry!) and amazing high walls of St. Peter Sandstone.

Our day on Wednesday started at Matthiessen State Park, just down the road from Starved Rock. We enjoyed a nice hike through a beautiful area full of trees and spring wildflowers. There were a couple of waterfalls that we were anxious to see, but unfortunately, there weren’t many good viewing spots. It was a little weird, because I’m used to NY’s state parks where there are typically wonderful overlook spots where you can enjoy waterfall views…they haven’t really done that at Matthiessen, and with all the trees in bloom, it was tricky to see much. Trail signage also wasn’t great…definitely confusing in a few spots! But still a pretty park!

We headed back to RoVer Too for lunch, and Mark had a couple more projects to take care of outside (underneath, no less!) while I took care of one inside. Our recliners came with a plastic covering on the footrest that bore the name of the furniture line, and while I’m sure Thomas Payne is a nice guy, I really wasn’t a fan of having his name displayed so prominently on our furniture. So, after watching a YouTube video on the best way to remove these stitched-in covers, I got the hair dryer and went to work. It was really pretty quick and easy, and I much prefer the results!

Next up was a trip into the town of Utica IL, where we hopped on our e-bikes for a ride along the Illinois & Michigan Canal, which connects Lake Michigan to the Illinois River and runs over 60 miles from near Chicago to just west of Utica. It was the country’s first National Heritage Area, established in 1984. It was really quiet all along the canal path, except for the huge variety of birds that were singing and calling – really fun to listen to. I have no ability to identify any birds by the sound they make, but I did hear one woodpecker!

We walked through the ‘downtown’ area of Utica, where they’ve done a really nice job establishing a pedestrian area with lots of outdoor seating for the many restaurants and bars.

Random thought: the street numbering system around here is puzzling and pretty hysterical. Our campground is located near the intersection of North 3029^th Rd. and East 8^th Rd. Where is “0” if this is 3,029 north of there? I’m guessing the numbering starts in Tennessee or something…?!?!

Thursday brought us back to Starved Rock to visit French Canyon. It was a short and mostly flat hike but to get into the canyon, you had to walk through water (or on it, I guess, if you can do that!). Totally worth getting a little wet to venture inside the canyon – simply amazing to see the massive rock walls and a beautiful waterfall. The layers of rock and how they’ve been carved are pretty spectacular.

We took a little detour on the way back to the parking lot to visit “Lovers Leap Overlook” – I’m sure there’s some interesting history behind the name! I’m pretty sure it was at the highest point in Illinois, given how many stairs we had to climb to get there… Another nice vantage point to see the Illinois River, and the locks on the fence are reminiscient of Paris (although there are only a few of them).

We headed to Peru IL, the nearest large town, to grab some lunch at Jersey Mike’s and the place was overrun with the entire Michigan State mens’ baseball team…apparently on their way to the University of Iowa for a game on Friday. I was tempted to ask for some autographs in case there were any future MLBers in the bunch but I opted to let them enjoy their subs in peace.

After lunch, we stopped at the Illinois Waterway Visitor Center to get another view of Starved Rock, from the north side of the river. Definitely helped to get a sense of the size and scale from somewhere other than standing on top of it!

Then, on to our third and final state park for this trip, Buffalo Rock. Once home to the Illinois tribe and to a French trading and missionary fort, it is now home to three American Bison and re-creations of several earthen effigies…they pretty much are just mounds in the earth, but apparently are shaped like various animals if you see them from above. It was a pretty trail with lots of flowering trees and wildflowers and a nice view of the Illinois River. The Bison weren’t very active on a hot, sunny day, and unfortunately, don’t look like they have much room to roam. Apparently, there’s a gun range next to the park, so instead of birds, we kept hearing gunshots during our hike. Not the best “natural” experience!

As we drove along I-80 this week, we saw some signs that prompted me to Google what they were all about. The “AASHO Road Test” was done in Ottawa, IL back in the late 1950s and it was a series of experiments to determine how traffic contributed to the deterioration of highway pavements. It’s still the most quoted study on the subject, even 60+ years later. More info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AASHO_Road_Test if you’re interested!

We really had amazingly good weather this entire week – in the 70s and 80s every day with a decent amount of sun. The rain even held off until after we arrived home on Friday. So grateful I got my spring allergies under control before this trip or it would have been a pretty miserable few days! And what a treat to have such a short trip home – we were home & unloaded before 1pm.

Initially, getting the tow bars off the hitch was an incredibly difficult task, taking all of Mark’s strength and a few choice words. But, with some (literal) grease and more drive time to loosen things up, it’s unbelievable how much easier it is after just two trips. Phew!

We’ll be on the road again in a few weeks to a state we’ve never visited before…Missouri, here we come!