Days #683-686 of Our Epic Trip

9-15-2025
H: 86ºF L: 61ºF
O’Connell’s RV Campground, Amboy, Illinois

We love coffee. Sometimes as I go to sleep, I get excited about waking up early for coffee. This morning I came up with the beginnings of a song about coffee. I also checked YouTube for any existing odes to coffee. I found this video which pretty much sums it up except for the very end.

We drove toward Illinois and stopped at the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Walcott, IA on the way. They offered a ton of amenities like a movie theater and a library. I loved the bookcase made out of the bed of an old truck. We also parked next to a unique school bus conversion – it had a garage for an old truck.

We got to our campground late but we were so excited to see our special visitor: Daniel’s daughter, MacKenzie!

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9-16-2025
H: 84°F L: 58°F
O’Connell’s RV Campground, Amboy, Illinois

Daniel once took a boat down the Mississippi River with his brother and friends. He stopped at Starved Rock State Park in Oglesby, IL. He has talked fondly of it ever since. So our first stop on our adventure day was this park. There’s a dam and canal locks. We also explored the Starved Rock Lodge.

Next we went to Matthiessen State Park which is basically across the street from Starved Rock. We hiked down in Dells Canyon which follows a stream. It was nice and cool on a hot day and a really neat experience to share with MacKenzie.

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9-17-2025
H: 85ºF L: 56ºF
O’Connell’s RV Campground, Amboy, Illinois

We walked around Nachusa Grasslands in Franklin Grove, IL where we saw bison, a mama bird and baby, and restored prairie.

We went to Illinois’ Largest Tree, an Eastern Cottonwood, in Bryon, IL. Daniel and I used to have giant cottonwood trees by our house in Jackson, MI and we loved watching them sway in the breeze when we sat on our patio.

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9-18-2025
H: 85ºF L: 58ºF
O’Connell’s RV Campground, Amboy, Illinois

Today’s adventures involved some quirky things. We stopped at a wind turbine in the middle of a corn field so Daniel and MacKenzie could stand beneath it and hear the noise it makes. The blades make a great whooshing noise.

We stopped at the Red Covered Bridge in Princeton, IL. It was built in 1863. It was closed for repairs because a semi-truck damaged it in 2023.

Next we stopped at Luthy Botanical Garden in Peoria, IL. It’s free to enter. It has a greenhouse and several different garden areas. It was small but well done.

Then we stopped at Caterpillar Visitor Center in Peoria, IL. We talked to Caterpillar employee, Ryan, about the company and learned they spend $10 million per day in research and development. We declined to take the tour (the tour is free only certain days of the week) but it was neat to look through the inside windows into the museum and see how giant some of the equipment is.

We drove by Vanna Whitehall, a rare female Muffler Man. Made for Uniroyal Tire Company, she has clothes which snap on for winter months and she has them removed showing her bright red bikini for summer months. She has been on display since the 1960s and even survived being hit by a car. She is supposedly modeled after Jackie Kennedy.

Last we stopped at Springdale Cemetery in Peoria, IL which has the mysterious Witches Circle. We drove around this large cemetery and found some nice statues and crypts plus a pet cemetery.

We went to a bar and had vegan pizza and a chipotle black bean sandwich. It was really good!

Mackenzie said her favorite adventure was going to the Caterpillar Visitor Center even though we didn’t go on the tour. Daniel said his favorite adventure was walking the river gorge at Matthiessen State Park. My favorite adventure was the Springdale Cemetery since the landscape was so varied and park-like.

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Stats

Expenses:

• Tesla Cybertruck fuel: $0
• Tesla Model X fuel: $0
• Campsite: $0
• Camping memberships: $21.86
• Food: $313.53

Tesla Cybertruck miles driven: 129.3 (100.2 kWh)

Tesla Model X miles driven: 563.4 (148.2 kWh)

Number of people asking about the Tesla pulling the camper: 0

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