Monday, July 28, 2010

Clarksville, TN to Montgomery City (Danville), MO

Woke up, cooked some breakfast and waited for Joey to bring the medicine. He got there about 9:00 and had some breakfast and helped us shut down the RV for travel. We did devotional of Mark 12. Then we headed out toward South Dakota!

Drive went well and we read some more Biggest Loser plan and some RV magazines. The weather was nice and quite hot – 80’s-90’s. We stopped off at Marion, Illinois at Tequila Mexican Restaurant for lunch – nice place. We tried some quacamole since it was one of the Biggest Loser’s “Superfoods.” Didn’t like it a lot – but this seemed like it may have been straight out of a jar so we’ll try it again sometime by making it on our own or having it freshly made somewhere. Picked up some windex, cereal and milk at a nearby Sav-a-Lot and hit the road again. We drove further to Cohokia Mounds, Illinois just east of St. Louis, Missouri.

The Cohokia Mounds are reportedly the site of the largest city north of Mexico prior to the 1800’s with a population of Native Americans estimated at 10,000-20,000. There are many mounds still there, including the largest, Monks Mound, which we climbed. It’s only 100 feet but seemed higher! The settlement covered about 22 acres (if I recall properly). It was a blessing to visit the site and understand a little more about those who were the early residents of our country’s lands. We watched the show, briefly toured the museum, walked a little of the property, saw the ‘stockade’ walls that are reconstructed and climbed the Monks Mound (so named because Trappist French Monks built a chapel on one of the levels at one time). This place was reminiscent of the Mayan pyramids BUT did not use stone – just earth. There is also a site similar to Stonehenge which used only wooden poles (as part of Stonehenge does) – it has been reconstructed and termed “Woodhenge.” What was the use of this (sun dial? Astronomical calendar? Other?) and how did primitive people know such exacting measures? How were the huge mounds built – so like Stonehenge and Salisbury areas in England. There clearly was someone who saw the ‘big picture’ of the globe before us with our modern instruments. We have been taught to be so biased that anyone before us was inferior intellectually – my observations continue to reinforce OUR lack of understanding about what has come before in terms of civilization.

We drove through St. Louis, MO so we won’t face that at rush hour in the morning. The arch, as always, is lovely as it stands so large and represents the “Gateway to the West.” We decided to drive to Danville, MO to Lazy Day Campground. It’s a nice clean campground with whimsical paintings here and there (the ladies restroom has mama-sized ladies in bathing suits painted on the doors – front side and back) and the showers are covered with bamboo doors. They have a ‘patriotic wall’ where people leave their own comments around some words from Lee Greenwood’s “I’m Proud to be an American.” Song. They have some cute comments on their guest guide like:

“Human clothing, towels, etc….do not grow on trees”

“Remember the movie Deliverance? I wouldn’t trespass if I was you.”

“Please pick up after your pet…it’s embarrassing to pack up and move out with the whole park watching you.”

We had a nice dinner of Chicken Bake and carrots. Jeff talked with a neighbor from St. Louis (former navy man and photographer for Emerson Electric) for awhile about the rally held here for RV’ers last week and they did some photography of a pretty sunset and observed Saturn.

We showered in the RV (Thank God for the warranty-covered shower repair) and had a great, relaxing night at the RV Park in Danville, Missouri. We could not get on the www here but enjoyed the level, unshaded lot (which allows satellite tv access so we can catch up on the news).