By about 9 am, we had a plan for the day. We were going to visit the John Deere Pavillion in East Moline and then be on our way to Indiana. I called them and made sure we could bring our camper over and we could, so we packed everything up, hooked up the truck, and drove across town.
Just to set the record straight- we are NOT John Deere people! Christian calls them "bad tractors," so I think it was hard for him to understand why we were going to see "bad tractors." I kept trying to tell them that they are still tractors and he will be able to climb on them and pretend to drive. I felt like such a traitor being there today! If they had a Case IH building full of "good tractors," we would have definitely went there instead!
Here is where we went: http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/corporate/our_company/fans_visitors/tours_attractions/pavilion.page?
Christian did think it was pretty neat and I think the girls enjoyed themselves too!
Among many pictures, I decided not to post green. :) Christian LOVES construction vehicles, so here he is by a loader. He's so little compared to the huge loader!
After about an hour, we were done looking at "bad tractors," so we asked at the front desk if there was anything else nearby. She guided us to the visitor's center at Arsenal Island where you can see firsthand a lock and dam. We headed over there with the truck and camper and found the museum. We saw a lock, but there were no boats coming up or down river, so we didn't get to see how it worked, but we did watch a movie explaining the history of the Mississippi River and why the lock and dam system is so important. Matt and I both found it very interesting!
After we got done there, we all climbed back in the truck and headed to Indiana Dunes State Park in Indiana. This was about 200 miles and by the time we got there, we had driven for 4 hours. (That is 12 hours in the car in 2 days!)
We found the park, got a campsite, met a lady and her son from Boston at the playground, made supper, and headed over to Lake Michigan via a walking path from our campground.
We ended the evening with lovely pictures from the lakehore. And yes, we all took off our shoes and went in the water.
Megan and Courtney collected some rocks and we headed back to our camper for the night. We plan to stay here two nights, but I'm not sure what we will be doing tomorrow. It is supposed to be heat indexes of over 100, so we might try to do something inside during the day and maybe come back and enjoy the beach some more tomorrow night.
Looks like your trip is off to a great start! Stay cool this week!
ReplyDelete