Illinois -- Istra Goes Camping

Doesn't it look just like her?

We left PLM headed for Minnesota to meet up with Dara and Ian.  We weren’t sure how far we would get in a day because we didn’t start out very early from PLM.  We drove through a bit of southwestern Ohio and I remember one spot where the highway went through a wetland area.  We were up on a causeway and there were marshes and trees and white birds with long necks and long legs flying or fishing along either side.  I thought it would be really fun to canoe through those marshes, but we didn’t have one among all our belongings so that will have to wait for another time =)  We met some dense fog right where the warning signs indicated – right along the Ohio River.  It didn’t last too long, and before we knew it, we were in Indiana.

 

After a stop in Indianapolis right next to the Speedway for gas and oil, we went on to Illinois.  At this point, we began to wonder how long the Midwest had looked like plains of corn and soy with farmhouses and spots of trees around them.  That’s all we saw, and we were wondering if trees had ever lived on those plains.  We followed a county route once to get from the interstate to US Route 52 and saw groves of trees and a few dips and curves in the landscape.  Maybe there were trees in the Midwest at some time, but you just have to pick the small roads to see the remnants of them.  We weren’t too far outside Chicago at this point, so we might have been in a crossover land between the Great Lakes region and the Midwest.

As we tired of our drive and the day passed, we found some state parks outside Dixon, Illinois that we wanted to aim for to camp for the night.  We drove into Dixon (the town where Reagan was born) and met a bookstore owner closing up shop.  We asked him about the parks in the area and he directed us towards a few promising options.  He was very friendly and before we left he offered us a few hot peppers at the bottom of a cardboard box that he had left over at the end of the day.  Maybe he brought some produce to his bookstore to sell, and this was the leftovers.  We were thankful for the small spicy gift because it greatly improved our meager traveling rations of rice and canned beans, though our taste buds were seared a few times trying to figure out how much of which pepper we should use!

Of course, all the photos are taken the following morning.  That's why I had to make an illustration for Istra's night-time adventure.

We arrived at White Pines State Park at dusk.  It was getting quite dark, so the park host in charge of the sites said we could pick a site and set up while there was still a little light, then come back and square up with the payment afterward.  We set up the tent, then we put Istra in it so that she could get out of her carrier and stretch and use the litter box if she needed to.  While we were on a short trip to the car, she nosed her way out somehow and I saw this dark shape trot by me as I was trying to stake down the rain fly.  I told Susanna, and when she saw Istra going towards the underbrush in the woods, she ran over and made a valiant, yet cautious flying tackle…and missed.  So much for not spooking the cat in an unfamiliar environment with coyotes and owls howling and hooting in the dark woods.

 

Well, I think she must love us because she came back after a minute or so when we called.  Maybe she loved the treats that we had for her… no I don’t think we had the treats this time.  It was just us, her loving human companions. =)

We were very hungry at this point, and we heard that there was a rustic lodge with a restaurant in the park that was open late.  We put Istra in her crate in the tent while we were gone.  The restaurant had just closed—another quinoa and beans dinner  When we returned to our site, Istra was not meowing like we expected.  She must have some instinctual wisdom that says ‘I don’t want to be noticed when I can hear animals out there that sound bigger than me.’

She slept with us on our blanket-covered air mattress and even snuggled under the blankets halfway by morning.  It was freezing cold, but we had a lot of fun venturing out to take Istra on her first night camping!

Istra exploring the next morning-- on her leash.  She still looks pretty impressive, but I'm sure she's thinking, 'If only I didn't have this lumbering human trailing me wherever I go, maybe I could do some real stalking.'