The first week of August was our last week in Illinois....and it was a busy one!  One of the highlights of the week was our trip with Ann, Matt and the girls to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee.  We arrived shortly after they opened at 10am and we closed the place down shortly after 10pm....a long day and a two hour drive from home.  We did have a great time, though!  Matt and Coffey were more interested in the "big" rides than the rest of us, so we divided into teams - and the rest of us took a lower-keyed approach.  We met for lunch and again for dinner - picnic style in the parking lot (just like quite a few other people.) And, we got together for some cooling off time in the water park in mid-afternoon.  The drive home at midnight was an adventure as that night was one of the first rainy, stormy nights of the season.  We had debated taking the motor home on the trip and at that point were glad we hadn't.
 

Tom and our granddaughter Coffey both celebrated birthdays that first week of August, so, of course, we had to have a cake.  Coffey chose an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, and it was really tasty!  As part of Coffey's birthday gift she took some knitting lessons.  Unfortunately, neither Grandma or Mom can help her out much, but the ladies at Unique Yarns in Rockford are most helpful.  The shop is quite pleasant and Coffey enjoys going there to learn and knit.  She's doing a great job.  The shop sells locally grown fibers for making yarn and told us about the farm where the alpacas live.  It is very near where we had the RV parked, so we stopped by to visit.  The owner told us that they shear the alpacas once a year and at the moment she has nine animals of various colors.
 
 

The whole family got together to stand in line to ride the "Tornado" at the Six Flags water park...a welcome ride in the 95* temperatures.	It was a "picnic in the park....ing lot" for lunch and dinner at Six Flags.  There were quite a few families avoiding the long lines and high prices.	Grandpa and Coffey shared the job of blowing out the candles on their birthday cake.	Coffey enjoys spending time at the knitting shop where they have a comfy corner for knitters to gather.

We got to watch the alpacas run and play in the yard.	The owner, Kathy, introduced us to Lily and Francis, whose fiber (fur) we saw for sale at the shop.

There were a few other end-of-the-summer activities while we were still visiting with the family.  Matt is the coach for the tag football team.  Coffey and Close are the only two girls playing this year, but they are having a good time.   Mary also took Close and Merrick to the "Tea Party" that was the final activity of the summer reading program at the Winnebago Library.  Tom and Matt worked many hours building the deck on the back of the house.  It was not quite finished when we left, but Matt has it just about completed now.
 

Matt has worked many drills with his team, including Coffey and Close, to get them ready for the upcoming season.	It reminded me of teaching first grade when we attended the "tea party" at the library.  We frosted cookies and drank our punch "picnic style."	This shows the railing with a few balusters still missing, but that is now complete and the deck is being used.

The river came up to meet the walking path across from our campsite in Pecatonica after the first of the heavy rains.	The big tents and pennants had started to appear behind our motor home indicating it was county fair time...and time for us to get on the road.	It was sad that we were leaving, but the girls managed to give us a smile on our departure day.

"GETTIN' OUR KICKS ON ROUTE 66"

Leaving family behind, we drove to central Illinois where we loosely began our travels along the old Route 66...the famous route from Chicago to California.  Interstate 40 follows the basic old route with much of the old road abandoned.   But sections here and there are still in use and maintained by local governments.   The old Route 66 was peppered with small motels, diners and in the west, Indian "trading posts."  We found many of the establishments still visible, however most don't look as though there has been much in the way of maintenance or upkeep since the 50s or 60s.  Every once in a while there is a small museum with displays of old cars, gasoline pumps, road signs and photos.  What we found more and more of, though, were new casinos.  Along the Mississippi River and then right along I-40 there were many - of all sizes and shapes and offering various amenities and promotions.  Our first stop was Harrah's in St. Louis.  Then we spent six nights in Tunica, Mississippi at the Hollywood Casino RV Park.  We hadn't realized it beforehand, but it was Elvis Week in Memphis, which is only 40 miles away.  There were Elvis tour groups staying at the hotel and local TV broadcast many events live during the week.  Our stay in Tunica was profitable and our RV fees were comped :-)  but it was 105* the whole time we were there.

From Tunica, we moved on to Little Rock, Arkansas.  Here we visited the Clinton Presidential Library and Museum.  Admission to the center was free on the day of our visit in celebration of President Clinton's birthday...thanks, Bill!  Perhaps it was because most of the "history" only went back to 1992 and we lived through it all as adults, but we were somewhat disappointed in the center.  We did spend several hours touring the exhibits and watching the video.   Just a short distance from the Clinton Center, we found "Burns Park."  One of the largest municipal parks in the US and actually in the city of North Little Rock, this park has facilities for almost every sport there is, plenty of green space and a campground.  At the campground it was hard to believe we were in the heart of a busy city, right on I-40.  The campground had the feel of a remote state park and we were parked among the pines, but with excellent 50amp service...a good things since the heat had continued.  We took advantage of the park facilities, and played on one of three golf courses in the park on the second day of our stay.
 

The William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library and Museum is on the bank of the Arkansas River in Little Rock.	The replica of the Oval Office looks just like all the photos we've seen.	The view from the atrium balcony allows a view of the interior of the Clinton Museum.

At the Burns Park campground, Tom was enlisted to help a fellow camper replace one of his windows...two heads won out over the lack of written directions.	It had been several weeks since we'd had the clubs out, so Tom took advantage of a course at Burns Park in North Little Rock.  Mary volunteered to be the "designated driver and water girl" in the 100* heat.

Heading on west, we crossed into Oklahoma...a few small casinos and a two night stop at the FireLake Grand Casino near Oklahoma City.  The casino has a huge concrete parking lot with excellent full hook-ups for RVs for FREE!  We made our planned visit to Lee's RV in the city for some parts and to check out some new coaches, but of course, we spent some time inside the casino.  We'd visited the more famous Oklahoma City tourist spots before, so passed on the National Memorial and the Western Heritage Museum/Cowboy Hall of Fame.  Then it was on across I-40/Route  66 towards Texas.  We stopped one night at a small RV park on the Oklahoma/Texas border for just a one-night stay.  Although it was quite dry at the time, there had been a lot of rain in the area in the past week and the roads were full of very deep ruts.  Around 3am we awoke to thunder and lightning and a bit of rain.  Our weather radio was broadcasting heavy rains and flash floods.  The thought of getting stuck in those red mud ruts was all Tom needed to make a command decision..."We're out of here!"  So, at 3:30am, in the dark and a misty rain, we were heading down the highway.  We found our way out of the rain and to a comfortable rest area for the rest of the night.  RVing always has its adventures!      In Amarillo the billboards persuaded us to stop at the "Big Texan Steak Ranch."  All the billboards had advertised a 72 ounce steak for free.  The catch is that it is only free if you eat the whole steak, plus the shrimp cocktail, roll, baked potato and salad all in one hour. (It's $72 if you can't finish it within an hour)  Even a single serving of cake fills a nine inch plate.  I wonder how many people actually do it!  We didn't even try.
 

We'd seen it before, but the "largest cross in the Western Hemisphere" near Groom, Texas is always impressive.	This water tower, also near Groom, TX, looks more like the "Leaning Tower of Pissa."  It was once part of a truck stop.	Amarillo's "Big Texas Steak Ranch" offers free limo service for its customers staying nearby.  It was pretty busy even at the noon hour.	The 72-ounce steak looks hard to pick up, not to mention hard to eat in a one hour sitting.

Moving on, we crossed into New Mexico.  In Tucumcari we stayed on Route 66 in the Cactus RV Park that had once been a motel.  The rooms were all boarded up and the lawn made into RV sites.  As in many of the other small towns we visited along the old Route 66, most of the businesses had seen better days, but it was easy to visualize what it might have been like in the 50s and 60s driving the same route in the west....small towns with lots of desert in between...flashy neon signs inviting you to eat in the diners and stay in the motels with refrigerated air...lots of souvenir shops and Indian displays.  In fact, we had driven this same route on our honeymoon in 1967.  When we reached Albuquerque our RV park (Enchanted Trails) was next to a Camping World...another chance to pick up a few small repair parts.  On a day trip, we drove from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and visited the National Veteran's Cemetery where Tom's aunt and uncle are buried.  Tom's Aunt passed away just last December and this was the first that any family had been able to visit the site.  As on our previous visits the rows and rows of gravestones were very impressive.  Once again, we had visited this area several times in the past, so we skipped the usual tourist attractions in this part of New Mexico.  We did check out a few casinos in the area, though.  :-)

Next on Route 66 was Arizona.  Our first night was spent at the "Root 66 RV Park" near Holbrook.   Yes, that's how they spelled it.  As with many of the places we stayed on this month's trip, this was definitely just an "overnight stopping place."  We were in the middle of nowhere, but this was the first time a dozen fresh eggs came with the site along with the full hook-ups.  The directory listing said there was free WiFi, but Tom needed to sit at a picnic table on the host's front porch with the large dogs and the crowing roosters and cackling chickens in order to get a signal.
 

We tend to use "discount" campgrounds for single overnight stays as we travel...this is somewhat typical of the signs and landscaping.	Route 66 still has lots of colorful signs and billboards urging travelers to stop and visit.

From Holbrook, we took a detour from I-40/Route 66 and drove Routes 377 and 260 to the White Mountain Camperland RV Park near Overgaard, AZ.  We were about 25 miles from the town of Show Low, AZ.  The town supposedly got its name as a result of a card game between some of its early settlers, which was won with the "low hand." The main street is "Deuce of Clubs Blvd."  Over our past extended stays in southern Arizona, we'd heard a lot about the Show Low and Pinetop-Lakeside areas in the east/central part of the state  The towns are in the White Mountains and draw a significant number of visitors in the summer looking to escape the heat of the other parts of the state.  In winter, the news reports are always telling us how much snow and cold has hit the area.  We went on several exploration drives and found that the towns reminded us of Frisco, Colorado where our son Reid has spent so much time in the last 10 years.  Among the pines, there are lots of "inns," restaurants, art galleries, quaint shops and some golf courses.  We passed several gated communities of summer homes and some other RV parks.  Just south of Pinetop-Lakeside is the border of the White Mountain Apache Indian Reservation...and guess what?....another thriving casino, the "Hon-Dah Resort and Conference Center."  Continuing to drive further south, we visited the tribal maintained "Fort Apache."  At the tribal visitor center we viewed a film about the Apache philosophy, watched a native do some craft work and saw a representation of a native encampment.  Then we walked through part of the original Army post built by the US Government in the late 1800's.  Although in the "wilderness," the fort was built to make it seem more like a Victorian village to the soldiers sent to serve there.  The fort served more as a peace-keeping force rather than a fighting post.  After being abandoned by the Army after WWI, the larger buildings became a boarding school for Indian children.  Local school districts were later established and the boarding school is now a public middle school.  The Apache tribe also has a working sawmill and several fish hatcheries in the area and a ski resort a short distance away.  This Indian tribe seems to have many thriving ventures.  This entire area was also in the heart of the huge "Rodeo-Chediski" forest fire in 2002 that burned nearly a half-million acres, so there are still many charred and blackened trees.  But the ground is green again, there are small trees and shrubs, and the tops of many of the charred trees have green branches.  Some of the businesses we frequented had photographs on the wall of "evacuation day" with a blazing sky over their building.
 
 

The log cabin home of the post commander at Fort Apache.	This building was built in the late 1800's as a barracks for the soldiers at Fort Apache and was later used as part of the Theodore Roosevelt Indian Boarding School

Departing the White Mountain Camperland on August 31, we drove back into Show Low and then north through Taylor and Snowflake....two more towns that are frequently mentioned as tourist places in Arizona.  We didn't make any stops but as we drove through we saw the usual small shops and restaurants and small historical museums.  Snowflake is also home to a Mormon Temple as it was established as a Mormon outpost in the late 1800's.   The entire area still has a large Mormon population, including the Indian reservation.  All of the towns seemed to be getting ready for various festivals and celebrations coming up in the next several weeks.  There were lots of flowers and flags everywhere.  We made the circle back to Holbrook and I-40/Route 66, heading west once again.    We spent the last night of the month in Williams, AZ, the last Route 66 town to be by-passed by the Interstate highway system.  However, the town still has a good tourist business being a "gateway to the Grand Canyon."  Thanks to lots of thunder, lightning and rain we were not able to attend the nightly gunfight on the streets of downtown.