On the road again Saturday Feb. 8. Phil always said we would not travel in the snow. BUT!!! We did. Because it's been so COLD we couldn't load some things till we would leave. The dish soap I put in two days earlier was frozen solid. Minus 13 will cause cold to penetrate a vehicle sitting outside. Packing food, medicine, toiletries and many other things were done Sat. morning. We finally got everything packed, house ready for a house sitter and it was snowing. But we were mentally (and physically) ready to get on the road.
As we traveled the expressway around Chicago the traffic was moving slowly. We took our time being sure we were safe. We saw several cars in the ditch. Around Kankakee they had the traffic detoured through town because of an accident on I-57. Really it was Bourbonnaise, home of the Bears training camp we traveled through. The snow finally quit. We had planned to take Highway 24 at Gilman to the east. We had only gone 122 miles but thought that was a good place to stop.
We went to Mass at 5 pm at Immaculate Conception. Gilman is a small rural town of less than 2,000. There were about 50 attending Mass. It was dark and the streets were snow covered as we drove after Mass. Kinda like a Christmas card winter scene with the lights glowing on the snow. We were in no hurry. We stayed overnight at the Pilot Truck Center.
On the road again Sunday Feb. 9. It was 4 degrees overnight but our RV furnace kept us toasty warm. Instead of taking Hwy. 24, an East - West state highway and still snow covered we took I-57 to I-64. Roads were clear in the right lane, some snow in left lane as we started. Again we saw cars in the ditch. Eventually we were in snow free countryside. We arrived in Bowling Green, KY about 4 pm. At lunch time I put chicken, rice, spices and cream of mushroom soup in the crockpot. It cooked as we drove so we had dinner ready when we arrived. We stayed overnight at Walmart.
On the road again Monday Feb. 10 for a Tour of the Corvette Factory.
In 2013. The most popular color was white because it was the 60th anniversary of the first Corvette. That year the cars were white.
We were 6 feet from assembly line.
Photos were not allowed so I got some off the Internet.
Lots of automated assists in lifting parts toward the car.
Mammoth National Park was our next stop.
We watched a video, went through the exhibits and took the Historic 2 hour, 2 mile tour. It always amazes me the information the Ranger share with us.
The entrance for our tour was down many steps.
Icicles and snow.
It was too dark for my camera and the lens fogged up. So I took photos off the Internet. This huge room called the Rotunda has historic significance. They manufactured saltpeter. It was used for making black gunpowder used during the the War of 1812.
On this tour we didn't see stalagmites or stalactites because it is very dry.
We were told Indians harvested gypsum from the cave. She said gypsum was the thickness of your finger nail. It's not known what it was used for.
We had to squeeze through Fat Man's Misery. It was 100 feet of narrow 4 ft high canyon walls. Below our waist we had to twist and turn to get through this undulating section. I thought it was fun. Then we entered into the Relief Room. Named because we were relieved to be through the tight section. Next was the Mammoth Dome. The Dome is 192 feet ceiling to floor. We got "cave kisses" as we stood staring into the depths. (drops of moisture)
138 steps staircase to the passageway out of the Dome Room. These metal steps replaced the original wooden one. Looking at the structure I marveled at the architecture and engineering to build these steps in this confined space.
Next stop the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. They have a Corvette visitors can sit in.
I'll post more later. Wanted to get at least a partial blog posted.
Location:Gilman, IL and Bowling Green, KY
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