Mississippi Palisades or “where did you put that Canadian insurance card”
Today is the first day of an adventure that I have been thinking about for years. I have been on trips lasting more than three weeks before but never with the Princess. She retired this year and we are off hitting the road together. We will wind our way northwest to Jasper Park in Alberta then swing south to a music festival in Montana.
Sunrise at Mississippi Palisades State Park
It is early July in the Midwest. For those of you that have lived in the area you know what that means. So humid that your wet tennis shoes take days to dry outside. A friend of mine affectionately known as Reverend Mike wondered out loud (well maybe least a dozen times) how could the early explorers / pioneers could have ever decided that the St Louis area was a great place to live if they made the trip in July or August. Maybe if they hit the landing during the right two weeks in May or late September. How bad must it have been where they came from to think that St Louis in July was a good place to build a log cabin without AC. I’m done whining now, almost.
There were wildflowers all through the park
The plan was to leave early after the 4th to miss most of the holiday travelers. How was I to know a lot of people were going to do the same thing? If you have read any of the prior posts, you know the goal is to always leave early to miss morning rush hour traffic. That is the goal. Well, as we are preparing leave, I decided to confirm that the Canadian insurance card is in the glove box. No, it wasn’t. Nor was it in the glove box of either the other two vehicles or anywhere else I looked in the house. Despite her protests to the contrary and the fact that, in our division of marital matters, I take care of insurance, I’m sure the Princess lost the cards. Oh well, I waited in the local coffee shop for the insurance agency to open so they could replace my lost cards. Shortly after 9 am, we were headed out west. Well, north then west.
We made it
Our first stop is the Mississippi Palisades State Park in Savannah, Illinois. The park is well kept and, like most of the parks in Illinois, there is plenty of space between sites. Since there are trains along the bank of the river, you should consider choosing a site further into the park unless you are a train fanatic and love the sound of train’s whistle in the middle of the night (Tom C-that’s for you!) Many sites have electric and there are a large number that are set aside for . The sites are fairly level, easy to back into and are shaded most of the day. The showers were clean and the trails accessible within a short drive of the campground. The views of the river from the bluffs are very nice, much like those at Pere Marquette State Park in Southern Illinois. We only planned this as a one night stop on the way north but I could see spending more time here in the fall. The colors and the overlooks would be spectacular.
Dennis
