Illinois

We discovered the village of Belvidere, Illinois, this weekend after making a wrong turn past the Wal-Mart on Route 20. This small village is surrounded by massive crop farms and dairies, and acres on acres of cornfields and milo...the town of Belvidere, also known as "the city of murals", is your basic Mid-western, small town. However, I did notice the Chrysler plant, which most likely employs the entire tri-county area. I'm sure they like their Friday night football games here, and their corn.

The Master got a haircut at a local barber downtown, we ate a local dive called "The Steamplant Restaurant" in the old mill. I got a few shots of the murals, have a look.
One of my favorite murals was the New York Candy Store painting on the side of the Mexican supermarket. The weather here is all too familiar to the backcountry...hot, humid and absolutely miserable. It's one of the worst heatwaves the area has seen in years...and we had to stop here now. That's our luck, and if it's going to happen--it's going to happen to us. End of story.
The sweltering heat continued throughout the weekend with temperatures reaching into the high 90's which is strange for this part of Illinois, according to the locals. Friday night we moseyed over to the neighbor's campfire for some brew and conversation and made some new friends, Todd & Lisa--a couple from Illinois enjoying their first RV purchase and learning the ropes right along with the rest of the motorhome greenhorns. We felt right at home with them--and they brought us fresh vegetables from their garden at home and invited us down to their place one weekend where they promised us they'd show us a real-life, no shitting you, true to life, mafia / gangster hideout for Al Capone in the old days---only 3o minutes from here! Next door we met Charles, another camper who was from GREER, SC!! We were glad to see some homefolks and we got to hang out with him a few nights and drink some margaritas, eat some homemade Southern chili and relax with Stevie Ray Vaughn by the fire. A few campers down the way we met Mike, who is working with the Master. Mike is from Alabama--only a short distance from the coast and from Mississippi...he did escape the hurricane damage though. He keeps us laughing with his Forrest Gump humor and quick wit---we also enjoyed some great BBQ ribs with Terry & Kelly, another co-worker, who hail from the Florida Keys and drive a nice motorhome rig and travel with the cutest minature doberman--Minnie!