Indiana to Illinois and That Was Exciting!!!

Rantoul, IL.
55 Deg.overcast, N. wind @ 13 mph.
Forecast today = Occasional showers and isolated thunderstorms in the morning...then showers likely and isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon. Cooler. Highs in the lower 60s. Breezy north winds 10 to 20 mph with gusts to around 25 mph. Chance of precipitation 80 percent.

Wow!!!! That was exciting!!!!!! Yesterday evening in this area there were 65 mph winds, golf ball sized hail reported near by, t-storm warnings and tornado warnings with a possible touch-down less than 15 miles from here!!!!!! Oh, and I forgot, buckets of rain!!!!

And, that's the second round of excitement that I had yesterday. !!!! But, I'll get to that in a minute.

Even though it wasn't raining or storming in Oaktown yesterday morning, the radar was showing heavy weather to the west in Illinois, and to the North of us. So. . . . Jim decided it was a good idea to delay leaving the New Vision RV Park for about a half hour.

It was 10:25 when we pulled out of the park and continued North on US 41. Once up to Terre Haute we turned West on I-70 and crossed into Illinois. A few miles into IL. we turned North on IL Rt 1 and took it all the way up to I-74 near Danville. After turning West on 74 we ran into a very strong t-storm in the Oakwood area.

Now, this is when I had my first round of excitement.

I can't remember traveling in such bad weather. First it got real windy, and then it started raining. The rain became so heavy that I was down below 40 mph and I still couldn't see where we were going!!! :-0 There was no place to pull over and in fact one section of I-74 was under construction and was down to 1 lane!!!

Well, we made it, and just before we got to the Urbana area, the rain let up quite a bit and I could actually see to exit the Interstate and turn North on US 45. The rain quit as we traveled on 45 and soon we were at the Prairie Pines Campground in Rantoul.  :-)

It was 1:30 when we pulled up in front of the office so it took us 3 hours and 5 minutes to travel 147 miles. Not too bad considering the weather and the 2 lane roads that we took to get here.

Louise, (the campground host) was waiting for us when we arrived, (Jim had called her a week or so ago to let her know when we would be here), and so was my usual site that I've been in for the last few times that we've been here.

After talking to Louise for a few minutes, Jim came back out and drove me around to the street behind me so that we could pull right into my site. The sites here are pull-thru sites, but to pull through, you have to drive across a large grassy area. Well, with all the rain that they've had in this area, I was a little concerned about how soft the ground was. Jim checked it out though, and was  convinced that I could make it. So, , , , , , after Jim telling me that we couldn't stop for any reason once we were on the grass, (because I might get stuck), we headed across the wet grass and without even slowing down, made it into my site, leaving some tracks where I had driven. "Whew"!!!!!! 

So, now I'm settled into my site, (#12), and am getting comfortable for our almost 1 month stay here. I really like this park and am glad to be back again. When the weather clears up a little, I'll try to get Jim to take a few photos.

I hope all of you have weathered all the storms that have been going on across the country. It's been a crazy year for weather and I'm sure hoping that things settle down soon.

Did you know that the world's first Skyscraper was built in Chicago, 1885?