September 7, 2004

September 7, 2004

DAY 82

 

 

Tonight we are camped at Illini State Park on the south side of the Illinois River, across the river from Marseilles, Illinois, just south of Chicago. This is the first time we've stayed in a campground since we left Winnipeg 5 days ago. We wanted to be in a nice campground tonight, with electricity, so we could watch Amazing Race.

I was up early and out talking to the GM dealer's service manager by 6:30 A.M.. They opened at 7:00 but the manager was in early. The first thing he advised me was that the 1 year warranty on the starter installed by Surgenor in Ottawa 10 months ago could only be honoured in Canada, not the United States. I would have to pay today's bill and seek reimbursement from Surgenor and / or GM Canada. I phoned Surgenor and discussed it with them. They want me to return the dead starter as the first step in obtaining reimbursement. Another reason to return to Ottawa for a day at the end of this month ! Another battle for another day !

They were finished installing the new starter by 10:30 A.M.. We hitched up the trailer, drove half a mile down the road to the Travel Information Centre to dump our holding tanks, and we were motoring down the Interstate by 11:00 A.M.. We intentionally avoided Chicago by heading straight south on I-39 through Rockford all the way to I-80 where we turned west. We stopped for lunch in Ottawa, Illinois. We stopped in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel Restaurant, a chain of old fashioned, "down home" family style restaurants that Joanne wanted to check out. We went in and looked around, but decided to have lunch in Cracker Barrel another time, when we're really tired, or want to treat ourselves. While Joanne prepared lunch in the trailer, in Cracker Barrel's parking lot, I went across the street to Blain's Farm And Fleet, a large store somewhat like a "down scale" Wal-Mart ( if that's possible ! ). Seemed to be real popular with the Illinois overalls crowd. Bought a new tire and new valve extensions for the truck. Seemed to be lots of inventory of one ton diesel dually parts and accessories at Blain's Farm And Fleet. Also bought a new side marker light for the trailer. A rock or something shattered a trailer side marker light this morning.

Noticed a couple of unusual things about Illinois today. Firstly, nobody in Ottawa, Illinois seems to have ever heard of Ottawa, Canada. Maybe I should start saying "Washington, D.C.? Never heard of it !" The other unusual thing is nobody in Illinois seems to understand me. Apparently my "accent" renders me unintelligible. Maybe I should capitalize on that and start spewing vulgarities at them. If I smile hard enough when I tell them to **** ***, maybe they'll think I'm just wishing them a good day.

So everything on the truck and trailer is now fixed. The truck spare tire has been replaced. We’re back in A-1 condition, all around. Wish us luck !

We’re only about a one day drive from Goshen, Indiana. We’ll probably be there tomorrow night. Oh ... and goodbye to the bimbo blonde twins on Amazing Race.

DSK