May 18, 2010 Belvidere, Illinois

Sunday morning we left "Camp Newmar" and traveled northwest to Belvidere, Illinois. We are staying here at an Outdoor World campground waiting for Larry and Joanne before going on toward Alaska. We are north of Chicago and just south of Wisconsin. We traveled from Indiana into Illinois on non-interstate roads avoiding all the toll roads around Chicago. I have come to the conclusion that there is no good route around Chicago. While we didn't have to stop for toll roads we had to stop for far more traffic lights. We were not in a rush as the trip was a little more than 200 miles but the stop and go traffic became tedious after a time. We were glad to meet up with I-39 to travel due north. The weather here has been cool but is to get warmer as the week goes on. This campground is a nice place to hangout-it is quiet and away from heavy traffic but close to the cities of Belvidere and Rockford. This is the time to catchup on reading and relaxing. I finished reading Laura Bush's book, which I found to be good reading. The campground has a book-exchange library and I found a copy of James Micheners' "Alaska" that I have begun reading- what an introduction to traveling to that beautiful state.
I enjoy eating out but I also enjoy cooking when I'm just hanging out as we're doing here. Yesterday I roasted a chicken which we had with a wild rice/rice pilaf and broccoli. Today I used the leftover chicken added some chicken broth, beans, corn, onion, green pepper and Rotel tomatoes along with spices to make a soup with a southwestern flavor.