The Great Western Road Trip 2017.....Part Thirty Two/Day Twenty Three & Twenty Four

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Eighteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nineteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Twenty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Twenty Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  

Part Thirty One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Heading out from Northern IL, we headed South......

57 miles until Peru, IL.

A crop dusting plane or something of similar size.  There are farms down here so I figured a crop duster.

The Paw Paw Exit.  I love these unusual place names.....

We stopped to see some old friends at our usual meeting place, Cindy's Home Cooking in

Oglesby, IL.

I always get Walleye here, this time in a sandwich. Nom Nom

Me with the "Chef".  Man was I fat! lolz

A group photo of me, Hubs and Robin and Pam.

After lunch with them we headed to see Hubs' sister.  She needed a bit of help so we took her shopping to Walmart to pick up some needed food and toiletries stuff.  I think we took her out to eat that evening too.

We stayed at a hotel in her town that evening.

I loved this sign in the bathroom, letting you know the prices of items if you "took" them home with you.

Yeah, I don't think I could fit an Ironing Board in my suitcase if I tried. lolz  Geez, I could get most of this new in a store for less.......

The next morning we headed out through Indiana, toward Ohio.

The back of a truck seen along the highway......

"a free people ought not only be armed and disciplined, 

but they should have sufficient arms & ammunition

to maintain a status of independence from any who

might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government"

                                                           -George Washington

                                     

Welcome to Indiana

Heading toward Indianapolis and Interstate 70.

Notice that Indiana is NOT very welcoming.....their Welcome Center is closed.

A cute little trailer like one of those teardrop shaped travel trainers.....

Stopped for gas and I browsed the convenience store to stretch my legs.......

This one made me chuckle, because it was in the North! lolz

Back on the road........

And we are out of Indiana......

This billboard tells me we are in Ohio. lol

Skyline Chili anyone??

Mt. Orab.  Anybody know where this is?

Entering Amish territory in OH.

And HOG territory too....lolz

Hubs wanted to stop here for awhile at the Serpent Mound earthen works in Peebles, OH.

                                           

This mound is the largest known serpent shaped effigy in the world.  The mound was built most probably by the Hopewell and/or the Adena prehistoric cultures and radiocarbon dating suggests it's at least 2000 years old.

Hubs with the Ohio state marker at the site.

There was an informative museum there as well and you could learn about these prehistoric cultures and how and why they built earthen mounds.

The fascinating thing about this earthen mound(besides the shape)is that there is a triple coiled tale on the end.

Learning about the living arrangements of these prehistoric tribes....

A painting of a tribal ceremony.  That's me pretending to participate.  I do have a bit of Native American blood afterall.

A comparison of famous monuments.

A couple of examples of clay pottery found in the area, one is a whistle or flute of some kind.

A chart showing the Daily Life of the Ohio Hopewell...

More clay items found in the area that were made by these ancient peoples....

So after the museum we hit the trail to the Serpent......

A stone monument about the Serpent Mound.  Might I add that it was late August and hot as F**k outdoors.....

There was a viewing tower(think fire tower out West)and Hubs climbed it to get an areal look at the whole mound.  He also took my photo.  With my bad knee I was not about to attempt that climb(and descent).

Here's one of the photos he took.  Pictures really don't do it justice.

I think this sign was where you could view sunset during the Summer Solstice at the mound.

I felt ambitious so I took off along the paved loop around the mound.

Hubs caught up with me near the tail.  You can sort of make out the triple coil of the snake's tail behind him.

And me again, next to the stone monument after walking all the way around the mound.....and melting in the heat like the Wicked Witch of the West. lolz

There were little signs all around the area, next to other mounds reminding you that these were sacred areas to long gone indigenous peoples.

We finished our trip to the Serpent Mound and heading toward the motel we stayed at that night.

                                        
I may be juvenile but I had to snicker at the name of this creek we drove over. ;-)

Made to the motel out in the middle of nowhere aka the Southern tip of Ohio.

Our last two days of the trip coming up next.  

Sluggy

The Great Road Trip of 2017......Part Thirty One/Day Twenty Two

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Eighteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nineteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Twenty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Twenty Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

We headed out from the hotel in Wisconsin bright and early, only stopping for gas.

I saw these bags of rock salt at the gas station.  Funny how it's out in early August?

Went into the convenience store and found a couple more of those weird Snickers bars......

Then we passed "The Cheese Hut"(in Wisconsin of all places!lol).  Went in and they had fresh cheese curds(you haven't had a good cheese curd if it doesn't squeak when you bite it)and I picked up a nice aged cheddar too.

Me with my cheesy loot.

They also sold Gas, Beer and Sandwiches......

A sign on the highway for Baraboo.  Do you know that this city was the original Winter Headquarters of the Ringling Brothers Circus?  They now have a Circus Museum there and hold Circuses(is that a word?...it looks funny).

I always chuckle when I see the name of that Casino.  It reminds me of what happened in college when you drank too much. lol

"Drive Like A Boss".  Yeah, you tell em man!

And then we hit Illinois.  Not my favorite place by any means.  But it was then where my cousin(and then, fellow blogger)Sonya Ann lived so we made a stop to see her, on purpose, even though it meant staying in Illinois. ;-)

We got to her house and found she was nursing a baby squirrel(like feeding it with an eye dropper, etc.) that either fell out of a tree and/or was abandoned by it's mother.  I don't recall now.

That night we just chilled with Sonya Ann and her then hubby(aka The Asshole).

The next morning Sonya and I drove to the local Goodwill to do some shopping/browsing.

Saw these auto dealer workers along the way, on strike. 

I could have gotten a great deal on this recording of the music from a Waltz and Polka Mass.

Oh well.....

A card game called "Senior Moments".  Hmm.

Another game called "Men are Pigs".  The cover art on the box was disturbing.

A mug with a purple "Leave Me A Loan" monster on it from a local credit union.

I should have scooped up these rainbow string lights but didn't as there was nowhere to test them.

Saw Cousin George in the Goodwill.  Hey George!

Saw this very bad parking job on the way out of the store.  I think they got two tires in the actual parking spot. lolz  I see people here in Louisiana park in the crosshatching ALL THE TIME.  Not only are they possibly physically handicapped but mentally as well. ;-)

An actual photo of one of Sonya's cats, Harry.  He was a sweetie but usually hid when we were there so this is a rare picture of him.

Sonya gave me some homemade jams.  Yum.

When "The Asshole" got home from work we all went over the border to Wisconsin for dinner at a retro-type diner.

Sonya next to "The Asshole".  I cut him out of the photo. ;-)

Lots of memorabilia on the walls.  And check out this cool 1950's/1960's boomerang tabletop on all the tables.

The plates of food were ginormous!  I think I had a garden salad, liver(sorry Anne!)with onions, mashed taters and some steamed veggies.  Hubs had a meatloaf special which was more gravy than anything else. lol

I forced Sonya to have her picture taken.  We have both lost weight since this photo. 8-)

The next day we took a field trip to Woodman's, a big ass grocery store with an almost as big liquor store.  Hubs walking toward his Valhalla. lolz

Funny name for a Rye Whiskey....Yippee Ki-Yay.  And look, what a deal!  Buy TWELVE bottles and it will only cost you $56.40 per bottle.  Yikes!

Some beer or liquor have funny names......."Drunken Sailor" an Irish Whisky.  What do you do with a drunken sailor?

Then there's a Japanese Whisky from the House of Suntory.

This makes me laugh and think of the scene from "Lost in Translation" when the Bill Murray plays a has-been actor character who is hired in Japan to shoot a commercial for Suntory.....

                                

Hellboy Hell Water??  Man that looks scary!

How about some "Punk Ass Cat" IPA beer?

Or let's get "Scurvy"?  Umm, no thanks.....

Wicked Bad Ass beer.  What's with all the bad ass alcohol??

                                     

Weekend @ Louie's beer. lol

Justin Blabaer liquor??

WTF.

"The Asshole" had to go to the ER for some reason(he tried to lance a boil in his throat or something)so Hubs and I were on our own for dinner so we went to Culver's.

I got a "concrete" and a salad.  After dinner we went back to their house and chilled until they got back from the ER.

The next evening we met Asshole's parents at Portillo's for dinner.  I don't get why they all rave about this place but it's ok.

I'm always happy to spend time with Sonya but this was an awkward visit due to personal issues.  But if I am near where she is I'm glad to see her.  I wish she lived nearer.

FYI-that baby squirrel didn't make it. 8-(

The next morning we headed out to another destination.

Sluggy