Monday, May 4, 2009
Millpoint Park, East Peoria, IL: Apr 20-May 4
We picked this park because of its relative proximity to Morton, home of Willie's sister Cathy & her husband John Barry, and Willie's niece Jennifer Perez & her 4 children, Devin, Christian, Sophia, and Aiden. Millpoint Park is Passport America and let us pay half-price for our entire stay. It is a destination park for fishermen since it is right on the Illinois River, but due to all the rain, the river had flooded the cg shortly before our arrival, but had receded enough for us to set up. The river is still at flood levels, and it's sort of scary seeing so many waterside spots under water and having the lake right in our back yard.
Two days after getting here, Willie found another stitch thread popping out of the healing wound. So once again we were off to an urgent care center. We picked the place in Morton where Willie had gone in 1999 with a gall bladder problem. Surprisingly, she was still in the computer, so no paperwork had to be filled out. After a short wait, the doctor saw her and after a bit of digging was able to find another stitch to remove. We don't know if it was a sixth stitch that was hiding or one of the inside stitches that had worked its way out. Whatever, they all seem to be gone now, and the cut is healing well. Willie will have a very interesting "Harry Potter" scar now!
You will all be happy to know that Doug installed a safety handle so that there will hopefully be no more falls coming down the bedroom step. We're tired of the emergency medical visits -- even something easy like stitch removal is logistically annoying when on the road.
When we were making our plans, we weren't sure if 2 weeks would be too long, but we have had such a great time with both Cathy & with Jennifer & her family that the time has been too short, just flying by. Jennifer went through a painful divorce one year ago, and has been living in difficult financial & emotional circumstances since, but has done an amazing job of raising her kids & keeping them grounded (they are each precious in their own way: loving, respectful of themselves & others, & most of all, happy) and making ends meet with help from various local programs
While here, we helped the economy a lot. We had several minor fixes done on the truck as well as buying new front tires. We offered to buy a "special gift" for the children and the mutual decision was to get them a Wii system. What fun that was! We converged on Best Buy on a Saturday afternoon, and after excellent advice from their young salesperson, went home with a nice package. We all had fun playing it over the next week. The children let us play a lot, and Willie was surprisingly good in bowling, getting a score of 215. Doug was good at most things, but not that good at bowling.
Peoria has some interesting areas, and we were able (when it wasn't raining) to take several scenic drives through the sections overlooking the Peoria River (Lake) from both sides. There are awesome homes, especially on the west side high above the river on Grandview Drive. There were many interesting-sounding cultural events that we didn't have time to take part in. There was a very nice bridge club in Peoria, where we played regularly on Tues & Fri.
While there has been a lot of rain throughout the midwest, the resulting abundance of flowers makes it almost worth it. The leaves have popped out on the trees, and everything is blooming in profusion. When you take a walk, the scent of lilacs is everywhere and violets are scattered throughout the grass.
Two days after getting here, Willie found another stitch thread popping out of the healing wound. So once again we were off to an urgent care center. We picked the place in Morton where Willie had gone in 1999 with a gall bladder problem. Surprisingly, she was still in the computer, so no paperwork had to be filled out. After a short wait, the doctor saw her and after a bit of digging was able to find another stitch to remove. We don't know if it was a sixth stitch that was hiding or one of the inside stitches that had worked its way out. Whatever, they all seem to be gone now, and the cut is healing well. Willie will have a very interesting "Harry Potter" scar now!
You will all be happy to know that Doug installed a safety handle so that there will hopefully be no more falls coming down the bedroom step. We're tired of the emergency medical visits -- even something easy like stitch removal is logistically annoying when on the road.
When we were making our plans, we weren't sure if 2 weeks would be too long, but we have had such a great time with both Cathy & with Jennifer & her family that the time has been too short, just flying by. Jennifer went through a painful divorce one year ago, and has been living in difficult financial & emotional circumstances since, but has done an amazing job of raising her kids & keeping them grounded (they are each precious in their own way: loving, respectful of themselves & others, & most of all, happy) and making ends meet with help from various local programs
While here, we helped the economy a lot. We had several minor fixes done on the truck as well as buying new front tires. We offered to buy a "special gift" for the children and the mutual decision was to get them a Wii system. What fun that was! We converged on Best Buy on a Saturday afternoon, and after excellent advice from their young salesperson, went home with a nice package. We all had fun playing it over the next week. The children let us play a lot, and Willie was surprisingly good in bowling, getting a score of 215. Doug was good at most things, but not that good at bowling.
Peoria has some interesting areas, and we were able (when it wasn't raining) to take several scenic drives through the sections overlooking the Peoria River (Lake) from both sides. There are awesome homes, especially on the west side high above the river on Grandview Drive. There were many interesting-sounding cultural events that we didn't have time to take part in. There was a very nice bridge club in Peoria, where we played regularly on Tues & Fri.
While there has been a lot of rain throughout the midwest, the resulting abundance of flowers makes it almost worth it. The leaves have popped out on the trees, and everything is blooming in profusion. When you take a walk, the scent of lilacs is everywhere and violets are scattered throughout the grass.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 10:17 PM 
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