My Dream of the Field of Dreams

September 9 – I was true to my word and we had cereal for breakfast and managed to be on the road at 8:11. Just before getting back on route 20 there was a Wal-mart and we needed a few things and since it was Sunday morning there was plenty of maneuvering room in the lot, so we did our shopping and left. Yesterday we drove on route 20 for about 100 miles and maybe saw 3 RV’s. Today within the first 30 minutes we must have seen 50 or more. Most were either towing or hauling a golf cart or were followed by a truck and trailer with 1-3 golf carts. We could not quite figure out what was going on but later were told that they were all leaving races in one of the cities close by. It’s a huge parking area and they use the golf carts to get from their RV’s to the track. It was a lot of driving today but we only had about an hour to my favorite stop so far, Field of Dreams.

 

Shoeless Bill heading back
after the game

It was awesome! I got a bit emotional rehashing the story in my head. It’s my favorite Kevin Costner movie and it’s so touching about the doctor and Ray’s dad and the baseball players. There is no charge to go to the field, you just park and can take your ball and glove and get on the field. We were excited that the corn had not been cut yet, but it was pretty dry. We took lots of photos. It’s been sold to a company who is going to leave the field but then build 21 more fields and facilities for tournaments and baseball camps. I’m glad we went now before it changes hands officially. They have a small trailer with all kinds of memorabilia and we spent our share. It’s one of those places you will never get back to as it really is an effort to go, but it was a spectacular place to be. We learned a lot about the making of the movie there and what changes were made to the house and grounds. We heard that the owner sold his entire farm of several hundred acres for 4 million. Good for him!

 

Is he cool or what?

From Dyersville, IA we got back on route 20 heading east to Dubuque where we took 61 south to I-80 to I-74 which we stayed on the rest of the day. We stopped the rest of the day only for lunch in the RV, to get fuel and to take a photo of a rooster wearing a top at in East Peoria. That proved to almost be a big mistake as there wasn’t a place to pull in to it so I drove on past and we saw a parking lot at a restaurant that Bill thought I could turn around in. Well, I could not quite do it without hitting the one car we didn’t see until it was too late. So he got out and slowly got me backed up and we discovered that the drive went all the way around the back of restaurant and out the other side. Whew! So I pulled just a bit off the road into a gas station with a low roof on it and Bill got out and took photos of the rooster for me.

 

The next challenge was finding our campground for the night. Bill called and talked to someone at the park twice and what he was telling us did not match up with the roads. Idiot! We asked a guy at a gas station and he had us follow him to the road where it was. The guy giving the directions told us from the wrong exit. He said get off at 172 and gave the directions from 174. So it took an extra 45 minutes to get here after we drove miles down the wrong road before finding a place I could turn around in and then back to the interstate and finding the guy who led us to it. It’s an OK place. It’s partially on the water and the people mostly are members who leave their units here for the summer season. Luckily there was 1 pull thru left as I really was not up to backing in two nights in a row. The campground is the Sportsmen’s RV Park in Mahomet, IL.

 

Bill was very happy to have spaghetti with Italian sausage for dinner and a nice salad. There might be enough for another meal, so that’s good. He watched some football and did the dishes and I downloaded today’s pictures and did emails and journaling. Now it’s time to read a few minutes and get to bed.