Starved Rock State Park – 8/27/2016 – http://fulltimetimeshare.com/blog

August 27, 2016 (Saturday)

We told Tiff yesterday that we were going to take today off as she had some friends coming over to help them move. We wanted to stay out of their way (because we’re old and slow). Plus, we’re exhausted and sore and we haven’t even done that much.

Man was there a major storm last night. It sounded like lightening was striking right outside our balcony area. Pretty exciting. Anyway, we got up and had to move from the Presidential unit (huge, newish and lovely with a washer and dryer) to a lodge unit (smaller and older with no washer and dryer or internet). A sweet young woman in the office (Heather) had made sure that they got us a unit to move into right away, which was nice to not have all our groceries in the car all day while we went and played.

We moved into our lodge unit (no elevator and on the second floor) and then left.

We have a second floor unit, no elevator, no carts.

Small kitchen, missing our presidential unit.

Dining room, living room and balcony. About half what we had, no laundry, missing our presidential.

Second bedroom. We are trying to keep out of there so they don't have to do anything at cleanup time. — Second bedroom. We are trying to keep out of there so they don’t have to do anything at cleanup time.

Odd tub shower combination with a full mirror on the wall behind the curtain. Encourages dieting. — Odd giant tub shower combination with a full mirror on the wall, mostly hidden from view behind the curtain. Encourages dieting.

I like the toilet closets. In the master.

Master TV and dresser with some seriously worn out drawer guides..

We headed for Ottawa, Illinois to the Cracker Barrel for their breakfast. Michael and I both got pancakes, eggs, and I got turkey bacon and he got sausage – plus coffee, lots of coffee. Their breakfasts are pretty awesome and reasonable.

After eating, we left for Starved Rock State Park. We were hoping since it was a grey and overcast day (and around 80), there wouldn’t be as many people. (Weather here is so very different and it seems to rain almost every day.) Plus, school has started so….we were right and it wasn’t nearly as busy as it was when we were there last week. We were able to get a parking spot very close to the Visitor’s Center. What a lovely park but we were disappointed that so many people just dump their trash everywhere without regard. Sad. One of the employee’s in the Visitor’s Center said they had something like 14 waterfalls in the park, and they were all flowing pretty good right now.

We decided to walk to French Canyon, which wasn’t very far and was a nice easy walk. Very lovely.

Our second attempt to see what it is all about.

Thought it was newly built at first. — Thought it was newly built at first – Visitor’s Center.

The dark lines on the background are one inch squares. Big bugs.

Outside the Visitor's Center, full of bird feeders, but I didn't see seed or birds. — Outside the Visitor’s Center – full of bird feeders, but I didn’t see seed or birds.

A nice Roger Tory Petersen display of the birds we might see.

There are 14 canyons with small waterfalls in each. The water is running good now and in the winter freezes. This is French Canyon.

There are lots of warning signs encouraging us not to climb on the canyon walls.

After that we headed off for Lover’s Leap, which was a bit more steep and almost a mile. Beautiful views and a nice wooden boardwalk most of the way. Once at Lover’s Leap, we got to see Starved Rock and why it was named Starved Rock. (Michael wants to tell you the story.)

A hard walk made a lot easier with sidewalks. — A hard walk made a lot easier with boardwalks.

The paths are incredibly civilized, though there is lots of stairs up and down. As I think about how it is hot and seems long, I wonder for a second what it was like to build it and realize mine is the easy part.

The promontory across the way is starvation rock, from which the park derives it's name. A band of Illinois warriors were chased to this point after they killed Chief Pontiac. There was not enough of them to overrun their pursuers, but enough that they could not be overrun. The end came as they starved to death. — The promontory across the way is starvation rock, from which the park derives it’s name. A band of Illinois warriors were chased to this point after they killed Chief Pontiac. There was not enough of them to overrun their pursuers, but enough that they could not be overrun. The end came as they starved to death.

It is hot, lush, humid and wet here as we head out of the park.

The creek carves a canyon out of the limestone.

The third life form at work, fungus cleaning up after life has gone.

We left the park and headed into the town of Ottawa to Kroger’s for some food for the week. After that we were heading back to our new “home,” when we decided to go to the Norway Museum in Norway, Illinois. By this time it was about 2 PM and the volunteer employees were just setting up as they said they had a funeral to go to before they could open. The man talked to us in a very fake Norwegian accent, trying to trick us. Once we told him we had Norwegian “children,” he switched to his actual voice. Cute little museum with very friendly people. Glad they were open.

Church converted to a Norwegian culture museum.

The mannequin actually looks a lot like Helga.

We got back to our home and made the mistake of getting our parking pass for this week. A nice young man, Arnold, talked us into a presentation for tomorrow. Not looking forward to it but….we’ll see what the Holiday Inn Vacation Club is all about. We’re only doing it to get water pass tickets for our niece and her family. (Something fun and close for them to do.)

That was our day. Hope yours was great!