Day # 1 - Goodfield, IL

Well, we got off to a bit of a rocky start. We were still packing the camper at midnight on Friday, so our plan of leaving at 5:00AM on Saturday went right out the window. Then when we did leave on Saturday, my dear wife forgot to pack 2 different items that she remembered as we were driving out of town. The funny part of her forgetfulness is that we were15 minutes away from home when she remembered the first thing. And we were 5 minutes away the second time when she remembered the second thing. By the time we actually left, it was around 8:15AM.

All was going well until we stopped in Indiana for gas and I noticed the both of the dust caps and the grease caps on the driver side campers wheels were…gone. I don’t know how they both came off. In fact I have never heard of even one coming off while driving much less losing both. So, now what do we do? We cannot drive all the way to the West Coast with the bearings exposed. One puddle worth of dirty water and the bearings will seize and things will come to an abrupt halt. So we went about finding the supplies necessary to re-pack the bearings and put on new grease caps. I found a Super Wal-Mart in New Castle easy enough, but we had been searching on the GPS for a RV dealership with a parts department that was not too far out of the way. I was worried we were going to have to go all the way to Indy without the grease caps (I know there is a “Camping World” somewhere in Indy). But as we were pulling out of the Wal-Mart parking lot, Missy spotted as sign for a Tractor Supply Co. store and asked me if they would have what we need. I got the last 2 grease caps they had for a 3000 pound axle trailer. It more than made up for making me go back to the house twice earlier. Since I hadn’t gone very far I decided to just pound on the new grease caps and NOT re-pack the bearing there in the parking lot. And, yes…I do carry most the tools I would need to re-pack axle bearings on the road. What I didn’t have was a jack stand and a grease gun. I got those at Wal-Mart.

The rest of the day went well. We arrived at the Yogi Bear campground in Goodfield, IL around 4:30 (3:30 CST) and got the camper set-up. Since the bearing hadn’t overheated, I decided to wait on the repairs and took a wagon ride with Yogi instead. AJ was not too sure about Yogi. The funny thing about that is that a week earlier at Sarah's 8th Birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese, he ran right up to the the giant rat, but he isn't sure about a big bear. Sarah had no problems talking to Yogi and she thought it was hilarious when he gave her a "hair-do". Hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill was supper and a quick dip in a very cold pool too the last bit of energy out of me for the day. Today was a long day. We traveled 375 miles and it took about 10 hour’s total.