Happy Birthday, USA!  John Deere. A flying lawn mower? And jacks that retract!

Fisheman’s Corner in Hampton, IL is a really nice campground, and we spent the fourth of July here and enjoyed some nice steaks on the grill!  Temperatures were up in the 90s, but that didn’t keep us from enjoying the area!  John found a really nice large park close to the campground where he was able to fly his Slow Stick RC airplane when the wind wasn’t blowing too much, and a sixty plus mile paved bike trail runs right through the park and by our campground, so we were able to enjoy that as well!

John with a very large John Deere Combine

One day we drove down to Moline, IL, headquarters for John Deere and went to the John Deere Pavilion and also to Rock Island Arsenal.  The farm equipment is BIG and John and Jane both sat in tractor and a cotton combine respectively!  Air conditioned cabs – what a way to go!!  The arsenal museum is on an active military base, so we had to be cleared to go on the island.  Rock Island was used during the Civil War as a Confederate POW prison.  After that, buildings of stone were built (the dates are on the front -1866, etc.) and they have been used for weapon refurbishment, manufacturing and assembly of weapons.  Canvas, leather work for saddles and the like, furniture and even silverware were made!  A really fascinating day, we agreed!

Yes – a real flying model!!

John found a Fun-Fly for the weekend of the 8th for us to attend in Peru – no, not the country!  The town!  You ask (like Jane) – what’s that??  It is like an air show, but for remote-controlled planes.  It was hosted by the Illinois Valley RC Club, and we enjoyed ourselves so much that we went both Saturday and Sunday!  Some really fantastic flying was enjoyed by all who attended, and Jane never ceases to be amazed at how coordinated some folks are to be able to do all the stunts they do with these big planes and lawn mowers.  What?!  As the announcer says -“Nothing flies like a Deere!”

Up in the air for the jack replacement

We had a couple of bodacious rain storms while at Fisherman’s Corner and even some hail the evening before we left to head to Moscow, IA and HWH to have our jacks checked on the RV.  We have had problems with them retracting in a timely manner since we have owned the coach   So after listening to the ding, ding, ding alarm for an hour yesterday  (announcing that all the jacks weren’t fully retracted), we now have four rebuilt jacks, and they came up immediately this morning!  Yea!!

Hope all who are reading this had a really special Independence Day and are enjoying the summer!  Blessings to all!