Day 1 - The big trip west begins

Well, here it goes.  Our first big trip west.  Our previous trips in the Roadtrek have all been east of the Mississippi.  Well, that's not quite true.  Last summer, visited the St. Louis Arch so we did make it across the river but not far. Our previous trips have taken us through Kentucky, Tennessee and of course a few trips to Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina to visit our son and the heroes in 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines.  I'll have to add those trips to this blog but that's a good winter project.

But let's look at this trip.  It seems like we've been planning and waiting for this trip a long time.  It's not that we have been sitting at home for the past 40 years, but we've never been able to leave for an extended period of time.  I guess that's the life of someone who has had a career in agriculture...summers are just a tough time to be gone.  That is about to change as this trip will last two to three weeks and take us as far as Yellowstone National Park. Let's just call this our "getting ready to retire tour".  Ha ha.  Let's get treking.

The Roadtrek was all serviced and shined with a fresh wax job. The fridge was stocked with food and the water tanks were full.  The new XM radio converter was working and the GPS was programmed, so off we go around 9am and head for I-80.  Our first day will be a nice 400 mile drive and will stop in Milan, IL where we'll spend the night with Paul and Wendy. Their son, Michael, was a U.S. Marine who was with 2/8 with our youngest son, Daron.  Wendy and Paul devoted countless time and effort into "Operation Homecoming", a project to assemble baskets of necessary items and make homecoming from Afghanistan a bit easier for the Marines and sailors of 2nd Ballation, 8th Marines.


Paul, Jim, Wendy and favorite pooch (sorry for forgetting her name)

We enjoyed a relaxing dinner at Belgian Village Inn in Moline, Ill.  Their Reuben sandwich is amazingly good. It is served on their specialty raisin rye bread and it is HUGE. You can't call it just a Reuben sandwich. It's the VandeRueben. We could only eat half so we packed the left-overs in the fridge to enjoy somewhere down the road.  If you like Reuen's, I would suggest programming the Belgian Village Inn into your GPS the next time you head across I-80 near the Quad Cities.  The raisen rye bread gets my vote.

Following dinner we had a great evening remembering old stories of our Marines and the friends we'd made along the way.  We were so happy that Michael was able to join us when he got off work.

Thank you Paul and Wendy for a great beginning to our trip west.