Tuesday
After the awesomeness of the Iowa trip, Mike and I decided we wanted to do a true road trip before heading off to college. Our original plan was to head up to Stratford, Ontario -- he was on the same Shakespeare Festival trip I was when I found 1954 -- but his Fiero had been acting up and his dad forbade us from leaving the state. Instead we found a small state park down near Bloomington and headed out.
We stopped at a kitschy cool old restaurant, The New Log Cabin, on our way down, and had a great time riffing on the menu. The owner's nickname was "Ol' Horse," and the horseshoe sandwich (a Springfield-area specialty, apparently) on the menu was named after him -- we questioned the wisdom of listing a sandwich that could be construed as containing aged horse meat.
Moraine View State Park was a bargain, and we soon learned why: it's a breeding refuge for a rare species of locust. The bugs were the size of cicadas and hovered everywhere. The "primative" campsite was decent but incredibly mosquitoey -- we were close to a small lake in the center of the park. Mike sprayed the tent with repellent to try to keep us alive overnight.
A carnival was going on in the small town of LeRoy nearby. We stopped in the local grocery and bought meager supplies: cinnamon buns, corn on the cob and some beer -- and then headed to the carnival. We flirted vaguely with some local girls, went on a couple rides, and headed back late enough that it was dark. Fortunately we brought a flashlight.
Wednesday
Raccoons raided our food overnight (which we'd stupidly left out on the picnic table) so we went hungry until we drove into town. Dairy Queen turned out to be the hotspot in LeRoy, and the Harley Davidson dealership and an antique shop turned out to be the only other distractions nearby.
We didn't bring much cash, so when we were gassing up the Fiero I spotted an opportunity to save a little money. There was a corn field next to the gas station, and I snuck over and grabbed a couple ears. Unfortunately, it was feed corn, so it was barely edible roasting over the fire, and Mike and I made do with canned beans. It started raining around dinnertime, and we discovered that Mike's bug spray had de-waterproofed our tent. I seem to recall our finding other campers who shared their beer and bud with us, but otherwise it was a pretty miserable night.
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