Rantoul, Illinois

We are camped tonight at the Prairie Pines Campground South of Rantoul.. This appears to be an old family camp millitary campground...  It has concrete streets and walkways up to what once may have been mobile home sites...

The dead give away for mobile homes rather than campers is the depth of each site at about 100 feet..  Also the power pedistals are at the rear of each site and the sewers have heads that extend well above the ground...

This is on what was once the Chanute Air Force Base...  It started in 1917 as one of the first US air fields to train pilots...  Buildings were mostly wooden and the air field was grass....  But then in the 20s it became pilot training and mechanic training schools...

In the late 30s  things ramped up in a big way as the base was built by the WPA under Roosevelt..  WWII, Korea,  and Viet Nam  were all supported by this facility...

But in 1993 the place was closed..  The cold war was over, and millitary spending was out of favor.....  Today much of the old schools are in complete disrepair...  The brick shells of the buildings are still standing but the windows are largely gone..  Some of the larger aircraft buildings have been repurposed, and the airfield is a civilian facility...

Its not clear to me who owns this property that we are on...  But it may have reverted to the city....

For several years we have read the blogs of Jim and Linda Smith under various names as they were named for their different motorhomes..  They use this campground as a home base when they come back to Illinois in the summer...   The place is very pastoral and laid back...  Kind of like you are camped in someone's private lot...

We left Hannibal this morning as the sun was baking the moisture out of the ground...  The dew hung in the air like it was steam....  Or a cold fog....  As we were departing, the temperature was already up in the 80s...  I had to wipe the windshield with the wipers to see out...

We drove to Springfield, and finally got connected to the internet at Wal Mart, where I posted the quick post yesterday....

The house battery 30 amp circuit breaker hung with us all day, so we had the dash air to help cool the truck cab part of the coach...  That helps so much with this front engine diesel as it really makes heat for the driver....

Loyce rode back on the couch for part of the afternoon, so it was cooler for her back there.. We quit about 3 PM as it was in the early 90s by then...

One commenter asked where we are headed, and we think we will go North up the center of Michigan.  We hear it is much cooler up there..


Retired Rod