Effingham, IL

After making our two stops in Chicago we paused at the South Holland Oasis thinking a little nap and a Panda lunch would be good then maybe head over to the Gary OC. Nope !!!

We pulled in and used the facilities and went back to the truck to catch up on my log paperwork.

The trick here is "a watched pot never boils." Since we were planning for a nap we got a new w/a, happens every time.

We treked into downtown Chicago and picked up our next load. We're headed for Longview, TX. I have checked the weather in route and it's going to get better, but so far it's really cold.

We waved at the girls in Champaign on the way down I57 and stopped for the night in Effingham, IL. Who names a place "Effing" anyway. Here's the answer:

Effingham is named for Effingham County, which was named after Edward Effingham, who resigned his commission as general in the British army in 1775, refusing to serve in the war against the Colonies. The name is Anglo-Saxon for "Effa's house".

Enquiring minds want to know.

We're 16 days to Cancun. As I am wont to do, I made our plane reservations about 6 months ago hedging against the rising airline costs. Sometimes that works in your favor and sometimes not. In this case prices have actually gone down about 35% in the last six months. Fortunately for us in the meantime Frontier has made a couple minor changes to the schedule. Viola, yesterday we used that excuse to cancel those reservations without a cancelation fee and made new reservations. We actually got a better schedule and reduced our airfare from 1050 to 698. We're flying Delta now. Who new ?!

Now, for our next adventure we're working on a trip to Las Vegas. There are a few reasons for this location - both Moms can come fairly easily, Scott and Jennie can hop down, Claire and Ledo and Adam can drive over from Monterey without too much difficulty. But the real reason is that Donnie and Marie Osmond have a show at the Flamingo. Teresa still has a thing for Donnie, I guess those old infatuations never go away. Teresa's Mom, too. We have asked the management team there to extend their tour, which currently ends in April. We'll see. If they do, we'll begin making some solid arrangements. I know LV in June - whoa hot ! But sitting here in Effingham at 8 degrees, it sounds pretty good.

Time to go get the Funny Lady up and hit the road. She still is my Funny Lady, I guess those old infatuations really never do go away, do they ? I hope not.