Road Trip 2024—Peoria

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It has been an eventful year, and it’s only July. We discovered a hot water leak in the crawl space under our house on January 18. It had likely been there for almost two weeks and did a lot of damage. Cabinets, floors, walls, and ceilings on three levels had to be removed and replaced. We had the whole house re-piped with a more modern material. The insurance company delayed and made us feel deeply disrespected. We lived in our guest bedroom for ten weeks, having had most of our belongings packed and stored by our restoration provider. We paid for the repairs out of our savings to avoid further delay. The insurance company ultimately reimbursed us, but never made us feel like they made our interests their priority. We have since switched companies. In talking with my circle of acquaintances, I have learned that this and similar plumbing disasters are actually pretty common. They are, in fact, a major reason for having homeowner’s insurance.

In June, my beautiful daughter Becky married her wonderful fiance Ryan, and we got to attend and bless the occasion.

After having our roof made reliable and residential solar installed at the end of 2023, we had already determined not to undertake some tempting skydiving trips to the Seychelles and South Africa. We just did not want to travel that far, for that long, and that level of expense, and have to make arrangements for our pets. I had been yearning for a road trip in the USA. I love the unexpected delights one finds. We have friends and family in the Midwest. After some study and planning, we realized it made sense to fly to Peoria, Illinois and rent a car there, then drive to Indiana, and Kentucky, ultimately returning the car in Cincinnati, Ohio. This saved a lot of time and money, since flights between the cities we visited had stops in Chicago.

We had planned to go to Peoria in 2017 for my wife Kathryn’s 50^th high school reunion, but I scuttled that when I badly broke myself and ended up in the hospital in Honolulu. So this year, I finally got to make that up to her.

We flew out of Ontario, with a stop in Dallas. A number of people we know recently reported getting new cases of Covid, so we took the precaution of wearing masks. However, no one we encountered at any point during the trip wore a mask, so we put ours away too.

A funny thing happened on the trip out. The American Airlines desk asked for volunteers to sit on the emergency exit row. This entails being willing and able to help open the door and assist other passengers should an emergency arise. The airline charges extra for seats on this row, since they have more legroom than regular coach seats. I guess they got no takers, and we volunteered and got the better seats. At boarding, we saw another young man offer the agent his boarding pass, which was also for the exit row. She said he could not sit on that row, because his arm was in a sling. He protested that he could fulfill the duties if called upon, but had to settle for a change of rows.

We arrived in Peoria late on Saturday, July 6, and had no trouble getting our checked suitcase and rental car, a white Chevy Malibu. We easily navigated to our hotel, the Stoney Creek Inn. When I pulled into a parking space, I was alarmed by the large number of scary looking insects on the white van in the adjacent space.

I moved our car. When we asked inside the hotel, another guest said these were mayflower bugs, also known as mayflies. They are harmless, but are attracted to light. They gather in large numbers and die in piles.

The staff and guests at the inn were all friendly and helpful. The room met our needs nicely. The included breakfast sufficed. We were intrigued by the pancake-making machine, although we did not eat its product. For a hotel breakfast room, the offerings were quite good. Since we don’t eat eggs or yogurt, and they had no plant-based milk, we made do with apples, toast and jam, and the breakfast potatoes. Instant oatmeal was available, but in the packets loaded with sugar.

Intuition Coffee

We found a coffee shop that offered Riley’s vegan sweet rolls and oat milk for lattes. The enormous black bear inside made taking selfies irresistible.

Grand View Drive

Kathryn wanted to revisit her high school and Grand View Drive, which she remembered from her high school days. It is a scenic road in Peoria Heights, dotted with upscale custom estates, all of which enjoy the promised vista.

Tower Park

We did not know that Peoria Heights had an observation tower, but when we saw it, we had to go up in it. It has wonderful 360-degree views with somewhat whimsical directional plaques.

Reunion

Shirley and Casey gathered all of Kathryn’s local friends from back in the day in their backyard. They made a special yard sign for the event.

We stopped on the way to the party at a large retailer called HyVee to pick up flowers, vegan desserts, and the makings of blackberry mule cocktails. The store struck me as different from what we were used to in California. It was a big as a Costco or super WalMart, but as upscale as a Whole Foods.

We felt very welcome. Casey had even researched the kinds of food we would want to eat and had prepared a feast including dishes without any animal products or added oil. It was a lovely afternoon of making and renewing acquaintances. We ate and drank to our heart’s content, and a fine time was had by all.

Hitting the Road

Shampoo leaked inside our old suitcase, and we decided it was time to replace it. We found a suitable piece of luggage at WalMart, then set about arranging to have the yard sign shipped home. My first thought was UPS. We found their Customer Center near the WalMart, and learned that they did not actually have any customer services there. We get the address of the UPS store. They quoted us $84.75 for ground delivery of the yard sign, plus charges for material and labor to pack it. We declined, saying we would try USPS, but the nice young man still urged us to let him print out the estimate in case we changed our minds later.

The first Post Office we went to was closed, but the second one was open. We spent about $8 for a box and some tape, and about $30 in postage. The sign beat us home, arriving in perfect condition. After taking a last couple of photos at the hotel, we set out for the next stop on our trip, Poland, Indiana.