The Land of Lincoln

The view from our front door

We've been in Western IL working Mississippi River flood claims for a little over a week now.  Didn't get nearly as many claims as we'd hoped but every one helps and it's great experience.  Last Tuesday 7/15/14 was our 21st anniversary so we took the day off to tour the area.  Phil's Mom is from Quincy, IL (a couple of hours south of us) and Phil was born in Carthage, IL sixty short years ago.

AD and Philoberto standing in front of the hospital where he and two siblings were born

The hospital was pretty new when he was born

AD & Philoberto at the Cemetery where his Sister Theresa is buried

Touring Nauvoo, IL

They reinact the olden days there

Temple in the background

Happened to be a wedding the day we drove by

From there we continued the beautiful riverfront drive along the swollen Mississippi.  

AD checking out the lily paddies along the river

Original Jail House just down the street from one of our inspections

AD napping under the table

They flood so often on the MS they mark water height inside buildings

Just some cool bridge across the MS River

Drive through Biggsville almost daily

We are finished with our inspections and now Philoberto spends all day every day writing reports.  When he's comfortable that he has everything in the area that he needs we'll hit the road.  Heading West with a detour through SB, NE.  Then home.  So until later,

Peace & Love & Pray for Storms!

In Monmouth, IL

These are some random photos of street signs we saw while running claims in MD.

Watching 4th of July celebration from Sea Bee Beach.  It was pretty darn cool!

I liked this sign on base!

Phil & AD relaxing before guests arrived

AD guarding the campsite

Photo below is me trying to dry wet delicates so they didn't shrink in a dryer. Takes a long time in high humidity!

Let us NOT take our laundry appliances for granted!

Pretty much ran out of work in MD after the 4th of July weekend so we reached out to several companies.  We're in Monmouth, IL where we'll do Mississippi River flood claims for awhile.  We're used to rushing to a location to inspect properties ASAP.  Different situation here ... the river is just now receding and people will be able to get to their properties next week.  One guy offered to take Phil in on a boat; that should be interesting!

We're in a very nice campground.  Lots of green grass, lots of strict rules (smoking, drinking, pets, etc) but it is lovely.  We back up to the municipal pool so that's fun.  Little lake across the way, It will probably be busy with fishermen this weekend.

That's about it for now.

Peace & Love & Pray for Storms!

Happy July 4th!

SIR YES SIR!

This is the chant over and over, "SIR YES SIR"!  Very cool and very intimidating!  They are standing at the entrance to our campground which is where they run an obstacle course.  We woke up to the Navy Boys yelling/screaming at those who were finishing the course.

Just a few hundred yards from the CG is Sea Bee Beach.  It's very small and used mostly for fishing.  Apparently tonight the boys in blue will load a barge with fireworks and light up the Severn River sky.  If the beach isn't too crowded and if AD isn't too scared we'll try to watch the sky from there.

This is the only bench on the beach

We strolled around more of the Navy Base this morning.  We ran into so many different groups of soldiers (never know what to call them cuz we're not sure who they are).  We watched a few drills beginning with how to disrobe in correct order (cap, blouse, belt).  Then they ran a different obstacle course.  

Down to t-shirts

AD was nervous

View of their slice of life across the river from the Academy

Their cute little boats all lined up.  Guys in lower right are putting the fireworks together for tonight's show.

Just one piece of the obstacle course

So ... as most of you know there is this Hurricane floating out in the Atlantic.  We're on standby to hopefully work flood claims should there be enough to go around.  We probably won't know more about that until Sunday-Monday.  We'll spend the weekend here finishing up our Maryland files and be ready to go anywhere.

Until we know more,  Peace & Love & Pray for Storms!