A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 250 miles from Rochester, Illinois to Cascade, Iowa.
Travel from Rochester, Illinois to Cascade, Iowa
We drove our coach 250 miles, about five hours of driving, from Rochester, Illinois to Cascade, Iowa.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading north:
An interactive map:
Peoria:
A weird trailer:
Roadworks:
A helicopter dusting corn:
Paladin in his dash bed on the freeway; very unusual for him, though he’s been getting more comfortable staying there for a few minutes before jumping down:
Flooded road:
Welcome to Iowa:
Paladin asleep:
Iowa 80 truck stop, the world’s largest truck stop:
A very Iowa fun with zoom:
Barn:
Wapsipinicon River:
Oxford Junction:
Corn:
Onslow:
We had to do a long detour due to a closed road:
Cascade:
RV tank cleaning
An RV maintenance item that is good to do every year or so: getting the black and gray waste tanks professionally cleaned out. They pump high pressure water into the tanks, manipulating the sprayer to blast off all of the surfaces within the tanks. That reduces smells, and makes the level sensors work better. We did this in while in Red Bay.
Iowa 80 truck stop
On our travel day we stopped at the world’s largest truck stop, Iowa 80 in Walcott, Iowa.
Iowa 80 Truckstop features eight restaurant choices, a convenience store, gift store, Super Truck Showroom, barber shop, chiropractor, dentist, movie theater, workout room, laundry facilities, gas islands, diesel fuel center, truck service center, Truckomat truck wash, Dogomat pet wash, CAT Scale, 24- private showers, trucking museum and more!
Lots of truck parking:
Diesel fuel:
It was indeed big, though not all that exciting.
Lincoln Home National Historic Site
We visited Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, Illinois, featuring the only house that Abraham Lincoln ever owned, and neighboring houses.
Gift store:
“The Lincolns Buy a Home”:
Floor plan:
Lincoln’s home:
Lincoln’s outhouse:
Neighboring homes:
Another look at Lincoln’s home:
Springfield KOA Journey
We stayed at Springfield KOA Journey in Rochester, Illinois. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A nice quiet KOA, a bit off the beaten path.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-07-16
- Check out: 2024-07-18
- 2 nights
Weather:
- Mostly cloudy, some rain
- High temps 78-84°F, lows 59-71°F
- Negligible wind, gusts to 15 MPH
Noise:
- No road noise
- No train horn noise
- No neighbor noise
Site:
- #43, pull-through, gravel
- Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked behind coach
- Fairly level site, a little high on the passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
- Gravel driveway about 70 feet long by 9 feet wide
- 18 feet to neighbors on both sides
- Picnic table
- Fire pit
- No trees
- Clean site
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, conveniently located
- 50 PSI water, conveniently located
- Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- Verizon: 12-19 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
- AT&T: 3-8 Mbps down, 0.8 Mbps up, 110 ms ping
- T-Mobile: 22-35 Mbps down, 0.03-0.5 Mbps up, 80-800 ms ping, unreliable
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: not currently available
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
- Mini golf
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Nice KOA tucked away
Most KOA Journeys are right off the main road/highway/interstate and are pretty noisy because of this. On the other hand, the Springfield KOA Journey is tucked away in the country (over the river and through the woods…literally) and was absolutely quiet and lovely. Our site was nice and long, so we didn’t need to disconnect our tow vehicle, even though we did so we could check out the Abraham Lincoln Home NHS in Springfield. We camped at Springfield KOA Journey in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
Utilities:
Other sites:
Office:
Playground:
The mini golf seems to be undergoing repairs, or something:
Swimming pool:
We’d be happy to stay here again.
Video: Sullivan, Missouri to Rochester, Illinois motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 165 miles from Sullivan, Missouri to Rochester, Illinois.
Travel from Sullivan, Missouri to Rochester, Illinois
We drove our coach 165 miles, about three hours of driving, from Sullivan, Missouri to Rochester, Illinois.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading northeast:
An interactive map:
Toading up:
“Impassable during high water”; it was raining, but not flooded yet:
Rain:
Nearby tornado warning:
Heavy rain:
Emergency Alert, flash flood warning; totally fine time to be traveling:
The other side of the freeway was flooded, with water up to the top of the barrier, and a (presumably) broken down car:
“Water over roadway”:
Flooding beside the freeway:
Rest area:
Roadworks with a narrow lane:
KOA on KOA Road:
One-lane bridge:
Narrow road:
Our site:
The best hose quick connectors
While in Red Bay I chatted with a neighboring Tiffin owner about plumbing bits (always a fun topic, for me anyway), and he showed me his Eley hose quick connectors. I was impressed; they were much nicer than the cheap ones I had been using, that I got from Amazon.
Better how, you no doubt ask with bated breath? Perhaps the most exciting thing for me is that one can just push them together without having to pull the release mechanism; that saves a lot of effort and time, milliseconds and milliseconds each time!
The release mechanism is much the same as most quick connects, pulling back on the outer ring. But the implementation is a bit better, with stainless steel bars holding the connectors together. And (one thing that confused me at first) they also have a safety feature where the connectors can’t be separated while under pressure, preventing messy accidents.
Another benefit is a wide aperture, so they don’t restrict the water flow.
The only downside of these connectors is that they are several times more expensive than the cheap ones, at about $27 for each pair (you can buy in units of 1-4 of each side). But you get what you pay for.
Based on that recommendation, I bought a bunch of them; each plug and socket comes in a cute twist-together container (that we gave to Mom to repurpose in some craft project):
A closer look at the plugs and sockets:
I also got a shut-off valve, a different design than the usual ball valve lever:
Here’s an example of them in use, with quick connects at the campground faucet (which makes it easier to disconnect), and before and after a 4-way splitter, and when connecting to the coach, as visible in the previous picture:
I use a 4-way splitter, with one outlet having a pressure gauge to check the pressure of the campground supply, one quick connect that I attach a second hose to for filling a bucket etc, a quick connect to a pressure regulator (and another quick connect after that), and a spare regular hose thread, often used to depressurize the hose:
I sometimes add a third gauge after the pressure regulator, to confirm the reading, also with quick connects:
Yes, I do enjoy my plumbing bits, and one could perhaps even suggest that I might get a bit too carried away, if one felt like being wrong. But hey, it’s a hobby. And useful! The quick connects etc make my life easier when moving campsites, as we do weekly on average.
Baseball: St. Louis Cardinals vs Chicago Cubs
We attended a game of St. Louis Cardinals vs Chicago Cubs, playing at the Cardinals’ ballpark, Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri.
Jenn’s game summary:
Cubs won—hitting six home runs, but we only saw the first two. The temperature was 93, but the humidity was worse. Our seats were in the sun, so we only lasted a few innings. Tried standing at the top of the section with shade and a nice breeze, but it was still too uncomfortable. There were probably as many Cubs fans as Cardinals. A pretty ballpark—it would have been nice to hang out and enjoy the game, alas. The view of the Gateway Arch is a nice touch.
An interactive map:
Center field entrance:
The ballpark:
Team store:
Birb:
Perficient Perch:
Chicken and fries:
View from our seats:
Mascot and cheerleaders:
Gateway Arch:
Views from elsewhere:
Our seats were in the sun on a really hot day, so we moved to stand in the concourse:
Then we left early. It was just too hot, and we didn’t particularly care about either of the teams playing.