Day 3. Pomona, IL. The Hitch in our Sitch. Wine Country.
We awoke refreshed and ready to seize the glamp.
It’s pretty incredible what a good night’s sleep will do for your perspective on life and your surroundings. Plus, it was a Saturday — so all we had to focus on was getting ourselves ready to head to Pomona, IL (which we saw was advertised as Illinois Wine Country… we were skeptical, but I guess we’ll see).
Cuddlebugs are just about the only bugs I’ll allow in my life.
I desperately wanted a shower, but we needed to unpack our cooking gear and make some leftover breakfast with our falafel, which — you guessed it — was down the dreaded hill. So down we went.
Fun fact about me: I can tackle uphill fairly well, but downhill I am like a newborn giraffe.
Luke found a turtle, who we called Frank.
Frank was pretty chill. I didn’t envy him the long hike back downhill to the stream.
We started setting up our camp kitchen.
Not bad for our first camp meal!
We made a tasty falafel scramble.
A hungry critter smells our food and comes to investigate.
Up to this point, I hadn’t realized how grateful I am for faucets and water pressure. Trying to get enough water from a tiny 5 gallon bucket spigot to wash your hands, rinse lettuce, and wash dishes (with 4 different rounds of cold soapy water, warm soapy water, cold clean water, and hot clean water) could test the patience of the Dalai Lama, if the Dalai Lama went bougie camping that is.
Luke had some serious beef with a yellow jacket I named Tupac (Luke, of course, was Biggie), who decided to get in his grill… literally. I’ve seen bees follow food before, but this one seemed to be obsessed with getting into the pan while the flames rose. Bradley and I watched from the stairs, bemused as we ate our breakfast, while Tupac chased Luke.
With breakfast out of the way and the plates all clean, it was finally time for a blessed shower.
I’m pretty sure we looked like these characters from the Sims.
It may look rudimentary for a shower, but that right there was heaven in a bucket.
🎶 So fresh and so clean, clean. 🎶
Ablutions completed, we packed up our gear once more and headed down to get outta Dodge. I noticed our little cabin had a lovely assortment of guestbooks, and sat to write a note to our courteous hosts.
For all my complaints the night before, I know I was largely just exhausted. This really was a lovely place. Just bring your hiking shoes if you decide to travel there. ;-)
Saying goodbye to grumpy Wren and cheerful Rocket.
Back to ground elevation finally, we heard a chorus of animals talking to us as we unpacked our entire camping situation and realized our hosts had a whole menagerie of birds. Ducks, geese, guineas, hens, and some very proud roosters who were not afraid of us and crowed several times to show off.
Bradley guarded our belongings against the threatening ducks and chickens while Luke installs the new hitch.
Speaking of the new hitch, I think it’s time to tell y’all about the Hitch Sitch. See, I mentioned on Day 1 that we discovered the hitch sat low to the ground. And I mean L-O-W, like Lil’ Jon Low. We couldn’t drive out of a heavily sloped curb at a gas station without hearing the ghastly shriek of metal as the precarious trailer carrying our precious belongings bounced and dragged on the ground. Also, Lexi’s sensitive reverse safety system was getting triggered by our trailer being so close, to the point where it would jolt us to an immediate stop and the screen would flash BRAKE! I think it raises my blood pressure 5% every time it happens.
Luke, hero that he is, went on a crusade to every Oh-Oh-Oh-O’Reilly’s and PepBoys we passed to try and find a hitch extender that would lift our trailer a bit higher. Fourth time was the charm, and I’m glad to say that the installation went off without a ‘hitch’ (couldn’t resist). We still have the reversing issue, but it’s not as bad as it was, and only the steepest curbs now catch the trailer.
Problem solved, we put Tennessee in our rearview and set off to Illinois wine country.
The drive to Pomona had lovely overhanging trees. Luke enjoyed how well kept the roads were.
Even better than the lovely, short drive: we made it to our next camp early enough that we were guaranteed a few more hours of daylight. We were too late for the wineries, but early enough that we could work on properly unpacking and constructing our Deconstructed Rooms.
We drove right up to our campsite (which we realized would now be a mandatory part of bougie camping… all the trips lugging things around just aren’t cute.)
Our next camp was overlooking a large, lush field of tall grasses. Our host had graciously mowed a large clearing in which he had set up a pop-up composting toilet, an ice water station, and a fire pit (with pre-prepared kindling — just add flames!). We were living large now.
Excited (and admittedly overly ambitious), we decided to set up our full camping situation. Ok, I say we, but I actually mean I. Luke, as always, was more level-headed, but let me do what I do best and start about fifty-leven projects at once, including:
set up our pop-up bathroom with toilet (yes, there was the other provided for us, but ours has a tarp floor)
added string light to said pop-up bathroom
taking out all the pots and pans
putting them all back because we didn’t need all of them to cook
breaking out our Scrubber bag to do laundry
set up a clothesline in the dark
Welcome to the throne room.
Bradley still doesn’t know what the heck we’re doing away from home, but he’s enjoying this frenetic car game mom and dad are playing.
Every glampground needs guiding string lights from the tent to the toilet.
We fell asleep early, exhausted but satisfied with our efforts.
I think we’re getting the hang of this.
