Day 3 - Indiana Dunes and The Misplaced Spre Keys

So Day 3 of our trip had a mission. We traveled from Indiana Dunes State Park to the shores of the Mississippi River in WI. The day before we left on our trip we misplaced the spare key to the truck. We looked everywhere trusting that somewhere in the packing clutter the key would show up. Nada. Our local dealer that we love was closed and we would gone long before he opened on Monday morning. We left with one key, clipped to a huge belaying carabiner and a bright yellow rope.

Monday morning we called in to our local Ford folks to check out our options. They said would need to get our truck and key to a Ford dealer so a new key could be cut and the truck reprogrammed to the new key. 

Our schedule outbound on this trip across the country is tight with all reservations booked for the first two weeks. We would have to call to a Ford dealer up ahead to coordinate a service time with our camping schedule to get a new key.  Fortunately we found Sleepy Hollow Ford in Viroqua, WI who said they could work us in this afternoon. Tight for them, tight for us, but doable. 

We slogged though early morning Chicago traffic, and up into WI with a plan to get to the campground, drop the Pod, and get to Sleepy Hollow Ford by 2PM. 

Google Maps took us off the interstate and onto state roads with two numbers then three number roads, then county roads with one letter then county roads with double letters each getting a little narrower. We went deep into farm country twisting and turning through tight valleys and up and down hills and by beautiful farms. Ahead there were clouds, then dark clouds, then dark black clouds and then, it opened up. Rain so heavy you could not see the sides of the road, and nothing really in front, as the heavy rain was washing in waves across the road. Could not have turned around with the Pod and gone even if we tried. We needed to forge on to give the Ford dealer enough time to squeeze us in. 

And then we realized that we were 

 out of cell phone range  and Waze had given up on us. We really could not supplant Google with human map reading as we did not have paper maps of county roads. Marsha reached deep into the electronics bag and pulled out the old school backup GPS to confirm we were still headed down to the Mississippi and soon we found Blackhawk COE Campground on the banks of the Great River.

It was the quickest unhook and go ever at the campsite dodging the waning thunderstorm . And here we sit waiting on the new spare key watching television and drinking free root beer provided in the showroom.

Kudos to Karl of Sleepy Hollow Ford, and the Steve Bowen of Bowens Ford in Eastford for helping us out.