Jobless in Illinois

Returning from 4th of July weekend, I started my last week of work in St Cloud.  This was a great assignment, and even after 20 years of being an SLP, I continued to learn from my fellow SLP's and improve my skills.  Everyone was wonderful, and patient with me and I appreciated that.  My favorite part of this job was the busy pace.  It made the day go by so fast.  My last day was July 10th and we were leaving our campground the next morning not knowing where my next assignment would be.  Jobs get pretty scarce in MN/WI/IA in the summer as a lot of the SLP's working in the schools pick up extra work in the hospitals and nursing homes during their time off.  So, that makes it difficult for us traveling SLP's to get a job up here.

While waiting to secure a job, we decided to go to my hometown in Monmouth, IL.  My sister Angela was there in her camper visiting her kids, and my other sister, Elena lives there with her husband, Jim.  We stayed at Citizen's Lake Campground where Angela was staying.  The campground has new hosts (thank goodness) and they were absolutely wonderful.  The first night there, we had tenderloin sandwiches at PAPA's.  On Sunday, we had a cookout and pool party at Elena and Jim's place.  Some of Elena's kids and grandkids were there, Angela, Carissa (Andy's wife), and Marcus were there, and my brother Bob's daughter, Julie and two of her kids.  We had a great time.  On Monday, Kirk, Angela, and me golfed at the Country Club.  It was so hot and humid that we were the only crazy ones on the course.  Kirk and Angela even golfed an extra nine after we finished 18 holes.  I'm crazy, but not that crazy.

While in Monmouth, I finally got a job in Ottumwa, Iowa.  I start July 20th.  So we decided to spend the rest of the week in Monmouth.  One night we had a cookout at the campground with family.  Another night Penny Mackey, and Vicki Hager came out to visit after having dinner with Angela.   I do have to mention some of the crazy seasonals at the campground.  I will call them the Hootie Hoo boys.  They would always yell out "bootie hoo" when people would walk by.  Nice, crazy guys.

Our last night at the campground we (us, Elena and Jim, Anglea) all went to the Italian Village for the best pizza around.  I worked at the IV all through high school.  This was the hang out for all the kids. Most of my brothers and sisters worked here also.  Now my nephew owns the place.  Keeping it a family affair.  It started raining pretty hard as we left the IV and drove back to the campground.  As we pulled into the campground we realized there weren't any vehicles around.  We looked over at the city pool which is next to the campground and there were all the vehicles.  The city pool is the place for the campers to seek shelter during a storm.  Our camp host, Mary Jane has the key to the shelter.  Kirk and I swung around to Angela's camper and picked her up and drove over to the shelter.  Apparently, there was a tornado warning.  Long story short,  we were all safe.  The tornado hit farm houses about a mile from the campground, and a small town, Cameron, about 7 miles from Monmouth.  Our power was out till around midnight or so.

We got up the next morning to a beautiful day, said our good-bys to everyone and took off to Albia, IA where we will stay while I work in Ottumwa.

 Elena and me...kinda look the same.

 Awesome pool party at Jim and Elena's

 Campfire at our site at Citizens Lake

 Okay, who's jealous!

 Our view from the City pool shelter during the tornado warning.  You can see our RV behind that truck in the background.

 Tornado outside of Monmouth on way to Cameron.

 Eerie clouds before the storm!  Cool though.

 Hit by the tornado about a mile from the campground where we were staying.

Carissa (Andy's wife), Angela, and Marcus cooling off.