A trip to souther Illinois Part 2 of 4

We traveled south from Arthur and  stopped in Effingham at The Wooden Spool. When we arrived, we met the owner who had just stopped in for a few minutes. She was great and showed me around the store. I was very impressed with this shop.

I found backs for the last three on my list of quilts. 

The quilt is navy with dots and red.
Can you see it to the left of the navy?

I loved the store but found that they cut instead of tear wide backs. (Tearing insures that the  piece of fabric is square when straightened on grain.) I had the lady checking me out tear some off each piece so I kind of knew what I needed to buy to have enough for each quilt. (I paid for the pieces torn off.) She said the long armers in the area just bought an extra 8" and they never complained. I usually want an extra 10 inches and I want the fabric on the straight of grain. The owner was gone by the time I checked out - I wish I could have asked her to tear my fabric. They had a wonderful selection of wide backs.

We stopped at Flora's Diner in Flora for lunch. I thought shrimp sounded good but I didn't know what Ayce Popcorn Shrimp was. Do you?

Maybe I don't eat out enough - it means all you can eat. I might have figured out AYCE. Anyway it was good and the hushpuppies were wonderful! I couldn't eat all of the first serving!

We arrived at our rental near Junction, IL and the Shawnee National Forest. Our home for the week was out in the country on 20 acres bordering the National Forest. We had a great cabin which was close to but private from our hosts' home. Our hosts were great too! I thought of this as our backyard but it was actually our front yard. Past the seating area was a deep ravine with a stream. We did hike across it one day.    

Off to the left in the above photo, we had bird feeders. I caught this red-bellied woodpecker eating one day. Ray captured a photo of a pileated woodpecker! 

One day we went to the Garden of the Gods. We hiked the observation trail. I just took photos and let Ray worry about the iconic shots of the area.

This part of the trail was a little narrow!

We had a gorgeous day.

An Amish youth (teenage) group was there that day. We talked with some of the young men and they said they take a bus trip every year on Ascension Day. One of the chaperones began talking with me and said there were 30 some youth in the group. She then explained that they were actually Old Order Mennonites and that there are a few differences between the Amish and the Old Order Mennonites with the most obvious being that married men do not grow beards. 

This scenery shot has the older chaperones enjoying the view. The teenagers were enjoying the rocks so they appear in some of our pictures. 

Some things we've observed: there aren't many if any stores or gas stations around, the roads, except for the major highways are narrow, there isn't much traffic, people are very friendly, cell phone service isn't always available, things seem to be a little slower and more quiet around here. It was all very relaxing.

On our way 'home', we came across the Garden of the Gods Outpost. They had souvenirs, hotdogs, and ice cream. We were able to get root beer floats which tasted so good.

Following our GPS, we turned onto Sparks Hill Road. As we turned onto the road, it was downhill and we could not see the road ahead. When we'd driven a few feet, and could see the road, we realized we were on a path and then it hit us. Our host told us about this road. So glad we knew where this would take us ('home') because there was no way we could turn around. This photo was taken when the road leveled out some, there weren't deep ruts or mud, and  I could hold my phone steady for a second. We were extremely grateful not to meet an oncoming vehicle. It sure was pretty in those woods though! 

We only drove Sparks Hill road once,

More adventures coming...