We left Paducah, Kentucky on Wednesday morning headed to Memphis, Tennessee and to Davis motor home mart to get some things installed and fixed on the rig. This is not our first trip to Memphis and to be candid, we are a little fed up with the minor things that need to be fixed on a brand-new rig. All Tiffin folks tells us to get used to it as this is how it is!

En route to Tennessee we learn about tropical storm Harvey which seems to be making a march on Texas and increasing in strength as it goes.

By Thursday morning, they believe Harvey will turn into a hurricane and by all reports be a pretty bad one. By 2 p.m. Mike has changed Chris’ flights and got him on a flight out of Memphis to Houston and then onto Lubbock the same day to ensure he can re-start school on Monday and not get stuck in Texas.

Mike and I are going to head 250 miles to Texarkana which sits on the border of Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana where we can hunker down and see what happens with the impending storm.

Texarkana is a truck town where three states come together along with a number of major interstate roads. It is what I would call a “drive through” city and just to emphasize my thought that there is literally nothing here, according to Trip Advisor one of the things to do in Texarkana, is to visit the town’s first roundabout …! Really!!

Fortunately, we are staying in a RV park a little out-of-town which has great internet connectivity and we are using the time to catch up on our favourite TV shows and enjoy a little downtime!

Sitting it out in Texarkana!

When you meet Tom DeCillis, the first thing you notice are his bright, twinkling eyes offering an insight into a highly intelligent and driven individual.

Throughout his globe-trotting career, he kept those bright eyes focused on his target – retirement! And, at the age of 55, Tom reached his goal and set about living a life he had foregone for decades.

Once he had transformed his magnificent Victorian home in the centre of Paducah, Kentucky into his own style, he looked for a new project, especially one where he could build stuff!

Hey presto, along comes “the property” as Tom calls it, a sixty-acre lot, 30 minutes from his home. This is where he and brother Jim spend most days working on projects to enhance the lot and fulfill their collective passion of building and fixing things.

I could have stayed at “the property” for ever! It was simply stunning. Acres and acres of woods surround a lake and it was so peaceful that you could hear worms wriggling in the earth!

They have planted herb and a fruit gardens, built retaining walls to prevent erosion, installed drive ways, fixed draining, rebuilt the deck surrounding the A-frame building, and on and on it goes. You name it, they have done it or will do soon!

What a joint! What talented, fun and interesting brothers and what a wonderful day Mike, Chris and I shared with them.

The herb garden and lake.

Top right, the A-frame home alongside which the boys have built an entertainment area with a sauna inside and hot-tub outside! Top left, stairs to a zip-line that you can take over the lake! Middle left, talented Tom DeCillis and bottom, all projects need the right tools (or toys)!

When Jim and Tom DeCillis settled in Paducah, Kentucky, the one thing they had no need for were classes on how to live their lives in retirement; and, likely their only challenge were having enough hours in the day to complete their long list of projects!

Jim, a lifetime collector of memorabilia, ranging from classic gas pumps, advertising signs, miniature store department mannequins and all other things in-between, bought the former St. Mary’s Music Hall in the centre of town which he and his brother Tom set about converting into a two-story home including one floor dedicated to Jim’s collection, and a second floor for living space.

As you enter the first floor, you are immediately transformed into an old-fashioned street scene complete with storefronts of a Wells Fargo bank, a gas station, a year-round Christmas store, a diner and a barber shop to name a few. Each storefront is immaculate in its design and execution, but what really makes the place special, is how family photographs are displayed of Jim growing up with his brothers alongside the actual costumes and toys shown in the pictures.

It must be such a delight and pleasure to be able to walk through your family history and lifelong collections each day, with the ability to “tweak” or move something and to enjoy them, not by rummaging through boxes tucked away in the attic, but through the ability to live it daily!

Words almost fail me as to how to describe the solar eclipse! It was truly spectacular, amazing and incredible, and I am so glad that Mike re-worked the entire road trip to facilitate our being here in Paducah, Kentucky with the DeCillis family to experience first-hand this spectacular event!

Among our fellow eclipsers was Jim Petterman, a highly talented photographer who spent the entire time hidden behind his monstrous camera recording every minute change in the sun as it became hidden by the moon, and every move made by his fellow eclipsers!

Being of a generous disposition, Jim very kindly gave me a copy of all the images he had taken and so, for the next 72 blogs I will be sharing his work! HA!!

Here are just a few of his incredible pictures to capture your imagination.

Today’s eclipse is particularly special because the narrow path of totality spans a diagonal line across America from Oregon to South Carolina where totality describes the brief moment when the moon is completely in front of the sun and only the sun’s corona will shimmer in the darkened sky.

Kentucky experiences the longest eclipse duration and Paducah, where we are staying, is part of a narrow path in which the total solar eclipse will last for two minutes and 21 seconds!  The entire process from when the eclipse begins to when the moon no longer blocks the sun takes around three hours.

During Mike’s career, he had the opportunity to work with the DeCillis brothers – Jim and Tom – who, on retiring, settled in Paducah along with their brother, Mum & Dad, and cousin. It was with the extended DeCillis family that we are able to enjoy a party at Jim’s house which has a roof-top patio and a perfect view of the eclipse.

Jim is a master of detail “extraordinaire” and he set everything up for the party with food (moon pies, Blue Moon beer), eclipse glasses, custom T-shirts and of course, music from Pink Floyd’s album “Dark Side of the Moon” including the track “Eclipse.” We had a blast!

Poppy wearing her eclipse glasses!

Above. before the eclipse, from left: Tom DeCillis, Mike, Jim DeCillis.

Below, after the eclipse!

The Paducah Eclipsers! Back row, from left: Phil Fetterman, Mike, Jim DeCillis, Chris, Doris DeCillis, Pat DeCillis, Daryl Schaefer, Jim Schaefer, Tom DeCillis. Front row, from left: Patrick DeCillis, Me and Miss Poppy!

We head out of Joliet, Illinois and travel some 350 miles to Paducah, Kentucky in preparation for viewing the Great American Eclipse tomorrow!

Illinois is flat. Flat as a pancake for mile, after mile, after mile. Far from being dull and uninteresting, the landscape is beautiful. Fields of corn stand six feet tall, laden with husks ready for harvesting, and like the flatness, they too stretch for miles as far as the eye can see in every direction.

Every so often there is a break in the height of the crops as the farmers alternate with soya beans allowing the soil to regenerate its richness. The earth in Illinois is among the richest in the world as a result of receding glaciers which once covered the state. As they receded, the state was left covered with rich, black earth perfect to producing abundant crops.

Peppered in-between the corn crops is a sight that makes my heart sing, wind turbines, spinning gracefully in the always present breeze and generating a cash crop for the farmers on whose land they sit.

Well-kept farm houses with their corn stores and fir trees to keep the snow away in winter dot the side of the highway, and pretty small towns with white facades pop-up along our journey to Kentucky. It was a beautiful drive!

The Illinois landscape.

There is nothing like a family gathering and today we celebrated time together with the Chicago-based Krywanios aged sixteen months and over!

Here’s the family run down of who’s who:

• Ron Krywanio (Mike’s brother) and his wife Shari
• Eamon, Dawn, Isabella and Eli Albee (Dawn is Ron’s daughter)
• Kevin, Kristy & Kody Richardson (Kristy is Ron’s youngest daughter)
• Bonnie Krywanio (Mother of Dawn and Kristy)
• Marcie (Shari’s daughter)

What a wonderful time we had eating great Chicago pizza, drinking 312 a local brew named after the area telephone code for the city, and eating fantastic desserts prepared by Dawn, who together with her husband Eamon, kindly hosted the family party.

And, most unexpectedly, entertainment too … a magic show and singing and dancing provided by Taylor Swift and Elton John aka Isabella and Eli! Oh my, what a talented duo – two young performers in the making who certainly drew admiration and applause from their audience!

Click on each photo to see the caption!

From left: Chris, Kristy, Mike, Dawn, me.

A Dad and two of his girls! From left: Dawn, Ron & Kristy.

Cutie pants Kody with gorgeous twinkling eyes!

The Birthday Boys: Mike (Friday), Eamon (today).

From left: Shari, Marcie, Kevin & Ron.

Sir Elton & Taylor Swift aka Eli and Isabella.

Bonnie.

For a mid-sized town some 40 miles southwest of Chicago, Joliet certainly has an interesting side to it!

The old Joliet Prison, near the downtown district, was used as the backdrop for the opening scenes of the 1980 film “The Blues Brothers” starring John Belushi as “Joliet” Jake Blues and Dan Aykroyd as Elwood Blues.

Bob Dylan’s “Percy’s Song” tells the story of a fatal car crash and a subsequent manslaughter conviction and 99-year sentence in the Joliet Prison that is handed down to the driver, a friend of the first-person narrator. The narrator goes to ask the sentencing judge to commute his friend’s sentence which he considers too harsh. The sentence stands. The song, an outtake from the sessions that produced Dylan’s album “The Times They Are a-Changin” has been covered several times.

And, the Rialto Square Theatre was a favourite haunt of Al Capone! Oliva Newton John will be performing there next weekend!

The opening scenes of “The Blues Brothers” were filmed at the Joliet Prison in Illinois!

Today we visited Resurrection Mausoleum in Resurrection Cemetery, Justice, Illinois to pay our respects to Mike’s parents – Michael & Catherine Krywanio – who are interred here.

The mausoleum is breathtakingly beautiful. It covers three floors with space for over 5,000 entombments and with a permanent staff on-hand, it is very well maintained. What gives it such a calm and peaceful atmosphere, is that it hosts the world’s largest stained glass window which encloses the mausoleum. The window is floor-to-ceiling on each level around the entire building enabling light to flood in creating a very serene environment inside. There are settees and chairs at appropriate places in each section of the mausoleum where visitors can sit and contemplate the lives of their loved ones.

Resurrection Cemetery is also home to a famous ghost – Resurrection Mary! The story goes that Mary had spent the evening dancing with her boyfriend. At some point, they got into an argument and Mary stormed out. Even though it was a cold winter’s night, she thought she would rather face a cold walk home than spend another minute with her boyfriend.

She left the ballroom and started walking up Archer Avenue. She had not gone very far when she was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver, who fled the scene leaving Mary to die. Her parents found her and were grief-stricken at the sight of her dead body. They buried her in Resurrection Cemetery, wearing a beautiful white dancing dress and shoes.

Since the 1930s, several men driving northeast along Archer Avenue between the Willowbrook Ballroom and Resurrection Cemetery have reported picking up a young female hitchhiker. The young woman is dressed somewhat formally in a white party dress. When the driver nears Resurrection Cemetery, the young woman asks to be let out and promptly disappears into the cemetery!

Resurrection Cemetery which was dedicated in 1956.

One floor of the magnificent stained glass window.

Our 300-mile journey from Wisconsin to Joliet, Illinois (about 40 miles southwest of Chicago) was a tough one through the centre of the city in pouring rain, heavy road construction, horrendous rush-hour traffic, toll roads, two accidents and all against the clock to get to an RV park where the office closed at 7 p.m.

Taking the motor home through toll roads will be, in future, avoided at all costs! Maneuvering a 40-foot beast with a jeep behind, across four lanes of bumper-to-bumper traffic, squeezing through narrow toll lanes and having to scramble to find the right coinage to pay for the privilege of using the road, was, at times, harrowing. That, and as is always the case, no one wants to let you in and everyone wants to get in front of you! All kudos to Captain Mike for a stellar performance behind the wheel with only a few un-repeatable utterances!

At 6:59 p.m. we could see the RV park where we were scheduled to stay for four nights but it was at this moment that the GPS system decided to have a “senior moment” and take us around in circles! We called the park and the owner informed us that it was now 7 p.m., that the office was closed and we had to go elsewhere whereby he hung up! I guess he’ll have to retake the customer service course one more time! Mike always had a bad feeling about this park as no credit card information was taken, no confirmation number was given, and one reviewer on the website complained about how difficult and uncompromising the owner had been during her stay, how right she was!

Fortunately for us, there is a second RV park in Joliet which could accommodate us and which has a casino, offers a free breakfast in its hotel and has lovely grounds in which to walk Miss Poppy!

Sorry about the poor photograph but I took this skyline picture of Chicago today from the back of the jeep through the grubby car window!