Interesting post, Laura! I was a pre-teen then, remember listening on the radio to the broadcasts of events. My Aunt Emmi and Cousin Robert were on their annual summer visit from Switzerland, Emmi was an admirer of Hitler, don't believe she was that much into the Nazi philosophy as she was what we now would call a "fan", she'd get teary eyed when speaking of "the dear Fuhrer" - made me snicker, after all, she was, in my mind, an old married Lady. I had a little white silk scarf, edged with all the flags and the Olympic symbol in each corner - loved it. We were still so innocent then -

I am planning a car/tent camping trip with my wife and another couple for the third weekend in May. We live in Chicago, and want to camp somewhere in western Illinois. We are looking for a campground that is on a lake or river. A beach would be a big plus. We want a place that has fairly private sites and takes reservations. Does anyone have a suggestion for us? I know very little about the state parks in Illinois and I could really use some help in narrowing down my choices.

I feel your PAIN as well, Trish! Likewise, I pull a popup camper with a pick-up truck, too. Was planning a trip this fall but had to put that aside because of this high price gas business. To answer your question, there are a lot of private campgrounds through-out this state (North Carolina) where you can rent a site on an annual basis. Sometimes these sites can get a little expensive depending on their location. However, kind of down the same lines, there are places where you can store the camper in an area for less money. I'm kind of considering that right now; storing the camper with a guy that has others campers doing the same. He has a storage area behind his house, just off a main highway and not too far from some favorite National Forest campgrounds and fishing spots I like to frequent. Doing this means I don't have to haul the camper back and forth, but rather getting up there and hooking up and hence only traveling with the camper a short distance ... but I have a choice as to where I can go rather than being in one place only; AND the storage is cheaper than renting an annual campground site. Although my popup is a smaller unit, dry weight of about 1285 #'s and a GVWR of 2100, towing it takes at least 2 mpg off my regular gas mileage. The pick-up is a full sized, regular cab, short box, 4X2, small V-8, and has a low profile fiberglass cargo bed cover. The truck will get an honest 21 mpg at 62 mph, not towing. The more speed the less the miles per gallon. Usually I'll try for 65 and set the cruise control and I'll get around 20 1/2 mpg. So on a 1,000 mile round trip, pulling the little camper will cost me about 9 gallons of gas. Although I could pull this camper with a smaller vehicle/engine, I had orginally wanted to pull it out west and I like the extra power for pulling in places like the Rockies! From experience I've learned it's much better to be a little overpowered than underpowered when towing a trailer! And here's another little tid-bit I've learned: my previous pick-up had the 4.3 V-6 ... great little engine, and I really liked it. BUT, the V-8 does better on gas mileage towing than the V-6 ... better performance under load. Dale

Great article!!! I just recently had an experience with it. After making homemade soup/chile/stew, I freeze the leftovers for my husband to take to work for lunch. Until recently I used yogurt containers. His friends were laughing at his "teensy little bit" of food because he's such a big guy (6'2 210). I too thought it was a fairly small amount.... until... I was too lazy to make dinner one night so I pulled two of the yogurt containers out of the freezer, thawed them, and poured the contents into soup bowls. I'm not exaggerating when I say it appeared to be twice as much! My husband actually said these words.... "I'd like to start taking THIS amount to work... those little containers are just not filling enough." So now he takes the exact same amount to work every day but it's in a wide, shallow dish that makes it appear to be twice as much food. It sounds really silly... but try it! Seriously, 6 oz. of chile in a yogurt container appears to be a snack... while that same amount spread out in a soup bowl looks like lunch. It's the "smaller plate" theory. A reasonable amount of food on a large plate looks skimpy... as if you're being deprived... which of course causes you to want seconds. But that same amount of food on a smaller plate looks like plenty... so it's satisfying. Now I'm gonna go to the dessert exchange forum... bye :)