Illinoisy....well not really...

Maybe in Chicago...

Anyway, before I go too much into the meaning of Illinoisy, I'll tell you a little about our trip there, at the end of August. Not a whole lot...just a few highlights (mostly because I have about 200 pictures, and I love posting pictures, and if I don't say just a few highlights I'll end up posting about 100 of them...and that would take me just about forever...but, I digress...).




The first stop was a little town just outside Montgomery, Alabama called Millbrook where we stayed with some cousins (2nd cousins, twice removed, blah blah blah..) Technically they lived in Coosada, AL, but most of their neighborhood was in the Millbrook city limits except for that little corner of the neighborhood they lived in...very strange. There was even a little Coosada City Limits sign right there on their little neighborhood road.

Everyone looks so thrilled don't they?

We stayed with them on Thursday night and left the next morning for Illinois(y).

This was a pig outside of a Cracker Barrel somewhere in Kentucky...mom decided she had to have a picture of me with it, and considering it's concrete, I sat on it.

It was a looonnggg drive that day, but we finally reached Lick Creek, but after being there about 5 minutes, I left with my cousin to go to a rodeo in a nearby town. Yeehaw! I mean, can you believe I went to a rodeo? Me? No Way!! The rodeo was very fun...I just didn't realize there were so many rednecks up there...I mean, it's ILLINOIS. That is up in the north where yankees live right? Ya know, the hybrid-driving, apartment-living, city people that talk weird! HA! NOT HERE! I thought Wakulla County Florida had rednecks!
Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, because I was so busy eating Nachos with cheese and watching bull riding and barrel racing that I didn't take any. Sorry.



The next day, we woke up and went to Giant City State Park which is not far from where Aunt Judy and Uncle Moose live (They're who we stayed with by the way..). I thought we were going down all the back roads to get there. Nice smooth gravel roads, but not paved. Turns out, that them is the main roads! Ooookayy..I thought I lived in the country. I mean, we live on a dirt road, but we do drive on nicely paved roads to get to town...ANYWAY.....






This is the lodge in Giant City that my Great Grandfather helped build. It was really pretty. I absolutely loved it.







This is a rock face called "The Devil's stand-table". Not far from there is what they call "The Devil's Footprint." If I didn't know anything about that place, it wouldn't really be a place I would want to live considering the landmarks named around it....



After we left Giant City, we stopped by a big Peach Orchard on the side of the road. We don't know who owns it, but Uncle Moose just happens to have the guy's number in his phone, and just happens to have crates in the back of the truck. Good Grief! The "back roads" and the rednecks made me feel like enough of a city girl already! It was starting to get ridiculous! This made me wonder if I should just carry a bunch of empty vegetable crates in the trunk just in case I stumble upon a peach orchard or a vegetable garden that I want to pick from.
Anyway, Uncle Moose called the guy (after we'd been driving around the orchard looking to see if the peaches were ripe enough) and he said that we could pick from the first 15 rows. Great!



So we picked....

Don't they look delicious??

And we picked.....

Aunt Judy



And we picked some more...

mom



And then after Uncle Moose was satisfied with the amount of Peaches, we went on back to the house.

Uncle Moose



As soon as we got there, we started peeling, so Aunt Judy could make some cobbler...OH MY GOODNESS....cobbler.


That makes me hungry....



to be continued.....