Carlyle Lake

Illinois' Lincoln Land Airstream Club met at Carlyle Lake for 4 days. We had a nice time and we made some nice new friends. It was blazing hot so we stayed inside quite a bit. BUT we still managed to picnic and play trivia games under the big beautiful trees near Illinois' largest manmade lake.

We toured the Corp of Engineer's dam, learning how they operate the massive water gates which control the flow of the Kaskaskia river. Then we toured an area bakery in New Baden. The Worn Whisk Bakery, formerly Berkemann's Baker's Dozen is one of the last area bakeries where they make everything from scratch! Breads, cookies, cakes, you know... all the really good stuff! I didn't expect to enjoy the bakery tour as much as I did but they had four huge floor mixers and a nearly 70 year old oven which is still turning out their products by the thousands! No AI. No robots. Just real people making real baked goods serving their local community one bite at a time :)

The best part of the weekend was not even part of the Airstream rally. A couple of our friends from the Oregon Trail caravan were in St. Louis! So we jumped at the chance to join Juan and Jovie for his signature paella. Hugs were shared along with plenty of laughs and maybe a bit of wine :)

Next: We're packing up and headed to another Corp of Engineer's campground: Hardin Ridge near Bloomington Indiana.Read more