October 7, 2008From Geneseo in western Illinois, my plan is to outrun the storms moving in from the west and get to Kankakee by 9 AM, allowing me an hour to paint before the rain arrives there. I successfully get up and eat breakfast early so I get out the door before it starts to rain. I am sad because Geneseo is a cute town and I would have like to paint there. The great thing about the RV is that you don't have to schedule so much. When you have a return flight, a number of days to paint and weather interfering, you become more determined. My cold, which seemed to be waning, was now staging a comeback, so I made a plan to finish painting Illinois and Indiana today and head home a day early.
I am sorry to give Illinois such quick attention. Like New York, it is a state made up of much more than one large city which dominates it. Chicago is an interesting city and I have spent some time and I must get back during warmer sunnier weather. But today I am headed due south of Chicago to Kankakee - I remember the name from the song 'City of New Orleans' sung by Arlo Guthrie. "The train pulls out of Kankakee, rolls along past houses, farms and fields..." It reminds me that just outside the shadows of our huge complex cities are the most serene spots.
One of these serene spots is Kankakee River State Park. I picked it out on the state map with hope for my gut instinct and was happy to find it is a pretty wooded area with small bluffs by the river. The sun was just starting to get clouded in, so I was quite happy to get a little painting done with the light from the rapidly disappearing sun reflecting on the water.
