May 15, 2023 - May 19, 2023 - Carry-Yals May Campout

Background Information:

Carri-Yals is the name of the Illinois-Missouri chapter of the RV Travel Club, which originally was the Carriage RV Travel Club. The Carriage RV Travel Club was established in the 1960s for those who liked to travel together in their Carriage RVs. Local chapters were established for local campouts. The national club would have a yearly national rally which was only open to those who owned Carriage RVs. These rallies would be held at different places throughout the U.S. and consisted of several days filled with seminars, vendors, activities, and entertainment. When Carriage went out of business about ten years ago the club expanded to include other brands of RVs but the national rallies ended. The local chapters throughout the country continue to have local campouts and rallies. Through attrition over the years the Carri-Yals chapter is now down to ten rigs. 

Campout:

Rain was predicted for most of the week of our campout. (Campers are used to this.) Everyone arrived in Perryville on Monday and were welcomed by sunshine and cool temperatures. Kelly made chicken salad sandwiches, salad, and banana cream pie for supper. All were delicious. We had a nice campfire Monday evening with a prediction of heavy rain during the night, and we got it. I had left my empty cup on the table and when I got up the next morning it had an inch and a half of water in it. We had quite a downpour.

As it worked out Monday night was the only rain we received all week even though it had earlier been predicted that we would get rain every day.

Tuesday we had a guided tour of the Vietnam Memorial here in Perryville. This memorial is an exact duplicate of the one in Washington, D.C.

 

Everyone was impressed with the wall and the entire facility.  There are 58,281 names on the wall which is made up of 140 granite panels. There were 67 panels of names just in the year 1968. The youngest person on the wall was fifteen years of age and the oldest sixty-two. There are 160 Medal of Honor recipients on the wall. Interestingly three of the soldiers on the wall were killed by tigers.  Don pointed to a friend's name on the wall which brought back a lot of memories for him.

We then went for lunch at Stonie's Sausage Shop. In addition to making lots of sausages and brats they make many different, delicious meat sandwiches. We all had a very filling lunch and then headed back to the campground for cards and visiting. For supper we had a potato bake over the open campfire. There were lots of fixings to stuff your potato with so that you didn't go hungry. We had another great night for a campfire.

Wednesday we went to the Perryville Tractor Museum. This is a special museum because it is dedicated to very unique, limited production tractors. I don't know how much the ladies enjoyed it, but the men were fascinated with all the unique tractor designs and engineering.  Here is a picture of the only known threshing machine built in Cape Girardeau that is known to exist.

This is a picture of a "one only" Avery steam tractor.

There were many brands of tractors of various designs and colors to view. All of the tractors displayed are in running condition.

After the tractor museum we headed to Mary Jane's on the square for lunch. Everyone enjoyed a filling meal at this bar and grill. 

We then headed back to the campground for an afternoon of card games and visiting. For supper we had "Mike's Famous Three-Bean Chili", salad, and dessert. I made two batches of chili: one with onions and one without. It must have been good because almost all was eaten. Supper was followed by another nice campfire and comradery.

Thursday we drove to Fort Kaskaskia State Historic Park, North of Chester, which has a fantastic overlook of the Mississippi River from the bluff, the old fort site, and a campground. Chester, Illinois is the home of E. C. Segar, who created the "Popeye" character as well as all of his friends. We stopped by the Popeye Statue for a group picture.

We then headed to lunch at the Landmark Restaurant in Chester, which is an historic restaurant overlooking the Mississippi River. We had a great lunch and headed back to the campground for a relaxing afternoon. For supper we made pie iron sandwiches on the hot coals. Many had never had pie iron sandwiches before so they particularly found it to be a treat. The ladies provided lots of fillings to choose from to make your sandwich. The final evening ended with another great campfire and goodbyes.

Friday morning everyone departed for home on their own schedule. Our next outing will be in Marshall, Illinois, in August.