The second day in Benton began with the pursuit of a replacement for the blown out tire. We were given directions to a trailer shop outside of Benton by Lisa’s cousin Allen. When we arrived at the shop they did a quick look, and said they didn’t have the needed tire. They called their other store, which is their main store. While we waited for them to check the availability of a replacement, Lisa decided to look at the trailers on their lot. She of course found two trailers that she really liked, and ran to get me. Now, you are probably thinking that instead of buying a replacement tire that we bought a new trailer. Well, you would be wrong. The two trailers were Coachman Catalinas, and were very nice. I asked the price of the trailers and was floored by the cost. The 28 footer was $16,500 and the 32 footer was $21,500. For those who don’t know trailers, that is really cheap. 
We got the call that the main shop had the needed tire. We then made our way some 10 to 15 miles to the main store. Now, this distance is considered really far here in southern Illinois. In Los Angeles, it is just right around the corner. The man at the first store told us the distance before quoting $145 for the tire and rim. He was apologetic about the distance. He did notice that we were from California, so I don’t know why he thought 10 to 15 miles was a long distance to travel to get a replacement tire for a trailer. We already drove 2,018 miles to get the replacement tire. When we got to the main store we checked that the tire and rim were the correct ones. The tire and rim came to $124 dollars, which made me happy, since I was expecting something in the $200 range. He then told us that we would have to go to their third shop to have the tired mounted on the rim. This shop was only 3 to 5 miles away, which is just down the street for those from Los Angeles.
After Lunch, we headed over to Lisa’s grandmother’s house. The house is in Du Quion, which is about 25 miles away. This is half day’s journey here in southern Illinois. Lisa’s grandmother had died about 18 years ago, but her uncle was living in the house. Lisa wanted the kids to see where her mom had grown up, and Lisa had a lot of fond memories of visiting her grandmother in this house. The house itself is about a 20x20 house. The house has 4 rooms that looked to be equally divided, so the house was very tight. When the house was originally built, the house didn’t have any plumbing. The house eventually got plumbing and an addition was added to the house to include the only bathroom in the house, so today the total square feet of the house may be 600 feet. When Lisa’s mom lived in the house growing up, there were six people in the house. 
The kids spent the afternoon in a pool and riding scooters and ATVs. This was the first time that the kids got to ride an ATV. Miles who isn’t afraid to try anything was really excited, but Lisa is the cautious mom, so she had Amber, the daughter of Jun who is a cousin of Lisa’s, ride with Miles. Miles didn’t need any help riding the ATV. He just gunned it, and Amber wasn’t expecting this. She really doesn’t know Miles, who isn’t afraid to try things. Amber almost went flying of the back of the ATV, and then grabbed onto the ATV for dear life. Samantha rode the 
ATV as well and she had fun as well. The kids also found out what it was like for us adults to ride bikes and everything else without a helmet. Illinois doesn’t require people to wear helmets. The day ended with us having a barbecue at Lisa’s grandma’s house. A lot of the same folks who were at dinner on Tuesday were there at the barbecue. We drove a total of 78 miles to day. We have driven a total of 2096 miles for the entire trip. We didn’t buy any gas today.
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