Kickapoo Adventures Bar & Grill employees Landen Blundy , left , and Morgan Colby get food and utensil caddies ready for the day . support the busy weekends . Julie and Tom ' s daughter is the bartender .
Staff at the bar and grill say they love working there during the summer months .
Employee Morgan Colby of Tilton is working her first summer there .
" I love being outdoors ," Colby said .
Landen Blundy was chopping tomatoes , getting ready for the day . He started on the rentals side and wanted to learn more about working at the restaurant .
The restaurant is open seven days a week , 10 a . m . to 6 p . m . on Sunday , Monday , Tuesday and Thursday ; and 10 a . m . to 8 p . m . Wednesday , Friday and Saturday .
Music at the restaurant has expanded to four times a week : 5 p . m . to 7 p . m . Wednesdays and
Saturdays , 6 p . m . to 8 p . m . Fridays and 2 p . m . to 4 p . m . Sundays .
" I ' ve got the whole summer booked ," Julie said . A band schedule can be seen at the restaurant and on its Facebook page and website .
New on the equipment rentals side this year is a duck pedal boat to add to the swan they added last year .
Julie said they couldn ' t keep up with pedal boat rentals , and they wanted to make the boats more unique .
" They ' re very , very , very popular ," she said .
Julie said there is a dragon pedal boat they could acquire .
" I don ' t know if I want the dragon ,” Julie said .
" They really , really do well . People really love that stuff ," she added .
Julie said they see themselves running the concessionaire business for a while .
" We have the ability to run camps ," she said about the future .
She ' d like to bring in more family activities and use the camp concept , in having families build bird houses and make different crafts , geo tracking , chess lessons and other activities to get kids away from social media and their cell phones and computer screens .
The camps can get families outside to go fishing , walk the trails and have fun doing other activities . There ' s a lot that can be done , she said .
" We love doing it ," Julie said about teaching lessons and running the business .
16 ILLIANA MAGAZINE | SPRING 2023