SEPTEMBER 2002

The weather in Ocean Shores was good, but often foggy. We could sit in the RV at the casino and watch the fog roll in from the ocean. Not good for the solar panels, so we had a chance to give the generator a good workout.

We ended up our week at the Quinalt Beach Resort & Casino by going out to dinner at Alec's By The Sea where we had great seafood.

We left the coast on the 3rd to start our push to Kansas for the 4th annual New Horizons Owners Group rally and to take delivery of our new Chevrolet pickup which we'd ordered when we were in Junction City this spring and thinking about having Horizons build us a travel trailer. We drove 118 miles and spent the first night back at the Elks Club in Puyallup, stopping at the Costco to do shopping first.

Wednesday, 9/4

We drove 187 miles to Moses Lake, Washington, where we stayed at Pier 4, a Coast to Coast park. Stopped to do grocery shopping.

Thursday, 9/5

Drove 158 miles to Newport, Washington. Stayed at another Coast to Coast park, Old American Kampground.

Friday, 9/6

Today, we drove 206 miles to Kalispell, Montana, where we stayed at the Elks Club. We stopped here for four nights to visit friends who had a tri-color Basenji that looked to be Maxx's twin. Unfortunately, they had to have Chico put down earlier in the year. We had a very nice visit with Don and Patti, going out to breakfast and dinner with them, and visiting them at their house on Flathead Lake. Earl and I also had dinner at the Thai Palace.

Tuesday, 9/10

Drove 164 miles to Shelby, Montana where we stayed at the Lake Shel-Oole City Park...electric hookups for $15 per night. On our way to Shelby, we stopped at Midway Cafe (around Summit and Merias Pass) to have lunch. We'd stopped here before on a previous trip and found that they had good chili, so we each had a chili burger.

Wednesday, 9/11

We drove 201 miles to Malta, Montana where we stayed at Trafton Municipal Park...no hookups for $3 per night.

Thursday, 9/12

Drove 177 miles to Culbertson City Park in Culbertson, Montana. This is a free park with space for about 4 or 5 rigs and has water and a dump available. We hadn't been there too long before a pickup with a camper parked next to us and proceeded to unload about 12 hunting dogs from the side bins! After feeding and watering them and letting them have some fresh air, the dogs were put back in the cages for the night. Fortunately, we didn't hear a peep out of them during the night!

Friday, 9/13

Today, we drove 174 miles to Roughrider Campground in Minot, North Dakota, a Good Sam park. We stayed in Minot for a couple of days so that we could catch up on laundry and do grocery shopping. Since we had only water and electric hookups, we had to take our laundry to a laundromat instead of doing it in the rig.

Sunday, 9/15

Drove 180 miles to Seeman Municipal Park in Linton, North Dakota ($5.00 per night).

Monday, 9/16

Drove 207 miles to Murdo, South Dakota, where we stayed at the American RV Park.

Tuesday, 9/17

We traveled 181 miles to Stapleton City Park in Stapleton, Nebraska...a $3 park, no hookups. We did unhook and go into town to do grocery shopping.

Wednesday, 9/18

Today, we drove 159 miles to Harlan County Lake, Methodist Cove Campground, a Corps of Engineers (COE) Park near Alma, Nebraska. We'd stayed at this same park back in May on our way to the Oregon. This time, we took a spot right on the lake. In the morning when we were getting ready to leave, we spotted a huge flock of white Pelicans on the lake. They'd stay in one place for a time and then, en masse, move down the lake to a different spot. We stayed there quite a while watching them.

Pelicans at Harlan Lake:












Thursday, 9/19

Drove 246 miles to Junction City, Kansas, where we stayed at Milford Lake, West Rolling Hills Campground...another COE park. Since we were going to be here for a while (until the New Horizons Owners Group rally), we opted to stay in the fee portion of the park that has water and electric hookups. Since Earl has a Golden Age Passport card, we were able to stay for half price.

One of the first days we were in Junction City, we decided to stop by Horizons to see if there was anyone there that we knew. When we pulled into the parking lot, we saw a familiar pickup truck -- Dallas and Audrey Smith, who we'd seen in the Spring when we were at Horizons having some work done on our fifth wheel! We knocked on their door and asked them if they'd spent the summer in the Horizons' lot. Turns out they'd had to return to Horizons because they were having some problems with their slide. Dallas complained a lot about all the problems they had with their slide, but before we left, we found them ordering a new fifth wheel!

While we were in Junction City, we did a lot of what we do best -- have meals out: breakfast and lunch at Cracker Barrel, lunch at Meridy's, dinner at El Cazador and the Elks Club (with Dallas, Audrey, and Kirk and Gen Griffith, who were also at Horizons having some work done on their fifth wheel before the rally). We took a trip to Salina where we did shopping at Sam's Club and picked up a CB at the Flying J. And, of course, we picked up our brand new truck -- a 2003 Chevrolet Silverado LS 3500 extended cab with a Duramax diesel engine and an Allison transmission.

Monday, 9/30

We moved to Tuttle Creek State Park (a trip of 46 miles) for the New Horizons Owners Rally which will start on Thursday and run through Sunday. On our way to the park, we stopped to have our truck and RV washed so that we'd arrive nice and clean!