JULY 2002

When we left Condon on the 1st, we were planning on staying at the Wildhorse Gaming Resort and Casino east of Pendleton since we had information that they had free RV parking. However, when we got there we discovered that the casino had put in an RV park and no longer allowed overnight parking in their parking lot. Therefore, we drove back to Pendleton and spent the night at the Elks Club.

On Tuesday morning, we left Pendleton and drove the 54 miles to the Rendezvous RV Resort in La Grande where we spent the 4th of July weekend. While there, we did grocery shopping, filled up the truck with diesel, and ate lunch out at a couple of local restaurants. We also took a trip down to the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center northeast of Baker City. It is a very interesting museum and you can even see part of the Oregon Trail...I was surprised at how clear the tracks were after all these years.

Covered wagon:

The Oregon Trail:











Quilt at the Oregon Trail Center:











On the 7th, we drove 65 miles to Enterprise where we stayed overnight at the Elks Club and had dinner at one of the local restaurants, Plush West. The road from La Grande to Enterprise, SR-82, is my favorite type of road (not!)...a mountain road with a steep drop off on one side and no guard rails. Fortunately for most of the trip, we were on the inside. The views were spectacular, though...when I had my eyes open!

Originally, we were going to spend a couple of days at the Elks Club in Enterprise, but we found that they weren't really set up for RV parking, so on Monday we drove a whole 5 miles to the Mountain View RV Park in Joseph. Joseph is in a beautiful location at the foot of the Wallowa Mountains with Wallowa Lake and the Eagle Cap Wilderness nearby.

Wallowa Mountains:

Wallowa Lake:











The main industry in Joseph, other than tourism, are bronze foundries and artist galleries specializing in bronze sculptures. In fact, the downtown area has many large bronze sculptures on what seemed like each corner. We toured the Manuel Museum where we saw quite a few bronze sculptures and a history of the area. We also stopped at the Chief Joseph Cemetery Historical Monument, the burial place of the great Nez Perce leader of the 1870s.

Chief Joseph grave site:











On the 10th, we drove 126 miles to Moscow, Idaho, where we stayed at the Latah County Fairgrounds. From Joseph, we drove north on SR-3, stopping at the Joseph Canyon Viewpoint where we could look down into the canyon where the Nez Perce spent the winters. North of this point, just before entering into Washington, and then again after we crossed over the Grande Ronde River, the road hugged the side of the mountains with a steep drop off on one side. This time, we were on the outside much of the way.

Joseph Canyon:











The next day we drove 90 miles to the Elks Club in Spokane where we spent two weeks visiting friends. We had dinner a couple of times with our good friends, Mary and George, as well as Don and Emily. Earl got to golf a couple of times at Liberty Lake and we went out to lunch once at Dewey's East and once at Applebee's and had dinner on Earl's birthday at Tony Romas. Earl had the tires on the truck rotated and balanced, we did laundry a couple of times (had to do it at a laundromat since we didn't have sewer hookups at the Elks Club), and did shopping at Costco. We also had the opportunity to meet a couple, Tom and Mary, who live in Spokane, are Escapees and also Boomers (a "Birds of a Feather" group within the Escapees). We met for dinner and a movie..."Road to Perdition" with Tom Hanks. A great movie! We can highly recommend it.

On the 25th, we left Spokane and drove 223 miles to Lake Easton RV Resort in Easton where we spent the night. The next day, we drove into Woodinville to stay at Buck and Phyllis' place. Since we were there the last time in 2000, Buck had put in water and electrical hookups for two RVs. John and DeAnne had already arrived in their RV...we referred to Buck and Phyllis' place as "Hilltop RV." Earl didn't want to attend the formal reunion on Saturday night, so we had dinner at Thai Woodinville while everyone else was at the reunion. We did, however, attend the picnic the following day...a good time was had by all. Earl had a chance to golf a couple of times...once in Everett and once in Snohomish. We also went out to eat with "the group" (including Buck, Phyllis, John, DeAnne, and others who hang out together from Earl's high school graduating class). for several days in a row, there were balloons which floated over where we were parked. Often, we could hear the sound of the burners before the balloons floated into view from behind the trees.

Bridge over Columbia River at Vantage:

Our rig at "Hilltop RV:"











Balloon flying over "Hilltop RV:"

JUNE 2002

June 1 thru 9

After having our solar updated, we returned to Timber Valley, the Escapees' park in Sutherlin. We called Kamper Korner in Roseburg to make an appointment to get our refrigerator fixed and, since they couldn't get to us until Monday, the 10th, we decided to stay at Sutherlin until then.

We pretty much took it easy while we were in Sutherlin...Earl went golfing a couple of times at Oak Hills Golf Club and he also washed the truck and fifth wheel; we took several walks with Maxx up the road toward Cooper Reservoir (the road doesn't go all the way to the reservoir, but the dam can be seen from the end of the road); we had lunch at the Hungry Clam (one two-piece order of fish and chips is more than enough for two people, as we found out) and breakfast at the Apple Peddler; and we did grocery shopping at the nice new Ray's in town.

We also stopped by the local RV dealer who carries the Arctic Fox campers to take a look at them again...we're trying to decide between the Arctic Fox and the Host campers.

We enjoyed our stay so much at the Escapees' park in Sutherlin, that we decided to put our name on the Hot List for a lot there. It's about a five-year wait, so it'll be awhile before our name comes up.

June 10 thru 11

We got up early Monday morning to make our 8:00 AM appointment at Kamper Korner in Roseburg...just a few miles south of Sutherlin. As I had thought, the problem was with the circuit board in the refrigerator which they replaced with a Dinosaur board. While we were waiting for them to fix the refrigerator, we decided to have them also install a King Dome...a covered satellite dish. We've talked about having one installed for some time now because we've had so many problems with reception when the wind blows. They didn't have one in stock and had to order it from Portland. Since it wouldn't be in until Tuesday morning, we decided to spend the night in their lot...they have a full hookup site for customers. After setting up, we drove into Roseburg to do shopping and had lunch at Applebee's.

The King Dome arrived mid-morning on Tuesday and it took them most of the rest of the day to install it...this was their first installation. While they did a fine job installing it, we found out that it comes from the factory programmed for DirecTV. Since we have Dish Network service, the dome has to be reprogrammed and Kamper Korner didn't have the keypad necessary to do the reprogramming. They called the factory and found out that the nearest dealer who did have a keypad was in Coos Bay. Since we were headed for the coast anyway, this worked out fine for us. We called the RV dealer in Coos Bay and made an appointment for Thursday. Since it was late in the afternoon when they finished installing the King Dome, we stayed another night in their lot.

June 12 thru 13

We drove to the Mills Casino in North Bend...just a couple of miles north of Coos Bay. The casino has a large area for RV's to park...it's free with a 10-day limit. We drove to Porter's RV on Thursday morning to have the King Dome reprogrammed for Dish Network and then returned to Mills Casino. After returning, we unhooked so we could go do grocery shopping and then drove out to the coast to have lunch at Fisherman's Grotto.

June 14 thru 18

We drove the South Jetty RV Resort in Florence, a Thousand Trails Park that is also an RPI park, to which we belong. It's a nice park, but heavily treed. We were stuck in a space which had been dug out of the hill...it was like being in a cave. Of course, we couldn't get our satellite tuned in, nor could we get any local programming on our TV.

The first thing we did after getting to Florence and setting up, was to go to Mo's for clam chowder. We made sure we made another trip there before leaving, too! We also had clam chowder at Weber's Fish Market...different from Mo's, but good, nonetheless.

We drove out to the beach to walk Maxx...our first view of the ocean since being in Oregon. We also had to find a laundromat to do laundry since the site we were in at South Jetty didn't have a sewer hookup.

Pacific Ocean:

Maxx & Earl at the ocean:











June 19 thru 20

We left Florence and continued our trip up US-101, stopping at the Cape Perpetua Viewpoint to have lunch. From the viewpoint, one can see the Devils Churn to the south and the town of Yachats to the north.

View south from Cape Perpetua Overlook:

Yachats:











Originally, we were planning on spending a day or two at the Chinook Winds Casino north of Lincoln City, but when we drove through the parking lot, we found that all the RV spaces... such as they were...were full. We then decided to try the Spirit Mountain Casino in Grand Ronde, east of Lincoln City on SR-18. This casino has a very nice, large paved area for RV parking and we decided to spend a couple of days. On Thursday, we had breakfast at the casino and then drove to Valley RV Center in McMinnville to check out the Host campers again.

June 21 thru 23

On Friday, we drove to the Old Mill Marina Resort, a Coast to Coast park in Garibaldi, north of Tillamook.

While there, we toured the Tillamook Air Museum which is located in one of 17 wooden hangars built during World War II to house the K-class blimps that were used for anti-submarine coast patrol and convoy escort. Two of these hangars were built at the Tillamook Naval Air Station, but only one remains, the other being destroyed in a 1992 fire. The Air Museum is home to one of the finest collections of privately owned WWII flying aircraft in the nation (according to signs in the museum, all the aircraft are flyable).

Air Museum:

Mini-Guppy:











P-38 Lightning:

Me-109 Messerschmidt:











P-51 Mustang:

PBY-5A Catalina:











After the museum, we went to the Blue Heron French Cheese Factory and bought some Brie, for which they are known. We didn't make it to the Tillamook Cheese Factory...we'll have to save that for another trip.

June 24 thru 25

We left Garibaldi on Monday, stopping to do shopping at the Costco in Warrenton. We spent the next two days at Pacific Holiday RV Park, a Coast to Coast park in Long Beach, Washington. This park isn't quite on the beach, but it's just a short walk to it. We were able to let Maxx loose to run around on the beach...he has lots of fun trying to catch Sea Gulls. He's pretty good about staying close to us...he doesn't like to get too far away; however, we still have to pick and choose the places where we can let him loose.

Pacific Ocean:

Astoria Bridge over Columbia River:











We had dinner at the Crab Pot when we arrived in Long Beach...good food, but a bit on the expensive side. We also had some delicious clam chowder for lunch Tuesday at Grannie Annie's.

June 26 thru 27

We drove to the Columbia River Gorge RV Resort, an RPI/C2C park in Mosier, Oregon. This park has only water and electric hookups and it's a pain to get to...up the mountain on a narrow, winding gravel road. But, once at the park, the view is magnificent...Mt. Adams to the north and a bit of Mt. Hood to the west, plus views down the valley. Since it took some getting to, we decided to spend a couple of days here.

Mt. Adams:











June 28 thru 29

on Friday, we drove to Haystack Reservoir just south of Madras, Oregon, stopping in Madras to do grocery shopping before going out to the Reservoir. This is a Forest Service park, so we were able to camp for half price with Earl's Golden Age Passport card. There are a few spots big enough for an RV our size and we picked one close to a water spigot just in case we needed more water while we were there.

Haystack Reservoir is relatively small, but on the weekend, there were lots of families who came out with their boats and camped. I never did walk down to the lake while the boats were running, but by the sounds of it, the reservoir must have been shore to shore boats.

June 30

We drove about 100 miles to the Elks Club in Condon, Oregon, where we spent the night. This Elks Club has no hookups and it's not one where a large RV would want to park during the week when the bar and dining room are open, because the parking lot is small; however, we were there on Sunday night when the club was closed, so we had the whole lot to ourselves.

MAY 2002

Originally, we were going to go west across South Dakota and do some site seeing along the way; however, we decided we should go back to Junction City and go over all the changes we'd made in the preliminary drawings of the trailer with Horizons.

So, on Wednesday, May 1, we headed back to Junction City, spending the first night at Woods Landing, a Coast to Coast park in Yutan, Nebraska, just west of Omaha. After setting up and unhooking, we drove into Yutan to do grocery shopping.

We arrived in Junction City on Thursday afternoon, going into town to have one of our propane tanks filled and fueling up the truck, before driving back out to the free Corps of Engineers park on Milford Lake to spend the night.

Milford Lake:











Friday morning found us at Horizons going over all the changes with Howard and Frank, the person who does all the drawings. Afterward, we went by the local Chevy dealer, Jim Clark Chevrolet, and ordered a truck -- a one-ton with the Duramax diesel engine and Allison automatic transmission. They were willing to meet the 2% over invoice of the Chevy dealer in Moab, Utah, that advertises in Highways magazine, so we decided we'd rather order from a local dealer than one where we'd probably never meet the people. After ordering the truck, we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch.

That evening, we went to the Elks Club for dinner with Dallas and Audrey Smith, also New Horizons owners who were at the factory having some work done on their fifth wheel -- they're having the inside completely redone with new carpeting and cabinets. That's one of the nice things about a custom manufacturer -- when you get tired of something, you can go back and have things changed.

Saturday, we drove 230 miles to Methodist Cove at Harlan County Lake, a Corps of Engineers park near Alma, Nebraska. We stopped in Hays, Kansas, along the way and had lunch at Carlos O'Kelly's.

The next day, we drove 158 miles to the Nebraska National Forest just west of Halsey, Nebraska, stopping in Elm Creek to fuel the truck, and at the city park in Ansley to have lunch.

The Nebraska National Forest is a 90,000-acre forest located in the Sand Hill Grasslands of north central Nebraska. It contains large areas of planted coniferous forest. In fact, the 20,000 acres of planted trees on the Bessey District (which includes the Nebraska National Forest and the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest), is the largest man-made forest in the United States. Some natural riparian woodlands occur in both units, as do shrubs in "sand hill thickets."

Rainbow:











On Monday, April 6, we drove through the heart of the Sand Hills of Nebraska. This is interesting country -- rolling hills of grasslands growing in sand (duh!). We were surprised at how much water was in this area -- from swampy wetlands to lakes. We were also surprised to see pelicans and swans at a lake in Hiannis where we stopped for lunch. That night, we stopped at Chadron State Park south of Chadron, Nebraska. This state park is in the northwest corner of Nebraska in an area of mountains called Pine Ridge, an arch-shaped escarpment some 100 miles long and up to 20 miles wide, formed some 65 million years ago when the Rocky Mountains and Black Hills uplifts began.

The Sand Hills:












Pelican:











On Tuesday, we went into Chadron to do laundry, grocery shopping, and fuel the truck. We also stopped by the Post Office to mail the ads to Highways and Trailer Life for the truck and fifth wheel.

Landscape around Crawford in the Pine Ridge area:












Wednesday, we drove 199 miles to the South Recreation Complex in Glenrock, Wyoming. This is a free camping area that includes a picnic area and rodeo grounds. We ran into some snow on this trip -- not very much, and it didn't stick, but it was still snow!

Thursday, we drove into Casper and had breakfast at the Flying J where I also faxed an ad for the truck and fifth wheel to the Escapees magazine. We continued on to Rawlins, Wyoming where we stayed at the American President's Campground, a Happy Camper park (half price). We stopped along the way to view Independence Rock. I had never given it any thought before, but Independence Rock is just that -- a huge rock jutting up through the ground, much like an iceberg in the ocean.

View along SR-220 south of Casper:

Alcova Reservoir:











Views along SR-220:

Independence Rock:











Earl & Maxx at Independence Rock:











Friday, we drove 199 miles to the Foothills RV Park in Kemmerer, Wyoming, the home of J.C. Penney and the site of his first store. We stopped at Little America first for lunch. We drove through some more snow and it was cold! When we got to the RV park and were putting out our big slide, the pin dropped out of the gear box again and we had to hand crank the slide the rest of the way out.

Snow along the road:











We drove 164 miles on Saturday, April 11, to the Elks Club in Pocatello, Idaho (after having to hand crank the big slide back in, of course). We had dinner at the club -- shrimp and boneless barbecued pork ribs. We ate at the same table with a very "interesting" man and his sister.

View along US-30:











On Sunday, we drove 235 miles to Boise, Idaho, and parked in the Wilson's RV Repair lot so that we'd be there first thing Monday morning to get our slide fixed.

Wilson's was able to get our slide fixed on Monday morning and we were back out on the road by about 10:30. We stopped at Costco to do shopping and then drove the 68 miles to the Simpson RV Park in Nyssa, Oregon. We had lunch at A & W, did grocery shopping, and stopped at the Post Office to pick up our mail. That afternoon, we visited with my Aunt Ilene and had dinner at her place. The next day I did laundry while Earl washed the truck and then we were back at Ilene's place for more visiting and dinner.

After driving by Ilene's place to say goodbye, we left Nyssa on Wednesday and drove 167 miles to the BLM campground at Chickahominy Reservoir west of Burns, stopping in Burns to fill up the truck with diesel and do grocery shopping. We took a walk around the campground after setting up...Maxx had fun trying to dig out a ground squirrel and chase rabbits (of course, he can't get very far on a lead!).

Sunset at Chickahominy Reservoir:











On Thursday, May 16, we drove 99 miles to Sundance Meadows, a Coast to Coast park just east of Bend, Oregon. This is a very nice park...we parked backed up to a pond and had fun watching a mama and papa goose with little ones swimming around. We also saw a Golden Eagle soaring high above, Osprey, and deer. We drove into Bend to check out a camper manufacturer, have lunch, and do some errands. We were really impressed with the campers manufactured by Host -- they have two slides and are quite spacious inside...we might have to rethink getting a travel trailer and a smaller camper and go with one of the larger campers instead.

The Three Sisters:

Mama & Papa with babies:











Deer:

Osprey:















On Saturday, May 18, we drove 40 miles to the Indian Ford Campground, a Forest Service campground, west of Sisters, Oregon. On Sunday, we drove into town for breakfast and to do grocery shopping.

We were going to go over the mountains to Eugene, but Greg Holder, who is going to do some work on our solar, couldn't get to us until the 30th, so we decided to go back to Bend and do some more exploring on the eastern side of the mountains. Therefore, on Monday we drove back to Bend and stayed at Sundance Meadows again, parking in the same spot as before. We drove into town to take another look at the Host campers and also stopped and checked out the Alpenlite and Northern Lite campers.

On Tuesday we left Bend and headed south, stopping and spending a couple of hours at the High Desert Museum. The museum has many exhibits on the region's people, cultures, animals, science, art, and history. It includes a 1/4-mile trail leading to animal habitats...porcupines, birds of prey (where we stopped to hear a talk about these birds), and an otter exhibit. Because we'd taken so long at the museum, we decided to stay overnight at Cascade Meadows RV Resort, a Coast to Coast park, north of La Pine...a trip of only 29 miles.

Wednesday we drove 103 miles to Hagelstein Park, a small park along US-97 about 11 miles north of Klamath Falls. It's located near a pond that was teeming with wildlife... while we were there, we saw several Double-Crested Cormorants and Forster's Terns. There were also Yellow-Headed Blackbirds, Northern "Bullock's" Orioles (we watched the female gathering nesting material), and a muskrat. All this and only $5 per night!

Pond at Hagelstein Park:

Yellow-headed Blackbirds:











On Thursday, we drove 89 miles to the Elks Club campground near Medford, Oregon. Warm weather at last! This is a really nice campground...just water and 20-amp electric hookups, but it's out in the country, quiet, lots of places to walk Maxx (although we learned to keep him out of the high grass or he'd come back with ticks), and a great view of Mt. McLaughlin.

Pelicans on Upper Klamath Lake:

Mt. McLaughlin:













Rouge River at Elks Club Campground:

Lizard on bench overlooking Rouge River:











While we were in Medford, we did shopping at Costco and the grocery store, did our laundry at a laundromat (since we didn't have full hookups at the Elks Club campground, we couldn't use our washer and dryer), picked up a pair of Levi's for me and a couple of t-shirts for Earl at Old Navy, and did other miscellaneous shopping. Earl golfed on Sunday at Eagle Point...the first golfing he'd done since we'd left Mission.

On Tuesday, May 28, we drove 121 miles to the SKP park in Sutherlin, Oregon, and spent the night boondocking (just $2.50). On our way out of Medford, we first stopped at Triple A RV Center to look at more Host campers (they had the large one in stock, which we hadn't been able to see at the factory) and also the Arctic Fox campers.

Wednesday night we stayed at Cascara Campground, an Oregon State campground (which one brochure we had said was a Corps of Engineers park) located on Fall Creek Reservoir east of Eugene. On Thursday, we drove into Eugene to have our solar updated and, since it was after 2:00 PM when we were finished, we spent the night at the Elks Club in Springfield. Since some of our mail didn't arrive by Friday, we decided to spend another night at the Springfield Elks Club and did shopping at Costco. We're probably going to have to find an RV repair center soon to have our refrigerator looked at...it's not working properly on propane (it keeps going to "check"). It's acting like it did when we had the board replaced a couple of years ago, so I don't know if it's a board problem again, or something else. Guess we'll find out soon enough.

APRIL 2002

Monday, April 1

In the words of Willie Nelson, we are "on the road again!" We left Mission about 10:00 AM after having breakfast at our favorite little Mexican food restaurant, Las Canteras. While tooling up U.S. 281, we hit a turkey that was walking across the road. They say turkeys are dumb birds, and I guess that must be true, because he (she?) was not even half way across the road (coming toward us from the left) when he decided to out run us...he lost! Guess we should have stopped and picked him up...we could have had roast turkey!

We stopped in Alice to have lunch at the Kettle Restaurant and then made our way to Smith's Trailer Village and RV Park in George West, a trip of 169 miles. We had stopped here on two different occasions last year...once when we went down to Mission, and again coming back. Last year, however, the price was only $12...this year it is $15 (weekly rates are only $80, though). It's not a fancy park, but it's nice...all the spaces are pull thrus which run parallel to the road and there is a lot of room between spaces.

Rig at Smith's Trailer Village:











Tuesday, April 2

We drove 149 miles to the Wildflower Inn in Johnson City, Texas. This park used to be called Pedernales Hills Resort and is a Coast to Coast (C2C) park. This is, it USED to be a C2C park...as we found out when we arrived, it isn't one any longer. Too bad. It's a nice park with lots of room to walk Maxx. The spaces have only water and electric, but the person who checked us in said that the owners were planning on putting in sewer next year.

View from our space at Wildflower Inn:











Wednesday, April 3 thru Monday, April 8

We drove 180 miles to our home C2C park in Whitney, Texas, Suncountry Resort on Wednesday. We like this park and the little town of Whitney. There's a brand new grocery store and medical clinic just down the road from the park and the park itself has lots of places to walk Maxx (always a consideration when we're looking for a place to stay).

On Thursday, we drove into Waco to do shopping...picked up some new filters for our Pur water pitcher at Home Depot, bought a new laptop computer at Circuit City, filled up with fuel at the Flying J, and had lunch at the Olive Garden.

Friday night, we went to dinner at Tres Hermanos, one of the local Mexican food restaurants. This restaurant has very good food...just as good as Las Canteras in Mission.

We did grocery shopping over the weekend at the new grocery store in Whitney, Brookshire's. It's a really nice store...a great improvement over the other two stores in town.

When our mail from Sioux Falls didn't arrive on Monday (we'd received our mail from the Escapees on Thursday), I gave Alternative Resources a call. It hadn't been sent out! This makes the second time in a row that they've screwed up and not sent our mail out when I've requested them to. I was absolutely livid! The Escapees mail forwarding service has NEVER made a mistake with our mail...not even once, let alone twice! I wrote an e-mail to Paul, who I'm assuming is the owner of Alternative Resources, and told him how very unhappy we were about the service we'd received to date. I've also written an e-mail to the Escapees' Boomers BOF (Birds of a Feather) to see if anyone knows of a mail forwarding service in western South Dakota around the Rapid City area. As much as I hate to send out ANOTHER set of changes of address, I've lost all confidence in AR.

Tuesday, April 9

Since our mail from Sioux Falls wasn't going to be arriving, we left Whitney and drove 155 miles to another C2C park...Indian Nation RV Resort in Thackerville, Oklahoma. We first stopped in Denton, Texas, to have a late lunch/early dinner at the Cracker Barrel and do some shopping at Camping World...we found the foot stool I've been looking for to use in the truck.

Interesting tree at rest stop:

Maxx in tree:











Wednesday, April 10 thru Thursday, April 11

Today we drove 205 miles to the Elks Club in Perry, Oklahoma. We stayed here last year on our way north. This Elks Club has 6 spaces with water and electric, plus a dump. We were planning on spending only one night here, but when we got up Thursday morning, the weather report showed strong thunderstorms in the area we would be traveling, so we decided to wait another day. We drove into town and filled up with diesel and then that evening we had hamburgers at the Club.

Friday, April 12 thru Sunday, April 14

We drove 189 miles to the Cottonwood Point campground at Marion Lake near Marion, Kansas, stopping along the way to have lunch at a Subway. This is another Corps of Engineers campground and we had a space right next to the lake...great! We decided to stay here three nights and drive into Junction City on Monday morning. We drove into Marion a couple of times to do grocery shopping and pick up the Sunday paper.

Sunset at Marion Lake:











Monday, April 15

We drove the 80 miles to Junction City, arriving at Horizons about 11:30 and found the parking spaces completely filled (we'd arrived unannounced). Ken said that they'd probably have space on Wednesday, so we unhooked, had lunch at the Cracker Barrel, then took the fifth wheel out to the West Rolling Hills COE park at Milford Lake where we spent a quiet couple of days (except for the thunderstorms!).

Wednesday, April 17 thru Thursday, April 18

We arrived at Horizons at about 9:00 and parked. There was another couple there that were at Horizons last spring at the same time we were there, so it was like old home week. We gave Harold our plans for the new trailer and then, since they weren't going to be able to start work until Thursday, we drove into town to do shopping at the WalMart Supercenter. That evening, we had dinner at El Cazador, a Mexican food restaurant. They have good food...not as good as Las Canteras in Mission or Tres Hermanos in Whitney, however.

The Horizons employees started work on our rig Thursday morning. We had several small items taken care of: a new black tank sprayer installed; the metal strip between the carpet and linoleum in the kitchen replaced (which had broken); the grates and two burners on the stove replaced (the grates had become warped and the burners had all the shiny black burned off); three whole new light fixtures put in the kitchen (we'd just wanted new plastic covers replaced on a couple of them because the light bulbs had burned holes in them); the broken day/night shade over the table was replaced; and, a cable was run from the satellite dish to the second receiver in the bedroom (we'd been running the cable thru the bedroom window).

Friday, April 19

We drove 186 miles to Fairground Park in Higginsville, Missouri. This is a nice little park located between the fairgrounds and the city park. Each site has electricity and water is available. The best part is the price...$7 per night. We stopped along the way and had lunch at Hardee's.

Saturday, April 20 thru Sunday, April 21

We arrived at Ron and Donna Monroe's place in Columbia, Missouri about 2:30 in the afternoon. Donna fixed a delicious casserole that evening...and a wonderful coconut/banana cream pie and a cheesecake!

Sunday, Earl and I went shopping at Sam's Club and had a nice visit with Ron and Donna. That evening, Ron barbecued some to-die-for pork chops and we had more of Donna's great desserts.

Monday, April 22

All too soon, we had to leave Ron's and Donna's. We stopped at a Country Kitchen to have breakfast...they had a breakfast special of 1 pound of ham with 2 eggs, hash browns, and toast for about $5.00. We had enough ham left over from our two breakfasts for ham sandwiches.

We drove 175 miles to the Island View campground at Rathbun Lake near Centerville, Iowa (another COE park). Camping at this park is free from late September thru April...no water is available at this time, but the sites do have electrical hookups.

Rig at Rathbun Lake:

View from our site:











Tuesday, April 23

We drove 266 miles to Woodland Camp in Little Sioux, Iowa, a Coast to Coast park. We stopped in Decatur City to fuel the truck and at the Flying J in Des Moines to have lunch.

Wednesday, April 24 thru Tuesday, April 30

We fought a strong head wind all the way from Little Sioux to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, a distance of 132 miles. Earl drove at 55 MPH in fifth gear the entire distance.

We arrived at the Red Barn RV Park, which is actually in the town of Tea, a suburb of Sioux Falls, early in the afternoon. Decided to have dinner out at the Cracker Barrel.

On Thursday, we went by Alternative Resources, our mail forwarder, to pick up our mail and meet the personnel there. Then we went by the Verizon store where we tried to change our cell phone number to a Sioux Falls number. However, we were not able to do so without losing our 3,350 weekend minutes, since that promotion is no longer running. We could have changed to the America's Choice and received 4,000 anytime minutes, but that plan has roaming charges in certain non-Verizon areas. We were also given a new phone since we were having problems with the one we had. We then stopped at Schlotsky's for lunch.

Friday found us downtown getting our driver's licenses. We didn't have to take any written tests...just walked in, gave them our Texas licenses, had our pictures taken, and voila, we are now full fledged South Dakotans! Afterwards, we did grocery shopping and filled up a propane tank. Propane is expensive here...it cost us about $23 to fill up a 40 pound tank compared to the usual cost of $14 - $16.

It's been cold here at nights...below freezing! We've unhooked the water and drained all the hoses before going to bed, using the water from the fresh water tank during the night. One day, it rained the entire day and the wind really blew...we spent most of the day holed up inside the RV (at least it didn't snow!).

On Monday, Earl took the truck in to get an oil change and lube job. He stopped by the grocery store on his way back and did grocery shopping.

Tuesday we went to Carlos O'Kelly's for lunch (a Mexican food chain...good food, but nothing to write home about). We stopped at a truck stop on the way back to put diesel in the truck in preparation for our departure tomorrow.