4/30/2014  Oacoma, SD

We spent yesterday trying to stay warm & dry.  It rained until about noon, with the rain going horizontal at times.  We can't imagine living in this environment...the wind is incessant.

About noon, the rain stopped and we started to see shadows at times.  So we unhooked the car and went for a ride.  We are on the Missouri River, so we crossed back to the tiny town of Chamberlain, east of where we are camped.  There isn't much there, a small town left over from the early 20th century, before I-90 was built sometime in the 60's.  We checked out a campground on the river, and both of the occupied spots.  We suspect there will be lots of fisherman there in the summer, something Chamberlain seems to thrive on.  On the west side of the river is a thriving 'resort', with a conference center, marina & large hotel & campground.  2 little cities thriving on visitors to the river & folks headed to the Black Hills.  I commented to Barb that I bet it gets crazy when the migration to & from Sturgis happens for the motorcycle rally.

Oacona was founded in 1919 when folks settled here after a road was built from Sioux Falls to Rapid City & beyond in each direction.  Autos have driven a LOT of development in this country...folks doing what we are up to.  We stopped & had a burger at Al's Oasis across the road from our campground...been there 95 years, hawking food, souvenirs (junk), gas & $.05 coffee. The next closest thing going west is Wall Drug, 200 miles away. It is truly a desolate place out here.  Lewis & Clark must have been wondering what they were doing out here when they crossed the Missouri in 1904...better them than me..lol.

We are moving north today, Dickinson, N Dakota is our destination.  Our route will take us thru Pierre, the capital of S Dakota & Bismarck, the capital of N Dakota, should be an interesting day. The sun is shining, it is 36 degrees, heading for 43, and the wind is rocking our camper, with the jacks still down...that could prove to be the making of a stressful drive...we shall see.  It is supposed to be 60+ tomorrow...whooohoo!.

Steve & Barb Larson

4/28/2014

We had a nice time in Minnesota, even if the weather didn't cooperate like we would have liked. They finally turned on the water at the campground on Friday.  We guess they must have decided it wasn't going to freeze again this Spring.
Sat. evening, we all went to the Canadian Honker restaurant in Rochester for dinner & to celebrate our 45th anniversary.  The walleye was delicous.  We had the whole family together for Easter at Sue & Brad's. Everyone misses Virgil & Marge...first time we all got together since they left us last summer.
Monday, the girls & I  drove to Red Wing & went to the cemetary for a Spring clean-up.  The VA had put a new marker for Virgil, noting his time in the Army during WW II, nice touch.  I saw Whitey & Rick Taylor that afternoon, doing some catch up.  The girls went to lunch and went shopping.
Tuesday, we went to Northfield (home of the final bank robbery by Jessie James & his gang ) to see my brother & Lynne.  We spent the afternoon talking and discussing a porch project they are planning.  Everyone is real sick of winter, it has been an extremely tough one.  We had dinner in downtown Northfield next to the Cannon River...pretty spot.  We spent the night there.
Thursday, we drove to Winona & spent the evening with Linda, Paul & Stacey.  Friday, we got together at the Harbor in Red Wing with Rick Taylor, Greg Erickson (who both were in our wedding in 69), Whitey & Deb.  Stephen McKenzie & Tom Hughes stopped by too, fun talking about old times & future plans.  Rick is retiring from Meyers/Thomas & Betts after 42+ years next week. We worked together back in the early 70's at Meyers...seems like a lifetime ago...actually, it is.
Sat, we had Brad & Sue & the girls over to our camper for BBQ'd chicken & the fixings.  It rained just as I was taking it off the grill (something new...lol ).  We have been on the road for 3 weeks and we have yet to put down the awning,  because of wind...
Sunday, we had 6 tickets to the Twins game against Detroit.  We started for the Twin Cities and Paul called and said the game had been postponed by rain :(.  I guess we aren't supposed to see any baseball...that is twice since Sept that we had tickets & didn't get to go...last Sept., we had Red Sox tickets for the day after Virgil died.  So we all got together at Brad & Sue's for steak dinner and goodbyes.  Brad even got hailed on while BBQing the steaks.  The weather has really sucked!!
Monday, we woke to (guess what?) Rain!  We waited a bit and packed up the inside of the camper. When the rain let up a bit, we unhooked utilities & hooked up the car & pulled out.  As we drove west, it started raining again & the wind out of the SE got just plain brutal.  When we turned south on I-35 at Owatona, the cross wind made driving quite a challenge.  We were very happy to turn west at Albert Lea so the wind would be behind us.  We had been planning to go NW on I-94 towards Fargo, but changed that plan when we checked the radar...the whole state was green, rain the whole way with 3 days of rain predicted.  So we decided to go out into South Dakota and try to avoid some of the ugly weather.  But as we went west, the wind got more brutal as we went.  Near Alexandria, SD, while driving west at 60+, the wind from behind tried to pull the awning loose.  I pulled over and the wind was so crazy, it was hard to even close the door on the camper.  I drove real slow to the next exit and got off, turned north, and the wind pushed the awning back in place, incredible. I drove about a mile and came to a tiny town & turned so the MH was blocking the wind so I could secure the awning.  I got out our ladder & secured bungee cords around the upright arms of the awning.  They should be OK ...never have we encountered wind like that in 30+ years of driving motor homes...crazy!.
We did drive by and take pictures of the Corn Palace in Mitchell. It was raining & blowing, so the pictures suck, but we did try. We then drove west to Oacoma, SD where we are camped for a few days.  We are west of the Missouri River, in a camground with one other camper...I guess most people know to stay home until summer arrives...lol.  The owner said we were as far west as we could be without having snow to deal with :).  We are going to sit here and see where the bad weather goes and act accordingly.





We are safe, we have heat (it is 38 & raining this morning), we have electricity, WIFI & satellite TV. We are on the western bank of the Missouri and the wind is still blowing at 20+, making it feel like 23...think we will stay inside most of the day :).

Steve & Barb

Barb & Sue at their parents grave

Virgil's plaque by VFW

Greg Erickson, Rick Taylor & Steve McKenzie

Good to see Whitey & Deb

Best 45 years of my life

Our Anniversary  in Rochester

New Fan in the Motor home

Red Wing from my seat in a restaurant on the west end

Cannon River almost flooding in Northfield

4/18-27/2014

We arrived in Mantorville on Friday afternoon.  We have made arrangements to camp in an officially still closed campground in downtown Mantorville, so there is electricity but no water.  So we stopped at Sue's house & filled up the water tank and then set up at the Mantorville campground.  We are the only unit in a 10 spot campground...directly behind the City Hall & Fire Station.  We plan to be here 10 nights.  The next 10 days will be spent with family & friends from our time in Minnesota.

4/13-17/14  Leaving Grove City, headed west.  First stop was a Lowes in Youngstown, OH. The ceiling fan in the bed room in our motor home needs to be replaced.  Somewhere on I-77, one of the arms that holds a blade broke in half and the blade & 1/2 of the arm was laying on the bed.  Glad it wasn't running and we were sleeping under it.  Getting boinked on the head by a ceiling fan blade at 3 am would be quite fun...lol.  I called the manufacture and they couldn't help me, so replacement is the next step.  Lowes doesn't carry anything that will work, so the next plan is online.  We also went by a Sprint store to see if there was an issue with Barb's iPhone continuously dropping the hot spot feature.  We walked next door & talked to a Verizon rep about a phone for out west.  The Sprint store said nothing is wrong with Barb's phone...back on the road.

Next destination is Nappannee, IN and the Newmar Plant.  We camped there free over night. During the night, a storm went by, lots of wind and rain.  In the morning, the wind was blowing out of the NW & it had dropped about 30 degrees...brrrrrrr!  We went on a tour of the plant at 10, pretty cool seeing motor homes being built.  It was very enjoyable.

Back on the road at noon, heading west.  Just west of Chicago, it started snowing, lightly at first, then a little harder, getting more serious as we moved west.  Long about Princeton, IL the snow was going sideways and we were driving straight into it.  Then when we crossed the Mississippi just west of Moline, it stopped like someone hit a switch...we had forgotten how much fun it is to drive in the Midwest.  We arrived in Iowa City about 5 pm...wind just whipping still out of the SW...quite chilly.

We are at West Overlook Campground north of Iowa City, part of a campground complex (7 camp grounds) operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.  Nice campgrounds surrounding a dam on the Iowa River.  Behind the dam is a reservoir called Coralville Lake that formed. Beautiful spot worth checking out if you are in the area.  We are here for 4 nights, one of only 3 campers, have the place pretty much to ourselves.

First stop is a Verizon store, bought a tablet that also has a hot spot feature. What a difference, internet with no interruption is very cool.  So I started looking on line for a ceiling fan, looking at a lot of them.  I found one that will work on Amazon.com for $59...cool.  I am having it sent to Sue's house in MN.

We also spent an afternoon touring the Herbert Hoover Museum & Library in West Branch, Iowa. Fun looking at the archives, old pictures, etc.  He was quite a guy, did a lot for a lot of people before he was President and then got blamed for a lot of stuff that was not his doing, couldn't get congress to work with him after the Great Depression started a few months after his inauguration...everything was his fault....sound familiar??

We also celebrated my birthday too...we are all getting older.  We had a good stay in Iowa City.  Nice City.

Steve & Barb Larson

4/9/14...Wednesday morning, on the road.  We have Grove City, PA as a destination, but we are going to split it into 2 days.  760+ miles is too far for one day.  We made it all the way to a rest area in West Virginia the first day.  It was an uneventful but long day, 11 hours behind the wheel is a lot, but we are making progress.  The rest area is almost full and we take the final spot, have a little dinner and hit the sack.  Nice & quiet, good for sleeping.

4/10/14...Another day on the road.  We arrive at Larry & Peggy's in Grove City, PA about 1 in the afternoon.  All of the campgrounds in the area are not open until May 1 or even 15, so we had made arrangements to park on the street in front of their house.  Larry had even gone to the GC Police and asked for a parking permit so we wouldn't be hassled...good plan, Larry.  So for the next 3 days, we spent time with Larry & Peggy.  She had a valve replaced in her heart earlier in the spring, so she is dealing with the recovery from that plus a bout of pneumonia, which cost her about an extra week in the hospital.  She has had a rough time.  Their son and his family live on a farm a few miles away and we rode out there for a time with all the chickens, cows, goats and mostly the 3 oldest children.  They are getting older and it is so nice to see Anna acting as a normal 10 year old after her 3 year odyssey with her bout with cancer.  They also came over for dinner the last evening and Anna & Emma gave us a whole rendition of the 'Midnight Ride of Paul Revere'  It was pretty cool, with a lot of animation thrown in.  Nathaniel also played the piano & his cello for us, very talented young man.  Fun times.

Steve & Barb Larson

Larry's selection engraved and on a big rock on Grove City College's campus

Some of Scott & Nalene's farm

4/8/2014 Savanah, Ga.

Arrived at Skidaway Island State Park a few miles south of Savanah, where we will spend the next few days. It was raining when we arrived.  The campground is real nice, lots of trees, so there is a canopy that will shade the site if the sun comes out but no satellite TV, taking it for what it is.  We set up and then just relaxed the rest of the day.
Tuesday morning brought some sunshine, so we drove into Savanah and took a trolley ride through the city. Savanah has something like 27 parks in the downtown area and some very old structures, so it is a pretty ride. One of the parks is where they filmed Forest Gump telling a lady all about Miss Jenny near the end of the movie.  The city of Savanah is quite proud of that, even after all this time.  The sound system for the narration was pitiful, but we enjoyed the tour anyway.  We went back to the camper & set up the grill and cooked a steak for dinner...nice ending to a nice day.  Tomorrow is on the road again.

Steve & Barb Larson

All the pictures from these 2 days got lost somehow
  

4/4-7/2014

Monday morning in Jacksonville...time to move north.  We spent the weekend camped at Hanna Park here in Jacksonville.  We drove back to St Augustine Friday afternoon and went to Rhythm & Ribs with Tom & Lynn Marine.  Sister Hazel was playing...put on a great show.  Then it was 2 days of Blues at the 24th Annual Springing the Blues Fest on Jacksonville Beach.  We spent 2 days being entertained by about 10 different Blues bands while hanging out at the beach...fun times.

We are moving to Savannah, GA this morning...couple of days touring in the area.

Steve & Barb Larson

Sister Hazel at St Augustine

Tom & Lynn Marine enjoying Sister Hazel

Springing the Blues

T-minus 3 days and counting.  We are almost ready to get on the road.  Both of us are anxious to get going.  First stop is Jacksonville and the Springing the Blues Festival.  Friday night, we are going to drive down to St Augustine for a Sister Hazel concert and the Sat & Sun at the Blues Fest.

Steve & Barbara Larson