10/10/2013, Thursday:  Sitting in Ellis Lake Campground in Ellis, Kansas – I think this state is windier than North Dakota! Curt’s been using the metal detector and I’ve been walking. We’re getting our mail transferred and spending time in between storm systems  again.

Back in Iowa, in September: We stayed at Lake Anita State Park for a little over a week. It was nice to sit still and look out at a lake. We didn’t have a lot of neighbors during the week. Didn’t make it on my 4-mile hike around the lake, but the wind has been pretty strong this week and Curt didn’t want to do the hike and I didn’t really want to go the whole way alone. I started out on the path and got to an area where a van was parked, didn’t see anybody around, but just didn’t feel comfortable. So I started going back, took a path into the tenting campground and there sat a pickup with somebody in it, just watching. No tent. Now I really didn’t feel comfortable so I went back to our area and walked around. We’ve been trying to decide when to leave, and where to go to. There’s been storms in Colorado and Nebraska.

9/29: Took off for Council Bluffs, Iowa. Curt wants to get the oil changed on the motorhome. We had it done at Speedco in Arizona on the old motorhome at a decent price. That was synthetic Mobil, this time it’s just Mobil. There’s also a Camping World in Omaha that we’re going to try to get a ladder at. He’s been looking for a 7 foot double-sided ladder ever since we left, but he doesn’t want to pay the price, of course. We had seen one in Quartzsite. Now Camping World website has it on sale. Curt called the store to see if they would honor the price. She said if we print off the sale ad, they will honor the web site price.

 Lake Anita beach

 I don't know if they're eating lunch or taking a nap, hiding in the trees?

 Wind generators by Anita, IA

 Above and 2 below is art in Council Bluffs, IA

 Welcome to Nebraska!

Got his new ladder and used it right away to wash the windshield.

10/1: Another storm system coming in. We’re going to go south of Lincoln instead of going to Kearney to see if we can avoid it.

North Platte River

Tractor Supply Company Distribution Center

Above & below pics are geocaches in one area. I thought the below one in the shape of RS is interesting.

10/2: We were lucky we went south, sounds like they got hit in central Nebraska. We’re going to stop at Junction City and see if we can our air conditioner fixed. There’s a hose that cracked (I think that’s what Curt said). There’s some truck dealers there, but one of them referred us to the ThermoKing area dealer. We got there about 4:00 in the afternoon and he looked at the hose, etc. Between the two of them, they decided that he would try to fix it instead of sending us to Witchita. (Currently Witchita is in a severe storm warning again.)  We went to Walmart to pick up some freon for Curt to put in the next morning, stayed overnight there, and then got back to the dealer early the next morning. We ended up with a bill mostly for a couple of hours of labor, and hopefully it’ll work for a while. Curt isn’t too positive about it.

 Road change from Nebraska to Kansas

 Welcome to Kansas  - a small sign since we're not on the interstate

That camper is a tiny bit on the small side!

 Greyhound Hall of Fame in Abilene, KS

Had to stop there since our son and daughter-in-law have a rescued greyhound

 Walls of fame, including dogs and people

 The great-grandfather to our son and daughter-in-law's dog

 The two resident rescued greyhounds above and below - Jade and Nick. They greeted us at the door, but weren't allowed inside the museum, so went to lie down.

Below pics are of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Center. All of the buildings (visitor center, museum, library, house) were closed due to the government shutdown

 Our air conditioning shop

88 degrees at 5:00 at night

 On the way from Salina to Russell, KS, lots of wind generators!

 little oil pumpers

On Friday, 10/04, we went to Triple J RV Resort at Russell, KS. It's a Passport America park, $15 a night + $2 extra for 50 amp + tax came to $18.90. It's interesting that some of the Passport America parks keep it a straight amount, no tax. Majority only take cash. A few don't give receipts. This is a small park. We were at the end of the park, a pull-thru so we didn't have to unhook, but no shelter from the wind. This is the windiest state! We didn't even put our slides out while we were there. It was constant, I'm sure not less than 20 mph. 

 Reindeer in the mini golf park, which obviously doesn't get used as mini golf any more.

We stayed there through Sunday, watching the weather again, with a storm front coming in from the west. From there we went to Ellis, KS. It's not far, I believe only 60 miles, but there is a city campground there that is only $15 and we should be able to get our mail sent to the post office general delivery. There, again, we'll be watching the weather.

 This bird is at Hays, KS

 They've had a drought here for 3 years now; can't even water their grass. I'm surprised we can use the water hookups.

 Some beautiful old buildings.

Now back on 10/10. Curt has been spending time metal detecting and cleaning the coach, and I've been baking and cooking and walking. It's a nice little town. We just put our slides in as there is a severe storm warning at the Colorado border and coming this direction. They're talking about 60 mph winds, rain and possible hail. I'm not liking the midwest.

Almost a month again; man, this is hard getting back into blog mode!

8/26/13, Tettegouche State Park:  We did some hikes today, both around 1-1/2 miles. It’s really hot and humid out. While at Tettegouche, we took a day and drove to Gooseberry Falls State Park and Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.  We did some hiking and got both of the State geocaches. I’m surprised the hikes to them were as long as they were (1.8 and 2.2 miles), as people with little kids might have a hard time doing them. Other than going up and down stairs, or near areas near water that aren’t too safe. Gooseberry Falls was a very busy place; it was hard to get pictures of the falls without people in them. By the time we had finished the hike at Split Rock Lighthouse, the lighthouse tour was closed and we were able to walk up around the area without paying for it (just not inside). We had done 3 long hikes that day and my shins were hurting by the time we got back. Needless to say, they hurt for a couple of days after.

We took off the morning of the 28^th and got to Minong, Wisconsin, heading back to our daughter’s place. We took the Wisconsin route since we hadn’t gone that way. We thought we’d spend Labor Day weekend with them before leaving the state. We spent the evening in a Holiday station lot, along with a lot of trucks coming and going. There were two restaurants right next door. We had remembered Wisconsin as bad roads, but these highways have been pretty good. There is a lot of road construction though, no matter what state we’re in. Back in Cottage Grove, more reading books, playing with girls, baking, cooking, washing “pink” clothes (never had a load of just pink clothes before), first day of school, watching swimming lessons, babysitting and raking leaves off of the driveway to make a pile on the grass. Guess we stayed a little longer than the weekend. I was worn out, but loved it all. 

9/11/13,: We went to Eagle Cliff Campground at Lanesboro, MN, a Passport America campground. They have the river on 3 sides and do a lot of canoe, kayak and tube rentals. There are permanent/seasonal residents on one side with the office and a hill in between the overnighters.  We took a full hookup, but the spot she gave us had trees that we wouldn’t be able to open up our slides, so she moved us a row ahead. We moved into that and Curt checked the electric and it was only 30 amp (the other one was 50 amp).  He tried our air conditioner and that worked, so figured we’d give it a try.  Curt fished (tried) one day, we went for walks. Saturday we went into Lanesboro for the Farmer’s Market and Taste of the Trail. There were some Amish buggies in town; the ladies were selling canned goods, quilts, sewed items, baskets, vegetables. We walked around town to see what the Taste of the Trail is. There were a few food vendors, some musicians. It’s a small town, old. There’s a city campground right by the river, but it’s $25 (more than what we’re paying) and not full hookups. There’s another campground at the edge of town along the river, and that looked really tight-fitting. I was planning on leaving Sunday, but the weather forecast was for wind and rain, so we stayed another night. The campground is not paved and there was water sitting around. 

 We had to stop for an accident to get cleaned up, a cement truck

 Eagle Cliff Campground

 Farmers market at Lanesboro, MN

 The largest tomatoes were the size of grapefruit

 We've never seen a volkswagen pulling a trailer!

9/16/13, Monday:  On to Albert Lea, MN, to fill fuel and stayed at Walmart.  Happy birthday to my dad of 89 years and happy 4^th anniversary to my son and daughter-in-law. The next morning I got some geocaches nearby; it was cold and windy that morning. We went to Brushy Creek State Recreation Area near Fort Dodge, Iowa. Few trees in the campground we were in (Curt doesn’t like trees and slides), and we were able to find a 50 amp, electric-only site away from others. It’s $16 electric, $19 full hookup. We went with just electric. The power here is really good. There’s a beach, fishing pier and boat ramp near by. One day Curt did some metal detecting on the beach (he looked it up in the state park rules first).  I had planned on leaving Thursday so we’d have a better chance of getting a non-reservable campsite at Lake Anita State Park, but the weather forecast again did not sound good for most of Iowa, worse south of us (where we were going). So, we waited it out. (This is why we don’t make reservations!) We got some wind, but the Des Moines area got lots of wind, up to 80 mph in some areas, and rain. Lucky we sat it out.

 Lots of road construction

 Wind generators all over

 Fuel $3.92

 Welcome to Iowa!

 Brushy Creek Recreation Area, near Fort Dodge, IA

 Trees in the water, I don't know how boats get around

 Vines covered up

Don't know what this crop is

09/20/13, Friday: On the way to the Lake Anita State Park the next morning we saw an area for about 5 miles that had been hit by the wind with broken branches, but the campground area looked fine. There were quite a few campers already in the campground, but we found an area with electric and backed in. It’s $16 electric, $19 full hookup also. We went with just electric again. This power isn’t near as good as Brushy Creek’s was. The lake is right across the road from us. It would be a real nice campground if the sites were every other one, instead of so close. The neighbor’s fire pit was right next to our bedroom, and, of course, they had a fire Friday and Saturday night. There were quite a few fires going. We don’t mind fires, it’s the smoke we don’t like, and the kid beside us had a hard time getting his fire going, so it was real smoky. So we closed windows and started the air conditioner. Sunday afternoon most of the campers left, and it was nice having most of the neighbors gone. Curt said he didn’t think he’d ever dislike weekends –  weekends are full of people and not relaxing any more! We went for some walks around the campground and if it’s nice tomorrow, just might try the 4-mile hike around the lake.

 Above & below pics after storm

 The campground was full by Friday night

August 25, 2013, Sunday – Wow, has it been a long time since I’ve been on here! 

To continue from where we were back in June – Fort Peck Downstream Campground. It’s a pretty, green campground, lots of room. Only $18 a night with 50 amp. We were only able to stay 2 nights as it was booked for the weekend. So we decided to go on to Cottonwood Campground north of Medora in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. There are no hookups, but we’ve always like Cottonwood. It isn’t real big rig friendly. We spent 3 nights there @ $10/night. I was disappointed this time. The grass was real tall, looked like they hadn’t mowed some areas at all. They mow only around the immediate camping area and picnic area. We were parked on the asphalt and our picnic table was in the grass and it wasn’t mowed around the table so we didn’t use it. There were a few trails mowed, to the restrooms and the amphitheater area. It was completely  full Saturday and they even let some campers park on the parking lot area. There was a pickup and horse trailer that came in about dark and parked in the lot. The people got out and went to the amphitheater for the ranger program. After that the guy from the pickup came over to our grill/picnic table area and was going to start a fire in the grill area. Curt told him that that was our grill and we didn’t want a fire in it. He asked us what we were camping for if we didn’t have a fire?  Shortly after that we saw a park ranger coming toward us with a flashlight so Curt went out to talk to him and told him what happened. The ranger said they’ve had problems with his gentleman before and he couldn’t park where he was at and was told to leave. That morning we had a couple and their dog tenting across the road from us. The dog was let out of the tent in the morning and was running around for about a half hour before they got up and he went back. When I looked out the window a little bit later the couple was standing by their car, which was parked by a couple of bushes, and the man was peeing in the bushes. The restroom was a campsite away. Really?!  Curt told the ranger about that too. He said that things have changed a lot in the last year. I guess. They also had found 3 rattle snakes in the campground that weekend.

Sunday we went to Dickinson and checked in to North Park Campground. We paid for a week and told them we weren’t sure how long we would be there, probably 2 weeks, if we could pay on an as-you-go basis. They had no problem with that. We had some friends come over for the evening and I talked to my dad for father’s day and we were meeting the next morning for breakfast.  The next morning I found out my stepmother had a stroke during the night and that changed everything. We spent two weeks in the St. Alexius Medical Center parking lot in Bismarck and then 3-1/2 weeks in Dickinson for/after a funeral. Got to see a lot of relatives, not that that’s the way we want to see them though. The town keeps growing due to the oil activity and it’s changing a lot.

In Montana we had gotten a rock chip in our RV window. While sitting in the parking lot at St. Alexius it cracked all the way up. We contacted our insurance and got a windshield ordered, which we had put in in Bismarck after leaving Dickinson. We stayed at Sweet Briar Recreation Area a couple of miles out of Bismarck the night before. It’s a small lake, kind of cozy. There are some fire rings and picnic tables, areas to fish and put a boat in. There were two other campers that night in the area we were in. You’re able to drive around most of the lake to park/camp, if you don’t mind the roads. We did it with the Jeep once and decided that we wouldn’t do it with an RV.  The camper that came in after us was a pickup pulling a trailer. It looked like a car trailer, and when they opened up the back there was a motorcycle and lots of boxes in there. They unloaded almost everything and laid a mattress down. There were cupboards inside for a living area.  The next morning they loaded everything back in. He had a fire that night, I don’t know if he cooked on it or not, but it was really windy out. The next morning they had a fire again and they left with it still burning and it was windy again. Curt took a bucket and went to the lake to get some water and put out the fire. On his second trip there he fell in the lake (the rocks were slippery I guess). I had just gotten up and looked out the window and he was walking towards the RV and was soaking wet. I couldn’t imagine what had happened. We took off to Bismarck to get our windshield put in. They had originally told us that it could take up to 5 hours; having it put in and waiting for it to seal. We were only there an hour. So on to Fargo we went.

On Saturday, the 27^th, we went to Curt’s sister and brother-in-law's cabin in Minnesota. They’ve completely redone it and it’s gorgeous. They had a lot of people out for the weekend, which they usually do, including their family. We got to see all of their kids and their grandchildren. It was a cold and windy weekend, but Sunday night it was beautiful out (like usual, on a Sunday when everyone has to go home). We weren’t able to park in their driveway, but we were able to park in a neighbor’s. We stayed the week there, fishing with them. A couple of days were so nice and calm. We caught a lot of sunfish and a few rock bass. They were small, but we kept them and ate them. It was a calm, relaxing and fun week.

On to kids and granddaughters! Lots of giggles and screams! We were able to park at our daughter’s place thankfully. They did have to do a little tree cutting. Our son and daughter-in-law flew in from Virginia for a week. We had fun hiking, geocaching and sight-seeing, building volcanoes, reading books and playing computer games (of course). And eating constantly. We went to Canterbury Park to watch the horse races. The kids  got pony rides and their faces painted. We went to Como Park, Zoo and Conservatory one day. There’s lots of walking to do there and I’ve always enjoyed the place, and, it’s free. We did hiking and geocaching at some of the county parks.

On to William O’Brien State Park, we stayed there from the 12^th through the 18^th. It was a nonreservable site, so we were able to keep paying for it nightly as long as we wanted. It’s $28 night with electricity, $22 without. We went with the electricity. Korene and Jason and the girls came for the weekend and we did some more hiking. There was a kid’s program Saturday afternoon where they made a fishing rod with a pop can and fish line and it actually worked. The fish were pretty tiny. After that the girls played on the beach for a while. It was pretty warm that day. We hiked almost every day we stayed there.

We decided to go up north toward Duluth. We went to Pokegama Lake RV Park at Pine City, MN. It’s a Passport America campground for $17.10 a night for full hookups. They have a pool, a pavilion, office and game room and a golf course. It’s across from Pokegama Lake, which looked very green from where we were. I washed clothes and did some baking and extra cooking in case we weren’t going to have electricity in the next few days. We went on to Cloquet Walmart and then Hermantown Walmart. Hermantown is about 20 miles from Canal Park  and downtown Duluth. With the prices of the campgrounds in the Duluth area, we decided to just drive and spend the day in Duluth and it probably would be cheaper. And being a weekend (our timing wasn’t too good) everyone was booked for Saturday. We parked on the other side of the lift bridge (free) and walked across to Canal Park. There were a lot of people (Saturday) but we were able to take pictures of the ships coming in  and go through the visitor center without problems. It amazes me the size of those ships, and the ones we saw were supposedly the smaller ones, at only 700’s feet in length, compared to some at over 1000 feet.  From there we decided to look at some of the campgrounds that we had looked up on the internet and see if it was someplace we wanted to spend $35 or so or not. One is right off of the one on the other side of the lift bridge, but it’s got a marina in front of it and you’d be facing the wrong way to see the bridge or the ships. It would have been hard to get the motorhome to it also.  We took Hwy 61 and then the Scenic North Shore Drive up to Two Harbors and then 61 back down again.

Today, 8/25/13, we are TettegoucheState Park near Silver Bay, MN. We got one of the last two electric sites, #33. Tomorrow we have to move to #20 because that one will be free and this one is booked for the week. Some of their sites, like 33, are backing up a hill and hoping that you fit on the level part. It was suppose to get in the 90’s today; I don’t know if it made it that high but it was really humid and I’m glad we have electricity. It’s $28, 30 amp, and we’re able to use the air conditioning. Hopefully tomorrow is a little bit better so we can do some of the hiking to waterfalls. We did get a thunderstorm tonight with tiny hail, and it looks like there’s more coming in the forecast. Hopefully it breaks up around us.

I'll add pictures when I get through them all.