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