Heading On Down the Road

Walls Drug is a memory,

as are the views of South Dakota.

And beginning of a bummer week.

But our patience paid off and we were on our way again.  Really had to twist Chuck arm to get him to stop at the Corn Palace, once he got the wheels rolling he was in go mood.  But he admitted that the stop was worth it. 

Each year they completely change the design, so basically it is almost always being put together.  The turrets and spirals had yet to be decorated.  Quite interesting, and the inside auditorium is also done.                                    

                                

We stopped and had lunch with Dave & Bev in a great little local café.  We had planned to spend a few days earlier, but glad we got to have a nice visit.  Other than that we just took our time, although 1000 miles in 3 days, is a little more than we usually think about doing.  But we wanted to get here with time to spare before the Montana rally, which starts Wednesday.  Getting our axles, wheels the whole 9 yards looked, to see if we need to upgrade/repair, what ever it takes. 

Our first day here, Saturday, we had to pay a visit to Rise N’ Roll.  If you  ever are in the vicinity well worth a stop, the caramel donuts are to die for. And Chuck wants everyone to know that he had a donuts for one and all.  Then we headed for Shipshewana only to find the flea market wasn’t open…….but Yoder's was!  We came back through Goshen and hit a few of the stores.  A shopper I am not, but let me tell you, Chuck almost had to drag me out, think there are nail marks in the carpet of Target Super store.  It has been at least a couple of months since we have been around the big stores, once I got in I just looked and touched like I was in heaven.  Back to earth, today was laundry which means we are good to go. 

Tuesday we take the RV by MorRyde and see what their suggestions are.  Then we will move to Goshen where the rally is, after it is over, we will come back and have the work done.  Once that is taken care of we will be making our way to Tennessee for Lisa’s Gathering.

Life is Good

Purgatory

That is what we are thinking we are in.  Left Gillette, heading east, final destination was to be Elkhart/Goshen.  Just a buzzing down I-90 when we get a ding, ding.  Overheating???  Stopped and sure enough we had water coming out the bottom of the engine pretty serious like.  Well luckily we had cell service, Good Sam RS, once again. This was shortly after noon, and each time we thought someone was coming to our rescue, near the scheduled arrival time, we would receive a call saying they were not coming.  They were actually hinting that we might be there till the next day.  We could see a water tower, Kadoka, SD, in the distance and as it was getting dark we agreed to a tow there.  Bad move.  That ended their responsibility….have a good day, idiot.  We found a dodge/ford/gmc dealer (one size fits all) 20 miles away, but we had to arrange the tow there. Thank goodness for cell phones and the internet.  We were lucky after 3 days they installed the water pump, but there is a small part that is needed to keep the pressure up or down or something, anyway they don’t have it, NO ONE has it ANYWHERE.  A shipment is scheduled to arrive in Denver this coming Tuesday, so even with overnighting looking at Thursday at the earliest for getting on the road.  But they did warn us that it was only a scheduled shipment. 

Woke up yesterday and the fridge was not working.  Luckily switched it to gas, went and got a couple of bags of ice, and it cooled off. Seems to be working, not switching it back till we are in Elkhart. 

Hopefully this will one day be one of those funny stories for around the campfire someday, but right now, well we are still finding a little humor in it. That is it, done moaning, whooo is me.  Enough. We have some friends passing through next Tuesday and they have promised to stop, so looking forward to seeing them.

Tomorrow is the 9/11 anniversary, 10 years ago, we were sitting on a plane in Sacramento waiting to take off.  Compared to something like that, we are totally blessed. 

Life is Good

GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY. GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL..

 

Last night, we joined the other rally “left overs” for a surprise 50th birthday party for Marcia Jones.  Chasingthe70s  Think she was truly surprised,  and we all had a great time.  Happy Birthday, Marcia.

Up early this morning, hitching the old horse to the wagon to start the trek down the road.  We are heading for Iowa,, where we have friends that we will spend a few days with.  Want to make a stop and take in the Corn Palace too.  So with plans laid out, we will soon have Gillette in our rear view mirror.  Made some great memories, enjoyed it very much.

Life is Good

Escapade 2011

Almost 700 rigs, double that for attendees, and a good time had by all.  Our leaders, Bob and Molly Pinner, along with many volunteers did an outstanding job. 

There were vendors galore, nightly entertainment, many seminars to choose from, and of course all the “happy hours”. 

Best of all, seeing friends we have met over the years, and the chance to make new ones.  We also got to meet a few of the fellow Jojobaians, we can’t wait to see our new parking place in Jojoba Hills in California.  When closing ceremonies took place we were ready for it all to come to an end.  Busy, busy turned into tired over the week. Now we will take a few days to let it all sink in, visit with friends, as most are staying for at least a few days. 

Class of 07 adopted about 8 couples this year, so we are becoming quite a large ”family”.  We had a happy hour earlier this week with a large turn out.  Tonight we are having a baked potato gathering. That is always fun, everyone brings a baked potato and one topping, and that lowly potato turns into a gourmet treat.

We are having our RV weighed when we leave here on the 6th, hopefully we are not too much overweight.  Be wonderful if we were under weight, something that I personally have never had to deal with.  We have taken a lot off the rig, and replaced it with much lighted items, so I’m hoping…… sort of like taken off your shoes before stepping on the scale.  I did go through the cupboards and donated lots of can goods, even 5 pounds of sugar, to the food drive the Escapees was having for the food bank in Gillette. Okay, that is like taking off the earrings!  It will be nice to have a storage shed on our lot, give us some place to store things that we only need when we are sitting for awhile. We may not have a stick and bricks, but we have “stuff” stored all across the USA. 

Our last minute purchase at the rally, a Adventure Caravans 7 day tour for the Rose Parade.  This will make the 4th time we have done this and each time has been better than the last.  I think of all the things we have done or seen this is by far my favorite. It is so nice to just park the rig, and let some one else do the driving, AND parking.  Highly recommend it to anyone thinking of taking the parade in.  My favorite part is the post float viewing, it is amazing to see some of the uses of fruit, vegetables and flowers up close. The floats are parked for a few days which gives you plenty of time to have a good look.

Life is Good

Rally Round

We spent six days in Cody, had a great time.  The RV park was ever so nice to us, letting us use part of the restaurant at night to play cards.  They also did a breakfast buffet which was quite good, and the price of five dollars was very reasonable.  Chuck took advantage of it, I believe 3 times, but I only tried it once.  Not so much of a morning person, I kind of like to ease into the day.  Three of the group was checking into the rally one day earlier than the rest of us, so they ran on ahead.  Being as we had to check in before noon, we decided that we would spend the night closer to Gillette, making for a short drive the last day, so we bedded down in Buffalo.

Waiting for Thanksgiving, well maybe not, they looked kind poorly.

The drive over the pass into Buffalo was very scenic, with a climb to almost 10,000, it still was an easy trip.

 

Made for an easy drive 70 mile jaunt the last morning.  Once here it didn’t take us long to get settled in.  What a wonderful place to have a rally.  Huge facility, and everything is under one roof. What a fun time we had, an update is in the works and will have that up soon.