We said good-bye to Pat and Carol with heavy hearts and a few tears. We had such a great time and no one can compete with Carol for hostess with the most-ess. Thanks Carol and Pat for all of the wonderful meals, conversation and laughter. It was a much needed family boost.
We decided to stop in Kansas City, Kansas so that we could see Melissa and Jerad's house and get one more fix from our 5 H's. On the morning of our departure it was pouring rain! And we had neither cell-phone nor internet nor T.V. to check the forecast. I drove through two "rivers" to get to the adjacent restaurant (Papa Chubby's - Who's motto is "You can't beat our meat" - seriously) to see what they knew, but their T.V.'s were also knocked out. I drove back to the rig while chanting "Turn Around Don't Drown". Since the rain all week didn't seem to last very long we decided to wait a while instead of trying to drive on the little, windy roads - some gravel. Fortunately it stopped around 12:30 and we were on the road by 1:00. The drive was uneventful until we reached the Walnut Grove RV park - "The only game in town". When I made the reservation I was told that the pull through sites were too tight for us and that she would help me get into the back-in spot. The site was very wide, but only long enough to barely fit us and there were big rigs both across the "road" and adjacent. UGH. Peg got out to protect my nose and the park manager directed me into the spot. For once the help was welcome and actually helpful. It was a very small RV Park, but it did have a nice area in the back for the dogs. We spent Saturday with the Adams family and had a great time. Their new house is fabulous and fits all 7 of them, Astro the Great Dane and Holly the Beagle very comfortably. The basement of this house is fantastic. Complete with Hannah's spacious room, Astro's bed, Jerad's "man cave", a kitchen and ping pong table. Jerad has a sign on his man cave that says "No pink, No drama, No girls". That means only he and Astro can go in there! The back yard is spacious and houses, 5 box turtles all captured from Noni and Gpa's new lake house, a pumpkin patch, Jerad's garden and a trampoline. We brought along five loads of laundry as our last park didn't have laundry and Carol's septic was flooded from all of the rain. Grateful for Melissa's large machines! We were able to go to HelenRose's first soccer game of the season. This is her first year with a goalie on the field and she was brave enough to take a shot at it herself. She proved to be a very quick study, blocking shots and throwing the ball to her open teammates. It was a lot of fun and reminded me of all of the great days I spent watching Alex play soccer. We returned home to find Jerad slaving away in the kitchen preparing our gourmet feast of Guinness Beef Pot Pie, which you have to prepare while you drink a Guinness - It was fabulous. After our wonderful meal we sat around the big family table and chatted about life which can't be done without awesome wine! What a great family! Hannah, we hope you had a great first day of high school.
Really? Not a turd in the bunch!
Left to Right: Hadley, HelenRose, Jerad, Hilary, Melissa, Hope and Hannah
Big family needs a big dog. Astro and Hannah
Professional goalie in our future? Great game HelenRose!
Onawa, Iowa August 11 - 13, 2013
We hit the road to start our trek to Mount Rushmore. We have decided we really only like to drive about 250 - 300 miles at a stretch and that a two night stay is perfect to rejuvenate us. We also are trying to hit as many states as possible. Since we started our U.S. sticker map we have become a little obsessed with hitting all of the states. We chose Onawa, Iowa partly because it was 5 miles from Nebraska and partly because the name of the RV park was On-Ur-Wa... get it? On your way? It turned out to be a great stop. A very nice park with the longest pull through spots I have ever seen. We used our off day to drive into Nebraska to take a hike in the Pelican Point State Recreation Area. We followed the signs and soon found ourselves Chaco'd - lost in the middle of acres of corn fields. We turned around and headed back to the safety of Iowa. We spent two hours driving in Nebraska so we earned that sticker!
Proof!
Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota? Who knows?
Lillypads for our Lillypad back in Gloucester
Chamberlain, South Dakota August 13 - 15, 2013
It was a very easy drive from Onawa to Chamberlain on the straight flat roads with corn fields, grazing cows and what we finally found out to be soy bean fields all along the route. Starting in upstate New York and all through our drive south and west there have been hundreds and hundreds of acres of corn fields..... it begs the question where does all this corn go? Are we really using all of it? We made really good time and made it to the Happy Campers RV park. There was a sign on the office to pick a site and pay later. There were only a few sites open, but they were pull-thru and next to a big grass area. That'll do Peg; That'll do. (Remember the movie Babe?) We used our free day to grocery shop thinking that Chamberlain was a fairly good size town. Ooops. One very small grocery store which actually had a pretty good produce and meat section, but lacked some of life's necessities like Claritin, basil, eggplant and there was no pharmacy in town. The people in Chamberlain have obviously never seen two women drive a B.A.T. (Big Ass Truck for those who might have forgotten) either.... we have never gotten so many strange looks in our entire year of travel.
Roadside sculpture somewhere in SD
Look at us go! How did we miss Connecticut Peg's mother wants to know. I don't know Mom, I can't figure it out either
Coming soon.... Mount Rushmore, SD
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