Monday, August 9

We are home!!!! Most will agree that vacations are great, but it is always good to come home. We have had warm welcomes from our great neighbors and will be planning times with them soon to share stories of our adventures. Curt and Yvonne are spending an extra week in Bishop, CA, just relaxing and winding down before arriving home. We miss them very much and will be happy to have them next door again soon.

Love and thanks to all of you who have faithfully followed our blog. It was fun for us to know that you were tuning in to our travels. We’ll be doing some short trips in the near future (1-2 weeks), so we’ll be in touch and will let you know where and how we are.

Saturday and Sunday, August 7 & 8

These final few days were really tiring because of the winds, but none of this put a damper on our fabulous trip. Our dear friends, Yvonne and Curt, made it the trip of a lifetime for us. We are all, not only still speaking, but are even closer for having had this experience together

Friday, August 6

Ivan battled very strong winds today for 300+ miles. We were both pretty exhausted when arrived at our campsite in Fillmore, Utah. This is the time for decisions. Do we go with our original plan to stop at Mammoth, CA and fish for a couple of weeks, or do we head for home? I had been a bit “under the weather” for the last week (fine now), so we decided that we would fish on the next trip out.

Travel Day to Idaho, Thursday, August 5

We left Yellowstone this morning and drove 215 miles to Village of Trees RV Park in Declo, Idaho. Aaaah! The land of potatoes. The park is situated on the Snake River, which we were hoping to fish; however, it is too wide, too deep, too fast for our kind of fishing. We spent the afternoon catching up on the blog and watching the rain storm.

West Yellowstone & Laundry, Wednesday, August 4

A 6 mile drive into “town” included a walk along both sides of Main Street. We searched in shop after shop, only to find the same touristy junk in each. We did have a good time in a book store, where we each found something by our favorite authors.

The campground laundry was fully occupied this morning, so we decided to check it out when we returned this afternoon. Surprisingly, it was empty! Ivan helped me load 6 washers and I stayed to complete the task. The event that occurred next was one that definitely warranted a picture, but I couldn’t leave long enough to retrieve my camera. One of my washers had apparently been sabotaged by a previous user, leaving enough detergent in the dispenser to float the entire area! It was truly an “I Love Lucy” re-run! Soap suds were flowing out onto the floor. Quite a site! I returned to the RV (home) about 2 hours later with a report that it was a laundry experience from H---! Another adventure!

Yellowstone, Tuesday, August 3

We drove to Yellowstone today, with a beautiful river beside us along most of the mountainous road. We quickly set up and hopped in the car to drive to the National Park. “Old Faithful” was only about 30 miles into the park and we had a brief ½ hour wait (along with hundreds of others) for the old geyser to do its thing! It was a pretty exciting thing to anticipate, then see, but I’m easily amused, and/or impressed. Ivan’s expectations are much higher, but he did enjoy it and now we can say we actually saw it!

On the drive to Old Faithful, we did see a grizzly bear, deer and a huge bison. Ivan had commented, when we saw hundreds of buffalo in South Dakota, that they were not as big as he had always imagined, and I agreed. This guy was the the picture we had!

We had hoped to do some fly fishing here, but were disappointed to find that the waters close to us are still too warm to be productive. Maybe we’ll investigate further tomorrow. Meanwhile, Ivan’s idea of a fabulous meal is to stop at KFC and take home chicken. I fixed my favorite……salad, and afterward managed to burn a bag of microwave popcorn. It will be a challenge to eliminate the smell from our coach. Another lesson learned!!!

Curt and Yvonne’s 36th wedding anniversary, Monday, August 2

Today is Curt and Yvonne’s 36th wedding anniversary. We traveled together to a campground in Bozeman, Montana, and celebrated with them at Outback Steakhouse for dinner. This will be our last night together for a while, since they will be heading for Glacier National Park and we will go to Yellowstone. We will miss each other, but will be in touch and possibly catch up again on the way home. Stay tuned!!!!

The Little Big Horn, Sunday, August 1

We traveled 330 miles today, which is a pretty long stretch for us. It was a very nice highway that landed us in a campground only 8 miles from the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument, Montana. The Montana license plate which boasts “big sky” is quite accurate. It is amazing how the terrain changes from state to state. This is beautiful country.

We were able to include in our afternoon, a ranger talk and a walking tour of this famous site of “Custer’s Last Stand”. Remember that from your history books? The details were foggy to me, but I soon learned much about the major battle fought on June 25, 1876, between Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, against the U.S. Army. Major General George A. Custer was victorious in the Civil War battles he engaged in with Confederate forces; however, we stood at the site where he was killed in this battle. The headstones mark the spot where each solder in this battle was killed. Custer’s headstone is black and white. His remains were later moved to the cemetery on the grounds of the West Point Naval Academy in New York. Another history lesson for us today.

Ivan's Ear Phones, Saturday, July 31

This was a pretty uneventful day, unless you consider visiting Radio Shack where Ivan bought a set of wireless ear phones, so he could watch a DVD in the RV at a volume level that wouldn’t deafen me. We also went to the grocery store. Exciting!

Friday, July 30

Curt chauffeured us about 100 miles today on a very beautiful, exciting, drive with took us through Custer State Park in the Black Hills. Soon after we started our journey, we saw white tailed deer (bucks, doe and fawns before encountering herds of buffalo. We were absolutely stunned and spellbound with the site.



Hundreds of buffalo on both sides of the road, some right next to the car and even crossing and blocking the highway roam free in the foothills of this 71,000 acre park. We respected the potential danger and heeded the warning signs telling not to get out of the car. It was mating season, so we had quite a show. Many of the cows had calves and we watched some of the bulls fighting and charging each other. It was truly a magnificent experience.
As we drove along the Wildlife Loop Road, we saw pronghorn antelope, more deer and more herds of buffalo.

There were wild burros waiting for us along the road too. Their MO is…..one blocks traffic while the rest of the gang conducts a car-to-car search for treats. They are very sweet and docile, poking their heads all the way inside the car, asking for food and/or a rub on the nose and head.

The Needles Highway is a scenic route through the most rugged real estate in the Black Hills. It included tight hair-pin turns, spiral bridges, six tunnels and towering granite formations.

We parked at a unique rock formation called the “Needle’s Eye”, named for the opening created by wind, rain, freezing and thawing.

This was also the entrance to one of the tunnels, all of which are one-way, this one having a . 8’ 6” wide clearance. In line to go through was a small motorhome (brand new). Several by-standers, including Ivan, Curt and Yvonne, pulled his side mirrors in and walked in front of and behind him, guiding and (of course) taking pictures. Curt told him he could make it because he was from California…..I thought it was a pretty expensive “gee, I hope I make it”. Well, he did make it and received cheers from about 50 of us watching.

The next stop was the Crazy Horse Memorial. Chief Henry Standing Bear and other Lakota (Sioux) chiefs invited Korczak Ziolkowski, already a famed sculptor, to carve a mountain to show “the red man has great heroes also”. They wanted it named for Crazy Horse, the famous fighter at the Battle of the Little Big Horn”. Korczak began the carving in 1948.

The face of Crazy Horse was completed in 1998; however, the entire monument which includes his horse, is far from its completion dimensions of 641 feet long, 563 feet tall and carved in the round. Since Korczak’s death in 1982, his wife and 10 children continue his project. It is truly one of those amazing things that you have to see in person to appreciate.

It was a great day!

Mt. Rushmore, Thursday, July 29

One new A/C unit later, Curt and Yvonne are now parked next to us. We drove to Mt. Rushmore and finally stood in awe of this magnificent National Monument. It truly is a wonderful site and one that we will long remember as one of the highlights of this trip. We left the presidents with thunder and lightning and threatening clouds in the distance and arrived at the campsites in rain and wind.


We realized it must have been storming for some time, since several campers had lost awnings and chairs. We know enough to never leave an awning out; however, we did leave our flagpoles up. Ours had simply come out of the holder and our neighbors put in under the coach for us, but Curt’s had broken. More lessons learned! There are new ones each day!

Wednesday, July 28

Our drive today included the Badlands National Park, SD. It is the largest expanse of protected prairie ecosystem in the National Park system.




It is very interesting to view beautiful rock formations, prairies and trees at the same time. As we rounded a sharp turn, we saw a large field covered with low mounds of dirt, and before I could even ask about the holes in those mounds, the little guys popped right out to look around. They were prairie dogs…..too cute, but too fast to photograph.

The road through the Badlands ended in Wall, SD, home of the famous Wall Drugs. Curt had explained to us earlier that this was not really a “drug store”. Well, one of its many stores within the complex did sell pharmaceuticals, but there were countless t-shirt, souvenir, leather good shops, etc., not to mention food, drink and ice cream. Ivan and I each had a “first”. He had a buffalo burger and I had a buffalo dog. They were good, but I’m not sure they were that much different from beef. Anyway, we can say we’ve had the Wall Drug experience.

Fifty miles down the road, we again took different directions. Curt and Yvonne had an appointment to have one of their air conditioners replaced and spent the night at the repair station. Ivan and I arrived at the campground 18 miles from Mt. Rushmore where we will be for four nights.

Tuesday, July 27

We left Clear Lake early this morning before the bicycle crowds started arriving. Our destination today was Mitchell, South Dakota. Ivan and I had an appointment to have an oil change on the motorhome, so Yvonne and Curt settled in at the campground ahead of us.

Our maintenance did not take long and we were only a couple of miles from the world’s only Corn Palace. Who knew? We have learned about so many interesting towns and attractions on this trip because of Yvonne and Curt. They met us at the Corn Palace which was originally built in 1892 and is known around the world as a folk-art wonder on the prairie of South Dakota. Each year a new decorating theme is chosen and the outside of the Corn Palace is stripped and redecorated with new corn and grains. Over a half million ears of corn are sawed in half and nailed to the building following pattern created by a local artist. Free admission, included a film of its history and a tour. The bag of popcorn was great too!

We have long been familiar with Cabela’s, famous outfitter for hunting, fishing and outdoor gear. Our kids in Florida are avid hunters, and though they have never visited Cabela’s, they think it’s awesome and frequently order from their catalog. They will visit vicariously through our pictures!

This was quite a long driving day and a busy one, so we were happy to settle in our campsite for the night.

Curt and Yvonne Arrive, Monday, July 26

Curt and Yvonne pulled in to the park today and it was so great to see them after about 10 days. We are right next to each other and enjoying being together again. We have been in Clear Lake for over a week now so we’ve become the “tour guides” today. We walked down the main street and down to the lake and marveled at the preparations for the great bicycle ride which will come through here tomorrow.

“RAGBRAI”, the 7-day bicycle ride across Iowa, will find its way to Clear Lake tomorrow. This, the 38th year, is a route which averages 472 miles. It begins somewhere along Iowa’s western border on the Missouri and ends along the eastern border of the Mississippi (the route changes each year). It is amazing how this little town has prepared to host this event and welcome the thousands of participants and their crews. It would be fun to hang around and be part of it, but we will move on in the AM. Perhaps at some future time, we will come back and, who knows, Ivan may decide to join the ride.

Sunday, July 25

I again attended the service this morning in the little church here in the park, which was nice. This time there were 14 of us!

The fact that we didn’t find station #8 yesterday in the maze was really disappointing and we strongly considered trying it again today, finding the final station and logging a much better time. Maybe next time! I did a long lake walk instead and Ivan worked on his blue ray project.

Art Fair & Maze, Saturday, July 24

Daily, nightly, weekly activities are continuous in Clear Lake. Today, we went to an art fair in the city park which is bordered by the lake and downtown. Ivan especially enjoyed talking with the potters (at least 8 or 10), who were displaying their wares. It was really fun to visit the displays of so many artists of varied talents.

OK, so much for the cultural part of our day. We moved on to the “Fort Custer Maze” just outside of town. This was an amazing structure of stacked pallets which had been used on the owner’s potato and carrot farm. Instead of discarding them, he used them to construct a maze which covers 2 acres. The objective is to find your way to 8 stations, where you stamp the station number on your card (given to you at the entrance) in the fastest time possible. We understood that the average time was 45 minutes, but some smart kid had done it in 33 minutes. Well, 1 hour and 30 minutes later, we were hot, thirsty and tired and decided that finding station #8 was not in the cards today. We left, went 8 miles down the road to Best Buy and bought a blue ray disc player for the motorhome. It was our “bandaid”.

Do Nothing Day, Friday, July 23

This was pretty much a “do nothing” day. I managed about a 3 mile walk, which has become one of my favorite things to do here at Clear Lake. I’m enjoying this lake atmosphere. A also walked along the two blocks of “downtown”, peeking into each little shop. Ivan and I visited a used book store where we purchased 3 books for a grand total of $1.50…..our major purchase of the day.

Winnebago Service Center Day Two, Thursday, July 22

The picture of the front of the customer service center was taken at about 4PM on Wednesday after we had parked for the night in the parking/camp area. It is hard to believe not 30 minutes before you couldn’t see the building because the parking lot was full of Big Rig RV’s and people. I would say at any one time there were 8 big rigs in the lot and no less than 10 people outside and 30 people inside waiting for their rig or buying parts. We are ready for service to take Buddy into the shop at 6 AM, still in pouring rain.

With the exception of a short drive into the little town of Forest City and a short walk in the area, we were at Winnebago Service Center all day. We enjoyed reading and visiting with so many RV’ers from all over the globe. It is really fun to share stories, learn from experiences of others (good and bad), and sometimes development new friendships.

At the end of the day, our coach is in tip-top shape and ready to go. We have never experienced a facility like Winnebago. We do know that during the WIT Rally, the number of customers is massively increased, but the service was not compromised. They have a very large staff of employees in parts, the retail store, and in service. If a coach is in one of their many garages for repair, a service technician comes to the waiting area, takes the owner to the vehicle and discusses and/or explains the planned work in detail. Owners are updated during the process and at completion. The two days we spent there allowed us to witness many interactions with technicians and RV owners. There was definitely a high percentage of satisfaction with the overall experience. On a scale of 1-10, ours was a 10.

We drove back to Clear Lake and parked in the space we left yesterday. This is a really nice place to rest, read, and re-group before we hit the sightseeing trail with Yvonne and Curt next week. They will meet us here and spend Monday night, then we will leave together Tuesday AM, our next major attraction..Mt. Rushmore.

Winnebago for Service, Wednesday, July 21

As our neighbors departed on their journey, Ivan called Winnebago to see if we were still on the “stand by” list for maintenance. The answer at 8:00 AM was, “be in the parking lot at 9:30”. We are about 30 minutes away, so there is a push to get our rig ready to move and drive there. Made it on time and left Buddy in their capable hands for the day. We took the shuttle across to the rally grounds for another opportunity to purchase something from the vendor booths. As luck would have it, we did find something……a remote for one of the exhaust fans! Exciting!


We returned to the service department promptly at 3 PM. The requested repairs had been taken care of and additionally, Winnebago offered a complimentary inspection of all seals on the coach. Because we are still in warranty, they will take care of that too and have offered an overnight spot in their parking/camp area lot overnight so that they could start the sealant at 6 AM tomorrow. We had dinner in what seems to be “the best game in town”, Shooterz. The food was great and we had fun. We returned to our temporary spot, just getting inside before the storm hit! Heavy rain (accompanied by thunder and lightning) pounded us all night

Tuesday, July 20

Ivan has been catching up on computer stuff and movies today, while I did a 4 mile walk along the lake before doing some shopping (mostly window). I walked through the two block downtown which is quaint and very charming. In a small family owned place in the heart of Clear Lake, I splurged on a ½ gallon of homemade sugar free ice cream and two big Iowa pork chops to cook on the grill tonight. We sat outside and had a fun “final” conversation with our neighbor, Trevada. She and Eric will leave in the morning to their next stop, Minnesota, then gradually working their way back to Florida for the winter.

Winnebago Factory Tour, Monday, July 19

We spent most of the day today touring the Winnebago factory and visiting the vendor booths at the Winnebago Itasca annual rally. The tour was very impressive and confirmed our trust in the construction and reliability of our motorhome.
It was fun to stop on our return to the campground for a Mexican dinner. That meant I had plenty of time to do laundry instead of cooking. It is really not a chore and today was actually fun. The neighbor that I walked with yesterday met me at the laundry with her “hair cutting” utensils (she has a cosmetology license) and cut my hair while the towels were drying. Can you beat that? Wish I’d had a picture! What a hoot!
Ivan busied himself this afternoon by installing X-M radio in the motorhome. We have already found a favorite channel and have relaxed with beautiful interrupted music all evening. We are sure there will be more choices that we will enjoy.

Sunday, July 18

There are services on Sunday morning in the little chapel with the tornado shelter in the basement. I decided to attend with 17 others which included the pastor and his wife (owners of the campground) and other campers. It was really a very nice thing to do and a good way to start the day. The church built in 1890 in another location. When the pastor and his wife learned that the church was going to be destroyed, they had it moved to this location.
The neighbors next to us are from Melbourne, FL, and are full-timers in their travel trailer after living aboard their sailboat for 12 years. She is a pretty fun gal, full of interesting stories and a walker (good for me). She and I walked about 7 miles today, making our way around Clear Lake and into the cute little town, named for the lake. The town has many shops and cafes and a beautiful public park where lots of free activities and concerts. We also walked through a lovely garden in the center of town, free and open to the public. The lake is quite big and very busy with every kind of boating and water sport. While I walked, Ivan spent another few hours at Best Buy, exiting with “0” once again, but making a comfort stop at Dairy Queen for ice cream. That works!!!

Saturday, July 17

At 10 PM last night, during the storm, a huge motorhome pulled in next to us. It was an interesting parking configuration which put his A/C and various other auxiliary motor noises right next to our bedroom. It was not the owner’s fault, but louder than any rigs we’ve been next to thus far. The easiest thing for us to do was to move to another spot, which we did. It is much better. We checked out the town about 10 miles away and found most shopping that we needed, including a Best Buy (oh, what a great surprise).I cooked chicken on the grill for dinner…..my first time grilling on the trip, and we had wonderful Iowa sweet corn directly from the field.

Oakwood RV Park, Friday, July 16

We arrived at Oakwood RV Park in Clear Lake, Iowa today and part of the “check in” procedure was to inform us of the shelter in the event of a tornado warning. If we heard a siren, we should make our way to the basement of the little church located in the park. Comforting! We settled in at a very pretty campsite and sat outside to enjoy the lush green view. Our neighbors told us that, according to the news, we could expect a thunderstorm. We retracted our awning and stored the outside chairs just before the sprinkles began. As predicted, the storm came with thunder, lightning and pouring rain that continued for hours. There were no sirens and it was actually pretty exciting! I loved it!

Travelin' West, Thursday, July 15

We were in three states today….left Indiana this morning, drove through Illinois and stopped for the night in Iowa. This is our first experience in a county campground. It is beautiful with all sites well manicured. The registration office told us to drive through, pick out the site we preferred, park and come in and pay our $19.00 for full hook up (electric, water, sewer) at our leisure. Wow! Too bad we are only here for one night. The weather is absolutely perfect. Ivan grilled burgers and we enjoyed sitting outside in the cool air.

La Porte, Indiana, Wednesday, July 14

A 200+ mile drive brought us to La Porte, Indiana today. We have a nice spot in the campground which is bordered by a big soybean field.

I was thrilled to see a brand new John Deere tractor roll in to spray the crops (either fertilizer or bug stuff). It would have only been more fun if I could have finagled a ride!

Day two at the repair station,Tuesday, July 13

We vacated Buddy early this morning so that the maintenance crew could get started. It is such a relief to actually be having the recall taken care of at last. Having a few hours to wait, we started with Ivan’s favorite breakfast spot, McDonald’s. A hair trim for me was next, then the post office, drug store, ACE Hardware (why not?) and Target. The maintenance took longer than expected, but we didn’t mind at all, since this place was so awesome. We couldn’t have asked for better service from everyone here. It is a great facility, immaculate inside and out and they had a popcorn machine in the customer lounge. What more could we want? Anyway, because it was late in the day, the service folks recommended a great Mongolian barbeque restaurant for dinner, and we were invited to stay another night in the parking lot.

Henry Ford Museum, Monday, July 12

We had T-storms most of the night and lots and lots of rain. A small boat would have been nice to paddle next door to see Curt and Yvonne, but we just waded! Fortunately, it remained dry while we prepared to leave for our next stop.

Again we are taking different routes; Ivan and I are headed for a repair station in New Hudson, MI. while Curt and Yvonne are heading for a repair station near Grand Rapids, MI. As it turned out Ivan and I stayed two nights in the “repair stations” parking lot, but arrived early enough on the first day to drive the car to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.

The museum is only about 30 miles away. This vast building—12 acres under one roof, is filled with the history of men and women whose vision and courage changed the world around them. There were more original cars, carriages, bicycles, motorcycles, trains, airplanes, engines, furniture, tools (the list goes on) than one can imagine. We sat in a Model T which is disassembled and reassembled everyday by visitors so they can see the ease of assembly.

We saw the original Oscar Mayer Weinermobile, the rocking chair that President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in on April 14, 1865, and the limousine that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in on November 22, 1963. This is one of the most beautifully displayed and maintained museums we’ve seen and well worth the visit. Dinner at “Outback”.

Mill Creek Trestle, Sunday, July 11

Ivan and I walked a 2 mile trail today over the 60ft high Mill Creek Trestle built in the Late 1800’s. This is part of the “Rails to Trails” project that has converted many miles of railroad tracks to provide safe access to bicyclists, pedestrians and equestrians. It was a nice walk and much needed exercise. Tonight we have rain, so there will be no sitting around the campfire.