It’s All Part of the Journey

In my last post I said we were headed to North Carolina. Well, we are but first had an important engagement to keep. After making a trip to Grand Rapids, MI to have the RV worked on, we were able to spend a few nights back in Kalamazoo so I could attend my granddaughters baby shower.Thankfully, we were able to stay at the church our kids attend. They have RV hookups in the parking lot. Yes I know. We are so lucky. Well, almost. Little did we know that we were going to be smack dab in the middle of a blizzard that dropped 22” of the fluffy white stuff in 3 days! We, and the RV, are not prepared for this kind of weather. Thank goodness, a gentleman from the church was so kind as to keep the parking lot clear so we were able to at least get our car out. Saturday, the day of the shower, the sun came out and plows worked hard to keep the roads clear, and I was able to attend the baby shower. It’s was a bit smaller than planned because of the weather but was beautiful and fun. Mother Nature wasn’t done though. We got home and toward late afternoon the clouds opened up again and dumped the last of the snow.  That delayed us one more day. After all, safety comes first. The plows were ready and got to work again. By Monday morning traffic was moving good and we were able to pull out and find our way to North Carolina.

The trip was quite enjoyable, considering what we left behind until we were south of Raleigh-Durham, NC. Every RVers nightmare is to breakdown on a highway. Yep, you guessed right. Just like that, the RV stopped and luckily Rob could coast it off the highway onto the shoulder. He got out to investigate and it didn’t take him long to determine what part of the problem was. First indication was our car being towed behind us was covered in diesel fuel! Yuck. I am going to give you the very short version of what followed. We had to have it towed to a diesel mechanic 25 miles away. He determined it was a break in the fuel line that feeds the fuel injector. Oh ya, did I mention this was Thanksgiving eve? Everything shuts down, not just for the day but for the weekend. Without any other choice, we got to spend the next week in a motel room. And a very uncomfortable one at that. Thankfully the Wednesday after Thanksgiving, our bank account feeling abused but we were on our way again. We were only a days ride away from our destination so we could begin our next adventure. That’s our home being towed.

We arrived safe and sound but with a lot of house keeping to do and a refrigerator to clean out. We were thankful to have a few days to catch-up before we started our workamping job. This whole ordeal was very stressful but am thankful it all turned out just fine. Spending a week in a motel room sure made me appreciate our comfy motorhome. We had to remind ourselves, it’s all part of the adventure.

I hope all of you had a blessed Thanksgiving and were with your loved ones. Did you get a chance to take a nice walk after dinner, perhaps play a game of football? Regardless of the day or tradition, don’t forget to take time to enjoy the wonders of nature. And don’t forget to look up, it’s amazing out there.

Autumn in Michigan

Having packed up the rig, bid goodbye to our new found friends in the Volunteer Village, our summer gig at the Spearfish Fish Hatchery ended and we are ready to hit the road; destination Michigan. Can’t hardly wait to see our families and friends. It’s been way too long since we’ve seen them all and have lots of catching up to do.  We made a few visits on our way, to break the monotony of riding all day and it gave us the opportunity to relax and make plans for the up coming days.  Once in Michigan, we visited my sister in East Jordan, met up with friends we worked and played with this summer at the Volunteer Village, then on to Cadillac where we had reservations for a month. Seeing my son and family and those babies (well, some aren’t babies any more) was just what I needed. The energy those little bundles of joy have is something this old body can’t compete with, but, it’s so much fun interacting with them. And did I mention we have 2 more great grandbabies coming this winter? We are truly blessed.

Next on our agenda was to visit the rest of our family that lives in the southern part of the state. Finding campgrounds in Michigan that are open past mid October proved to be a real challenge but with a little research and lots of determination we found one that satisfied our needs. In fact, it’s just about half between both families. It was so good to be able to see all of Robs family in one place. And, can you believe, even the grandkids were all available and was able to spend the day with us. We so appreciated the family time with everyone.

 

The following weekend we made a trip in the other direction, this time to see my daughter and family. Being that it was deer hunting season, we knew the time spent with the boys would be limited but, we did manage to get some quality time in with them. My granddaughter and husband just bought a old farm house and are in the process of remodeling it, hoping it will be done in time to welcome their first child. We took them up on the offer to come see it and visit for awhile.They have their work cut out for themselves and will be very busy for sure!

 

We are moving to Auburn, IN for the remaining two weeks before we head to NC for the winter where we have accepted a workamping position. More about that in my next blog. The time will go quickly because we have several appointments and dates to keep before we leave. I must say though our time in Michigan – UP and lower has been pretty awesome. It has been several years since we have been around this time of year. We got to enjoy autumn twice, northern part of the state and then the southern. The colors were absolutely stunning and I had forgotten how magical autumn in Michigan can be. And let’s not forget the apple cider and donuts to make it complete.

 

I think this has brought y’all up to date on what’s happening with us. Life is good! Needless to say, I have been out enjoying the colors, sunrises and sunsets and walking in amass of leaves. Oh how I love this time of year. I hope all of you have had reason to go exploring, if only to the cider mill! Enjoy what is left of the season because we all know what comes next. Remember wherever you, look up it’s amazing out there.

 

 

Explorations

The Badlands offers so many things to see and do, and is home to some of our nations most stunning monuments and historical sights. Because of circumstances beyond our control, we didn’t get to go to as many places  as we were hoping to, but what we saw was enough for us to take note of places yet to see. Some were repeats but worth visiting again.

One of the perks afforded us at DC Booth Historical Fish Hatchery was an all day tour in Keystone, SD which included breakfast at Ft Hays, a visit to Mt Rushmore, Custer State Park, Crazy Horse, lunch at Custer State Park Lodge, and because we were in a small bus (10 passengers), we were able to ride the Needles highway, go through the 3 tunnels and visit the Wildlife Loop before we headed back to Ft Hays for an awesome Chuckwagon dinner and entertainment that left us wanting more. It was a long day but so worth it.

                                                     Elvis was in the building after dinner

                                                          View from one of the bridges

                                               My travel buddy, Bonnie K, at Sylvan lake.

                                                    The dinner hall with LOTS of people

                                                 One of the small tunnels on Needles Hwy

                                                  Anything bigger than a large van won’t fit.

There were so many “moments” but many were repeats from a few years ago so I won’t bore you with more photos. What was new to us was the special comradery we had at the Volunteer Village. In all, there we 10 sites, most of which were filled for various lengths of time, from 2 months to the end of September. Folks from all walks  of life and that makes for interesting times and provided us with many fun nights of  competitive corn hole games, adult beverages and those mesmerizing fires we all love. There were many nights we had to forego the fire though because it was a very warm summer with evenings too warm for a fire.

In general the weather was good…but very warm. We did have the misfortune of experiencing 2 tornado watches with one turning into a warning. We saw it overhead as we were batting down the hatches. Rob has gotten pretty good at doing this since winds and weather seem to come out of nowhere. Luckily, the worst damage at the park was a very large tree being damaged. Did I mention South Dakota gets a lot of hail? Wow. From sunshine to hail in a flash! We experienced big and little hail but luckily, no damage. Unfortunately, Belle Fourche, a small town 12 miles away, wasn’t so lucky. They got hit pretty had twice.

I had the pleasure of reading a 2 book series by a local author titled Honoring Anna. It was based on the journals his wife’s grandmother kept while traveling from Norway to the US  in a ship. He was so impressed with the journey she made he wrote the series. It references a house in book 2 that was built for Anna in Reva, SD, about 80 miles north of Spearfish. The books made the round of the Volunteer Village ladies so 3 of us decided it called for a road trip before we all parted ways. One delightful Saturday we set out for Reva in search of this infamous house. Of course, we made a few stops along the way to check out the scenery before we found the dirt road that would lead us to her house. After traveling 6 miles on a long, winding, dirt road, we realized the house we passed 51/2 miles back was “the” house we were looking for! After a few laughs, I turned the car around and proceeded to put the wipers on so I could at least see my way back. Luckily I didn’t try to use wiper fluid because it probably would have turned to mud and we’d still be in  Reva.

Reva, SD is so small we had already stopped at the one and only building when we got into town, so we continued on our way taking a different route back. Our stomachs were reminding us that we had not eaten in a long time and it was our plan to head on down the road about 25 miles to the only place in the area to eat. It was worth the trip as it had a pleasant environment and the food was quite tasty. But on our way there we got a surprise  There appeared to be what looked like huge sandstone “castles” off in the distance. Not believing what we were seeing, I pulled off the road to get a better look. These formations seem to go on forever. We needed to get closer so we found a State Forrest campground up the road and  climbed up to the lookout. It was absolutely breathtaking, almost like a fairy tale. After climbing to the top for a better view and taking pictures, we came back to the car to continue our journey. We felt like this was an added bonus to an already awesome day. With our eyes and bellies full, it was time to head back home feeling pleased that we accomplished what we set out to do, and didn’t even get lost. Thank you Bonnie and Bonnie K for sharing this memorable day with me.

Anna’s house    

  

Long dirt road                                                                               

                                                                            The Castles

More structures

                                               My sidekicks….Bonnie, Bonnie K with me.

Some time afterward it seems it was time to think about our upcoming travels. One by one, we pulled out of camp with promises to reunite in the future. If at all possible, it will happen. As our leave time rolled around, we packed up, turned in our work supplies and said our goodbyes. Parting is such sweet sorrow. But oh, what memories!! Our travels will take us back to Michigan for some much needed family time.

I’m hoping you all have had an exciting summer and were able to get your fair share of outdoor time. Remember to look up, it’s amazing up there.

DC Booth National Historic Fish Hatchery

It’s now July, and I have once again fallen behind, even though I swore I would not allow that to happen again. It turns out life gets in the way…..in a good way.  We arrived here at the Spearfish City campground in May as planned. What we didn’t expect was all the rain and wind that would be coming our way. We prolonged our visit so the nasty weather would be gone when we got here, but it didn’t happen that way. There had been a major 10” snow dump just prior to our arriving so we weren’t sure what to expect, but we were really surprised to find green grass and sunshine. Well, not all days were like that. We have had rain (lots of it) wind, snow, hail and tornado warnings. I am so ready for some consistent nice weather. I think we may have arrived at that point now that July is about half over. It seems we will now go to the extreme on the thermometer! There seems to be no happy medium.

We are in a lovely campground across the street from the Hatchery where we are doing our volunteer work. They have provided a “Volunteer Village” for the 10 couples that we are volunteering with. The sites are large, grassy and back up to the Spearfish Creek. Not a bad place to call home for 5 months.

The Booth Fish Hatchery is quite a major attraction here in Spearfish. SD and is supported in many ways by the community. I had no idea fish could eat so much food in one day! The folks start arriving after sunrise to walk the grounds and feed the fish. And it goes until sunset.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.C._Booth_Historic_National_Fish_Hatchery

I can’t say enough about the extended family we have here. We all are here for the same reason, most of us fulltimers  and we’ve got each other’s back, no matter what it may be for….rv repair or advise, ideas on where to go or what to see, trading volunteer hours, beating each other in games of corn hole and figuring out who has the best technique for roasting marshmallows. And not to worry about the fire, we have 2 retired firefighters among us.

When we are not playing or exploring we can usually be found across the street at the Hatchery fulfilling our weekly obligations at one of the venues. I typically will be in the Pondshop (gifts) or the Museum, and Rob will be a Rover (wandering the grounds) or in the Rail car.

                                                                       Inside the Railcar

                                                          The Ice House and the Railcar

                                                                Pond shop

                                                                 A few of the raceways

                                                               The DC Booth House

Next door to the Fish Hatchery is the Spearfish City Park that is used continuously for play, picnics, weddings, Wednesday night music, and of course, swimming in the creek on these hot, humid days. We walk the park daily, enjoying the sounds of the water rushing over the rocks, the dogs enjoying the cool grass to roll in, kids on the playground and making room for the many bikers using the trails for their enjoyment. 

                                                       A favorite spot in the creek in the park

                                                        Bike rentals in the Park parking lot.

                                                  Many a dogs favorite pastime on a hot day

                                                            The kids love the cold water too.

With summer half over I hope you all have had the opportunity to explore, go on vacation or just relax in the moment and to appreciate all that is around us. Wherever we are, we find something new that piques our interest. I am amazed each day how many beautiful places we are surrounded by.No matter where you are, remember to get outdoors, give thanks to the Lord for the beauty around you and don’t forget to look up, it’s amazing out there.

Now For The Rest of The Story...

The day is Sunday April 24, 10:40 am. Its a beautiful day, no traffic to speak of, and we are headed to Rawlins, WY for 2 nights. The travel was good, that is until we got to mile marker 115, 90 miles from our destination. We went over a bad piece of uneven road a few miles back and soon noticed the motorhome was making a strange noise and we could feel a vibration. It didn't feel like a tire but something strange has happened.  We like traveling secondary roads, which normally isn't a problem, but they don't have rest stops and pullovers like the highways. We drove a few more miles and, as luck would have it, there was a huge pull off on our side of the road.  Rob pulled over to evaluate the situation. Not good! The backend was sitting a lot lower than the front which could only mean we lost the air in the rear airbags.  Seems like deja vu. Nothing to do but call Good Sam for roadside assistance.  That was kind of useless:

1.  We were nowhere near a big town. Closest was Rawlins, 90 miles away.

2.  It was Sunday.

3.  No place around had mobile service. In order to tow our motorhome the driveshaft has to be disabled.

Good Sam said if we were in a safe location, then we should call them in the morning and they would get us some help. Thank you very much for your help Marcus Lemonis!

Luckily, we did have internet service...not always so going through the hills and farmland. I started surfing the web for Mobile Repair service.  We found 2, and not close. Called the first and closest one. His reply was he could help us maybe in a few days because he was so busy. Uhhh, I don't think so, we'd freeze to death by then. We called the second one, explained the problem and he agreed he could come out that day but he was on a service call he had to finish first. We were so thankful to find him. All we had to do was wait. And wait we did. On a positive note - the sun was shining, it wasn’t windy and the scenery was pretty. We were even blessed with a pretty sunset. 

The downside - Baxter is particular where he does his business and trust me when I say there was no place in sight. Everything was fenced and major shoulder repair on the road. We could see a National Forest road not even a half mile up the road so I put Baxter in the car and drove up the road a bit so he would have some place to walk. Have you ever walked in mud that was like cement? I got out of the car, stepped into the road and could feel squishy mud under my tennis shoes….white tennis shoes at that!  They instantly felt like I was walking in quicksand….my feet were very heavy and muddy. Baxter started walking and looked up at me like I was crazy. The look on his face said “what in the world is this stuff? I do t like it.” I immediately put Baxter in the car and looked down at my feet. All I could think of was Clarabell, the clown! Big, floppy feet. Well, I got as much mud off as possible and we made our way back to the motorhome. I left my shoes outside and we put the dog in the sink and washed his feet! My shoes are as good as new, thanks to Rob who accepted the challenge of cleaning them. Needless to say, Baxter still needed to do his business, so just before dark I drove him into the next small town, about 10 miles away so he could walk around a little and find that perfect spot. Most dog owners will know exactly what I’m talking about.

9 o’clock we turned the phones off feeling defeated and disappointed. No show and no phone call Not much we could do except start making calls in the morning. Luckily, we are self contained with a 12 volt furnace and a generator. It got cold during the night but we stayed toasty warm, thanks to Rob for monitoring everything.

Morning came sooner than we liked, but being on the side of the road listening to trucks wizzing by doesn’t afford you a lot of sleep. Rob turned on his phone and found a message from Mark, the repair guy. He had just finished his job at 12:15 am and he would call us in the morning. Fast forward, he called and made it to our place by 11:30 am. It appears the support for the rear air bags got dislodged when we hit the bad piece of road, deflated the bags and they landed on top of the support. After about an 1 1/2 hrs he had repaired it and balanced it out and the bags were inflated again. Hallelujah! We pay the bill (which was not cheap), he leaves and we get everything ready to travel and are on our way. Or so we thought. We aren’t on the road 5 minutes and Rob knows it’s not right yet. He drives a little distance but is afraid of damaging the driveshaft. He says its not level. I hurry and call Mark back, he turns around and meets us in the small town of Baggs, WY. He is able to do whatever it took to correct the matter in no time.  When he is done though, this time he says he’ll follow us a bit to make sure it’s good. I said a prayer,  crossed my fingers, and I think held my breath until we got it going and realized it was smooth sailing  once again.

Both of us were ecstatic, to say the least. We were able to keep our previous reservation and extend it another night. Boy, it sure felt good to be “plugged in” that night at the campground. This was quite an experience but not totally unexpected. Living this lifestyle you need to be prepared for the “unexpected”, be flexible, stay cool and be safe. We were all of those and we are once again happy campers.

We may need to change our travel times by not leaving on a Sunday, especially since we like to travel the secondary roads and we don’t always know for sure where we will be. We’ll see what the future holds. For right now our future will be one more stop before we end up in Spearfish for the summer. Oh, and by the way, the Fish Hatchery  just got 6-10” of snow. Now you know why we haven’t been in a hurry to get there. Wish us well. 

My next blog update will be after we have landed, gotten acclimated to our schedule and have good things to report. Thanks for “listening “ to our tale of woe. Just wanted to share it with you. Hope Spring has sprung wherever you are and you are able to get out and enjoy all the wonders God has provided us. Be happy, be kind and don’t forget to look up, it’s amazing out there.

We’re Almost There!!

 But what a journey it has been. We left Mesa, AZ on March 31st after having our flat tire diagnosed and fixed…or so we thought. Our destination is Winslow, AZ. We spend a few days there revisiting some sites and finding some new places to explore. In one day we did downtown Winslow, the 911 Memorial, Meteor Crater and Little Painted desert. The next day we drove to Holbrook, AZ and revisited the Petrified Forest. What a beautiful place.

Next stop is Gallup, NM for the night. Rob checked the tires and the same rear inside dully tire shows flat so Rob puts air in it and realize we need to have it looked at when we get to Cortez, CO. All is well and travel and weather is great. We have to keep a close eye on the weather as there is a big storm front moving across the northern states, right where we are headed.

We stayed in Delores, CO for 3 nights. We have lots of time to spare since our campsite will not be available until May 1 in Spearfish, SD. While in Delores we decide to visit Durango. That never happened. What a disappointment. Expecting to find a great western town with all the illustrations of the great west, what we found was a disappointment because it was all typical tourist hype. Instead we drove a little further to the Pinkerton Hot Springs. It is a very cool roadside attraction of what is left of days gone by.

Time to move on. Rob checks the tire before we go and preforms his duty of late and fills the tire up. We make it to Cortez, CO and contact the Goodyear Tire dealer and they can see us in the morning. We promptly go over in the morning and find out it is a bad valve stem. Whew, that was good news. They replace it and we are happy campers on our way to Blanding, UT. The winds have been horrific and causes us to stay put sometimes longer than we want. Here we were worried about the snow forecast and in reality it’s the wind that is our nemesis. We make it to The Dinosaur Museum, Harvest Host, for the night. In the morning we have an appointment at Bradford tire, hoping, once again, they can find the cause of this tire leak. While they do their detective work, we take a ride into the mountains and Canyonland NP for a revisit

We drove as far as we could…didn’t want to get stuck!

We were greeted by a flock of wild turkeys crossing

the road.

We stopped by the Newspaper Rock 

in the Canyonlands.

The many petroglyphs on this mammoth Newspaper rock.

We decide to head back and check on the motorhome and get a text that they finally figured it out. Sounds like something we’ve heard before.  Now mind you, this is an old, small family run business in the small town of Blanding , UT so we weren’t sure what to expect.  But believe it or not, they fixed it! Yep, it was a bad valve extension that no one had been checking. Seems it was blocked so when air was put in, it registered the air pressure but when it was rechecked it wouldn’t register any pressure. That problem was resolved really easy. They took it off and threw it away. $30 later and we were, once again, on the road headed north. Oh yeah, and by the way, that really was the problem. 

We travel a whole 30 miles down the road to an RV resort where we plan on spending 2 nights, hoping the wind subsides enough to travel in. There is dirt and dust everywhere. This stay turned out to be a real surprise because 2 couples from Canada that we spent the winter with in Mesa (our neighbors) and had become good friends with, were already staying at the same place. We had ourselves a mini reunion. Many stories told, drinks consumed, snacks eaten and laughs galore. Oh what a great time. We will miss them dearly.

It’s now April 10 and we have traveled 777 miles and seems like 1500! Rob has put on him Mr Weatherman cap and has determined that the cold front moving across the north is going to be an issue so we best hole up someplace for awhile that is warmer and calmer. We decide that along the Colorado river would be good because it is in the valley and has warmer temps. After all, it’s wine country. We end up in Grand Junction, CO near the UT border and make reservations for a week, that soon became 2 weeks, at this new, modern resort. We chose it because of the great reviews.  It is a very well thought out campground with just about everything you need as a guest here. It even has some sites with outdoor dog kennels. The wind came up pretty strong so the first night here so we brought in our slide for the night. It started raining and sometime during the night, started snowing. We got maybe 1-2” of snow and was gone by noon. It actually was a beautiful day.

There is a lot to see around here, unfortunately because of the windy conditions, it limited us to what we wanted to do. We did a lot of relaxing and indoor stuff. We did go to the Colorado National Monument. I highly recommend it to anyone who has not been there. It is one of my favorite stops we have made,  There are many pull offs for viewing and we stopped at most of them, of course. As I looked into the canyon, I felt like I was a part of it, in it, as in many you are just there, viewing it.  Here’s just a small sample of what we saw.

We did get out and about, besides doing the mundane things of shopping, laundry, and of course, keeping up on our housekeeping chores. We walked along the Colorado river where we observed a couple eagles on their nest with eaglets, many songbirds and ducks, and great art work along the bridges. Baxter and I ventured out to a couple different parks for a change of scenery. All in all, it was a very good two week stay, but it is now time to move on. 

We have a 2 night stay reservation in Rawlins, WY so we are not sure what we are in for. I will leave you for now but hope as your winter weathers leave you, it will give you opportunities to do some more exploring. I know we are ready, willing and able. Let’s see what Mother Nature has in store for us. Remember to look up when out there, it’s amazing.

 I’m Baackk!

Trying to start a new blog on another site is harder than it should be so here I am again right where I left off….just a little further down the road. We are headed for SD but have a month to explore between here and there.

We started the day by going to the Meteor Crater about 5 minutes from us. Have passed by it before but never stopped. Wow. What can I say. It was amazing to think this happened many thousands of years ago and is so perfectly preserved. 

 

Next stop, downtown Winslow, AZ. Having been there a few years back, we were anxious to see if things had changed much. It had but for the good. Many wheee there to get their picture “standing on the corner” near the flatbed truck. 

   
  

On our way out of town we stopped to visit Winslows 911 Memorial. Pieces of steel from the Twin Towers are part of it.

-

One last stop completed our day. After reading a review about this amazingly beautiful sights by visiting the abandoned county park, we couldn’t help buy check it out. Wow. It wasn’t called the Little Painted Desert for nothing. It was definitely abandoned and mistreated but the beauty could not be hidden or denied. The few pictures here will give you an idea of what we saw. If ever in the area, check it out.

  

As late afternoon approached it was time to call it quits. As we enjoyed the ride back home and was overcome with visual overload, we were ready to be done. We ended the day with a short walk in the secluded area by us before dark time set in. I must say, it was a very good day. I hope you are able to find joy in your days ahead. We have a choice each day as to our outlook on life. Remember to try to explore the great outdoors daily, warm or cold, and don’t forget to look up, it’s amazing out there.