Leaving on Thursday

Training is done and the new team did an amazing job. So happy that they are on board with our company because we think they are going to do an awesome job. Here I am with Marlene. We finished up with our final meetings with both campgrounds and then went out for a graduation lunch. Look at that clear, blue Nebraska sky in the background. We went to Round The Bend Steakhouse and had a great seafood platter with clams, popcorn shrimp, coconut shrimp, Pollock and sweet potato fries. Everything was really good ! They specialize in prime rib and steaks (hence the name steakhouse). Marlene got a steak of some sort and it was huge ! She said it was cooked perfectly and covered the whole plate. Round the Bend is known for their Testicle Festival, that's always held Father's day weekend. There's live music, locally brewed beer and food. Not sure the origin of the "parts" and I don't think I want to know. Sounds a little gross to me. We got a big kick out of the shirts that they have for sale there...I think the slogan on our waitress' shirt said something like " No Balls Too Big to Bust"...

Got the bike loaded into the garage and getting ready to pull out at first light in the morning. Sure is hot here....currently is 97 degrees and they are calling for 100 tomorrow. Both AC's have been running all day. Hope it gets cooler the farther east we go. We are hoping to drive till dark tomorrow but will depend on how windy it is and how exhausted I get fighting the wind. Today the winds were 20-30 m.p.h. which, if the same occurs tomorrow, will not make for fun driving. I bought a spinner knob, for the motorhome steering wheel, which should help make for a comfortable hand position while driving. We'll be driving to my younger brother's house, outside of Mansfield, PA. He has a spot where we can park the rig. He only lives about three miles from my mom's house. She is in the midst of candy making season because the craft show circuit has started. My brother goes to a bunch of shows that start now and run till Christmas. He produces maple syrup and honey products (he taps the trees and processes the syrup and he raises honey bees and processes that). My mom has a licensed kitchen where she makes all sorts of jams and jellies and candy like pretzel bark, peanut brittle, etc. She says this is her last year making candy but she's said that the last couple of years. She is 87 years young but it is bothering her to stand on her feet for any length of time to make this stuff in her kitchen. It's "tough" to show up at home, during this time of year because she always has a pile of "rejects" (candy that doesn't make the grade to her satisfaction) and each type of candy beckons us to try them out. Oh my, it takes great will power to stay strong and not give in to temptation. I'll let you know how we make out with that.  :)

We're going to try to cover the 1100 or so miles to mom's house so we can have as much time with her as possible before leaving Wednesday. Wednesday we drive to our first park, in Gettysburg and we get to have dinner with our Amazon friends...Roy and Carolyn. Looking forward to catching up with them. They are finishing up their workamper positions, in Gettysburg and leaving on Thursday so our timing couldn't be better. Hope you all have safe travels wherever you are headed this Labor Day weekend ! Till later....

Greenwood, NE

On Wednesday we left the KOA in Gretna and traveled 12 miles east to Greenwood, Nebraska. We moved over a day early so we could start training a new team for our company. They had come in on Saturday and were all set up and waiting for us. They are parked right next to us.

We got set up and started training around 9 a.m. Training lasts for 6 days, with a day off in the middle. Today was the day off for both of us. Amie and Marlene are off to a great start and are quick learners. They are great fun to work with and are going to be an awesome addition to our company. Tomorrow we resume training with both of them and we'll finish up on Tuesday.

 

Here's Linda with Amie, before they head out for a meeting.

 

We'll be leaving here on Thursday, heading home to Pennsylvania to spend a couple days with my mom and siblings. Then we head to Gettysburg on Wednesday, Sept. 5 to work several parks in that area.

Rain and cool temps today...a good day to stay inside and relax. I even got to take a nap this afternoon, in preparation for the night race on NASCAR. Less than a 80 laps to go so that's all for tonight...will try to post more before we head out on Thursday.

Gretna Ramblings...

We've been at the KOA, in Gretna (just outside of Omaha,NE) since last Tuesday. We look forward to doing the parks here because we get to spend time with our friend Paula. I worked with Paula in my early years, at Penn College, and have stayed in touch ever since. She is a trainer and travels all over the country for her job so we're always happy when her schedule allows her to spend some time with us while we're in the area. She lives in Lincoln so she came out Saturday afternoon and stayed till Sunday afternoon.

She took us to the Holy Family Shrine, which overlooks I-80, just about three miles away from our campground. We had seen it last year on literature for "area attractions" but it always looked like a corn crib to me and we didn't have any desire to check it out. Turns out some area residents, with a religious vision, wanted to construct a shrine for folks traveling on the interstate below.

This earth bermed building is the entry into the main building that explains the origin of the shrine. In the center of the building, near the ceiling is a metal spiral that looks like a piece of art. Water drips off the spiral into a pool of water on the floor. That water sinks into the ground and circulates from a well. In the picture above you can see the cut in the stone walking surface with the potted flowers on each side of it. Water flows from the main building out to the shrine and up to the altar. It's a unique feature that I've never seen incorporated into a building before. We were trying to figure where the water goes once it flows under the altar but couldn't figure it out (there was a sprinkler head outside so perhaps it goes into the irrigation system).

 

 

On Saturday night, it was really chilly. It had rained and then been overcast during the day but we all had jeans and sweatshirts on for the first time in a really long time. It was a perfect night for a campfire. We got out the mountain pie makers and all made cherry/chocolate pies. Yum !

 

 

 

 

Saturday evening, while we were sitting out by the fire, two women walked by that had biker clothes on. They stopped to ask us questions about our rig and our trike. I gave them a nickel tour of the inside of the motorhome and we chatted more with them by the fire. Turns out that Amy and Sara are from Wisconsin and had decided to take a bike ride from their home in Pewaukee down to Nebraska so that Amy could intercept her boyfriend, who was participating in an "Iron Butt" event. We know a little about Iron Butt events because Linda's son participated in one once. It usually involves long distances in a short amount of time and as we learned from the girls, you accumulate points. Amy's boyfriend had a GPS tracker with him so she could see exactly where he was at any given time. She asked Sara if she'd like to take a ride with her and come to meet him for the ride back...completely unbeknownst to him. Amy and Sara camped in a tent at the KOA and were headed out Sunday morning to meet up with him. Tony (Amy's boyfriend) and his mom participate in Iron Butt events together and are the only mother/son team. How cool is that ? (No, Jay I won't do an Iron Butt event with you.)

Look at the ears and tail on Sara's helmet....how cute !

 

 

 

We had such a fun time with these ladies. They came over Sunday morning and hung out for a little bit while they were waiting to get on the road to intercept Tony. If you want a chuckle, click on the pictures of the bumper stickers on their bikes. So glad that we ran into them. We have these wonderful encounters all over the country and as I firmly believe.....nothing is by coincidence. We heard from Amy today that they had a safe ride home and their plan worked perfectly to meet up with her boyfriend and he was really surprised.

On Sunday, Paula took us down to the old part of Omaha and we had brunch and walked around. The brick streets and planters full of beautiful flowers along the roof tops of the buildings was really neat.

 

 

 

 

 

In this old alley of shops, there were the neatest items. Colorful glass pieces, a co-op of artisans and neat pieces made out of wood. We also got to go into a Mangelsen Gallery, where he has the most amazing wildlife photos. Amazing photos !

 

I'm sure you'd recognize some of the images. Go to his website www.mangelsen.com and check them out. Here is one that I love....Tree of Life

 

 

 

 

In the main business district, of Omaha. there is an amazing display of statues that depicts the settling of the plains. It starts on one block and continues on for about a three block radius. Really neat ! The level of detail in these pieces was incredible.

We left downtown Omaha with our bellies full and our minds expanded. We had a great time with an old friend and made two new ones. We learned a bit of mid-western history and soaked up with the area had to offer. Ahhh...life is good. What did you do this weekend or have in the works for the coming week that you're looking forward to ?

Walker Point Recreation Area - Madison,SD

We spent Monday night at a state park that is part of Walker Point Recreation Area on a lake near Madison, SD. What a pretty campground ! We were in site 42E, which was the last "pull thru" site just as you entered the campground. Not your typical pull thru....more like pull into a half circle area. We needed to use a 50 amp extension cord to reach the panel but no biggie. There isn't any water or sewer at the sites but there is a dump station and water spigot directly across from where our site was. Handy to get in and get out again. 

We had a beautiful view of the water and handy for Boomer to get in and take a dip. He loved it ! This park was so spacious and easy to get in and out of. Didn't give you the feeling that it was a state park at all. Sites were good size and level. Bathroom was immaculate.....look how nice that handicapped shower stall is. When we arrived, there wasn't anyone at the gate and no one ever came by our site. We had made our reservation on-line and paid for it so maybe they just thought they didn't need to bother us. Two bikers came in later and pitched a tent down a few sites from us. I think there were five occupied sites in the whole park and it's a shame cause it's a gem of a place to stay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're like us, you mark up your "Next Exit" books with little tidbits of info you want to remember. This park is on Route 19, just outside of Madison about five miles or so miles. Write it down...Great place...$18/night

Hey Jim...Check out the self serve firewood station with the money box. It was locked so I'm guessing that when the camp host is home that they unlock it.

Badlands and Beyond....

We had a great time at Badlands National Park yesterday. We last went through the park five years ago when we came through South Dakota for our drivers license. It was a beautiful day, with big fluffy clouds in a bright blue sky, which made for a great viewing day from many of the overlooks. With Sturgis ending, it was also busy with bikers stopping on their way home. I know many of you are wondering, with us being so close to Sturgis why we didn't go there while we were in Rapid City. I've been curious about the whole Sturgis thing, in years past, but after listening to loud pipes from bikers for three hours on the way to Rapid City, the curiosity passed. While we were out on Saturday and Sunday, at the various attractions, repeatedly the bikers were parked in dedicated RV spots. Apparently they think that if they are there in "numbers", that makes them large enough to park where the RVers should park. When Linda and I were at Mount Rushmore, we had several bikers walk by us that should have spent their money on a bar of soap instead of whatever they spent it on. Not my idea of a good time. We heard on the local news today that nine bikers were killed and 50 injured during this year's event. Lots of drug arrests and two bikers were life flighted to an area hospital. Sad to hear news like that. Attending Sturgis isn't on my bucket list !

Our view during lunch in the rig....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed our time in the park. Linda found the NASCAR race on the radio so we listened to that while driving through the park and while we were eating lunch at one of the pull offs. Linda was chatting with a young lady, who stopped next to the rig to ask us about the garage area. She was driving from California to Fort Bragg, in North Carolina.

We left the Badlands and moseyed down the road till we got to a rest area at mile marker 218. The wind was blowing so hard that it was really tough to steer the rig so I was happy that we had a short day of driving. Stayed there for the night and left around eight this morning for the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Talk about crazy busy....they were expecting six buses today and three of them were there while we were there. This is a neat place that we also visited five years ago. Big changes this time around though ! They now have a movie that talks about the history of the corn palace, which is neat. They have opened a large gift shop area on the floor of the hall (on the basketball court) and the proceeds of that go towards the changing of the scenes each year, which costs about $160,000 annually.  It takes 12 different types of corn to make the different color variations and all of it is grown on approx. 100 acres by one farmer. It's hand planted and hand picked to get the best ears that will work on the different pictures. The scenes are laid out on black roofing paper and then the ears are cut in half and nailed to the walls. They were finishing up the last two scenes while we were there so we got to see them  bundle and cut the straw-type of material that went around the edges. You can see where they are filling in around the brown decoration. What a time consuming process but oh so neat when it's done. This year's theme is "Youth Activities".

After we left Mitchell, we drove to Madison and went to our mail forwarding service....My Dakota Address. Just a simple store on the main street in Madison. We've never met Terri, who runs the business, so it was great to put a face to the voice on the phone. She has been a huge help to us since 2007, answering all sorts of questions about registrations, health insurance, etc. Anything to do with South Dakota.....Terri has lots of good info. As I mentioned, we picked up our mail. Guess what we got in the mail.....Our passports !!! yippee....The supervisor who got involved, at the Aurora, CO processing center was a big help to us and called us personally to let us know everything we had sent in was fine and our passports would be in the mail. As far as drivers licenses, auto, bike & RV registrations and passports, we are good to go !

When we originally thought that we'd get our drivers licenses renewed in Madison, we needed to have a receipt from a campground in South Dakota so had made a reservation at Walkers Point Recreation Area. They have a small campground there, on a lake so that is where we are spending tonight. It's an electric only site but there is a water and dump station as you enter the campground. Beautiful site along the lake.....Boomer has been in swimming twice already. Tomorrow we head out for Gretna, NE and our next assignment. It's been a wonderful couple of days on the road, exploring this great country of ours. Time to get back to work....

Rapid City, SD - Part 2

As I mentioned in the last post, we went to several area attractions yesterday. First we went to Mount Rushmore and we arrived at the perfect time; a ranger tour was starting so we got in on that and learned a lot about the sculptor and the images on the mountain. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, originally had intended for everything down to the waist of George Washington would be sculpted and that more of Lincoln would be shown. Due to rock imperfections and other things, only the heads were done. It was interesting to learn some of the detail that went into the monument.

 

 

 

We left there and went to the Crazy Horse monument. We had only intended to just look at it from the road and then move on but decided that we might not get back this way for a while so what the heck.....boy, it was a good thing that we went. What a fascinating monument ! Although the monument is still under construction, it is an amazing story on how it came to pass and the fact that it is totally funded by private contributions, without any state or federal funding. The size and magnitude is colossal. See that hole,,,,that is the area that is under his arm that is pointing. That opening is nine stories tall. The horses head, when completed will be 22 stories tall. It was great that we went to Mount Rushmore first because it gave us a great perspective on size. You can take all of the heads from Mount Rushmore and fit them in the head of Crazy Horse....wow, this is going to be massive when it's done. Too bad that it won't be in my lifetime. I would really love to see it when it's completed.

The original sculptor, who started Crazy Horse...Korczak Ziolkowski..passed away in 1982. His wife, who is 18 years younger than he was, continues on with the work, along with eight of the ten kids they have. The movie that they have in the visitor center, has some neat insight into the project and the kids talk about the strength of their conviction to finish their father's project. They are making great changes in the look of the monument but it's a huge undertaking. Click on the blue picture, below, to see the size of some of the features of the monument.

Once completed, this monument will be larger than any other monument in the world...larger than the sphinx or the Washington monument. Incredible ! There are so many different buildings there at the complex that you could spend hours looking at the Indian artifacts, watch the artisans making jewelry, see some of the other pieces that Korczak created, etc. They are building another wing on the one building that will make another exhibit area. Lots to look at and learn about....

We left Crazy Horse and drove to Custer State Park. It had sprinkled off and on all day but as we got to the park, the sky started to darken again. We wanted to drive through the wildlife loop, since there is a large bison herd there. Yep, there is...we got just a short ways into the loop and saw a lot of cars pulled off on a side road. We went to explore and there was about 50 bison there. Then, it started to pour rain ! Lots of baby bison there with the moms and rest of the herd. They didn't seem to mind all of the cars, cause they milled around on the road in front of the cars. Rush hour of buffalo...

 

 

Finished all of our sight seeing and went back to the park...exhausted. Got together with Colette and Dennis one last time before pulling out this morning. So good to see them......been way too long and hopefully it won't be another four years before we catch up to them again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pulled out this morning around 9:30 and hit the road. Not going far...only about 150 miles down the road. Right now we are sitting at Yellow Mounds Overlook, on the Badlands loop, listening to the NASCAR race back home in Watkins Glen (on the radio), having a bite to eat and enjoying the beautiful day. Gorgeous views everywhere you look !  It doesn't get any better than this ! Enjoy your day.....more later.

Rapid City, SD

We left Thayne, WY Thursday, after having our final meeting with the park owner. Our car was in a nearby town having the radiator flushed. We were hoping to have the timing belt changed but the wrong parts came in so I told them we only had time to do the radiator. We got the rig ready for the road and drove down to the garage. I dropped Linda at the garage and took the road next to the garage to find a place to sit till she could come with the car to hook up. About a half mile down that road was a large parking lot which was a perfect place to sit and wait for her. She came a few minutes later, we hooked up and hit the road.

We drove till around six that evening and pulled off at a parking area, off of 80 and spent the night. Hit the road the next morning and made it to Rapid City, SD a little after two. Our friends, Dennis and Colette work at Hart Ranch, a beautiful membership park on the outskirts of Rapid City. They were able to get us a site here, which was lucky for us because it's bike week in Sturgis and that affects all lodging anywhere even close to Sturgis. We started seeing bikes on the road 2.5 hours out from Rapid City ! Sadly we also saw a truck and motorcycle trailer that had wrecked along the side of the road. I hope they enjoyed their ride, while at Sturgis, cause those bikes were going to see any more riding any time soon. They were toast as was the trailer !

Colette had mentioned that we could get our drivers licenses renewed, just a short ways from the park. Wow, we got set up, showered and headed out, with an armload of the necessary paperwork, to get there and get it taken care of. My clerk had my stuff all done in about three minutes but Linda came over and said her clerk wouldn't process hers because the receipt, from the park, had their address on it and not our mailing address. Oh brother....my clerk said to get her stuff and come to her window but he wouldn't give Linda her paperwork back. He told her to call the park and have them fax a new statement over to him and he'd finish it up. You know...there's one of these "by the numbers" kind of people at every work place but Linda seems to always be the one to get them and that is not a good thing for the clerk. After her calling the park, explaining what address needed to be on the statement and waiting for the fax, we finally got out of there. Yippee !!! Done for another five years. And our licenses say no vision restrictions, thanks to the paperwork our eye surgeon faxed to them saying that we no longer require glasses. That evening, we went out to dinner with Dennis and Colette to catch up since it's been four years since we've seen them last. We had a great time !

Originally we were going to leave Saturday but getting our licenses done here freed up some time in our schedule so we stayed another night. Saturday we went to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial and through Custer State Park to do the wildlife loop. Awesome day of neat things to experience. We hadn't done any of these attractions when we were here five years ago. I'll write more about all of those things in my next post...gotta get on the road. We're Badland bound today....