Altoona, Iowa June 4 - June 19

We got to Altoona in a little over three hours. First order of business was to put the motorhome in its camping slot, and go to a Chevrolet dealer for a necessary and immediate repair to the ignition lock which wouldn't let us turn the key to turn off the engine and take the key out. So wherever we would've gone, we would've had to leave the engine running! We managed to find a Chevy dealer that replaced the ignition lock quickly and efficiently, keeping us from setting up camp for only a couple of hours. A minor inconvenience considering the alternative!

After going to the worship service in the chapel at Adventureland and meeting a bunch of really nice people who work in the park, we headed back home and worked on the moho in preparation for the coming heat of the summer. The windshield and side winders were cleaned and covered with sunshades to help keep the inside of the moho cooler. The pictures should show that this park is really a nice one with a bunch of grass. And although we've only spent one night here, we noted many people sitting outside after the sun goes down. This leads us to believe that there were AREN'T that many flying blood suckers around here. Gotta thank the HR guy today when we see him!

June 8th was our first day to work so the day before that we did a little sight seeing. Our first stop was in Indianola, Ia.,at the National Balloon Museum, about 25 miles south of Altoona. This is the site of the annual National Balloon Classic, held July 29 - August 6 this year. Supposed to be LOTS of balloons there during that time. While we're not gonna do the balloon rides, we're gonna make it down there when they're gonna light off all the burners at dusk on our day off. Hoping to get some cool pictures, and will post what we get.

Then we headed west to John Wayne's birthplace in Winterset, Ia. Marion Robert Morrison was born in the four room house pictured here, on May 26, 1907, but moved from there when he was six years old due to his fathers health condition. So he wasn't there very long, but the folks in Winterset are proud to say where he was from. The little house is filled with historic photos of his family, the movies he was in, and period furniture and artifacts. There was a lot of information about his life and we felt it was well worth the time to visit it.

The town of Winterset was founded in 1859, has a population of approximately 5000 and was an interesting place to see. The main street looks about the same as any other small town of that size and era. Of interest was the county courthouse which was being refurbished outside and had a bunch of scaffolding around it, so this picture is from Wikipedia.com rather than from my camera. There was another house of interest that was on the road as we went into town. From the picture, you can see that it's a two story house, you can also see the interesting design that was painted into the front of the house. Actually, in looking closely at the picture, it looks like it might be different trim pieces rather than just paint. Regardless, the builder and the painter went to a lot of effort.

From there, we visited several of the bridges of Madison County that Robert James Waller wrote about in his book "The Bridges of Madison County". We saw three of them of which only one is used currently, that one being the one that looks like it is in a park setting because it is, indeed, in the middle of a park. The bridge that is white is the Cutler-Donahoe covered bridge and is located in Winterset City Park. I thought this park was rather huge for a city of about 5,000 as it covers 76 acres. Not only that, but it has a campground complete with RV connections, and several other amenities including a stone tower erected to honor the early Madison County settlers Caleb & Ruth Clark built in 1927. That's me in the picture at the top of the tower, and Katie in the picture with a great view over looking the Middle River Valley. Getting to this tower can be done by foot if ya wanna have a good hike, or it'll take about 10 minutes by car. We chose the car method.

I'm gonna tell about the rides that we worked on after we started work on June 8th. You may know more about these rides than me, please forgive me for the necessary redundancy if that's the case.

My ride assignment for may first week was as the operator for the Lady Luck. This ride goes around in concentric circles, then has one side lift off the ground still going in concentric circles. So the riders end up not only going round and round, but up and down aas well. As the operator, it was my responsibility to ensure that the riders were properly secured in their seats with two people to each seat with "no single riders" in any of the seats for safety reasons. This ride was very popular and no one who got off it ever complained that it was a lame ride. A few people were kinda antsy about getting on, but seemed to enjoy it as the ride progressed. As I'm currently unable to download pictures to my McBook, I'm grateful to "Hhappy" for this picture.

Katie had different ride assignments her first week starting with the Chuck Wagon. As you can see, it's a mini-ferris wheel for younger ride enthusiasts. This was used kinda as an entertainment for the kids that were attached to older ride enthusiasts who went grown up rides nearby.

Next day she went to the Inverter which turns ya upside down at the top of the ride. The operator has a monologue that they're supposed to say, but Katie said there was so much noise from everything else in the area that the upside down people at the top couldn't hear what she was saying anyway.

The next day Katie was at The Scrambler. This is a ride that will spin ya in concentric circles, much like the Lady Luck but it won't go up in the air.

Katie was then sent to help at the Saw Mill Splash, which is a water ride although no one really gets wet. She stayed there through this week as well helping people on and off the ride.

This week I've been on the Balloon Race. This ride will take you in a circle and raise up about 10' off the ground. I didn't like it nearly as much as I did Lady Luck as I felt disconnected from the riders.

It's been an interesting one and a half weeks that we've spent here so far. The weather hasn't really been hot, so the AC hasn't been needed much. But it has been humid so drinking lots of water has been necessary. Getting a good nights rest is also mandatory after the long seven hour days of being on our feet on Friday and Saturday.

Clear Lake, Iowa, May 31 - June 5

We had a really strong tailwind as we hit the road along I-90 heading east. When we've traveled from Southern California to Las Vegas on I-15, we've had tailwinds in the past. This was like three times as good of a tailwind as the one on I-15. I know this because I had to stop to tighten up a speaker and rear view mirror, and had a hard time getting the door open to walk outside to and from the mirror. This same wind gave us somewhat of a hard time when we were heading south on I-35 to Clear Lake. It was good that it wasn't more than about 40 miles.

We set up camp and I had a hard time getting the dish to work again. I've kind of decided to just wait until we get to Adventureland USA where I'm hoping I'll get a few more pointers on how to line this piece of metal up so it will do what it was designed to do. I'm thinking this because I know that there'll be more than just a few fulltimers there who've probably gone through this same problem.

Our first stop on Wednesday, June 1st, was at the Visitors Center of Clear Lake to find out what things are happening and to pick up a souvenir lapel pin if one was available. One was so we got it.

The highlight of this part of our journey had to be a trip to the Winnebago factory in Forest City. We took the factory tour which was very informative. Although we learned some things about the new Winnebagos and Itascas being made, I don't think that we're gonna be able use that information in getting another rig; them suckers just cost too much even though they are sooo nice. If any of you readers think you may want a moho in the future, I heartily endorse a Winnebago motorhome. There will be other brands out there that may offer you more, but ya gotta do your homework just like any other purchase. Not all motorhomes are made the same.

If you're a fan of old rock and roll, especially Buddy Holly, Richie Valenz, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, you may know the significance of Clear Lake, Ia. They had just finished their gig at The Surf Ballroom on February 2nd, 1959 in Clear Lake and left from Mason City, Ia airport to go to their next stop at Moorhead, Mn. by plane with pilot Roger Peterson. Unfortunately, it went down in a cornfield about six miles north of Clear Lake shortly after take off. We visited the site which now has a memorial which you can see where Katie is standing. Near the road adjacent to the memorial is a post sign of horn rimmed glasses you can see me standing next to. Later in the day, we happened to drive by the Surf Ballroom. We didn't know the significance of Clear Lake in the history of rock and roll, but it was interesting for us to find out. Question: What's the significance of "Miss American Pie" from Don McLean's "Bye Bye, Miss American Pie"?

We also visited Mason City several miles to the east of Clear Lake. From what we saw of the town, it has a lot of older homes which are quite beautiful. Once again, I didn't realize the significance of Mason City until we got there that it was the birthplace of Meredith Willson, who wrote "The Music Man" and "The Unsinkable Molly Brown". We stopped at his boyhood home and went to the museum next to it. Had an outstanding time learning about his growing up, his family, and the history of Mason City at the time. For instance, the street that his home was on was paved with wooden cobblestones because the families there didn't like the road noise from normal pavement of the time. These cobblestones were on the main hall in the museum; looked very interesting.

There were quite a few band instruments in the museum. Among them a bass saxophone, a valved trombone shaped like a saxaphone, and a double bell euphonium (I thought they only existed in someone's imagination! Lets ya know how little I really know!). Another curiosity were brass instruments of the civil war with over the shoulder bells which were played by the band as they led the troops into battle; the reason for the over the shoulder bells was so the troops behind the band could hear the music being played (and for distraction from what lay ahead). If you're in the Mason City area, I heartily recommend that you take in this museum.

We cut our stay short by one day so we could head to Altoona to get set up and not have too much stress when we started work on June 8. When we were recruited to work at Adventureland, we were told there wouldn't be any flying, blood sucking insects at the park, which we thought was quite a promise.

Mitchell, SD May 23 - 31

The trip to Mitchell, SD was somewhat uneventful in that I don't really remember anything happening along the way. If I had posted this sooner than June 2nd, I'd probably remember more, but that's the way it goes when you're retired, right? But as we pulled into our new temporary place to stay, I noticed that we were the only ones there with the exception of one other rig that looks like it stays there all the time. There was much more grass than at Badlands, so there was more winged-and-six-legged wildlife as well. Bunches more! Luckily we got the moho set up in a matter of 15 minutes or so, and then I started the task of finding the satelites once again. It took us through that afternoon and the next morning before we found them invisible things after moving the dish to an area void of trees about 80' away. I'm gonna master this art just like other RVers do, I wonder if there's an RVer merit badge for things like that?

Having remembered that we were retirees, we took the next day off and just stayed in the campground. I found this totally relaxing and enjoyed it a bunch. However, somewhere along the lines, the rain came down hard and the leak that we thought had been repaired reared its ugly head again. Going to the local RV store, Jack's Campers off of exit 330 in Mitchell, we were able to get the Eternabond that I used to seal the leak. Hopefully. I put this stuff down where the problem was. And the next day, put it down where I thought the leak was again since I didn't fix it the first time. This time, I patched over where the roof mounted dish had been. Haven't had enough of a deluge to see if the leak has gone away yet, but we'll probably be getting one before the summer is over. Aside from the leak, it was really great just taking it easy; I read a book which is something that I haven't done in years. Having said that, I don't know when I'll start my next book though.

We did eventually make our way to Mitchell enough to find our way around to the Corn Palace though. From taking the brief tour of the facility, it was built to show that South Dakota had an healthy agricultural climate for corn. This is the third Corn Palace with the first two being built using quite a bit of wood structure, and the last being built to current building codes using structural steel with corn being used in the interior and exterior murals. I didn't think that really was the case, but I show a close-up of the corn in the eagle mural. The exterior murals are changed every year at a cost of approximately $140,000. The Corn Palace has served as a venue for many big name entertainers with one of them being Myron Floren, a childhood accordion hero of mine. In addition, many other events are held there as well. However, there were no more events to take place there until after summer is over with so the main floor was turned into a giant souvenir shop for, what else, corn and the Corn Palace. Well, there was other stuff there also, but mostly it was just for corn.

Thursday night saw a few more campers coming into the campground so that we weren't the only ones there any more. On Friday the campground fill up completely. As a motorhomer, I found it interesting that there were so few motorhomes there with only about 10% being the self propelled RVs. The rest were obviously travel trailers and 5th wheels (with most of them being from Jayco). Katie said this was the case because everyone already has a truck in the midwest, so it'd just be natural to get something to pull rather than another vehicle to drive.
There were a few people who really roughed it: they stayed in tents and slept on the ground! Ugh! Most of them were from a motorcycle organization called Christian Motorcycle Association. They are a wonderful, friendly group of people who love the Lord, and sponsored the worship service held in the campground club house Sunday morning.

Sunday and Monday nights we got to take part in severe thunderstorm activity with a tornado warning on Sunday night and a tornado watch on Monday night. While a tornado didn't materialize in our area, it was kinda scary for us (me at least) as we haven't been in tornado country for quite some time. All that really happened was a lot of thunder and lightning, wind and rain, lots of rain. Had emails and phone calls from family and friends asking about our condition, etc. From the weather reports lately, moving away from the midwest doesn't mean that tornados won't be experienced still the same. So I guess that our time in Iowa which is normally out of the tornado area may very well be susceptible to them. Not how I wanted it to be, but it may very well be that way. After the tornado watch on Monday night, the wind cranked up from the west and blew at a fairly good rate. The next morning, Tuesday, when we were getting ready to leave the campground, the wetness from the rain the previous night had dried up from the grass from all the wind, so it wasn't too bad going the 80' or so to get the dish. That wind was gonna be a boon to us as we headed east to Clear Lake, Iowa.

Badlands, May 21 - 23

We left Rapid City somewhat in haste just get be on the road again. We took Route 44 out of Rapid City towards Badlands National Park where we were due to set up camp. Taking that hiway meant not seeing all the things along I-90, but since there wasn't a whole lot to see there, we didn't feel like we were missing much. There were a couple of small towns along I-90, most notably Wall, but Badlands wasn't that far from it and we were planning on taking the scenic route into Wall the next day anyway. The journey was short and we arrived at Badlands early in the afternoon. We choose to dry camp, meaning without water or electric connected to our rig. This would be a good test for our newly installed solar system to see how good it worked at keeping our 12 volt batteries charged. It came through just fine. My biggest problem was that I had a hard time finding the Dish satelites, so it took a couple of hours and several modifications of the aiming of the dish to get the signals. However, I did get it working. Eventually.

We left by car early the next morning to head towards Wall. As we were leaving, we saw several of these birds that are about twice the size of a robin, roaming about the campground. Having not seen them before, we asked the park ranger what they were later in the day and were told that they were Northern Shrike. Looking them up on the internet, it doesn't look like a Northern Shrike. If someone knows what they are please reply back to let me know.

Our first stop was to be Interior, SD., just a couple of miles outside of the park. Here are a couple of pictures from the city, including the Presbyterian Church and the local grocery store. It isn't that big of a town having a population of less than 100. But it had a Budget Inn, as well as a campground, and a gas station, so I'm calling it more than a spot in the road.




The Badlands were like nothing else we've seen. Spires, domes and ravines made by wind and water eroding soft sedimentary rock has evolved Badlands National Park into what it is today. As we toured through the park, looking at the terrain made us feel like we weren't in the northern plains of the United States. The trip through the park took a little over an hour and we arrived in Wall before noon, mainly for the big attraction of Wall Drug. As many of you are probably aware, Wall Drug started its present history in 1936 when it started offering free ice water to travelers. Since then, it's turned into a really nice place to stop for a souvenir, gift, meal, or even a prescription (I think the drug counter is still there). But it's grown from just a small shop into a big block. You can find them on the web at www.walldrug.com .

There was another attraction in the area, the Minute Man National Historic Site. We took the tour of the Launch Control Facility Delta-01 located on the north side of I-90 at exit 116. While it was interesting, it also kinda scary because of what it was. These Minute Man missiles were capable of destroying targets on the other side of the world in 30 minutes or less. The pictures are of the module 30' underground that two missileers would stand a 24 hour watch in. It wasn't as big as our motorhome, although it did have a bunk and toilet facilities, and food was prepared by a cook in the support building above ground, making it was ok to stay in for that amount of time. But it was cramped with a limited amount of space for moving around, and as there were electronics of the 1970's era running all the time (think large components), there was always a constant whir from cooling fans and air conditioning. I don't think it was a place that could be used for much of anything other than what it was meant for: launching a missile.

We headed back to Badlands with thoughts about how we didn't like moving after only two days. If we'd had longer reservations there, our thoughts were that we really wanted to stay. After all, it was very peaceful and quiet there. Had I thought about ensuring that we'd had more water when we left Rapid City, it would've been very easy to stay there for a week. However, we were concerned about having a place to stay over Memorial Day so thought it'd be best if we headed on down the road towards Altoona, Iowa. Having heard about the Corn Palace in Mitchell, we decided that we'd be able to handle traveling the 200 miles to Famil-e-Fun Campgrounds in Mitchell, SD., and stay there for a week.

Time in Rapid City, SD., May 14 - 21

So we were at our campsite at America's Mailbox and it was really an important event not only for us, but for them as well because it was the start of their operation at their new location and the start of our new adventure also. They had quite a celebration with their new building having a Masonic dedication ceremony which included raising their 30' x 60' american flag on a flagpole that is 100' high, and lots of food being served afterwards. The owner of America's Mailbox said that this flag was gonna be a landmark and I'd tend to agree with him as it's easily visible to anyone traveling on I-90 right there, as well as east or west on the freeway for a mile or so.

As my sisters Elaine & June were in Rapid City on their trek from Washington DC to McMinnville, Oregon, we mosied over to see them at their motel room after the festivities were over with. Spent time with them in the evening, then mosied back to the moho for an early night. Got together with them the next day for day trip around the area. Our first stop was at Mt. Rushmore which is where these photos were taken; the photo on the right has June on the left and Elaine in the center. You can tell it wasn't warm that day, huh? (Remember, Elaine is the bonafide Redskins fan, I got my sweatshirt at a thrift store in the hopes of staying warm when I worked those chili nights in Las Vegas. Now that I'm retired, I'm gonna take up the hobby of being a Redskins fan, along with being a fan of other professional sports teams also). We toured the national memorial going up and down the many steps that are there on the paths (it was very good exercise) and had lunch at the Buffalo Dining Room. Each of us had bison, which was something that none of us had ever had prior to this visit. June and I had the stew, Katie and Elaine had the burgers; not only did the flavor please us, but it was better for us than chicken!

Crazy Horse was next on the list of places to go to. When Katie and I saw Crazy Horse about 10 years ago, it looked almost the same as it does now. The reason being that most of the work that's been done since then has been on the far side of the mountain. You can see from the photo how things look now, and what it's supposed to look like when it's done. It's gonna be a pretty big monument when it's all done, can't help but wonder how long that'll be though.

The next day, May 16, found all of us going to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. It was interesting to see where many years ago, at least 51 mammoths had fallen into a sinkhole that they couldn't get out of. The city of Hot Springs, SD is adjacent to the mammoth site and has other touristy things to look at. Prior to going into Hot Springs, lunch was eaten at a long lost favorite fast food eatery, Taco Johns. They don't have stores in the Las Vegas area, and we were very happy to be able to eat there and find they had the same good taste that was there when we ate there about 10 years or so, ago. I like the potato ole's; they're like tater tots, but smaller and round.

In Hot Springs, we found the walkway along Fall River, which was fairly warm due to the hot water flowing into it from the hot springs, and walked along it for a ways. In the photo to the left, that's it next to Katie. Not unlike other bodies of water, there was plenty of ducks in the river and on the islands in it. I'm thinking they were happier ducks because of the temperature of the water. Of course, maybe I'm thinking that because I'd be happier due to the water being warmer than a lot of other streams or rivers in this part of the country.

And just like any other foresty place in the country, there were lots of animals. But there were bison here in addition to the other animals. In all, we saw wild turkey, antelope, prairie dogs, mountain goats, and cows. The bison had special privileges it seemed as they roamed all over Custer State Park uninhibited, here's a picture of one of them

June and Elaine left the next day (Tuesday) heading for Yellowstone and points west in hopes of being in Oregon by Saturday. As we weren't residents of Nevada anymore, we went about the tasks of changing our residency and registering our vehicles in South Dakota, which was done with a minimum of fuss.



There was a threat of rain that evening, but we still had time around 5 PM to accomplish part of a goal of ours, which was to play disc golf at least once in each state. We discovered a park in Rapid City, with a 9 basket course and headed out. The course was well laid out and we had a great time getting out enjoying the exercise.

The next morning we awoke to water leaks above the side windows next to the driver's and passenger's seats. We were grateful to America's Mailbox for having an RV bay so the moho could dry out and be worked on, and for having a room we could stay in while the moho was drying out. Didn't realize how much their services and facilities would be appreciated when we decided they'd be our new address in South Dakota. We tried to repair the roof (still leaks as of 5/25!) and made other enhancements to the moho while it was in the RV bay.

Our last night in Rapid City, we decided to go out to eat and visit Mt. Rushmore for the evening lighting ceremony. I also had an ulterior motive which was to plan what our itinerary would be between our departure from Rapid City and our arrival at Altoona, Iowa on the 6th of June. We found a Mexican restaurant in Keystone called Arriba Mexican Grill. We were greeted outside by a friendly youth, looking to be college age, who had a european accent rather than a Mexican accent. Turns out he and several other servers were from Moldova, a landlocked European country by Romania and Ukraine. The guy who was training the servers was from Indonesia. Never did see anyone who looked like they were of Mexican descent, figured that's who the cooks were. Regardless, we enjoyed the food; it was tasty, the portions were good, and the atmosphere of the eatery was pleasant as well. We plotted our itinerary to include six stops between May 21st and June 6th, and then headed for Mt. Rushmore for the lighting ceremony. The ceremony started at about 9:00 PM and lasted for about 25 minutes or so with a few spoken words by a park ranger, and a movie which gave brief biographies of each president and why the sculptor of Mt. Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum, thought they were important enough to be there. At the end, the lights were turned on and the faces of Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Lincoln were illuminated. There were about 200 people there that night when it was more than a little cool, and I'm thinking that everyone left with a better appreciation for what those presidents stood for and what they did.

The next morning found us hitching the HHR up behind the moho and heading towards Badlands National Park Campground, eager to see what the moho would take us to.