Day 8

June 6, 2017

Glad to leave our campground and the 1/2 mile gravel road back to the pavement.  Pulled into Flying J truck stop to top up on fuel.  The attendant pulled up our loyalty card by phone number and we got 8 cent/gallon discount.  Yea!  Very windy drive north today past several huge grain storage facilities, one had empty rail hopper cars lined up for about 5 miles waiting to load.  They do grow some grain here.  Traffic was very light and we arrived at the Canadian border station just 15 miles south of Winkler, Manitoba, our destination.  We were behind just one vehicle and the female agent took our passports inside for about 5 minutes and returned with the usual questions including “Do you have any guns?” and asked if we had like cases of booze.  We answered no to both, she smiled and told us to enjoy Canada.  Didn’t even come in the coach.  Iris thought she looked like Ann Margaret with a glock pistol on her hip.  A few minutes and we arrived in Winkler and easily found the Leisure Travel Vans factory and service facility.  Met Steve, service manager, got the coach set up with power and water, had lunch next door at a nice tea room (great dessert), found the coin laundry, bank (1.29 Canadian dollars = 1 US$) and car wash.  Folks, this was a car wash - drive up to an overhead door that rises, into a large room, then you select a divided space and pressure wash your vehicle, $6 to clean our Honda Fit.  Seems overkill now but in the winter that’s the only way to wash a car.  When finished you pull up to the exit door that opens and you’re outside and away.  Found Walmart so no cultural adjustment necessary.  Past time for happy hour so back to the coach and some satellite TV.  

 Arriving Canada

 Is this a grain elevator or a Disney ride?

 New LTV's ready to ship

 Iris at the LTV service center

Day 7

June 5, 2017

This was the first night we had to get up during the night and put on a blanket and fire up the furnace.  It had been 91 the previous afternoon but this morning it was 58.  We topped up on fuel at Summit and Iris drove us further north and we had a snack at a rest area before continuing.  The scenery has changed and everything has turned green in spite of the radio reporting that ND is in drought.  These folks here (there is less than 600,000 inhabitants in ND) are patriotic.  We passed barns and silos with huge painted American flags.  Lots of pickups, large farms, not much traffic on IH-29.  Looks like a good place to live (in the summer).  Red and white stripped gates tied back now but capable of being swung out across the highway at exits would force you off the road during blizzard conditions.  Not our choice but enjoyable to be here now.

Arrived our campground in Grand Forks, ND, an old KOA turned independent and not well maintained but OK for one night.  Got the O-Grill out and had some great HEB lamb chops and salad.  Yum!  At check-in we received our package from Amazon of the replacement dash camera so we can hopefully get some video of scenery in Alaska.

Tomorrow we will cross into Canada and we’re anxious after the tales from our friends, Allan & Eleanor about how they treat Texans (apparently Canada thinks all Texans are trying to smuggle guns into the country).  We thought a nap was in order but phone kept us busy.  No satellite TV due to the trees so watched a little TV on the local station.

These grain storage complexes appear about every five miles.  Much of the truck traffic is large grain haulers.

 Our campsite at Grand Forks

Day 6

June 4, 2017

Up at 6, big Sunday breakfast, prepared to depart Onawa.  Rained during the night so this morning lots of robin birds were busy looking for food under the cottonwood trees.  Our first stop was in Onawa for fuel then we hit the IH-29 going north.  Iowa and North Dakota are very similar, lots of fields, crops, irrigation equipment, cows and flat land.

There was no natural border between these two states.  All of a sudden you see a sign that says “Welcome to South Dakota”.  One of the interesting billboards shortly after crossing into SD was:

“Eat steak, wear fur, keep you guns, the American way”.

We had our lunch in a Walmart parking lot along the way, cooked in, washed up and off we went again to arrive in Summit, SD at the County Line RV Park where we spent the night.  248 miles today.

 Above - Iowa, below - South Dakota - Notice the difference.

Day 5

June 3, 2017

We left Beatrice behind and drove #77 north to Lincoln where Iris took over the driving chores, turned east on IH-80 then IH-680 around Omaha on the north side crossing the Platt and Missouri rivers to IH-29 on the Iowa side of the river.   The photos is the Platt River.  IH-29 is the Lewis & Clark Trail.  Then to the little town of Onawa, IA to stay the night in On-ur-wa RV Park.  Arriving early afternoon we set up our campsite and broke out the new BBQ (folds up and stays in a bag when not in use) and had some HEB steaks from our on-board freezer.  After we walked across the street to the DQ and had a blizzard to celebrate something.  Parked under lots of cottonwood trees so no satellite but some local channels.  Fuel prices here were really high, $2.65/gal for diesel, long ways from Buc-ees at $1.99.  Anyway very nice stop.  158 miles today.

Day 4

June 2, 2017

Leaving Perry we drive west on I-70 (11 miles) to Abilene to visit the Eisenhower Library and Museum.  We arrived just before 9:00 AM thinking that was opening time but soon realized that summer hours started June 1 at 8:00 AM.  We saw a very well done 25 minute video about Eisenhower’s life and accomplishments then toured the Boyhood Home of 800 square feet where Ike and 7 others  lived from 1898 until he left for West Point in 1911.  The museum had a lot of information about the Chism Trail that terminated in Abilene as well as the accomplishments of Ike during his army and presidential lives.  The museum and library are the largest buildings of the complex with the Boyhood Home, Visitor Center and Gift Shop and the Chapel where Ike and Maime are buried being the smaller.  It was very pleasant and certainly not crowded.  About noon we left Abilene and drove the rest of the day on two-lanes roads seeing our first wildlife, a turkey hen crossing the road just ahead of us and a very large deer standing in the ditch that waited until we were even to bolt across a fence.  We ended our day in Beatrice, Nebraska, a very lovely town where we stayed in a city RV park with lots of trees and grass, only set up for 20 sites.  We took #14 and got set up then made our way to Walmart for some essentials.  Back at the park we had a glass of wine, cooked our dinner, watched some TV, and to bed early.  Total miles since leaving Georgetown 789.

Day 3

Jun 1, 2017

Woke this morning in the Town of Perry OK RV Park overlooking the lake.  We were the only residents, still after lots of wind overnight but we were completely stable with our new leveling jacks.  The view of the lake this morning was better than late yesterday.

Had a fuel stop in Perry and a Walmart, type we had not seen since McGehee, very little grocery items and no fuel station but Perry is only about 5,000 folks.  Got fuel at a Mobil station and drove IH-35 to IH-135 then state highways to Chapman, KS.  Along the way we passed lots of wheat fields, oil pumps going, huge grain storage facilities and a few cattle mostly grouped around tanks (ponds).  Chapman Creek RV Park is nice but very close to IH-70 so some noise.  But we slept long and well and the freeway noise did not affect us.

Day 2

May 31, 2017

After the anniversary breakfast with Marie and Wendall we traveled today from the Winstar casino to Edmond OK through huge wheat and hay fields.  Lots of fields just look like grazing pastures but no cows.  ?  We reached Edmond and arrived at Burianella’s house just at noon.  Burianella was a friend when we lived in Stavanger, Norway back in the early 1980’s.  We went to lunch and came back to the house for home-made chocolate cake WOW!.  After a too-short visit we left and drove on to Perry, OK where the town has an RV park overlooking a lake, unfortunately it was very muddy from recent rains but still a pretty and windy spot.  Bob had a hard time getting the satellite dish aimed at the southern sky (Oh, that southern sky) but finally we were set.  So happy hour overlooking the lake in this park with 11 sites and only us here.  Quiet!

192 miles today.