Sunday in Durant

We had a quiet day here today, went to Mass this morning. They asked all the visitors to stand afterwards and they presented each of us with a little welcome packet. The note on it said,"Thanks for poppin' in". Thus the bag of popcorn. A nice gesture that makes you visible to everyone as a visitor and results in a few friendly conversations on the way out.

After lunch at IHOP, we filled the Jeep with $1.88 gas and picked up a Sunday paper to read. Diesel fuel was $2.15 at the last fill up. I like those prices. A little driving around sight seeing and then a quiet afternoon here at the campground.

Durant, OK

We had discussed trying to make it to Sanger, TX today and staying at the RV Park that we stayed in when we bought this motorhome there and possibly connecting up with the previous owner again, but we decided not to drive that late.  Both of us really do not like driving the motorhome after dark if it isn't necessary.  We found an RV park at the Choctaw Casino in Durant, OK and stopped here.  We will be here for two nights to make it convenient to make it to Mass tomorrow and take some time to drive around the area. The Casino hotel here has an amazing light display on the outside of it that we can watch from the motorhome. See more about it here.

Bartlesville, OK

Overnighting at the Riverside RV Resort and Campground in Bartlesville, OK tonight.  We stopped up the road a little at Dewey, OK on a whim to check out a tourist information sign that turned out to me a Tom Mix museum. "Who is Tom Mix?", you will ask if you are younger than me. See Tom_Mix to find out. What an interesting place. We spent well over an hour there and could have spent more. We got out of there so late that we only went a few miles to this RV park that they recommended. Small and crowded but will be fine for an overnight.

Lyndon, Kansas

We were driving this afternoon after fighting the headwind all day and both of us were tired of it and ready to stop when a campground appeared right on the highway. 2 sites left and we are in one of them at Crossroads RV Park. A rain shower had just passed through the area and we missed it, but the ground was still wet when we got here. Nice RV park. Sounds like north winds tomorrow, much better than south.

A Busy Month and On the Road Again

After returning from North Dakota, we spent a month in Sioux City parked at the new house.  It turned out to be a busy month.  Work on the house ( a couple of new windows, a loft built in the garage, a patch of grass seeded from the well project, and small fix it jobs), work on the van (new front brake pads), work on the Jeep (added air bags to the rear springs to stiffen up the rear end), and work on the motorhome (new coach batteries, repair of the stove cover and washing it).  In between all of this we were able to spend some time with Rebecca and her family. Here are some pictures as requested by her.

The first is a shot from a prairie hill above the house.

The next is from the woods in the state park adjoining the house.

 And the top of another prairie hill.

We left Sioux City late this afternoon and are spending the night at the Victorian Acres RV park in Nebraska City, NE. The month at home flew by and we didn't get to spend as much time with family as we had hoped, but it was a productive summer. We are leaving with the old house packed into storage and we have a buyer for it due to close the end of  this month. We are looking forward to our volunteer job in the southern tip of Texas, but as always we will be missing the kids and grandkids. We plan to leave Texas in the middle of February and head to Georgia where we will spend the month of March.  We hope to be volunteering at Saylorville lake again starting mid April, so we can spend some time with the kids and grandkids there and the two new grandkids arriving next spring and summer in Desmoines. As usual, our plans are carved in stone, but subject to change.

Almost Home

We decided to stop overnight at Lewis and Clark Lake at Yankton, SD. Spent part of our honeymoon in a pup tent here 39 years ago. Life was much simpler then.

Beautiful sunset on the lake.

Later on the full moon came up over the lake but my picture taking skills were not adequate to capture it, so we just sat on the bench in the picture above and recorded it in our memories.

Quiet Blog Lately

   Wow, a month has passed quickly. We left Bismarck, ND today, a month after arriving there and have stopped at the Wylie Campground in Aberdeen, SD  There is a nice lake here.

 It was a great month of relaxation after the previous couple of months packing up the house.  We really enjoyed the time with our son and our daughter and her family. We stayed at a KOA there because the other RV parks were full or had limits on how long you could stay. It was a nice quiet park close to the kids. We overnighted on the way up at Fargo, ND to break up the long drive.  One of our other daughters and her family came up from Desmoines and spent a week while we were there also. We enjoyed four wheeling at an off road park, a downtown festival, target shooting, lots of good food and cooking together and just visiting. One day, our son drove us up to Minot to see my sister and her husband there.  She fed us a great barbecue meal and we enjoyed the visit. Back to Bismarck and once again we had to say our good-byes and head on down the road.
   We will probably spend the month of October in Sioux City with doctor appointments, and etc. and head south around the first of November.  I received a confirmation letter from the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge System in south Texas while we were in North Dakota for a winter volunteer position there starting mid November. I will be mowing the roads in several of their units along the Rio Grande River and working in their greenhouse. I am looking forward to the job and seeing the area.