Tyler, Texas

Monday morning, I called down to Waco Lake to see if we could start there earlier than we expected to. We found out that the lake there had flooded due to heavy rains in the area and the campsites were underwater. He said to call him again Friday because the water should be down by then. We decided to drive on over to Tyler, TX today and stay here for a week, so we are at the RVChampions RV park for at least until next Tuesday. The weather was rainy all day yesterday, but was sunny today after the early morning fog cleared. Yesterday morning, a flock of migrating ducks landed on the lake next to the campground.

I had never seen so many in one group before, there were thousands coming down the lake and crossing it near the dam. We watched a continuous stream of them go by for several minutes. What a sight to see!

Sunday in Ashdown

We started out the day by going to Mass at a church on the edge of Ashdown which is about 13 miles from here. After mass, we were invited to a parish pot luck dinner which they have the first Sunday of every month. The food was great and we got to visit with several people there. We drove around on a few back roads on the way home. This is the view from the front of the motorhome toward the dam.

From the bottom of the dam looking back at the campsite.

Pictures of the road down to our campsite.

A mushroom growing up the hill from us.

The shore by our campsite.

Tonight's sunset.

There are supposed to be thunderstorms along our route from here to Waco tomorrow, so we are going to stay here until Tuesday.

Ashdown, AR

We traveled the backroads through the Ouachita National Forest today and stopped at Beards Bluff campground on Millwood Lake near Ashdown, AR we have a nice site right on the shore of the lake and since it is a COE park, our senior pass gets us half off on the camping rate. At $7.50 per night we are going to stay awhile. Good to have some down time together after a busy summer. We are watching the sun set over the lake.

Alma, AR

Yesterday we left Nevada and drove to Alma, AR. We were on the Interstate most of the day driving in the rain. We took a scenic drive through the hills near here as the rain stopped. Most of the trip was through some very scenic hills with a lot of fall color. Would have been some great pictures without the rain.

We are the Fort Smith-Alma RV park. We decided to stay here for 2 nights to give us time to make it to All Saints Day Mass and browse through some big discount stores here near the campground. Tomorrow we are heading down through the Ouachita National Forest and hope to stay at a Corps of Engineers lake near Ashdown, AR.

Nevada, MO

We had to finally tell our North Dakota family goodbye after a good visit. We all went up to my sister's house in Minot one Saturday to see here and one of my nephews. She supplied us with some home canned bread and butter pickles, peaches, and fruit cocktail. Always good to spend time with family, especially when they live so far away.

One of our rooftop air conditioners/heat pumps died while we were in Bismarck and so we ordered a new one and my son and son-in-law helped me install it. Seem like there is always maintenance to do. Winter was fast approaching and we had a little snow and some cold weather there.

We stopped overnight at Fargo again on the way back to Sioux City and one of my nephews stopped by to visit and left some homemade apple pie filling and some home canned salsa. The pie filling was delicious but I haven't tried the salsa yet.

We stayed in Sioux City for a couple of weeks, doing some fixit projects and visiting family. Time there always goes too fast and it's time to leave again.

After leaving Sioux City on Sunday, we stopped in Des Moines and spent Sunday and Monday visiting our families there. As usual time was too short there, but with cold weather approaching we were anxious to head south. We have stopped for the night at the Osage Prairie RV park at Nevada, MO. As we travel we think back on a busy summer, meeting three new granddaughters, celebrating baptisms, playing games with family, helping with projects, and enjoying good food together. Now we are headed to a new adventure, volunteering at a Corps of Engineers lake at Waco, TX. We haven't been there before so it will be a new area to explore.

Heaven's Helpers Soup Cafe

Our daughter here in Bismarck has been telling us about a soup kitchen up here that is operated like a restaurant. Customers come in and sit down and order their choice of two soups and two sandwiches. There is a box at the door to pay whatever you can if you can. Volunteers can sign up to work there. She and Janice and I worked a shift there on Friday and we enjoyed it and will probably go back again. They are also installing showers and a computer area there for the homeless.

On Saturday, we celebrated some birthdays at the bowling alley and then to Pizza Rance for lunch. After lunch, Janice and I went to the downtown street fair. They have a lot of food booths and we found our favorite Swedish rice pudding at one of them. Sunday's high was over 80 degrees, but the forecast looks much cooler for the upcoming days. Fall seems to be in the air up here. Today was a stay-at-home day. I worked on a couple of fixit projects here at the motorhome and our daughter came out for awhile and played a game with us.

Bismarck

I really need to write more often to keep this updated. I will try to do better. As I said in the last post, the lake was rising. This is the edge of the beach parking lot which is normally about 30 ft above the lake level. It eventually rose another 20 ft, covering the parking lots and all of the surrounding area.

As the water rose, more and more of the road disappeared.

This is the road just past our volunteer campground. The water eventually reached the campground and we all had to move to another campground on the other side of the lake for a few weeks while the water went back down. When the water recedes, all of the logs and debris that you see in the water stays in place and so there is a lot of clean up work to do to reopen all of the areas.

When the water was at it's peak level, the road across the dam was closed for about two weeks for safety reasons and only workers and delivery people were allowed beyond this checkpoint at the end of the dam. The rangers and volunteers all worked several shifts here.

One of the many beautiful sunsets looking across the lake from our campground.

We packed up the motorhome and drove it to Mt.Pleasant for the weekend of Janice's 45 high school class reunion. One of their activities was to ride on float in the Winfield parade. We went to the dinner that night and a get together afterward. The next night we went out to eat with a few of her old classmates. It was an enjoyable weekend and we were glad that we went.

On our way back we stopped at Janice's sister-in-law's house for a visit and caught these two nieces there in town also. I had never met them and Janice hadn't seen them for a long time either. It was a nice bonus for the trip.

When we returned to Des Moines, we dog sat Houdini while the Rices took a trip to Colorado. He kept Janice busy with a lot of walks around the campground.

We were in town long enough to attend the baptism of a new granddaughter.

One of the volunteer opportunities that I had for Saylorville Lake this summer since we were there later than usual was to work their booth at the Iowa State Fair. We wanted to be there for a granddaughter's tumbling performance also, so we made a day of it.

I had never been to the State fair before, so I enjoyed the day. A trip to the Iowa State Fair is never complete without seeing the butter cow. That's right, a cow sculpted from butter!

We left Des Moines on Friday before Labor Day and headed to Sioux City. This little rascal crawled out from under the motorhome when we started it up to leave.

We spent the weekend in Sioux City doing a few fixit projects and visiting our family members there. Our son-in-law was running a game convention in town that weekend so we spent a few hours there on Sunday afternoon. 

Now we are in Bismarck, ND to spend some time with family up here and getting to know our new granddaughter. I'm sure that time will pass quickly and we will have to leave much too soon.