Leaving Saylorville Lake

Two month here have flown by. Work at the lake has been fairly normal considering the Covid situation. Most of the volunteers were not allowed in until the beginning of May. This did not affect us because we had planned to go to Sioux City until the beginning of June. When we arrived here, some of the rangers were still working from home and some of the maintenance workers were gone for various reasons. All of the workers did a great job getting the campgrounds open and doing the needed maintenance. With everyone not being together every day, communications have been a little problem sometimes but things have been surprisingly normal for the most part for the volunteers. I really enjoy the variety of work here and hate to leave. Fence building, tree trimming, mowing, bush hogging, planting food plots, putting up signs, and assembling picnic tables, something different every day and they make us feel appreciated.

The other part of being here is being able to visit two of out daughters and their families and spend some time with them. As the grandkids age, we see less of them, but still like to be a part of their lives as much as we can. Our oldest daughter from Bismarck brought our youngest daughter from Sioux City to spend a few days here, so that was nice. Her daughter stayed here with the cousins and will ride back to Bismarck with us.

Tomorrow we leave here to go to Bismarck for a month. We hate to leave here, but are looking forward to going there.

Saylorville Lake

We are settling in at Saylorville Lake again. We parked here Sunday night and one of our daughters and her family stopped by while we were getting set up. We were glad to see them again. We reconnected with several of the volunteers here and met some new ones. Of course the Covid thing has the park operations here in a state of flux. Some people working from home, some out with injuries, along with new procedures everywhere. It may take some time to work out the work schedule, but we are pretty good at adapting and settling into a new routine wherever we go, so I'm sure we will soon be completely comfortable. We have our favorite spot here in volunteer village and the bird feeders are set up and are being put to good use by a variety of birds. It is good to be back here.

Sioux City

We have been so busy here that I haven't done very well at keeping up the blog. Parked in our daughter's driveway in Sioux City. This is where we catch up on our repairs when we can. This time, we had to have an oil pan gasket and an air conditioner clutch replaced on the Jeep. That was taken care of last week, so it is ready to go again. The motor home was making an extra noise when we got to Quartzsite last fall and it looked like it was coming from an exhaust manifold gasket. It gradually got worse as we came up here. We had it looked at last week and they ordered parts. The manifold was also cracked and needed to be replaced. We had the parts installed today, so the motorhome is ready to travel again. The front leveling jack still needs to be replaced, but that will be done later. We have enjoyed out time here with our daughter and the grandkids and the time has passed quickly. Our son and granddaughter from Bismarck, ND are coming for a visit this weekend and the following weekend we will head to Saylorville Lake near Desmoines for our volunteer job there. Lots of small jobs to complete here before then.

El Dorado, KS

We are at a Walmart in El Dorado, KS for the night. We hope to be back in Sioux City tomorrow night. I went into Walmart to pick up a few things. All employees wearing masks. Few customers wearing them. Directional aisles (not being followed). People seem to be very tense and have lost their friendliness. Hope we can get back to normal soon.

Seymour, Texas

We are spending the night in the Northside RV Ranch in Seymour, TX. The campground is essentially closed because they are redoing the electric system, but the owner said we could stay for free with sewer and water if we didn't need electricity. Works for us! We are almost to the Oklahoma border. Drove through quite a bit of oil well country today. Starting to see more trees finally.

A Day of Rest

We woke up this morning to feel the motorhome rocking in the wind. Looking at the weather forecast for today, we would have to fight a 30 mph head wind all day. Tomorrow's forecast looked much better, so we decided to stay here today. I took a short walk across town this morning and we just hung out here in the motorhome this afternoon. We had a good wifi signal from the RV park, so we used it to some updates on the phone, the ipad, and the sewing machine (yes, it has software updates too!). Tomorrow we should be back on the road again!

Van Horn, Texas

Another easy day today. Lost 2 hours due to time zone changes. We are stopped at the Wild West RV Park in Van Horn, Texas. Part of our drive today took us past the border in El Paso. Due to Covid-19, the interstates through the cities aren't busy so no slow downs there. Way more trucks than cars on the road and almost no RVs so far. No problem fueling at truck stops and so far no problem finding open RV parks. Grabbed some take out food at a truck stop for lunch today and otherwise just eating in the Motorhome.