Here we are, on the road: We’re in Prior Lake, MN.

Sunday, June, 17, 2012 Lorraine’s report

Hello from Dakotah Meadows RV Campground in Prior Lake, MN. We arrived here last Tuesday after spending last Sunday driving all day, not even stopping to make a sandwich for lunch, just kept on driving through South Dakota; it was a pretty windy day and a very long drive; SD is a wide state.

We crossed into central time that day, loosing another hour. We stopped at Poinsett State Park, by Arlington, SD on the far eastern side of SD for two days to see good friends, Jim and Annie Montgomery. We met Jim and Annie several years ago by San Diego; they helped us out by taking care of Misty when my liver tried to shut down and I had to go into the hospital.

We got into Lake Poinsett around 6:15 or so, but the spot the ranger gave us was in a bunch of trees, so I went back to the office to ask for a clear site so we could get satellite. The park had emptied out by the time we arrived and we had plenty of sites to choose from, but being an older park, the trees were big and there were lots of trees. We found a nice spot right on the lake and set up the rig about 45 minutes later.

The wind was blowing pretty hard and the lake had white caps on it. The wind continued to howl all night and pretty much throughout the next day and night. It was hard to even open the rig’s front door, the wind kept pushing against it.

Just as we arrived on the shore to set up the rig, Annie called me. She could see us through her binoculars from her lot about a mile or so down from us. We made plans to meet up the next day, I made food and we went to bed, tired from a long day of driving.

Monday found us headed over to Jim and Annie’s cabin fairly early. We visited until lunch time and decided to go to eat. Chuck drove us into Arlington to go eat at the Dakota Sioux Casino’s buffet for Senior’s day, but it had closed by the time we arrived. We played a bit, Chuck won, the rest of us lost, and then Jim and Annie took us to a nice place to eat. We had a really good dinner with them, visiting the whole time continuing to catch up. All too soon our visit was over, but it was so good to see both of them and spend the time we did together. Thank you both for a wonderful visit.

The following day found us headed into Prior Lake to Dakotah Meadows RV Park where we were to meet up with Dave and Sandy Hasselberg, a couple of good friends we met in Red Bay, Alabama several years ago. The wind had eased up and our drive into Prior Lake was a lot nicer.

We have been here since, enjoying our visit with Dave and Sandy. Sandy made us a very nice dinner the second evening here, I made them a nice dinner the next evening when they moved on into this RV Park.

They have a new rig, a 26 foot Lazy Days class C which they picked up last fall. They had one when they first started camping and really enjoyed it, so they decided to go back to it after they bought their home here several years ago. It’s a really nice rig and I’m sure they will get lots of enjoyment out of it.

We taught them how to play 10,000, a dice game we knew from yeas ago. We went to dinner on Friday evening with their friends John and Pat and Jerry; enjoying meeting their friends again. Dave took us for a nice long drive to Cabela’s on Saturday afternoon. We went over to the Shokapee Mdewakanton Sioux Casino, Mystic Lake for a short time of gaming; Dave didn’t go so he was the big winner.

Thursday we woke up to a very dark threatening day; it proceeded to darken as the morning went on and then the skies opened up with heavy lightening and lots of thunder storms. The rain came on extremely hard; like there were rivers of rushing water down the center of the road here in the park, while our welcome mat floated away in the makeshift river in front of the rig. Several miles away, a small town got 10 inches of rain in a couple of hours and caused flooding all over that town. It took several days for that town’s river to recede.

Today, Father’s Day is sunny and nice, but the weather calls for more thunder, lightening and heavy rains tonight around dinner time, I’m not looking forward to that since they predict there could be hail with the storms coming in today. It’s been warm, low to mid 80’s with lot of humidity, when it isn’t raining from the thunder storms.

I would like to wish all our family and friends a very Happy Father’s Day. Hope everyone enjoys themselves. Rose graduated yesterday, looks like it went well, congratulation, Rose. I forgot to say to Rick and Joy, so sorry you lost Keesha, I know how much you loved your dog, and I pray your sorrow over loosing her eases.

So that’s it for me, until next time….

Lorraine

6/17/12 Chuck’s report

I don’t celebrate too many of the “made” holidays but just the same, Happy Father’s day to all you fathers and to everyone’s father too.

Last Sunday was a travel day for us, we left Rapid City and headed across South Dakota to just North of Arlington to Poinsett State Park. We planned on only staying two nights and wanted to visit with our friends Jim/Annie who spend their summers here. We took the state roads, staying off the freeway, hoping to see more of the area. This part of the state is pretty flat, mostly large farms with small towns every 10 miles or so. We are certainly in early summer here, everything is green and fresh.

We got in pretty late and had to find a site that would work for us so we didn’t get to see Jim and Annie until Monday morning. We went by their place, they have two lots right on the lake with a cabin and their motor home. They have a dock and a pontoon boat on a lift just a few steps from their front door, pretty nice. Unfortunately the winds never did die down enough for us to go for a boat ride, bummer. But we had a good visit none the less.

As I said, the wind never did die down, it was blowing 20-30 MPH most of the time with whitecaps on the waves in the lake. Pretty but we couldn’t stay outside without finding a sheltered place from the wind.

We decided to to go out for lunch to the casino about 30 miles away in Watertown so we headed back to our place to take Misty for a walk first. Then back to their place, only about a mile away. Off we went to the casino with our own tour guides keeping us informed of the area we were traveling. But when we got to the casino, we found we had just missed their lunch buffet and they wouldn’t open again for two hours. So we played the slots for a while then went to diner type place for lunch.

After lunch we stopped back at their place for more visiting before going back to our place for the evening. Although it was short, we sure enjoyed our time with these good folks. They will be busy this summer as they are planning on building a new cabin, good luck with that.

Wednesday was to be a shorter travel day than Sunday so once again we drove the state roads. Pretty much the same, lots of farms with corn, soybeans and lots of hay. I was surprised to see all the hay bales left over from last year and even before, must have been either good years for hay or bad years for cattle.

We got to Dakota Meadows RV park, checked in and got set up. This park is just one of many businesses the local Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Tribe have in the area. They are a very successful tribe with each tribal member getting large dividend checks each year. Just goes to show what a well run tribe can do. And the park is set up very nice, kept up very well too. The only thing I don’t care for is they have the sites set up so the utilities are shared by two different rigs, one pulls in one way and the neighbor pulls in the other. That makes it very close on the driver’s side but there is a nice grassy area on the patio side. The place is full this weekend, guess lots of folks want to get out and enjoy the weather.

Just after we got set up, our friend Dave called and asked if he and Sandy could come over for a visit. Of course we readily agreed and waiting for them to show up after dinner. But we got a phone call saying Sandy had gotten sick and wouldn’t be able to come over. Later Dave rode his Honda three-wheeler over so we had a short visit with him.

Next morning we drove around running errands, one to a truck repair place to get our dip stick tube that had been leaking. I’ve been in contact with Spartan about this and they recommend that we have a repair shop replace this rather than attempt to do it myself as it is a pressed fitting. This means the old one has to be removed using a slide hammer and the new one pressed in, not hard but using special tools that we don’t carry. So we agreed to drop it off on Tuesday as soon as we can, they suggested 6 AM but that sure isn’t going to happen! We will get there much later than that as we usually aren’t even awake by then, ha.

After we completed our errands, we returned to put the groceries away, walked Misty then headed over to Dave and Sandy’s house for dinner. We had a great visit plus a great dinner, it’s always good to visit with these two, seems we just hit it off from the first time we met them. They used to fulltime in Tiffin Bus too but found they were spending their summers back here so they bought a townhouse and became snowbirds vs fulltime. Last year, they decided to downsize their motor home so they ordered and picked up a 26’ Lazy Days class C which they really enjoy. They can get in the smaller parks and it’s set up for dry camping if/when they want too.

They were going to get their motor home out of the garage, load it up and come out to the site next too us on Thursday. We woke up to bright sun shine but soon it started clouding up and by 9 am it was dark enough the street lights came on and the birds were quiet. Soon we were in a storm with winds, thunder, lightening and rain. We had a couple of alarms on our weather radio, saying sever thunderstorms were in the area. Soon a second storm came by, again not too bad but the forecast was for bad storms in the afternoon. Lorraine called Sandy to let them know we would understand if they didn’t want to come out in the storms but they had just finished loading up in between the storms and were on their way.

We were between storms when they arrived and got set up. The guy just across the street from the had arrived about an hour earlier and he didn’t even attempt to set up, the rains were pretty heavy. Lorraine had been making dinner for us so we had a short visit, they went back to their rig next to us just before dinner. But then the next storm storm hit, some lightening and thunder but mostly just LOTS of rain. The streets were flooded, in fact, one of our welcome mats flooded away. The rains stopped long enough for them to walk over without getting soaked so we had a good visit and another good dinner and played a dice game. I haven’t been able to prove it but I think Dave might be able to roll a certain number whenever he wants, not saying he cheats but----

After a good time, they returned to their rig and we called it a night, again with storms in the area. The next morning, the local new was full of information about the storms, one area to the East of us got almost 10” of rain with the river flooding. We must have had over two inches here, glad there was no hail.

Friday we just took it easy, sat outside when we could, made a run back to Davy/Sandy’s place and just relaxed. Later we were invited to go to their Friday night get together with their friends. This time they met a pizza place, there we seven of us and we had a good time with their friends too.

Every time we get together, Dave and I usually take a walk in the morning, usually solving all the world’s problem along the way. After our walk, the gals have made our plans for the day and the day starts. Saturday we were to head to Cabelas sporting shop about 40 miles away. What a nice day for a drive, sunny and no winds, clouds in the distance but not threating us with a big storm. Dave took a route that went through some small towns and lots of farming areas.

After our stop there, we went to lunch at Culvers, a new place for us. It was crowded the whole time we were there, the hamburgers, fries and malt were good, we may have to stop off a one of these again.

Then it was back to the rigs for more visiting outside in the lounge chairs. Lorraine wanted to go to the casino, Sandy and I agreed to go along while Dave decided to stay at the rig. Lets just say that Dave was the big winner, we that went to the casino paid for our entertainment. Afterwards, we came back to the rig and played dice until dark, once again I can’t prove it but ----. But I did luck out and win one game, came up big on the last roll, sorry Sandy.

Our plans are to stay here for another week but Dave and Sandy have to head out to a wedding next Thursday. I have some family in the area that I want to see but haven’t made arrangements yet so guess our plans aren’t really set in stone. I am working on making a reservation for somewhere on July 4th, sometimes all the campgrounds are full on holidays so we try to make reservations for then. But mostly this week is just for visiting with our friends. The weather forecast is for thunder storms this evening, tomorrow with heavy storms on Tuesday with possible tornados, let’s hope not. Once we get through that stretch, the weather is supposed to settle down and be nice, yea.

Now here it is almost 9:30, sunny and clear outside. We are heading out to Cracker Barrel for brunch later so guess I’ll add some pictures and get this posted.

Lots of dinosaur fossils and such around the area. We saw mostly round hay bales, not the little ones we used when I was on the farm.

We sure like to see those big USA flags and churches as we travel.

The Missouri River in South Dakota.

Laura Ingalls Wilder house, we didn’t stop however.

We saw some pheasants traveling through the state but this one was the biggest.

Never could figure out what the fire was but the smoke was visible for miles.

Our site at the Poinsett State Park and the sun going down over the lake.

That’s Jim and Chuck on his dock, his pontoon boat on behind Jim.

Annie and Jim/Annie at Lunch.

Not sure what the picture was showing except for the bugs on the windshield.

Had to get a picture of the odometer on the coach. We’ve been on the road for almost 5 years now.

Dave on his Honda three wheeler. John and Pat at dinner.

Jerry on the left, Sandy and Dave on the right.

Dave has this boat trailer and ramp that fits in the bed of a pickup. He has it for sale, quite a deal if anyone would like to carry their boat instead of pulling it. Let me know if anyone is interested and I’ll give you his contact information. Only $2200.00 and in perfect shape.