Sitting and Waiting is Getting Old

Today should be our last day of non-activity.  It really is wearing sitting around without much to do.  Tomorrow we can start putting things in bags and boxes for the move on Friday. The campground manager has offered us boxes for dishes and the like, so that will help.  We've gone through all the cupboards and cubby holes and we pretty much need everything else that's left in the RV.  

We did go out for lunch yesterday. We went to a home store to get a piece of plexiglass to cover the screen door right away in case Maggie decides she doesn't like being left in the new house when we go out for groceries or whatever.   Today we found a funky restaurant in the old industrial area near the river in downtown Minot. They served good wood fired oven pizza but the place was way too noisy for us.  We stopped at the Target for a couple of little items.  That's been the excitement.  Well, Maggie is keeping us entertained as all she wants to do is play ball.  That takes up some hours of the day!

I did spend another several hours this afternoon on the computer, with the map next to me on the couch, plotting stops to get home.  Every time I think I have distance figured out, there's no campground around, or if there is, we don't want to be there because of bad reviews.  This time I started backward from Sparks which helped a little.  The biggest issue right now is that everyone and their half brother are camping right now and especially next week.  Got turned down by several places  that I called for the weekend before the holiday.  It's a bad time to be on the road if you haven't made reservations early.  I did finally manage to secure places to stay from now until we get home.   Rog will have to drive 3 days, rest a day, drive two days, rest a day, drive two days and be home. Home on the 3rd of July.  It's about 1,500 miles from here to Sparks through Montana and Idaho.

We are estimating this trip will be a total of about 7,000 miles from start to finish and will have taken 66 days.  We did spend 22 of them in Pensacola, FL, 5 in Houghton, MI, and 10 here in Minot, ND - so about half of them not on the road.

The campground managers here have been so great and very helpful.  This has turned out to be a good place to have to sit for a while.  I definitely will be writing some excellent park reviews for Good Sam and RVParkReviews for them.  One of the real pluses has been that the wifi has been excellent.  We are right next door to the office and the wifi antenna and we've experienced no issues with it at all.  Rog has even been able to watch You Tube videos on some of the features of the new RV that we haven't had before.  He's been studying! 

Very windy and warm today - it got up to abut 82.  We expect more wind tomorrow but cooler temps.  Friday for the move it's not supposed to get to 70, which I think will be good because we will be working hard.  

We Are Now Committed or Maybe We Should Be :-)

We signed the paperwork this afternoon for our new little house on wheels.  We can't back out now.  It was stressful enough we stopped at Panera Bread on the way home and got an order of comfort food to take out - mac and cheese.  

We spent about an hour in the new rig measuring and taking pictures so we could plan the move better.  Rog left the flashlight he took and I left the camera on the sink in the building's restroom.  Nice work on both our parts!  We did get a better idea of what will go where, though.  It will be a challenge as some of the cupboards are smaller/narrower, but we will figure it out.  There are lots of shelves in the closet - but they won't be really convenient to get to once we hang clothes in there.  Shall see how it works out.  I thought the fridge was going to be stainless steel but it is black.  

One of the ladies who worked with us on the paperwork just moved back here from Reno so we had a conversation while we waited for the finance manager to do her thing.  This young lady is a graduate of UNR and said she was thrilled to meet fellow alums.  Go Pack!

Walk-thru the new rig is 8am on Friday and then we start doing the shuffling of stuff from one to the other.  We are making progress on the purging but are not quite finished.  Still have three days to get our act together.

I plotted out our route and stops to get home -  leaving here on Sunday morning.  Then I called the Sparks Marina RV Park to see what they had available the week of the 4th so I could back into those dates - totally afraid that they would be booked solid all week.  Surprisingly we got reservations for the nights of the 3rd and 4th!  We can move our clothes/food/ meds/etc to the house and Roger can dump tanks and prepare the RV for storage.  Tomorrow my mission is to find a place to store the RV for four months.  Keeping our fingers crossed.  

Weather today is, again, cool, breezy and about a high of 72. Wednesday is supposed to get to 82.  Rog thinks that is their one day of summer.  

Today our geese were in the water.  There are four families with goslings of different ages.   

Sunday in Minot

Our resident gaggle of Canada geese

The geese all headed for the water when they saw us coming this morning.  We weren't even close to them but they weren't taking any chances when they saw Maggie.  The young ones are almost as big as the adults but you can tell they are still learning the ropes.

Minot AFB is about 15 miles north of town.  It was a pretty drive out there this morning.  I'm still amazed at how green North Dakota is.  Never would have thought it.  We shopped at the exchange, had lunch in the food court, and then went and "made groceries" at the commissary.  Nothing special, but it got us out and about.  This could be a really get to be a long week waiting for the new RV.  We need to find something to do every day. 

Roger spent the afternoon cleaning out the basement and I did a little clearing out in the RV.  We took several full trash bags over to the dumpster, so we are making progress.  No hurry - we have all week.  

I spent most of my afternoon on the computer updating and organizing the password application that we use to store our passwords.  Very exciting - not.  Something to do and it did need doing.

Weather is still cool.  It didn't get to 70 again today, we had mostly cloudy skies with a few raindrops and some thunder later this afternoon.  We're beginning to think this is typical for here in June.  The furnace is running in the wee hours of the morning and we are turning on the "fireplace" when we get up and have our morning beverages.  

Roger talked to Mike, Pam and Stephanie so far today - Father's Day calls.  We expect to hear from Andy and Tony later. Everyone is doing great!  Stephanie says she needs positive vibes sent her way to help with finding a job! So, if you have any spare positive vibes please help her find some employment.   

We Didn't Get Much Sleep Last Night

I don't know what was keeping Roger awake early this morning - maybe me tossing and turning, maybe thinking about what we did yesterday - but I was awake for several hours during the middle of the night and into the wee hours of dawn.  I was mentally putting stuff away in the new RV and thinking of the logistics for the transfer of our possessions! I think I have most of it figured out and I'm exhausted today.  Monday when we go to sign the final paperwork, I need to go inside the RV and do due diligence on checking out the cupboards.  I'm afraid I was spending too much time oohing and aahing over the upgrades, whistles and bells, that I only did a cursory accounting of the number of cupboards and where they are.  Shame on me.  

We talked with the campground host this morning and we will be allowed to empty a lot of stuff from our basement (tables/chairs/tubs of stuff) and leave it all at the site when we go to do the transfer.  It should make it easier and less hurried when we put it all in the new rig when we get back.  She said she wouldn't put anyone in the site next to us to make it easier. Nice lady.  

I started in on the purge today and cleaned out a few cupboards and drawers.  I tossed some stuff and took about a dozen books over to the laundry room.  I pick the books up in laundry rooms on our travels and think we are going to read them - and sometimes we do - but there were some in there that we've been carrying around for years.  If we haven't read them by now most likely we won't.  

While I was loading the book shelves in the laundry room there was a man sitting at the table working on his computer.  He noted the number of books and asked if I liked to read.  He's published four books and is on a tour of independent book stores to do signings.  He had copies of them in the office and I looked at them - they looked fairly interesting but I wasn't going to pay $20/ea for them.  One has won awards for "new indie author" according to the cover. (Listener in the Snow) He writes mysteries set in Wisconsin and Minnesota  - his characters are Finns and Native Americans. Tim Jollymore.  His card says you can find his books at independent booksellers. He is traveling in his SUV and tent camping on a tour of 36 cities to promote his books.  He said last year he did 54 stops.  His website:  www.finnswaybooks.com    Interesting gentleman.  I told him I was in a mystery book group through the life-long learning program at the university in Reno when I wasn't on the road, and when I told him how many participants there were he offered to come talk to the group if they choose one of his books.  I'll give the info to the facilitator and see what happens.  

Woke up this morning to find this bus parked next to us. Really a bus - has the folding doors at the front and everything.  Windows were all covered, so couldn't see inside, darn.  A homemade RV for sure.  We saw an older gentleman come out and inspect something in the rear and then he drove away.  We were wondering if he did the graphics himself.  

We felt as if we were back in Santee in the winter today.  It was cool (didn't make 70), overcast and/or it rained.  Even Maggie didn't want to go walking.  

Yesterday coming back from the laundry room in the rain I slipped on the steps coming into the RV and caught my toe on the threshold.  I went down with a thud as I catapulted into the RV.  Rog saw it happen and was afraid I had broken my wrist when he saw me go down. Fortunately, nothing is broken, but I was "all stove up" the rest of the day and have bruises today to remind me to not hurry in the rain - it gets slippery out.  

It's not supposed to rain tomorrow so we will get out for lunch at least.  There is an Air Force Base here, so maybe we will go check out the base exchange just for entertainment.  Don't want to buy anything as we already have enough money to transfer around on Friday!  Shall see how that goes.  

  

We Will Be In Minot, ND for Another Week!

We went out this morning to buy a new surge protector for the RV.  Only one RV parts place in town and it just happened to be a dealer, so that's where we went.  Bought a new 5th Wheel but no surge protector (they didn't have any).  Yep, we did it.  It won't be ready to be delivered until next Friday.  Fortunately we are in a fairly nice campground and they had no problem letting us stay!

We looked at the new version of what we have (Montana High Country) and it was pretty much what we expected.  Then we were shown another brand and it already had everything on it we wanted and it felt more solid.  It's a bit smaller - ours is 342 sq ft of living area and the new one is 337.  It is 2 feet shorter (35.5ft), but is a bit heavier.  Being sold in this area it is heavily insulated, which is one of the things I was looking for.  So.... we sign the papers on Monday and take delivery on Friday and leave on Saturday morning.  

What we bought was a Grand Design Reflection 337RLS.  Here's a link to The New RV.

We are now recovering from this morning's moment of insanity and trying to figure out what we can purge before we start shifting all of our stuff into the new one on Friday. Cupboard/closet/basement space is configured differently so we aren't sure if we have same amount of storage or less.  We are guessing a bit less, so we need to do some culling!  

Now, to figure out what to do with ourselves for the next six days!  

We were the last of the transients to get out of that park in Grand Forks this morning and we left at 8:30.  The smell was still there and the place was still creepy.  Glad to see that place in our rear view mirrors!

Rog was so tired today from bucking 25-30mph head winds all day.  It was a chore keeping the truck and RV on the road and in our lane.  Big Blue sucked down fuel like there was no tomorrow.  We stopped for lunch and another RV pulled in at the same time.  He was griping to Rog about it being his second day of driving into the wind and he was getting 7mpg on his truck.  We averaged 10.6  when our normal is about 14. The wind was strong and it was constant.  Very draining on us.

We stopped at a nice road side rest  next to a small lake for lunch, but had to eat inside because of the wind.  See the waves on the water?  The temperature was about 67. The majority of today the scenery was farms and small lakes and wetlands.  I was surprised at how much water there was everywhere.  I guess I didn't think of North Dakota as being wet, but it is (at least where we were) and very green.  There were lots of ducks, geese, egrets, red-winged blackbirds, sea gulls, and I even saw a yellow-breasted black bird - something I've not seen before.  It was quite beautiful.  There were a few hawks but I'm not sure what kind - small ones, though.  Rog said the drive was boring today, but since I get to watch more than the road, I didn't find it so.

In a small town called Rugby on US2 is this monument claiming that the town is the Geographic Center of North America.   There were also signs there with mileages that didn't quite make sense to us, but maybe has something to do with the way things are measured.        I 

Curiosity got me again because the signs didn't seem right so this evening I googled Geographic Center of North America in North Dakota and this is a link  to what I found.  Seems this site was determined in 1931 and new measurements show it is not correct. A small town nearby called, of all things, Center, actually is the center. Interesting article if you want to click on the link above.  Rugby isn't tearing down their monument, though.  

As I always write down the address of where we are going so that when we set out I can enter it in SAL.  Most of the time it works - especially if I put in the correct address.  Well, today's destination was a little tricky.  Minot, ND has two 500 54th Streets.  I chose the wrong one.  One had SW and one had NW. We ended up turning at a rather strange place in town and then down a residential street.  Seemed wrong, but we couldn't figure out what the problem was.  I googled RoughRider Campground on the phone and it came up something different than what SAL had.  Then I entered the campground name in SAL and the two devices finally agreed.  The campground is in the NW part of the city, not the SW.  Oh, well, saw some interesting areas and got Roger's blood pressure up all at one time!  

The campground is a pretty nice one and I'll post photos tomorrow.  We have a nice view of a ranch across the road with cows and horses.  No bugs to mention - they probably don't like the wind, either.  But, when the wind is just right there is a faint manure smell.  I hear trains but no road noise.  There's a small creek bordering one side with a gaggle of Canadian geese on the banks.  

As we pulled in and were just about hooked up the skies opened up and dumped on Roger for about 15 minutes.  This was after he couldn't get the power to turn on with the 50 amp breaker. He tried the 30 amp breaker.  Nada.  Great - we are already unhooked from the truck and leveled.  He did stop to think for a minute as to what the issue was and figured it might be our surge protector had blown.  He took it off and plugged in without it and we had power.  He then tried the surge protector on other power poles and got nothing.  So, tomorrow we will be trying to find a RV accessory place so we can replace it.  It'll only be about $300.  Have to have it, though.  Lost a microwave once  (more than $300 to replace) because of power fluctuation before we invested in one.  

Now the water ??? leaks.  He can't figure out why.  It just started yesterday.  He wanted a beer or two tonight but settled for a cup of chamomile tea to calm down after this day of work, confusion, and busted stuff.  

We are staying here tomorrow - it's our rest day after three days on the road.  We'll be doing laundry and looking for an RV parts store. 

P.S. passed 5,000 on the trip odometer yesterday. 

So, Where's the Scenery?

We are taking US 2 because: a) we've been told it's an awesome drive across some beautiful countryside, and b) the road map shows it as a scenic drive.  Well, it's hard to see the scenery when it's all behind trees.   What has been nice, though, is seeing the small towns, not having to go through major cities, and having only minor truck traffic.  When you can get a glimpse of the lakes and countryside, it is beautiful.

The first third of the drive was hilly and forested and the small towns we encountered looked as if they had been forgotten by the world.  Small industries and shut down store fronts.  

We crossed into the Fond Du Lac Chippewa's reservation and we started seeing lakes through the trees and signs for resorts on the lakes, but never the resort.  Looks as if the main "industry" is fishing, spending time on the lake at a resort, and outfitting those who want to go into the woods.  We passed a lot of lakes - or at least signs to them.  (Minnesota's slogan just may be correct!) We crossed into the Leech Lake Tribe's reservation and it was the same geography, but more lakes.  As we got to the edge of the Chippewa National Forest, we then entered the Red River Tribe's area.  As the land was becoming more flat, we started seeing ranches and some farms.  Each reservation has a casino - again we stopped in one for lunch in the parking lot.  We  encountered swarms of dragonflies the size of our hands.  Maggie just looked confused trying to figure out whether she should ignore them or chase them.  Three out of four pick up trucks we saw were towing fishing boats.  Roger commented at one time, "There goes Virgil Flowers."   If you've read any John Sandford books, you will know who he's talking about.  

I spotted a HUGE nest up in the top of a dead tree and as we got closer we saw two bald eagles.  One was perched on a branch and the other standing on the nest.  Bet there were babies up there! 

Birds - a side note here - We have seen many different kinds, but I think that this trip through the farmlands has produced the most sitings of red-winged blackbirds I have ever had on any trip.  They are more numerous than crows and are much prettier! 

Lots of logging going on in these forests and there was a huge paper mill in one of the towns.  When we got to Bemidji there were all kinds of signs referencing Paul Bunyan and Babe, so in the 1800s this area must have really seen a lot of logging.  

The last third of the drive today was flat and full of farms.  I'm assuming sugar beets because I saw a Sugar Beet Museum as we passed through one town.  Sugar beets and alfalfa seemed to be the crops of choice.  

We crossed the Mississippi River twice and saw a sign pointing to a small lake that is the headwaters for the river.  At this latitude the river is only a few feet across and it's hard to imagine that it will become the giant river that it does.  

Wind - we had a headwind most of the day - a pretty strong one.  The winds are following that big storm system from yesterday.  As we got closer to Grand Forks, SD (where we are staying tonight) I saw lots of toppled and broken trees.  Here in the RV park the place is littered with broken cottonwood branches.  The young woman in the office said that they had 80mph winds here with that storm system yesterday.  We had overcast skies and cool temperatures this morning when we left Duluth, but as we came west the sky cleared and the temps got up into the 70s.  The big deal today was wind. 

We are in a campground just south of Grand Forks, ND called the Grand Forks Campground.  It is a former KOA (the building gives it away) and is pretty disreputable looking.  It's near the highway, has many permanent residents, and has a weird odor. It is surrounded by sugar beet farms so may be the smell is from that - although I know what manure smells like and this isn't it.  There is farming equipment spread out all over the place, and some broken down trucks parked off to one side. There are plenty of spaces for over-nighter's and we've already got several neighbors in the transient side of the park.  We did get a long pull-through with full hookups.  Half the site is under water from the storm and the utilities are, again, a long way away.  Rog managed to get situated so that everything reached and the entry steps are on dry land.  We didn't put down the stabilizers in back because there was too much water to wade through to get to them.  Let's just say it's not one of our favorite places we've stayed on this trip, but better than a couple of them.  

We took some time to reevaluate our route from here.  The plan was (and is still) to continue on US2 to Minot, ND and then drop down to I-94 from there.  Since we haven't seen the "awesomeness" of US2 yet I thought maybe Roger would like to go down the interstate and catch I94 at Fargo.  After looking at the wind forecast he opted to continue on our original plan. Better, he says to face strong headwinds than have strong sidewinds. The wind forecast for tomorrow is 15-25mph coming directly from the west.  As it did today, the truck will probably suck down a whole bunch of fuel bucking the wind.

I'll be giving Roger a haircut tonight before he takes his shower. Wish he could do the same for me.  The minute I figure out what day we return to Sparks is the minute I call Jill, my haircut lady!  Up until now the longer hair hasn't been an issue - it loves the humidity and stayed nice and wavy/curly.  Now that we are getting to the drier climate, it's not looking so good.