Crossing Iowa and Half of South Dakota and It's HOT again...

Only 240 miles today, so we slept in until 7am and were on the I-90W by 9am....It started out nice with the temp. of 72F and stayed that way until we hit the SD state line...then up went the temp. to 90F and now that we have settled in at "Al's Oasis Campground" it's up to 107F....the poor A/C is working hard keeping it inside around 90F....Can't wait for the sun to go down....maybe it will cool off some....Anyway....

Here are some photos I took today while on the road.....Enjoy...

And crossing the Wide Missouri...

Tomorrow we'll be at our destination for 10 days....Rapid City, SD and the Badlands/Black Hills....

Day 2. Corn and Soy Beans

Yep, that's all we saw today....Corn and Soy Beans....Grain Silos and Wind Mills....that's what they grow in Iowa and southern Minnesota...lol...But the good news is that it was a little cooler today and we aren't soaked with sweat from setting up here in Welcome, MN off of I-90....Bad news is my camera batteries died, so no photos of the day....I have them charging for tomorrow...Nice campground here....Checkers Welcome CG.....with Good Sam's club, $24 (30amp) or $26 (50amp) full hookups per night....Free laundry which is good cause we had a load of sweaty stuff to wash from the last 3 days...

I know this is short, but not much more to report....on to South Dakota tomorrow....

Day 1 - Rainbow and River...IN, IL & Iowa

We got an early start heading west this morning.  Left Shipshewana, IN at 7:30am and followed the directions given to us by a guy at the OR Service Center which kept us away from the I-80/90 Toll Road around Chicago....For our friends & family from Gettysburg area it was mostly US 30 -Lincoln HWY West via a couple of IN state routes.....Now to those who maybe coming that way west, US 30 West skirts south of Chicago heading toward Joliet, IL.....took us about 50 minutes longer than going the Interstate/Toll Roads, but sure was less stressful....

On US 30 it rained some, but knew we were going to have a great day cause we spied a full Rainbow crossing US 30.  Sorry the photos aren't very good, but you get the idea...

Then we got to cross the Mississippi River later on....

The only negative so far has been the HEAT!!....The day started out at 75F  when we left Shipshewana and got worse as we went west....When we landed around 2pm Central Time it was 100F at this campground Office..and the poor camper's A/C has been running ever since we turned it on....Hope there's some relief soon....There's a pool here, but it's probably bath water.....guess I'll stay in the A/C....

That's all for now....Stay tune....

Shipshewana, IN..The Sights and RV Repair

We arrived in Shipshewana, IN on Sunday. Staying at Shipshewana Campground South for 3 nights. You may ask why would you stop in the middle of IN, well, we're here mainly to have some warranty repairs done on our 5th wheel.  And since we're here, did a little touring of the town.  

On Monday, July 16th, we had an appt. with the Open Range RV Service Center.  Got there bight and early and the nice folks there took care of all that needed to be fixed, repair, and replaced. It took about 4-5 hours so we drove around to check out the town.  Shipshewana has a large population of Amish.  So we visited shops, stores, and eateries.  Took photos which will follow after my report...

The town is also known for a very large Flea Market.  Which ii is, but we only stayed about an hour as even with it being early this morning, July 17th, the temp. at 8am was 80F.  So no photos taken.

We took the Open Range Factory tour and unfortunately, no photos were allowed.  We fully understood this cause ya' never know who might be "an industry spy".....  But we did see alot of new design items that are coming out on the 2013 models and the tour was quite interesting...


All in all we enjoyed our stay.....but it could have been a little cooler....Temps. have reach 100F today with no relief in sight until maybe Friday here...


Tomorrow we head for our first stop on our way to Rapid City, SD.....Dock says it's going to take us at least until Friday or Saturday to reach there....He wants to do only about 300-350 miles per day. and I agree....it's just hard to do long hauls anymore...guess we're getting OLD!!!


Now, to the photos....

Amish buggies at the Flea Market

Open Range Service Center and the front of the main plant .

 And lastly, interesting photos.  I like the horse and buggy.  Dock liked the 10 Commandments on the side of a barn....
 

And We're Finally Heading West

Yep, at 9am this morning we hit the road leaving Riverhurst Campground, Weston Mills/Olean,NY driving I-86 WEST!  Nice day to drive....but they sure do need to do some road repair to I-86 until you get to about Jamestown, NY....

I took some photos out the truck windows.....

 Above are photos of Late Chautauqua, near Jamestown, NY...taken from the I-86..not bad, huh...

Then we have...

 Lake Erie and the Cleveland Browns Football Stadium.....

Lots of road work in Ohio.....made it a little confusing, but the GPS got us where we planned to do an over-night near Sandusky, Ohio.....

 Where they have a pool, camp store, and if you are close enough, wifi....but since we are way in the back of the park, we're using our Verizon Air Card which is working just fine....We got a water/electric only site for the night....That's okay, since we have issues with our toilet (which will get replaced Monday at the Open Range Service Center.) and we're about 100 ft. from the bathouse, so will take advantage of that....lol


Tomorrow, we'll head to Shipsawana, IN where we're to have that toilet replace and a few other minor issues fixed....We also plan to tour the Open Range factory on Tuesday along with the "famous" Shipsawana Fea Market.....so stay tuned....

On Edit:  Really, this CG isn't anything to write home about....it's okay, but wouldn't stay more than a night or 2.....very few sites with full-hookups.....mostly w/e....$32.40 using our Good Sam's discount....just thought I'd add this....great for an over night...

Spinner Does NOT Like Fireworks....

First off, Happy 4th of July, everyone!!!  Hot and Humid here all day....The guys got back from their trip to Niagara Falls Air NG Station about 9am....and the rest of the day was spent hanging out doing whatever we wanted, chatting about our upcoming "Adventure" and trying to keep cool....

About 3 this afternoon the campers here in the campground started with the firecrackers and Spinner started trying to hide from the noise and shaking....impossible to get him to take a walk after 5pm...I know cause I've tried every hour on the hour to take him.....Not going to happen until after Midnight when the "Big Fireworks Show" is over at the football stadium....so we'll be up early....lol...

And the Adventure Continues...

After 2 months without internet access, we are finally out of the woods and have move on to North-central PA to visit more family before heading West....While in the woods we had a couple great visits with the kids and grandkids....

We traveled to our present location last Thursday.  Got all set up for the month.  Then on Friday Dock left me off at my sister, Barb's, house for a weekend with my sisters.

 It was great to spend time with them for the fun of it....I think we all agreed that this should become an annual event.

We plan to be here until July 14th, then it's on the road again...next stop, Shipsawanna, IN to visit the Open Range RV factory for a few minor repairs and to take the tour...But for now, it's family and childhood memories....