Iowa – TooBusyForWork

Late posting again

I have no idea why I sometimes just can’t get in the mood to post. It might be because I am also active on Facebook and post some things there. But I can’t use FB as a search tool to show where I’ve been and what I have seen, so here I am back to it again.

We were, as usual, really busy at the FMCA convention. I taught a class on collapsable storage containers that went really well. Everybody got finished, and that’s a major accomplishment by itself. It helped that everyone knew how to use their sewing machines! Here was a sample I made.

We had thought about just gradually and slowly heading back home, but we decided to pretty much just head straight back with only a bit of detours. We spent Thursday, 22 September, in Caldwell, ID at the Elks Lodge. Nice place. Then we stayed at dry camping spot at Stanton Crossing, ID for 3 nights. There was a nice museum there we visited too. Nice change from all the crowds in Oregon. From there we went to northern Utah on the southern part of the Uintah Moutains and a nice boondock site along the Mirror Lake highway. We did some riding and generally kept relaxing. On Friday, 30 August, we were in Laramie at the Walmart. Saturday we stayed at Cabelas in Kearney, NE. Sunday we stayed at an Elks Club in Des Moines. On Monday, Labor Day, we made it home, though it was late enough in the day we just stayed in the motorhome at the local campground (Big Woods Lake) again. It is so easy to just put the motorhome in a spot and unpack gradually!

I really haven’t done much sewing this entire summer. I did finish a couple of quilts that were mostly pieced in the motorhome. The triangle one only needed binding, but the Hunter Star needed quilting and binding. Much easier to quilt on the sitdown Sweet 16!

Now we are off again. We left this morning for Red Bay, AL for our yearly motorhome service, to fix a few nagging issues, and to get a bit of remodeling done We stayed in the Walmart parking lot in Bowling Green, MO, between Hannibal and St. Louis. About 270 miles from home so a nice day’s drive.

What’s been happening since April?

I knew I said I wouldn’t post a lot while I was home, but zero seems a bit excessive! This post has a lot of medical info so skip it if you aren’t interested; I am guessing that is pretty much all of you! I was in a blue funk with back pain and trying to get it treated. It took a extra weeks to see the pain med doctor, then two trials of a treatment that had to be two weeks apart, then another 3 weeks before I could have the real treatment – lumbar medial nerve ablation. I finally got that just before we left Iowa. So far, so good! It isn’t perfect, but it is improving. Doctor said it would be 4-6 weeks before I felt the full effects, and it has only been two weeks.

I did do a few things though. More medical things included seeing a real MD dermatologist instead of the Nurse Practitioner I had been seeing. He took a good look at my face and said I had so many pre-cancers I needed a topical chemotherapy. I had to apply it once a day for two weeks, and it basically burned off the bad spots. It was pretty bad with burns and sores on most of my face. The results are good though, and I have the smoothest skin I have had for years.

We go to hear the Waterloo Symphony play the sound track to “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” along with the move, and it was more fun than I anticipated. We also went to my granddaughter’s first dance recital. My but I am glad my daughter never really took to dance! It is a lot of effort for both child and parent. I also got a railing installed at the front of our house. Seems like that wouldn’t be a big deal, but it too, forever to get the welder to come out for a measurement, then weeks to get it built and installed. The result is nice though. It will make a much more confident series of steps in the snow. Kevin is looking forward to decorating the railings with lights at Christmas.

Railings for both sides of the steps and along the porch

We did get to watch another astronomical event, the huge aurora that happened 10 May. We went a little way outside of town, but the light pollution in Iowa made viewing challenging. We did a peak though. There really were pink, green, and purple shades, but the reduction in size needed for the blog makes it seem worse than it was.

We actually left town on Wednesday, 19 June, the latest we have left for summer in a long time. Between my pain med appointments and Kevin’s dentist appointment, that was the earliest we could make it. We spent Wednesday night at Lake Manawa State Park near Omaha on the Iowa side. Thursday we spent at Mormon Lake State Recreational Area in Nebraska. Both of those are nice places. Saturday we spent at the Pine Bluffs RV Park in Pine Bluffs, WY which was very handy but not very nice. Dirt, lots of trains that had to blow their horns, etc. Sunday we spent at Lyman, WY KOA. Nice place, but we were eager to head into the mountains. It had been so HOT everywhere, and I longed to get to cool mountains. We ended up boondocking along the North Slope Road near Marsh Lake, UT at 9300’. Ahhhhhh!. It is in the Uinta National Forest, but you can only get to the area from Wyoming. Beautiful spot, and we are staying until Saturday morning. We have been doing some nice RZR rides, but there are so many pretty pictures I willDo another post on them. But here is a preview showing out campsite.

Eclipse then home

We woke to a cloudy morning on 8 April. It didn’t look promising for viewing. Kevin kept watching the cloud cover on weather apps, and just before totality we quickly drove 20 miles northwest. We got amazingly lucky, and the clouds parted just enough to view totality! There were still some high thin clouds, but we could see the “Diamond ring” and then the darkness fell. All the birds stopped singing, and even the insects stopped their sounds. Very odd, but just like what we observed during the 2017 eclipse in Idaho. Soon it was over, and we got absolutely no good pictures! We were rushing so much to get to a clear spot we had no time to set up gear. Oh well I have memories.

We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night at the RV park in so-so weather. We spent Thursday, 11 April at the Walmart in Abilene. Nice spot for an overnight parking location. We spent Friday at Mustang RV Park in Oklahoma, leaving very early after deciding to make a run for home because of a bad storm coming in. We made it to the KOA in Topeka, KS on Saturday, then home on Sunday. We put the motorhome at our local county park, open but without water. We were too tired to unpack, so we just slept there that night. Monday and Tuesday were unpacking – ugh. It always seems a lot more trouble to unpack than to pack. But we are now home, and the cats adjusted quickly. I think they like the extra space for their zoomies. They run from the bedroom through the living room and down the stairs multiple times a day.

April and May are our medical appointment times, and we are both pretty busy with our respective dentists and doctors. Kevin is getting his dental implant finished, and I have appointments with a dermatologist, ophthalmologist, and the pain medicine guy. I need a dentist appointment too. The pain med will require at least two follow up appointments, and the derm probably will too. Sigh.

My poor 830 Record sewing machine had to go to its doctor on Saturday too. I got a thread sound up at the stand and broke the needle. I can’t get it to do any free motion quilting since, and it broke 5 needles when I kept trying various repairs I knew about. It sews ok on straight stitching, but there is thread wadding up on the bottom when I do FMQ. Hopefully I just pulled something out of whack and the machine can easily (and inexpensively) come back from it. I will find out in a week or so. The RZR is in for some major preventative service too since we really don’t know how it was cared for before we got it. We have out a few thousand miles on it! We had a regular oil change done when needed, but this is a more extensive service. We find out that dollar amount next week too, depending on whether they fine anything serious. We don’t think so, but …

I won’t be posting much, normal for me when I am home. Staying in one place just isn’t as interesting as traveling. We do have one short trip planned with my son in law and his two children the week after Memorial Day. Then we will be leaving for our western summer in mid-June.

Off for snowbird trip 2023/24

We had a fabulous Christmas hanging with the kids and grandkids. Kevin got his 3D printer going and made some fabulous decorations. I apologize for the remnant threads; I got too excited to notice them.

The pattern describes it as a snow globe

We didn’t put up the big tree, but Kevin made sure we had our presents under a lot of trees. Most of these were actually experiments with his new printer he got (early) for Christmas. It is a newer Ender 3 that goes with us in the motorhome.

We actually left the house on Boxing Day just after noon. Since we weren’t having folks over to our house for the holidays, we had more time to pack and sort. One of the advantages of having a son and DIL nearby with a big house who likes to cook is they host at least one of the big holidays. This year they chose Christmas. We ended up spending the first night in the Lakeside Casino RV park. It is only a bit over 3 hours from home so we got in early enough to put water in the tanks. And guess what we woke up to the next morning?

Yup, 2” of wet heavy snow. It didn’t get any better later in the morning. We just waited for the highway to be clear and Kevin pushed the snow off the big slide toppers. The other slides are much smaller and came in without issue. Since we left so late we on,y made it to Emporia, KS where we stayed in a Walmart parking lot. The next day (Thursday) we made it to Texola, OK right on the Texas line. It is a small and very quiet campground, and we have stayed there a few times before. All through Missouri, Kansas, and most of Oklahoma we went through small snow squalls. They were never very heavy and they never lasted long. It was tedious though. I was thrilled when we made it to Amarillo and the sun came out. New Mexico was even more clear, and we are spending tonight in the American RV Park on the west side of Albuquerque. Tomorrow we hope to boondock outside Williams, AZ, and then make it to Quartzsite, AZ by Sunday. We plan on staying there for quite a bit of the winter.

I haven’t shown many pictures of my adorable cats recently, so here you go! They are sisters, but they don’t often snuggle up like this. Minnie, the tabby, was snuggled in the blanket, and Luna, the black one, just squished herself in.

Back from server problems (I hope!)

For the last few weeks the site has been plagued by hosting problems. It would be up for 5 minutes then down for hours then up for 30 minutes down for 5 … You get the message. I contacted Bluehost, did the standard wait for an hour for text support, you all know the drill. Nothing they did seemed to work, but a couple of days later it started working for longer and longer. I finally trust it to stay up long enough to get a post up, even though there isn’t much to say.

Kevin added a 2” lift kit to the UTV, so we took a short trip to the local OHV park to check it out. It is a small area, but it has enough variety to make sure everything was working well. It gave us a total 1 1/2” increase in height. It doesn’t sound like much, but it is gave us 11.5” in the front and 9.5” in the back now. That is a significant change and will be very helpful in the Arizona rocks this winter.

We were the only people around so we had some nice animal sights. While we didn’t see this beaver, we certainly knew it was around!

There were some visible animals though. We saw at least 20 turkeys in two groups, one big and one small, plus a single deer who didn’t see much in us to worry her.

We also had one more group ride from the Volga, IA. There was an awful lot of rain beforehand, so this trip also was re-routed to mostly gravel roads. I felt sorry for the organizers. They had cleared more trails and gained additional landowner permissions for newer locations, and then they had to hit mostly the gravel roads! However even the gravel roads are lovely in Allamakee county.

One of the characteristics of group activities in Iowa before the corn is cut is the guys head into the corn instead of the provided toilets. It makes for shorter lines for the women!

It wasn’t peak color, but it was still nice.

We also took a trip to the largest OHV park in Iowa near Ft. Dodge. I was not a fan. I like to ride to see scenery, not for an adrenaline rush. The majority of the area is a bunch of trails emphasizing mudding and fast corners. Of course there were some lovely spots.

We also went to a local community playhouse to see “Noises Off,” a backstage/front stage comedy of actors in a play. I am sorry to say it was awful! The actors did what they could with the play, but the play itself was pretty bad. Too bad because it is a lovely theater, and we hope to go to other plays there. We also went to a presentation of “Annie” at Gallagher Bluedorn theater at University of Northern Iowa here in town. Nicely done, but I never can figure out why theater seats copy airplane seats in size! My knees bump up against the seat I front of me!

I also got a truly disgusting cold/sinus “thing.” That has lasted for two full weeks now. I dosed myself with a huge amount of meds in order to visit a pain doctor for a steroid injection in my back. It is already a little bit better, and I hope it improves significantly.

No real quilting, but I am prepping for a class on ruler quilting offered virtually by a quilt shop not too far away. The result will be a whole cloth quilt using a Westerlee arc ruler. It will be three hours each night on three more nights. Our first night was a bunch of background and how to set up for the quilting part. I had to do an awful lot of marking to get started, and I still have to get it trimmed and sandwiched by Tuesday! We will see. I have a backup plan of scraps to use for the practice. Maybe my next post will be a picture of the result.

Back home from Alabama

On Monday 18 September, we got the rig detailed inside and outside. They did a pretty good job, but the exterior detail didn’t include any waxing which disappointed me. I think we will go back to the guy we used before next time. We left on Tuesday morning and spent the night at the Perryville Elks Lodge. It was a big parking lot that wasn’t very level, but we managed to get the rig in the best place possible and leveled with blocks. They had a 20 amp socket for electricity, but we didn’t need it, so we dry camped. I had planned on having a drink in the lodge, but it stunk of cigarette smoke so I gave up on that idea. Wednesday night we stayed at the Mississippi River RV Park in Canton, MO. It is run by the city. It was a great spot immediately below Lock and Dam 20. We got to see a few barges coming through, but the river is so low there wasn’t much traffic.

We decided to put the rig at Big Woods Park again to get everything cleaned, emptied, and winterized. It was nice to be home again. The cats seemed to agree, and they were running around immediately. While we were home in the first week I had a doctor’s appointment, met with our financial advisor, went to church and later choir practice, and got my COVID shot. I didn’t do any sewing at all!

We went on a charity UTV ride on Saturday, 30 September. It was for the Waterville Fire and EMS, a volunteer group. It was HUGE! They had three different groups starting at different times along different routes for a total of almost 600 rigs. The vast majority were UTVs, but there were a few ATVs in the mix. It is mostly on private land open only to donation rides like this. There had been a LOT of rain in the last week – 6+” – and the trails were wet and the creeks full. We got that figured out when our first creek crossing got people stuck! In the picture below the one in the back was buried to his axles. The two in front of him on the left were pulling him out with tow straps, and the one with the red lights went around the stuck rig on the right like we did. The water did come inside the RZR, but it is designed for that, and we were fine.

This is about the separation of the rigs on the trail. As you can see, the trails were quite muddy. But the rain made for some lush vegetation.

There were pre-planned stops every hour or so. I liked the view at this spot a lot. It is absolutely a classic view of the northeastern Iowa a landscape.

The ride was billed as the “Fall Colors” tour, but we were at least a week away from significant color.

“And the woods were lovely, dark and deep”

It was a 5.5 hr trip going only 39 miles with long stops, but that is to be expected with a large group. We had to wait for at least one rig with tire problems. We went on this same ride last year when the RZR was brand new, so it was nice to how much more comfortable we are with it this year.

Another thing we got done was to replace out dying maple tree with a new honey locust tree. Frost Tree Farm is great to work with. He took out the maple for free, planted the locust, added mulch to it and the elm, plus even pruned my crabapple tree in the front! He is retiring soon though, so these trees better grow.

As always, the posts will be less frequent while I am at home, and we will be here until after Christmas. I will be doing some sewing though, and I will post that as I finish the quilt tops I have ready for quilting.

Kevin’s updates on the new RZR plus our first trip with it

As of last Friday, Kevin had installed a rear view mirror, side mirrors, turn signals and running lights, and a front windshield. He has a rear windshield, lower and upper doors , and a new roof on order. They arrive sometime this week. He also bought a Fire tablet to run the off-road mapping software on, a case for it, and is figuring out the best place to mount it. He’s been busy!

We did go on our first big ride on Saturday. It was a charity ride for some local volunteer organizations in Northeast Iowa, and we started at the Volga River campground in the town of Volga, Iowa. The ride was restricted to 200 rigs, and it closed early last week, amazing to me. The event was advertised on Facebook through some UTV groups, and there were still people who wanted to get in. I have never even heard of something like this, and it was an experience. Cost was $50/rig.

We loaded the rig up with everything we needed on Friday, and we headed to Volga by 8:30 in the morning. We got parked and unloaded the RZR, then headed to the checkin, arriving there about 10:15. We had reserved a sack lunch from a local church (“free-will offering”, and not much!). Next time we will definitely bring our own. Lots of good organization. The parking area was huge and easily handled the crowds of mostly pickups with trailers.

The check in was orderly too, and we were given a numbered tag and got in rows.

We knew we were going to be the little guy, but some of these rigs are as big as cars! Four and six seaters were common, some with full fiberglass doors and roofs with roll down windows. Then there were the true utility rigs that doubled around the farm, a few mud racers, lots of donut maker/racers, and a few like us. I was rather astonished to see people drinking beer and hard liquor at 10:00 am on a Saturday before they were going to drive, but it seemed very acceptable to the crowd. Lots of vaping and cigarettes too. It had been so long since I had seen groups of people smoking that it took me aback.

We got started a few minutes after 11:00, and we had so much fun! It was 30-40 miles with a wide assortment of terrain. A little bit of road (the local fire department and police blocked traffic for us), some cornfields, lots of fallow pastureland with rolling hills, some heavy forest, and a number of stream crossings.

There were three stops along the way. Lots more drinking. Portable toilets were on a trailer that two trucks pulled to each stop. As we went through some farm fields, we actually had the farmers there to open gates and keep their cattle away. It was definitely a community endeavor. That makes sense since the proceeds were going to the local volunteer EMS folks! Each place we stopped for a break had plenty of room for people to spread out.

The ride finished at our starting spot about 4:30. We both had big grins on our faces. The ride had been bumpy and rough, but we weren’t all beat up like we would have been in the Jeep. The soft balloon tires and suspension of the RZR were much gentler on our bodies, though we were feeling a bit worse for wear this morning! It wasn’t anything some Tylenol wouldn’t solve though. I am really very happy with the entire purchase, and I am looking forward to using it a lot this winter in Arizona.

What’s going on at home after the trip

I am finally getting caught up. The first week we were home (mid September), I just collapsed. I was still sick from the sinus cold from hell, and it kept me exhausted. It took 5 days before we got the motorhome half-way cleaned up and winterized. While I napped and relaxed at home, Kevin went through every bay and cleaned and sorted them. Lots and lots of stuff came home. Some ended up on the garage shelves and some just ended up in the trash. I bet we are hundreds of pounds lighter! That is good because he is now packing up our “normal” stuff we didn’t take with us this summer like the 3D printer and the telescope.

Some things are great being back. For example, I am back in church choir! it is so lovely to sing with others again. It had been almost 3 years since we left for Arizona in January 2020. Choir stopped during the pandemic, and it just started again in September. We no longer sing every week since we only have one service split between praise band music and traditional choir music, but it is better than nothing. A lot of the regulars at church haven’t been coming. Some are still worshipping online, and sadly a number of the older folks died. That included people in the choir too. I have hopes a few more will start showing up for choir, but it is easy to lose habits when they are paused for 2 years.

We have finally bought a UTV, a skinny 50” wide 2020 Polaris RZR Trail model. Love it! It will fit in the back of a pickup eventually, but we bought a trailer for it now. Of course it needs all kinds of fun and practical stuff that Kevin is buying including a new roof/door combination, full front windshield, rear view and side mirrors, and turn signals. We intend on using it a lot in Arizona this winter, and they allow UTVs to drive on the street if equipped properly. It will be a pain getting it there this year because we have to tow the UTV and trailer with the MH while Kevin drives the Jeep, but then we will leave it in AZ until some time in June when we will pick it up and spend time in Utah.

Kevin worked really hard to get the garage ready for 3 vehicles again, but there is now room for the Jeep, the RAV4, and the RZR on its trailer. We hope to go for our first real ride in it on Saturday when there is a charity group ride in NE Iowa. We are hoping for decent weather and beautiful fall colors.

Coming back in the fall is always a busy time for us because we schedule all our yearly doctor visits now. Kevin has a big one – his knee replacement is scheduled for 9 November. Since I am a poll worker on 8 November until late, we will have a long day. The plan is to be healthy enough to head to Arizona soon after Christmas. Of course there will be a number of appointments for imaging and checkups in addition, but we will manage those. I finally got the colonoscopy I tried to have in April of 2020 (yeah, we know what happened then!) then in April this year (cancelled because I came down with COVID). Still have to schedule a mammogram, but my routine physical is scheduled for December.

Hopefully the next post will be full of lovely foliage pictures from the UTV ride.

Council Bluffs and Omaha

We are at Lake Manawa State Park in Council Bluffs, IA. Fabulous brand new campground with full hookups, concrete parking and patios, big picnic tables, and fire pits. We have a nice view of the small lake, especially since they seem to have decided no campsite needs a tree! This is the true definition of “satellite friendly.” It has been really hot, so we didn’t go to as many places as we wanted.

We did get to the Doorly Zoo, an absolute must-see if anyone is in the area. I have my new mobility scooter, so I can finally be able to get through places that need a lot of walking. It was getting hot even though we were at the zoo by 9:00, so we did the primate area, the desert area, the rain forest, and the aquarium. We didn’t do the large animal exhibit because of the heat and Kevin’s knee. I won’t bore you with all the pictures, but I have to put some of my favorites up.

This mama did a great job of ignoring the humans

Since we came in the morning, many animals were still eating

This is the mai. Big guy in the gorilla group

The penguins swim so quickly that this was the best of many attempts

Not a great picture, but the best I could do

Almost no birds in the rain forest except these two, maybe bird flu?

It was 90 degrees by the time we left the zoo after a lunch around noon.

The next day we drove the Loess Hills National Scenic Byway. Loess (pronounced “Lus” like bus) is glacial debris. On the edge of the Missouri River bottomland is an unusual landform on the Iowa side where the loess formed hills. The erosion is intense, and it was the first part of Iowa that got terraces cut into the farm fields. The hills are really lovely though. You can see the ridge line in the center of the picture along with both the heavy forest on the slopes and the rich farmland at the bottom.

Contrast the Loess Hills with the river bottom of the Missouri River. Flat!

We also just wandered around town. There are some incredible historic areas in Omaha I had never heard of, and they are lovely. We also visited a couple of quilt shops to get fabric for a baby quilt for a soon to arrive great niece. I got it cut out and over half the blocks sewn! I hope to finish the blocks before we leave tomorrow.

Today we went to the Strategic Air Museum. Lots of glorious airplanes! It was even hotter than the previous days so I was glad it was indoors. A small set of the pictures.

Missiles were mostly outside. Compare the size of the missile with the people

I think the ceiling ones are interesting

Not a lot of rotary wings, but they did have some

Today’s high was 102 as read off our weather station on a pole at the motorhome. It was dreadful! We keep the MH cool with both air conditioners going and all the blinds pulled down. Makes for a boring view, but there is so much glass that you have to keep the sun from heating up the inside. It is humid too, with a 66% humidity right now at 87 degrees.

If the weather is so bad, why are we here? We have been waiting on some packages. One is a new Mifi from FMCA. They are phasing out their T-Mobile plan in favor or a plan from AT&T. However it seems like my package got lost at the Post Office! If wasn’t the fault of the USPS though. Whoever shipped the package didn’t put the “General Delivery” on the address! We got it today, and everything seems to work pretty well so far. The other reason we are waiting is for yet another scooter to arrive. It has a more powerful motor so it will go over rougher ground, something that will be handy in Canada and Alaska. It got delayed in shipping, but it should arrive in Cedar Falls tomorrow or Wednesday! Kevin will drive back to pick it up while I work on the baby quilt.

Tomorrow we go to Sioux City, IA. It is actually closer to home, and it has some nice museums. There is a weather front anticipated to cross right over us tomorrow, so we will leave this campground by 3:00. The campground is only 2 hours or less from here, so leaving late will be fine.

And we are off!

It has yet again been a month since I posted. I guess I just don’t feel I do as much stuff worth of posting when I am home. I did get a few things done though.

First off, we did get the MH yearly maintenance done. It was relatively painless. We use a small town Freightliner/Cummins place in Decorah, IA. Small enough they remember me, but full qualified and certified by Freightliner and Cummins for motorhomes. Good hourly rates too!

I did attend a quilt retreat at the Newton, IA KOA and the associated Alta House event center. It was run through the RV Quilter Facebook group, and I really enjoyed it. The facilities were top notch, the price moderate for everything we got, and we even had MaryAnn Fons or Fons and Porter fame give us a trunk show! I finished all the piecing on a sweet little quilt. The blocks were appliqués by my grandmother in the 1930s using mostly flour sack fabrics. When I got them they were yellowed and filthy. I soaked them in Biz, a non-chlorine laundry additive. After the first 6-7 hours, the water was just brown! I kept dumping it out and refilling, gently submerging the blocks. After 4 days, they were in pretty well clean, and happily nothing faded! They are fragile though, so I backed them with a lightweight interfacing designed for tshirt quilts. I had to do some creative trimming since they weren’t the same size or positioned the same. I finished the quilting at home on the quilting machine. Much easier than using my domestic Bernina machine.

Hand appliquéd, machine pieces and quilted.

Mostly we have just been getting ready for this upcoming western Canada and Alaska trip. Kevin was thoughtful enough to look for a small mobility cart for me. I have a mild case of scoliosis, but as I have gotten older, the arthritis has gotten bad, particularly in my left hip. It hurts to walk more than 100 yards or so, and I knew we would be doing more than that. He also bought some collapsible freestanding steps for the motorhome. I love them! They give a great platform to stand on in front of the door, and they have a railing! I had a bad fall a couple of years ago, and it was the proximal cause of my rotator cuff repair.

The steps actually attach to the platform, and you can adjust the height on each leg individually. He added some rubber bumpers because the raw metal edges would be bad on the paint.

We are now staying at a local campground, Big Woods Park. It is sooooo,inch easier to load the motorhome here than in the storage u it or at the house. Here we can open up all the slides, get things sorted correctly, etc. We will head out tomorrow morning to Omaha, NE. We plan to go to the incredible Henry Dorly Zoo plus some museums. We are staying at the brand new Lake Manawa State Park campground. When I say “new,” they just opened 1 June!

Expect lots of pictures folks.