07Oct 2014 by Lboll

Minnesota – Summer of 2014

Traveling

I should be writing this from Amana, Iowa but alas it was not meant to be. We had reservations in Iowa starting September 23rd, said our good-byes to our kids and thought we were off to the land of the Hawkeyes but our truck had other ideas. We had been having issues with an engine light coming on for about a month and had it in and out of the dodge service center several times thinking we finally had it fixed. But it wasn’t to be. The day before we were scheduled to leave the light came on again. One more time to the dodge dealer ended up with us leaving it for 8 days. Thankfully they gave us a nice little Jeep Compass to use but also grounded us…

03Aug 2014 by Lboll No Comments

Grand Marais, MN & Family

Traveling

We parked our coach at Dakotah Meadows RV Park in Prior Lake, MN on May 8th and stayed put until we headed to Grand Marais on June 13th. Anyone that knows us knows that Grand Marais is a special place for Joe and I and our kids. We started camping in Grand Marais in 1973 with our oldest son, Eric, then 18 months old, in a borrowed canvas pop-up. The brakes went out in our 1971 Chevy Vega as we came into the town and we had to order new brakes that were shipped to us on the Star Tribune truck from Minneapolis. Our intentions were to stay overnight in Grand Marais and then go into Canada. I am a big believer in things happen for a reason. We were…

03Aug 2014 by Lboll

The Great Mississippi River

Campgrounds

Here I am the first part of August going back to catch-up on our blog for the end of April. I’d just skip this time but I have to write a little about our trip along the Mississippi River coming from Ohio back to Minnesota. We were fortunate to find this beautiful Corp of Engineer Campground on the Mississippi River in Thomson, IL. This was a fantastic find. Not only was it just $9.00 a night (with our senior pass) but we had a site right on the river that was fabulous. This park was exceptional not only because of the many sites on the river but they had a very large section that was first come sites. We have discovered with our traveling that if you go into a…

01May 2014 by Lboll No Comments

Elkhart, Indiana

Traveling

Elkhart, Indiana is the RV capital of America. 70% of all RVs made in the U.S. are made in Elkhart and 80% are made within 30 miles of Elkhart and by driving around the area you know it’s true. Everywhere you go there are RV manufactures or something to do with the RV industry. Driving down any road you will pass transporters moving the RVs out of the area to dealers across the country. There are signs everywhere looking for transporters. We caught a news story one night about how the RV industry is really hurting for transporters. The manufactures have huge inventories sitting in their businesses just waiting to be transported to dealers around the country. If anyone is looking for a job and has a truck here is…

01May 2014 by Lboll

Ohio & Family

Traveling

Life is so good to us! We can travel and see the country and also be able to spend time with our kids and have new adventures with them. It was so good spending time with Zach and Lauren and of course their dogs, Hope, Harvey, and Jake. We don’t get to spend enough time with Lauren in the two weeks we are in Cincinnati since her job takes her out of town during the week but we try to make it up over the weekends. Joe and Zach caught a movie together and got in a little golf driving range time. We took Hope, the Great Dane, for a few days while Zach was going to work on his house. His ordered supplies didn’t come in so the project…

14Apr 2014 by Lboll

On Our Way to Ohio

Traveling

From Oklahoma we entered the state of Arkansas for the first time. Our first stop was on the Arkansas River at an Army Corp of Engineer Campground call Toad Suck Ferry. What an unusually name! It is so unique that it is listed as the worst named town in the United States. It really isn’t a town so much as a small community. The name came many years ago when the steamboats were travelling down the Arkansas River and pulled over to the side of the river so the captain and crew could enjoy a beer or two at the local tavern. The locals didn’t appreciate the rowdiness of the crew and would say “They suck on bottle ‘til they swell up like toads”. Hence the name Toad Suck. A…

26Mar 2014 by Lboll

What Can We Say About Oklahoma!

Traveling

As we were leaving Texas and entering Oklahoma we started joking about what there was to see in this state and said we’d make a one night stop and get through the state fast. We have never heard anything about Oklahoma that would make us say we had to go there. We were wrong. Of course there wasn’t much difference at first between Texas and Oklahoma; flat fields and a lot of cows. One of the first things we noticed about the fields was the dirt was red not black like in MN. We saw the green alfalfa fields but you could see the red dirt between the green. It was rather pretty. We also started to come across the rolling hills and trees. It started to look more like…

22Mar 2014 by Lboll No Comments

Grand Canyon of Texas

Traveling

We have just stayed at one of the most beautiful state parks we have had the fortune to stay in. Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Canyon, TX is called the Grand Canyon of Texas. As you drive from New Mexico into Texas there is nothing. Flat plains, no towns, no trees, but there are cows and of course that wind. We had scheduled to stop for three nights at Palo Duro SP but never anticipated what we were in for. As you pass through the gates and the flat countryside you start a descent of about 800 ft to the floor of the canyon. The grade of the road is 10% which means it is very steep and there are several switchback turns that took me to watch to…

22Mar 2014 by Lboll

Wind, Wind, and More Wind

Traveling

It seems like all we do lately is drive in wind. Driving from Benson, AZ to Las Cruces, NM wasn’t any different except maybe the wind was a little stronger. When we get up in the morning the wind is pretty calm but every day it picks up by the afternoon. One day we got a few drops of rain and then the wind. Do I need to say more? Our truck looked more brown than black. The truck got washed but the 5th wheel will have to wait a little longer. We decided to stop at Las Cruces, NM to get out of the wind. Nice RV Park that had been converted from a mobile home park to an RV park. Each site was nicely spaced and had grass…

14Mar 2014 by Lboll No Comments

Good-bye Arizona and Hello New Mexico

Traveling

As I mentioned in my last post we had stayed at Catalina State Park in Tucson. While we were there we met a very nice couple from Salt Lake City, Utah, John and Jeanne, who had the site right next to us. They are considering going full-time and already travel about nine months out of the year. They are talking about selling their home in Utah and have been looking at a new/used 5th wheel. We were excited for them and gave them some information that helped us when we first started off. We always love to share what we know about full-timing to others since that is how we found out so much. We were always asking questions to anyone that wanted to talk about full-timing. We told them…