Saturday, September 19, 2009

Today was a repeat of yesterday weather wise, sure hope it continues for a while.

We crossed the Missouri River today and there was an interesting Visitor’s Centre there with lots of information and artificats re the Lewis & Clark expedition exploring this area in the 1800’s.

The Missouri











Today was another day of miles & miles of farm land and we also drove through Dances With Wolves Country, overall a nice drive today of 622 km (386 miles). In checking the statistics we realized that South Dakota has roughly the same population as Hamilton/Wentworth – wow! The traffic was light and the roads were good – what more could we ask for.

Typical of Today's Scenery







We stopped at Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD – what a place!! The Wall Drug Store got its start during the Depression years by offering Free Ice Water to thirsty travelers and has expanded to a mega store today. (See www.walldrug.com). I vaguely remember it from the time I was there as a kid but I’m sure it has changed a lot in the intervening years. I bought a pair of moccasins and John got a $0.05 coffee and I got an ice cream cone – last of the big time spenders! I had on my Utah Rocks shirt and two people stopped me and talked about Utah and how great the canyons etc. are.







We are now at Crooked Creek Resort, Hill City SD and will be here for at least 4 nights. We hadn’t made reservations as we didn’t think it would be really busy at this time of year – wrong!! We got the last spot, which is actually quite neat as it is the Work Camper site, (obviously their term is done) and it has a deck as well as being the largest site in the park. The downside of the site was that John had to back in about 100’ while avoiding old tractors, trees and the deck. He did a fine job and we are now all settled in. A fellow took a video of John backing in – hope he was impressed with John’s expertise!

John just said we have traveled 1600 miles (2575 km) since we left Kincardine on Monday morning – wow!

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to tomorrow’s adventures.

Friday, September 18, 2009

Today was another gorgeous day with a high temperature on the truck of 83F (28C), gotta love that!! After dinner we sat out until well after dark in just our shorts and t-shirts so that will tell you how nice it is.

We had another good day of driving, we left Coloma WI and drove to Sious Falls, SD for a total of 632 KM (392 miles). The highways, so far, are really good, there was some construction but nothing that held us up and the traffic was very light.

The Mississippi











We crossed the mighty Mississippi when crossing the border between Wisconsin & Minnesota and we are now just barely into South Dakota, we will cross the Missouri Rivier tomorrow. Currently we are pretty well directly south of Winnipeg.

Today we felt like we could be driving through Southern Ontario as it was almost all corn fields with lots of grain elevators and some wind farms. Interestingly, of all the wind farms we passed we only saw 3 windmills turning – strange.

Typical of Today's Drive












This is the Cochrane family camping at Presquile so we hope their weather is as nice there as it is here.

Tonight's Home



Well, I have a couple days worth of blogs to post so will close out and get it done.

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to tomorrow’s adventures.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Today was a gorgeous day with a clear blue sky and a high of 22C (73F), how perfect can it get!

Our drive today was across the top of Lake Michigan then south down the west side of the lake, what pretty scenery, we think it is a definite place to come back to some time and spend time exploring the area as it was all new territory for us.

On the whole the roads were good but there was a fair bit of construction, fortunately though, we didn’t get held up a lot so no problem. We sure notice a difference in the truck on rough roads and the inside of the trailer isn’t getting as bounced around as it used to – guess the new shocks were worth the money!

Lake Michigan







We stopped for lunch at a pretty marina along the lake and were surprised that there were only a couple of boats there, guess fall comes early to this part of the world.



Tonight we are at Coloma Camperland in Coloma, WI. Sure isn’t anything great, and no wi-fi, but I found there weren’t a lot of parks in this part of the country so you take what you can get. In fact this park had a new first for us – the office was in the saloon. We had to go into the bar to check in and what a smokey place it was - there were quite a few people in there enjoying themselves so guess it is popular.

Today we gained an hour which was good as it was a long drive – 578 km with a lot of that on a 2 lane highway.

I am now ready to hit the sack so will sign off and hopefully I will be able to get this and a few pictures posted tomorrow.

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to tomorrow’s adventures.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Well, we are “On the Road Again” and glad of it. Yesterday we didn’t get away from Can-Am until about 2:30 so went as far as Country View Motel & RV at Reese’s Corners. The park isn’t anything great but is okay and made for a good jumping off point this morning,

Today was nice and sunny first thing this morning although a lot cooler than it has been, but by about 10 though it was pretty overcast and stayed that way most of the day – it didn’t rain though so we aren’t complaining! Actually the sun came out just before we crossed the Mackinac Bridge.

Our crossing at Sarnia was good, not a lot of questions so we were through quite quickly. We stopped at a Wal Mart just outside Flint to get some groceries so hopefully that will do us for a while.

Tonight we are at Lakeshore RV Park at St. Ignace, MI. It is an okay park with a great view of Lake Michigan right out our front window. The wi-fi works really good so we are pleased with that.

Mackinaw Bridge





View From Our Front Yard



Home for Tonight



I had originally plotted a route through Northern Michigan then John had suggested going through Chicago so I changed the route, then this morning he decided northern Michigan might be nice – MEN!!!! Of course I had deleted the RV Parks coming this way so had to work from memory today – now that is definitely scary!!! However, I did remember and all turned out well with a good day driving.

When I downloaded my e-mail tonight there were lots of birthday wishes, thanks everyone and yes, it was a great day. Also many thanks to those who called me yesterday,

And so ends another great gift of a day – stay tuned for tomorrow’s adventures.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Well, we are almost back on the road again. We arrived at Can-Am RV in London yesterday to get a few things done on the trailer before heading out but it is taking longer than expected so we will not cross the border until tomorrow.

We are heading west to the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and Yellowstone National Park, then back into B.C. for about 6 weeks before heading south down the Oregon & California coast. We have no reservations made for the winter will just go where we want, when we want so are looking forward to an interesting winter.

We had a good summer but were getting a huge case of hitch-itch after staying in one place for 4-1/2 months. We did a few day trips to the Bruce Peninsula and the Sarnia area and did a run to Kitchener/Waterloo every couple of weeks but that was about the excitement for the summer. Two weeks ago on Wednesday we went to Nan's in Bolton for an end of the year family dinner so had a nice visit with Nan, Kel, my sister and all. Last Thursday we had dinner with Mike so all our goodbyes have been said.

Pat & Monica just took me to Boston Pizza for lunch for my birthday, they invited John to go but guess he couldn't handle three women as he passed on the invite. Thanks gals, it was a great time & much appreciated!

Our trailer is ready so we will pay our bill & head out.

Please come back and join us on our adventures and comments are welcome and appreciated.