Rolling through the Midwest

We left Lakeway, TX on Sun, June 30^th and headed north on I-35. We planned to overnight at the WinStar World Casino RV park, Thackerville, OK, and weren’t disappointed. It was on I-35, Oklahoma Exit 1. The RV pads were spacious with level concrete pads. Our site looked out on the swimming pool.

 

When we checked in at the office, the clerk asked us if we’d like a free “Players Card” for the casino. We asked what the benefits would be and she said we’d get our first night of camping free. That sounded good to us, since we were only staying one night.

We rode the shuttle to the Casino, enjoyed cocktails and dinner and rode the shuttle back to the RV park.   It was a beautiful evening so we used the hot tub and pool before calling it a night.

The next morning, we headed up U.S. 69, passing through Muskogee, and sang “I’m an Okie from …” to each other.  We crossed the Arkansas River in Muskogee…yes, the same Arkansas River that flows from the Colorado Rockies through Colorado and Kansas.

We spent two nights at the Water’s Edge RV & Cabin Resort on Grand Lake o’ the Cherokee. We had a lakeside site that was one of the best RV sites we’ve ever had. Each RV site came with a small deck over the water’s edge. The weather was perfect, in the low-80s, and sunshine.

On Tues, we went into Vinita and had lunch at Clanton's Café, right on Historic Route 66. Clanton’s has been recognized with many awards and even a visit from Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

Wed, July 3^rd, we headed out for West St. Louis where we overnighted at a KOA.  On July 4^th we made our way to Terre Haute, IN for another one night stay. On Fri, July 6^th we drove through Kokomo and South Bend on our way to Elkhart, IN, stopping at a White Castle for lunch. They’ve been around since 1921 and serve cheeseburger sliders by the bag.

We stayed at the Elkhart Campground and it was very nice with long, grassy, level sites. We visited the RV/Motorhome Museum in Elkhart (on our bucket list) and it was well worth the stop to see over 50 vintage RVs.

 

On Sun, July 7^th we headed up the Interstate towards Tawas Point State Park for a 3-night stay. I-75 was clear sailing northbound, but jammed up on the southbound side after the long weekend.

 

The state park, right on Lake Huron, was pretty full with many families on vacation. It’s flat there and we enjoyed several rides on our bicycles.

Julie’s Dad was stationed at Wurtsmith Air Force Base, near Oscoda, Michigan. We took a trip down memory lane today, going by the high school Julie attended and the base house she and her family lived in on Wurtsmith AFB. We also scattered some of her Dad’s ashes next to the main runway on Wurtsmith AFB where he took off and landed many times in his B-52 bomber.

 

 

Our First Ever RV Rally

We arrived at Gillette, WY for the Family Motor Coach Association rally, on Wed, June 19^th. We attended several motorhome-related educational seminars, perused a huge RV vendor display area, took in several large new motorhome displays, and attended a Buckingham’s concert. You know, they had huge hits in the late-60s and now they’re in their 60s. It was interesting to learn the group is from Chicago. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met a nice couple at our newcomer’s orientation, from Miami Beach, retired from the restaurant business, and like us, living in their motorhome. Peter and Sandy were a lot of fun and we're sure our paths will cross again.

The weather didn’t cooperate though. We had pouring down rain all day Thursday and Friday, and our RV lot quickly became a mud pit. We decided to leave a day early because of the weather and headed south on Saturday.

We overnighted in Cheyenne, Colorado City (south of Pueblo), Amarillo, and San Angelo, on our way to Lakeway (Austin), Texas. We spent 4 days here with Julie’s mom and sister to scatter her Dad’s ashes, after his passing last September.

We’re heading out tomorrow, on our way to Virginia for a family reunion on July 18-23. We’ll drive through Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ontario-Canada, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, finally reaching Luray, in the Shenandoah Valley on July 18th. Enjoy your July 4^th holiday!

Driving in a big Circle

On Sun, June 2^nd, while in Sioux Falls, we went to our first BBQ Festival. There were contestants there from all over the U.S.  

 

After lunch, we drove to Falls Park (Sioux Falls’ namesake) and spent some time enjoying the park and a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

 

 

 

We left Sioux Falls, SD on Monday, June 3^rd and headed to Forest City, Iowa to have a few things repaired on the motorhome at the local Winnebago-Itasca dealership. It poured down rain on the trip and for the two days we spent in Forest City. We then headed to Denison, where Steve was born and raised. We spent two nights at Yellow Smoke Park, just outside of Denison. The weather was sunny for our visit.

We wanted to stay at a state park west of Sioux Falls through the weekend, but the campground was full. So we headed back to the Sioux Falls KOA met a weekend of torrential rainfall.

On Sunday afternoon we headed to Lake Vermillion Recreation Area and enjoyed 3 nights there. Almost all of the campers had left by the time we got there.

 

 

 

On Wed, June 12^th, we headed across SD for Badlands National Park. We stopped in Mitchell, SD to see the Corn Palace. It hadn’t changed a lot from the last time I’d seen it as a kid.

We explored the Badlands on Thursday and took a side trip into Wall to visit Wall Drug.

 

 

We head to Spearfish, SD for three nights and stayed at a beautiful city park where we enjoyed the big cottonwood shade trees, bicycle paths, and a stream through the park.

 

We took day trips to visit Deadwood and Sturgis one day and Rapid City, Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park the next day.

 

 

We’re heading to Gillette, WY next for a week to attend the Family Motor Coach Association rally. We’re looking forward to it. There’ll be educational seminars, vendor product displays, new motorhome displays, and over 2,000 motorhomes, with nearly 5,000 of our closest friends.

It’s starting to sink in now with us that we’re living in our motorhome full-time, and not just on another trip. It’s been a lot of fun so far.

Loosened Our Load - June 1, 2013

We bought our 2008 Itasca Meridian in January 2012 and put over 22,000 miles on it the first year. We enjoyed the traveling in the motorhome (MH) so much that, in September 2012, we decided to try “full-timing” and live in the MH. Our plan to FT included selling our house and all the furniture and move into the MH in the spring of 2013. We began cleaning out closets getting rid of stuff to prepare to put our house on the market. After 36 trips to Goodwill, Salvation Army, DAV and ARC in 2012, we were making good headway.

We took a month-long trip to Florida in January, returning to Colorado in early-February, asking ourselves “why come home so soon”? We continued clearing out closets and selling furniture, and by mid-April, were ready to put the house on the market. It went on the market on April 18^th as we left town for a trip to Austin, TX. We got an offer on April 20th within hours of its first and only showing. We were stunned it went so quickly, but after de-cluttering and many little home projects, it really was “move-in ready”.

We returned home from Austin and began selling our remaining furniture on Craig’s List in earnest and made many more trips to Goodwill. We rented a small storage unit to store our family photo albums, some framed pictures, china, pots & pans, and a few other items we wanted to keep. We (and our cat Shasta) moved out of the house (2,600 square feet) and into our MH (300 SF) on Sunday, May 19^th and closed the sale and handed over the keys on May 20^th.



Old home

 

We realize that this was a huge step, but we wanted to be “liberated” from our stuff and live a simpler lifestyle, seeing all the things we only passed by on those infrequent vacations. Now it is time to enjoy the country where every night we can sleep in a comfortable bed, eat food from the local farmer’s market, and return to our home on wheels. No we’re not “homeless”---we’re “houseless”.

New Home

 

We left Colorado Springs in our rear view mirror on Tuesday, May 27th and traveled to Sioux Falls, South Dakota where we established our new “domicile”. On Friday we went and got our SD driver's licenses, registered to vote, and re-plated our GMC Yukon. We’re using a mail forwarding service here in Sioux Falls as our new mailing address. We're staying through the weekend and head to Forest City, Iowa on Monday.

Florida - January 2013

On January 10th, we arrived in the Fort Meyers area, staying in Estero at the Koreshan State Historic Site. Turns out it was the only state park in the area with camping.

We headed to the Tampa area on Saturday, January 12th, staying at Lazy Days in Seffner for 5 nights. My sister Cathy, niece Michelle and nephews Benjamin, Brandon and Cameron, drove up from Palm Harbor to see us on Sunday.

On Monday we drove to Safety Harbor to see Julie’s Aunt Jo. On Tuesday, Julie and I both took the Lazy Days RV Driver’s Confidence Course. It was very good with classroom instruction in the morning and practical RV driving in the afternoon. We drove their Itasca Meridian motorhome around the campground, navigating many turns and around parked cars.

On Thursday, January 17th, we headed back to Mims (near Titusville) to stay at Willow Lakes RV & Golf Resort with Julie’s sister Cindy and brother-in-law Terry for 4 more nights. We headed to Fort Wilderness at Disney World on Monday for 3 nights. It was a nice RV park and convenient to the Disney parks. We walked to the dock and then took a ferry boat to Magic Kingdom on Tuesday.

Wednesday we went to see Animal Kingdom for our first time.

We went on the “African Safari”, which was very good open-air safari vehicle tour of a lush African savanna, home to many exotic animals.

After Animal Kingdom, we went to Disney’s Hollywood Studio for a couple of hours. It was a very long day.  On Thursday, January 24th, we left Disney and headed to Tallahassee. We met up with my sister Marcia and bother-in-law Mike who were headed to the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras in their motorhome. After a night in Tallahassee, we spent a night in Biloxi and a night in Lake Charles.

We said goodby to Mike and Marcia on Sunday, January 27th and headed to Austin to spend 3 nights to visit Julie's mom and nephew. We left on Wednesday, January 30th to head back to Colorado Springs with overnight stops in San Angelo and Amarillo. It was a fun 38-day trip, covering over 5,000 miles.

Florida - January 2013

We left for Florida on December 26th and overnighted in Clayton, NM; Denton, TX; Vicksburg, MS; and Tallahassee, FL before arriving in Titusville, FL late afternoon on December 30th. We stopped at Country Tavern, near Kilgore, TX, for a lunch of BBQ ribs—best in the USA.

We enjoyed seeing Julie’s Mom from Austin, Aunt Jo from Safety Harbor, FL and her sister Cindy and brother-in-law Terry from Titusville, where the weather was warm and sunny.

We spent New Year’s Eve with 8 other couples and Julie’s Mom and Aunt participating in a poker run (using golf carts) and answering Trivia Pursuit questions. It was a lot of fun and we laughed a lot.

We enjoyed dinner with Julie’s family at a seafood restaurant on Tuesday, New Year’s Day.  Julie’s Mom and Aunt Jo departed on Wednesday. On Thursday, we drove to Daytona Beach for lunch and stopped by the Daytona International Speedway on the way home where La Mesa RV was holding a small RV show.

We went to Cocoa Beach on Friday night to celebrate Cindy’s birthday. Ironically, Julie and I had gone to Cocoa Beach (about 30 miles away) earlier in the day for lunch, not knowing we’d end up there for dinner too.

We left Titusville on Saturday morning and drove south 375 miles to Key West. We’re staying on Sigsbee Navy Annex at the military campground. We picked out our camp site, not knowing the potential danger of getting hit in the head by a coconut!

Yesterday, January 8th, we took a boat trip to Dry Tortugas National Park, 70-miles west of Key West. It was an interesting visit to Fort Jefferson, constructed over 30-years beginning in 1846, but never finished.

On the way back to Key West, our boat had an engine problem and could only use one of two engines. That resulted in a top speed of only 14-knots vs. 25+-plus knots and arriving back in Key West at 8PM vs. 5:30PM. However we got some great photos of a famous Key West sunset from out on the water.

We leave tomorrow and head up to the Fort Meyers area for a couple of days before we head to Tampa on Saturday.