Belle Fourche, SD

A bit of geographic trivia!

Belle Fourche (pronounced bel-foosh), SD was named by French explorers when this area was owned by France, for the confluence of what is now known as the Belle Fourche and Redwater Rivers and the Hay Creek.  It means beautiful fork. In Butte County, Belle Fourche has the honor of being the Center of America.  In 1959, the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey officially designated a point 20 miles north of Belle Fourche as the geographic center of the United States. After the admission of Hawaii and Alaska, Belle Fourche was designated as the center of the nation, moving the location from Lebanon, KS, which is the center of the lower 48.

Just a bit of trivia I thought you might be interested in!

Used most of the Crayons

As we are about to leave South Dakota, I have spent some time - what little free time I have had (!) - thinking about what we have done.  And I have decided that we have used most of the box, if not all of the box, of crayons.  What a wonderful time we had in South Dakota and Wyoming, spending a day driving into and out of WY.

Corn Palace - Rodeo - Badlands - Mt. Rushmore - Custer State Park - deer - burros - buffalo - mountain goats - longhorn sheep - picnics - Deadwood - winning at the Casino - watching the Deadwood street gun fight - visiting the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane - beautiful forest, lakes and vistas - Keystone shopping - Hill city shopping and wine tasting - drive through Aladdin (population 15), Alva (population 50), Hulett (population 385) and Sundance - walking around the base of Devil's Tower - enjoying the company of friends and neighbors - dining at a Chuck Wagon dinner - and probably much more.

Tomorrow it is on the next phase of this wonderful vacation - Yellowstone!

Thank You - the Wilderness Act, 1964

“In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by an expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas of the Unite States..leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure of the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness.”

Thank you Congress.  We have enjoyed this part of the wilderness immensely!

Life

From time to time, you see a billboard that says exactly what you want to say.  This was the one that I saw yesterday:

Life is about using the whole box of crayons!

Hope I can use the 64 crayon box today!

Traveling in the Rain

When we left Iowa this morning, it rained a bit.  This seemed to be a nice change.  Maybe it would indicate that the cool weather was returning.  We travelled for a few hours with another RV.  We made a brief stop at a rest stop.  And our friend indicated that he thought our car was most dirty.  As was his!  I started to disagree.  But, I looked more closely.  The car was filthy.  Note to self, do not put the car through a car wash the night before you will be travelling on hot dusty roads.  Or roads with lots of construction.  The end result is… Well the end result is the same dirty dusty car!

Traveling and Computers

So for the most part, RVers travel with one, if not 2 computers.  And lots more electronic devices.  Its great!  You can stay connected to the world, get news, weather, traffic updates, and, if you so desire, continue to tweet and use facebook.   We neither tweet nor facebook.  But, we do have 2 computers and get lots of online information and email.  So when you wake up one morning to realize that the computer screen is still black 5 minutes after you pressed the power button, you know that the day will be long and arduous.  (And, for you Apple users, it was not Windows being Windows!)  This happened to me on Thursday.  We were participating in a cook-off at 10AM.  Of course, my “to bring” list and all the recipes were on the computer.  But, I did not panic.  I had printed them off the night before.  Go figure!

So the crisis was averted.  And, unbelievably, at 6 AM Central Time I was able to contact tech support with relative ease.  It wasn’t completely free of problems, but it was doable.  Now the technician will meet me at our next long stop.  By this time, I have talked to him and he has the parts. He is, however, confused as to why they sent him certain parts.  And he seemed confused by my description of what happened.  So, I may not be out of the water on Monday!  I hope all goes well and we don’t lose too much time waiting for him.  But, I won’t be convinced until it is up and running.  Until them, I have to share a computer and use the web interface for my email.  Both are less than desirable situations.  But, now that we have left Iowa, the connection is so much faster, maybe I can survive!

Iowa

I have enjoyed being in Iowa.  It is a pleasant state. The corn fields always seem so mesmerizing.  The people are friendly and the weather has been bearable.  The products they make are of high quality – like the Winnebago that we drive down its roads. They produce the most corn in the US and are second in shipping produce.  But, I knew I liked the state when I heard its motto:

Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.

Two Kinds of Travel

There are two kinds of travel – at least two different kinds.  There is the travel that brings you back to someplace familiar.  You know the place (or places) that you love and return time after time.  And you are never disappointed.  When we lived in RI, these places included a state park, Burlingame, and an RV Park that had wonderful music festivals.  Year after year we planned at least 1 or 2 visits.  Then there is the more distant location that you return to time after time.  For us this is Ft. Myers, FL.  With this type of travel, you return to the familiar.  You know where the bathrooms are.  And you know where the local post office is, the best restaurant, the pizza place that delivers - all the necessary information to have a stress-free stay.

Then there is the travel that takes you to new and fascinating venues.  This travel lets you see a sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean, a sunset over the Grand Canyon; you can see spectacular waterfalls and amazing mountains and canyons.  The way of life might be different and the food could take some getting used to.  But, the adventure is always amazing.  The one difficulty with this second type of travel is how to find the Laundromat, or the post office, or the grocery store.  And, heaven forbid, that you need gas on a deserted stretch of the back roads of America.  The adventures are fantastic.  But, the mundane can be difficult.  We haven’t found a Laundromat in Humboldt, IA.  And the laundry bag is full! (To complete the story, we have found the Post Office, the grocery store; and we have filled up with gas!)

Happy 4th of July

A pattern has developed, it was hot again today.  But, with a nice breeze that was a welcomed change of pace.  The day started off slowly.  One of us was a late riser.  The early riser then took a nice nap!  So, the morning was history before we could blink!!  The afternoon was interesting.  They were having harness races, right here at the fairgrounds.  Quit interesting to watch.  They alternated pace horse races with trot horse races.  What fun to watch!  We even won a T-Shirt!  For each of the first 10 races, you could submit a ticket with your selection for a winner.  All the “winning tickets” were put together and a winner was drawn.  The first winner won back the admission fee ($5) and the second winner got a T-Shirt.  Between us we only selected a winning horse a few times!  But, it was fun to do.

During the evening there was a parade uptown.  We weren’t sure where uptown was.  But, we felt we could easily find the parade route.  And we did!  It was fun being part of the small town crowd watching the annual event.  All the kids with out with their plastics bags to collect all the candy was thrown their way!  And the Mom and Dad were quick to ensure that they were sharing all around.

Most interesting to listen to was the Moms around me give their little ones instructions on what to do when the flag passed by.  Stand up, take your hat off and place your hand over your heart to show respect.  What a nice lesson.  We should all learn from it.

The day was capped off with the fireworks.  They were set off right in the fairgrounds.  So, all we had to do was sit in from of the RV and watch the sky light up.  They were impressive.  I love fireworks and these were good!

Tama to Humboldt, IA

We arose early this morning to take advantage of the Breakfast Buffet.  After breakfast, we visited what we thought was a lucky slot machine.  A friend and travel companion spent several hours yesterday at a “good” slot machine and won a goodly sum of money.  For a one cent machine, winning more than ten times your initial investment of $20 is quite good! My attempt at the machine started out quite well – won $4!  It was downhill from there.  I left the slot machine feeling that it was not that lucky!

From Tama we drove to Humboldt.  The drive was quite scenic - miles and miles of corn fields.  They always look so lush and they are just mesmerizing.  I love to watch them go by.  But for today, these corn fields were prophetic.  Once we arrived at our destination – the Iowa State Rally, we were informed that the evening meal would be a pot luck, with Iowa sweet corn as the centerpiece.  The fields are lovely to look at.  But, the produce is delicious to eat!

We shared a table with RVers from Arizona.  In conversation, they mentioned that they had stopped at Amana Colonies and met some people for Tennessee.  I started down the list of friends and neighbors that were stopping at Amana Colonies on their way to Forest City.  No, that did not seem to be the people that they had met.  They indicated that they had met 2 brothers travelling together. That was it!  I mentioned the name of 2 fellow RVers from western TN.  And, yes, these were the people that they had met.  Even TN is a small world – in Iowa! 

Day 2 – Meskwaki Casino in Tama, IA

We started out early today, and drove a few hours to Tama, IA.  I had never heard of it before – but there is much about IA that I do not know.  I love to look at all the corn fields, with their rows upon straight rows of corn as we drive the highways and byways.  Temperature is still hotter than I would like, but, much more manageable today.  The casino seems nice enough.  There is a daily buffet and the special today is steak.  And, the best part of this is that it is served in air-conditioned comfort!

They do have a pool available to us and it is open 24 hours a day.  I suspect a trip to the pool will happen at some point – if for no other reason than to cool the entire body. Yesterday in Chatham, the park had a pool.  Unfortunately, I was only able to step onto the top step and soak my ankles.  While it wasn’t much, it was greatly appreciated by the rest of my body.  Today, I may try for cooling more of me!

Day 1 – Hotter than Hades

Not sure exactly how to impress upon you that this trip from TN to IL was HOT, HOT, HOT.  Perhaps I can say that this is the first time since we bought this RV that I wondered if the interior temperature display had 3 digits.  I believe it does not.  It displayed 99 for quite some time.  I think, it was actually hotter, but it could not tell me.  Perhaps, that was a good thing!  Although the temperature was a bit high overnight, we had a pleasant stay at Double J RV Park in Chatham, IL.

Summer 2012 Edition of Our Adventures

It is July 1, 2012 and we are doing a Willie Nelson – on the road again!  We are headed to areas we have never seen, crossing areas that we have been to.  It should be a great 6 weeks.  We are travelling with some neighbors, also RVers.  The group alternates from two rigs to four rigs to three rigs, ending with our traveling solo on our way back to TN. 

I have not been conscientious about writing blog entries during the last couple of adventures.  Hopefully, I will do much better this time! Time will tell.  Check back frequently.  I will try to post often –a t least text.  Pictures can be bothersome when location and connection speed are sub-par and we are having too much fun doing other things.  So, they may not be as frequent. But, I will try to provide text entries as often as I can!