Last day of September picnic

We had perfect weather for a family picnic today.  The fall colors are beautiful right now in Minnesota.

What's in your hair?  Zach and Sheila

Rebecca and Brenda listening intently

Sheila and Rebecca

Tree outside our motorhome

Morning and evening

We went out for breakfast at the nearby Little Six Casino, they have an excellent breakfast.  We had blueberry pancakes (and there were a lot of blueberrys), egg and thick bacon.  All for $3.95.  Did a little grocery shopping afterwards.

In the evening Sheila, Josh and Brianna came to our motorhome for a visit.  They brought along some good cookies.  Is always great to see them.

Pablo's Mexican Restaurant

We ate at Pablo's tonight, our all time favorite Mexican restaurant.  Again the food was excellent.  I called Bud this morning to wish him Happy Birthday.  They were getting ready to leave for his weekly doctor appointment at the Ft. Meade Veterans Hospital in Sturgis for his ongoing foot problems.  They were taking a cake in the shape of a foot - clever and I'm sure the staff will be happy to have a piece!

Watched the second Survivor show.  I can't miss one and then get into a discussion the next day on the internet.  I've watched every season.  You'd think the castaways would watch and learn that you can't be lazy around camp and not take part in challenges and not be voted off the island.  Like  I would last 10 minutes on the show!

Moving Day

We changed sites at Dakotah Meadows campground today.  We would have had to move sometime in the next week as the site we had was not available past Monday.  It was a warm, nice day today and a good change to move.  We just moved four sites south, but as I always say "moving 50 feet or 500 miles is the same process."  We had to take down everything and secure all.  Unhook the utilities, etc.  We did it all in about an hour!

Concert in the Park

We went to Sheila's band concert in Spring Lake County Park.  It was a beautiful setting, nice day and excellent music.  Brenda, Dan and Becca also joined us.

Dinner at Panda Express

We had dinner with Brenda and Becca at Panda Express and then went to their house to see their new tile flooring in their kitchen and entry and new counter-tops in the kitchen.  All looked very nice!  Also have a new sink and faucet and new washer and dryer.

It was a cold night getting down to near freezing but as always we stayed warm inside the motorhome.

Dinner at The Dennis'

I made a cake, or more like a coffee cake in the morning to take for dinner.  Just had the box in my cupboard and it needed to be used.  We had a super good dinner at the Dennis'.  Ken's parents, Betty and Roy were also there.  We enjoyed visiting with them, we have so much in common with them.  Ken made a great ham dinner with sweet potatoes.  They also had a broccoli salad which I love.

Breakfast at Little Six

We went out for the good and inexpensive breakfast at the Little Six Casino Restaurant.  Then it was off to Menards and CVS.  We didn't get home until about lunch time.  Hung around the motorhome the rest of the day, read, did some sudoku and watched all the recorded shows we had on the DVR.  My stomach still is bothering me after 3 days, more than ready for that to go away.

Doctor Monday

It rained some during the night, hadn't head rain on the roof for a long time.  Don went into the doctor for his check-up in the morning.  His blood sugar was very good - A1C was 6.1 better than it has ever been.  I had an appointment in the afternoon, have to have some more tests.  I fixed dinner and we watched a DVD we had rented "Bernie".  It was different, OK but not something I'd ever want to watch again.

Typical Sunday

We went out for breakfast at Cracker Barrow (that's what happens when you don't have a nearby Cracker Barrow for 4 months, you visit twice in two days.)  We then went to Fleet Farm, another must do.  In the afternoon we read the papers - so good to have the Minneapolis Star Trib to read rather than the scant paper we have been getting.  In the afternoon I made bread in the bread machine which I hadn't used for years.  It didn't rise too well but the bread was OK, sure made the Motorhome smell good!

Kohl's and Cracker Barrow

I was just saying we needed a new rug in front and a new mattress pad.  Kohl's ad came out and both were on sale, I got both and a "couple" other things.  In the evening we had dinner with Sheila and family at the Cracker Barrow.  Good food and good visiting!

Dakotah Medows at Mystic Lake

It was so good to finally have a day that we didn't have something pressing we had to get done.  Didn't even have to set the alarm!  Don worked on getting the splashed mud off the motorhome and took the car to the car wash.  I did things inside like washing clothing, etc.  In the evening we went to dinner at our favorite Hong Wongs.  It was good as usual.

Into Minnesota

When we got up this morning in Sioux Falls there was some fog, we waited awhile for it to clear and then got on the road.  When we got on the road the fog got much worse, almost a white-out.  At the Minnesota boarder it suddenly cleared BUT then the tire monitor indicated the left front tire was losing air.  We pulled into a small town and into a gas station where two men were sitting in the garage.  We asked them if they could fix the tire and they said pull right up and we'll take care of it.  30 minutes later with a small screw removed (and $40 handed over - we expected at least $100 cost) we were back on the road.  The rest of the trip went well.  We got to our site at Dakotah Meadows RV Park in Prior Lake.  Brenda and Rebecca came over in the evening for a visit, great to see them again!

Across South Dakota

We got out of Happy Holiday about 7:45, about 45 minutes later than we had hoped.  All went well on the trip across South Dakota.  It had rained a little, just enough to make the highway wet - we were about to turn into a station to get diesel when an old truck passed us and splattered our clean car and motorhome with mud.  Thanks a lot.  We got the diesel, hurried to our overnight park, plugged in the electric and jumped into the car to take it to the Honda place before it closed.  We got there in time, they said it would take 1 1/2 hours to get to the car.  I got a cup of their excellent coffee (most Honda places have great coffee) and Don was inspecting their new 2013 cars when the man for the garage came to tell me our car was done.  Then we went to our sister-in-law's home for a visit and out to dinner with her.  Got back to the motorhome, finished setting it up enough for the night and crashed.

Motorhome in for maintainance

We got up a 6AM to get to Eddie's Diesel for the motorhome maintenance.  All went well getting the slides in, jacks up and air shocks pumped up and we were at Eddies at 7:30.  We went out for breakfast at the little local place "Morningside" then went to Menards, K Mart, Target, Wal Mart and Mountain Time (for a new watch battery).  It was lunch at Abby's and thinking the motorhome would be done we went back to Eddies.  Turns out it was not done until after 4PM.  We got it back to the park it get propane before we parked and someone was blocking the propane tank and not in any hurry to move.  Finally we got the propane and went to park and the same people were almost blocking our path into our site.  We had 30 minutes to get ready to go out to eat with the Managers Susan and Fritz.  The took us out for a great meal at Longhorn Steak House, lots of good visiting as well.  Now we are very tired, have to get up a 6AM tomorrow to get on the road east.

One last day working

We worked this morning, busy off and on.  Came home and got busy getting things ready to move the motorhome after sitting one place for almost 4 months.  We had dinner with Judy and Guy at the Alpine Inn in Hill City.  Again after we got home we got the last minute (except for what we have to do tomorrow morning) things done.  Was a hot day, up to 96 with 14% humidity.  There are wind, fire and allergy alerts.

Getting ready to leave Rapid City

Don has been working hard on getting the Motorhome waxed, it is looking good!  We are in the process of picking up things inside and out.  We went to Pat and Bud's for the afternoon, they had invited Lisa and Bill who are just back from a vacation.  We had nice visit.  Came home and grilled a ham slice, after we ate we went to say goodbye to Harold and Jean who we worked with this summer and are leaving tomorrow.

Cool Weather

The weather has cooled down to the 70's during the day and 40's at night.  We have actually gone a couple days without air conditioning.  Feels so good to be able to go outside without a blast of hot air.  We worked today, which may be our last day, all went well but not much to keep us busy.  We did get have the expected experience of 3 motorhomes come in together after sitting a couple hours with nothing to do but read.  I couldn't find Don to park them, couldn't get him on the radio so finally called him on his cell.  He seemed surprised that there was actually work to be done!  (Still have no idea where he was hiding.)  We went to Panchero's for dinner one last time.

Our (workamping) days are numbered

We worked Monday and Tuesday and have to work on Friday, probably again Monday and we are done.  I am really getting tired of working and want to be retired again.   The job is OK, but it is some of the people we have to work with and more than anything shuffling things we need to do around a schedule that changes weekly.  It will be good to be able to schedule our own time and we are ready to move the motorhome.  We take the motorhome in for annual maintenance on next Tuesday and leave on Wednesday if all goes well.

We are eating out at our favorite places one more time and getting things done around the motorhome.

Motorhome Joke

Just another day at work

We had a long shift today and a number of people coming in for the Labor Day Weekend.  I got a call from a man who said "I don't know where I am."  I replied that "I didn't know either, but it you could tell me what he was near perhaps I could help."  He said "I don't know where I am."  After sometime I got him to say he was near a Conoco Gas Station.  I told him there were several Conoco Stations around, did he see a street sign.  His answer "No".  Finally I could hear his wife say they are at a Flying J station.  Then I gave him directions, which should be a 20 minute at the most, trip.  After about an hour they arrived.  I didn't even want to ask.