From Auckland we went straight to Michigan for Thanksgiving at Jamie’s dad and step mom’s house. Ashley and Brent came up and we also spent the weekend with Sean, Staci, Jeff, Wyatt and Maddie. It was a great weekend and we ate like kings. After the weekend Jamie had another trip to Auckland. Jim planned on joining her again but the weather in Oklahoma City was looking very cold with temperatures dropping into the mid 20’s and we were concerned…
Like St. Croix, this isn’t part of our rv adventure but we did another side trip. Jamie had a trip to Auckland, New Zealand on the 18th so Jim decided to ride along since neither of us had ever been there. I must say, it was quite nice riding in first class there and back. We got there about 11am and hit the ground running. Jamie was quite the trooper since she only got a few hours of sleep on…
After our two fun filled days in Enid we continued south to Oklahoma City. They have a campground at Tinker Afb so that’s where we planned on staying. I have to say, it’s a very nice base and the campground is also very nice. It sits right on a small lake and is very clean and well maintained. Day two we ventured out to a couple of different areas of Oklahoma City. First was the Stockyard area. This is where…
After getting back from St. Croix and coming home to freezing weather we decided it was time to head south. We left Kansas for Oklahoma. First stop was Jim’s old stomping ground of End, Ok. That’s where he attended pilot training when he first entered the Air Force. The town itself changed significantly since he was last there over 35 years ago. The base changed slightly but was pretty much a nothing base just like he remembered it. We only…
Not exactly part of our rv adventure but we flew to St. Croix the weekend of November 9 for our annual home owner’s meeting. First one for us. Not sure it was a very good idea on my part as I practically had to drag Jamie out of there by her hair. She is definitely looking forward to living there. The 80 degree weather was a wonderful reprieve from the 40’s we’d been getting in Kansas City. …
After Westin we had to go back to work but Jamie got sick and ended up staying home so only Jim went to work. Jamie was feeling better when Jim returned so we headed into downtown Kansas City to check it out. First thing we hit since there didn’t seem to be a whole lot to see in town was the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures. It had all kinds of miniature toys along with classics from over the…
We arrived in Kansas City on October 13 only to leave the following day. We met our son Eric in Washington DC to attend an open house at Galludet University as he is considering going back to school. Was a great weekend and we came away with a good feeling about him making another attempt at a college degree. After Washington we both had to go to work then following work we both headed to Myrtle Beach. Jim for his…
We left Minneapolis with plans to park at Offutt Afb in Omaha, Nebraska for the entire month of October since, once again, we had numerous trips planned for the month. We were meeting one of our kids in Washington Dc to visit a school that he was considering going back to school at. Later in the month we had Jim’s golf week and Jamie’s girl’s week in Myrtle Beach. We did a short side trip to Sioux City, Iowa because…
We returned from our traveling on October 1st and decided it was starting to get cold so we kept our visit in Minneapolis short. Planning to start heading south we packed a full day of sightseeing into the following day. We started at the mall of America. For those of you not familiar it’s the largest mall in America built in 1992 with an indoor theme park with a large roller coaster and, of course, every store you can imagine….
Our last morning in Duluth was spent sleeping in to recover from the last few days and doing some necessary admin work. We didn’t leave the house till mid afternoon when we did some shopping and hit the post office. After our chores we headed to Enger tower, a tower built in 1939 in honor of a Norwegian named Bert Enger who spent much of his life building up the city of Duluth. We knew it offered nice views of…
First stop the next day was Grand Portage state park which was right at the Minnesota/Canada border. There’s a river called Pigeon River that separates the US from Canada and has some waterfalls that are a fairly short walk through the woods along a path. We took in the waterfall, waved to Canada and continued on our drive. Next we stopped for lunch in Grand Marais and also grabbed a few donuts from “The World’s Best Donuts” shop. Not sure…
Not to be deterred by a simple hangover we left the following morning, if 11 or 12 is still considered morning, to drive north along the Lake. The north shore of the Lake goes a couple hundred miles along Minnesota till it hits Thunder Bay, Canada. We decided doing it in one day wasn’t in our best interest so we found a hotel/casino at the end of the drive near the border called Grand Portage and booked a night there….
We left the next morning for a short couple hour drive to Duluth, Mn, on the western tip of Lake Superior’s north shore. Here we had another great find for our campground. It was a campground/marina combination with small sites basically in a parking lot and definitely wouldn’t be for everyone but with our love of the water and boats and the fact it was within walking distance to town it was perfect for us. We set up camp and…
After our travels we returned to Fargo on September 5 only to pack up and leave the following day. We saw all we needed of North Dakota and it was time to head for Minnesota. Minnesota is a pretty big state and we were a little short on time with a bunch of things going on from August through October so we decided to skip alot of the state and hit what we felt were the highlights, which we decided…
The day after arriving in Fargo we drove north about an hour to a small town in Minnesota called Ada where we met up with friends we made that were parked next to us at our campground in Las Vegas. It was a fun day and they were very excited to see us. The next day was a much needed down day doing nothing but some administrative stuff, some laundry, and vegging on the couch in front of the tv….
We left western South Dakota for Fargo on the eastern side of the state. Did the drive in one day as there’s not much to see in between. We did come up with one interesting gem along the way, though. It’s called the enchanted highway. Some school teacher and self taught scrap metal artist created giant scrap metal sculptures and put them along a minor highway and now it’s “enchanted”. It’s about a 30 mile drive from one end to…
After golf we showered up and headed over to the chateaux. The family that started the town of Medora (I won’t bother trying to type that name again) had a chateaux they used when they were in Medora. It was a ten bedroom home that they also entertained in when people visited. Anyway they offer self guided tours of the house so after golf we did that. The home itself wasn’t overly impressive except when you realize it was just…
The next morning we fulfilled another of my reasons for wanting to come here. They have a golf course that’s the number one rated course in North Dakota. Nothing in the state that’s in the top 100 in the country so that had to do. It was a beautiful day and the course was very nice with great scenery. There were quite a few holes that you were hitting from elevated tee boxes over a bunch of tall brush down…
Ok so I’m not exactly into westerns and cowboys, except for maybe Blazing Saddles, but you have to see the few things that are offered in Medora, Nd. And one of them was their Cowboy Hall of Fame. Not exactly the country’s hall of fame but pretty impressive for a small town. It was basically a tribute to all things cowboy for the state of North Dakota. They had some interesting exhibits on the way of life of cowboys and…
After breakfast we headed to the national park, originally the main reason for coming here. They had a small museum mainly considering of Theodore’s influence and adventures here. They also had his original cabin that he stayed in during his grieving times, which was somewhat interesting. The park itself was not nearly impressive as most of the parks we’d been to further west but I think that’s what we’re gonna find as we continue our trek eat. We did see…