Continuing West

Continuing on our trip West we arrived in Sioux Falls SD. We spent a couple of days here viewing the falls and other local attractions. We found out where all the Hardee's Restaurant of Wisconsin went.... South Dakota, they are everywhere!  Here on the right is us where the river comes thru town forming Sioux Falls.

                                                                                                                                        

 While viewing the falls you are free to walk out on the rocks, or view from on top of a 2 story tower with an observation deck. There is also a restruant with outdoor seating to view the falls while you eat.   The cashier in the restaurant used to go vacationing in Door County every summer.
We are often asked how we get our mail while on the road. It is sent to a mail service about 30 miles from here in a town called Madison,SD. We visited it.  It is a downtown older office building, with hundreds of mail slots for everyone they service.  The owner, that we converse with via email, was very glad we stopped and gave us lots of advice. She emails us each day we get mail and when we know we are going to be in a place for a while she sends it there.  Most campgrounds or Post Offices General Delivery allow this.            

About 80 miles west of Sioux Falls is a town called Mitchell, SD. This is the home of the Corn Palace. Each year since 1902 the outside of the entire building is redesigned into a different theme with different colored corn parts (cobs, husk, tassles). It is truely amazing how this is done. Inside are pictures of the buildings yearly changin themes, since 1902. This is a free stop with free parking only a block away.  Of course what tourist area wouldn't be a tourist area with a multitude of gift shops.  This one has "everything corn" Popcorn on the cob, corn skewers, corn food, corn tshirts, and corn caps.

                 We will share more pictures and stories as we continue West.   

       

Westward Bound

Lonna and I had a great time visiting family and friends back home but it is time to start traveling again. On Tuesday 5/14/2013 we started to leave the Redneck RV park (Lonna's brothers farm which we all jokingly renamed). As we were leaving the shift knob on our Trailblazer broke. After an hour delay and a new knob we were on the road. We will be traveling west across the US towards California with many stops along the way. Our first stop, after getting 125 Gal of diesel fuel, was  Wisconsin Dells. There are many things to do in the Dells from boat rides, watershows, golf, mini golf, and lots of indoor and outdoor waterparks. Since we have done many of these in the past we visited Carr Valley cheese plant. Here they make alot of cheese curds which is used to make many kinds of cheese.  And I love Cheese Curds!

We also played some golf and enjoyed putting some miles on the motorcycle. It was nice to just relax at some of the local parks and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Back in 2008 the dam and road washed away, draining Lake Delton empty. All the water and fish went into the Wisconsin River.  With the help of many it was fixed and refilled for the 2009 season.

 In the picture to the right you can see the Wisconsin Dells duck, with a load of passengers, and the beautiful cliffs behind. We spent 3 days in the Dells before moving on to visit some very good friends in LaCrescent MN. LaCresent is just across the Mississippi river from LaCrosse Wi. Many Packer fans across the border!                                            

                                                                 

To the left is a picture of our good friends Jerry and Janet, taken from a bluff high above LaCrosse,WI   (Grand-dads Bluff)

To the right is another beautiful view from top of the bluff.

To the left is a view of UW LaCrosse from up on the bluff.  In the middle you can see the sports track and field for UW LaCrosse

 I have lived in Wisconsin all my life but have never seen a black squirl. I guess they are common in this area. You learn and see something new everyday. This is why we enjoy this lifestyle so much,

To the left is a tall statue of Hiawatha in LaCrosse on the river. We had a great time in LaCrosse.  After church on Sunday it was time to continue west.

If you are ever on Interstate 90, around Austin MN stop at the SPAM museum. It is a must! This is a free stop and done very well, with interactive games, a short movie and lots of information about the Hormel Co. Two thumbs up from me.  (Loved the piggy door in the background)

We also made a stop in Walnut Grove MN. One of the home places for Laura Ingalls Wilder. A few buidings made to look like the originals, and some of Laura's actual things here. Alot of history about her and her family and the TV series.  Lonna's Grandmother lived around this area at the turn of the century so she really enjoyed the nostalgia and was a big fan of the TV series.

Well. we're off to South Dakota tomorrow, to see more of this great country.

April and Redneck RV Park

Well after being in Arkansas and cancelling our trip to Branson, on the way home,  due to 5-6 inches of snow in Branson.  We hung out in Arkansas a week longer !!  Driving home through Illinois we saw the after effects of the snow storm that went thru.  Snow piles everywhere in Southern Illinois.  Reached Delavan Wisconsin, home of the Redneck RV Park, by Easter and Randy's birthday.  My brother has a farm in Delavan and lots of parking area, as he needs room to park his Semi and trailers.



It's been hard coming back to the very cold weather for the first 3 weeks and knowing how warm it was in Florida.  But now the weather is FINALLY real spring and we've got the motorcycle out.  Even though the weather didn't cooperate, it was a good thing we got back early.  We've been busy making fixes at the house in Fort Atkinson.  Sink disposal replacement, leaking hot water heater so replaced, re-roof over back room, flooded by river of back yard so we will have to rack and reseed.  So today we cleaned the ponds and waterfalls and got them going.  Hard to guarantee that the renters will take care of the ponds and fish. 
It's been great to visit with family and friends.  But we're excited about our next leg of adventure too.
Our plan is to head west.  Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming then onto California to see the Redwoods and Yosemite.  We join a caravan of RVers in mid September to head from California down through Grand Canyon and end up in Albuquerque New Mexico for the Albuquerque Balloon Festival in October.  We get to park right on the grounds and see 100's of hot air balloons go up daily.