Saturday in Sycamore

We had a restful night at the Albert Lea Love's station. We appreciate that Love's almost always has a place for RV'ers to park overnight. They have the prices on gas posted using app. Also, we can fill a coffee thermos for $2.15 at their stations.

Thursday afternoon we parked in front of Lee and Dottie Wanak's home in Madison, WI, and had a great visit. Lee was in our wedding! We left Madison Friday morning 

Filled up our gas tank in WI before entering IL where the cost per gallon jumps about 25 cents. Not as bad as WA.

We stopped in Harvard, IL, to visit Roger's boss from his College of DuPage years. It was nice to sit with Sid and his wife, Sherry and share memories of work and talk about grandkids.

We arrived in Sycamore, IL, in the evening to visit Bruce and Bonnie Cain. Bonnie prepared some fresh corn on the cob. I forgot to mention they live in "corn country" west of Chicago. 

We woke up to a beautiful lakeside sunrise...

Bruce helped me fix a rear hub cap on the R.V. that had broken rivets and was rattling while driving.

Lee and Dotty drove down from Madison to join us for a taco dinner. We were eating outside when a severe storm made us move indoors. (Lee and Roger both worked for Bruce at Moody Bible Institute in the 70's.)

Later we watched a beautiful sunset...

Lee and Dotty left before dark. After they left the four of us had a blast playing RummyKub.

The rain storm with thunder and lightning picked up during the night leaving considerable damage in the community. Several lightning strikes were extremely close!

Wednesday, August 13. A travel day

Woke up to this site...

We left the R.V. park in Rapid City by 9am this morning. Our goal was Albert Lea, MN, a little more than 500 miles. We made it! We are parked for the night at the Love's Travel Center in Albert Lea. Our trip included a stopover in Wall, SD. At Wall Drug (you've likely seen their signs along highways!) we each bought the 5-cent coffee and a giant pecan roll. They hire a lot of youth from overseas and Heather likes to give out tracts there.

Driving the I-90 corridor through SD was a challenge - the wind came from the south and the steering wheel was often at 45 degrees in an attempt to keep the R.V. on the road! Otherwise, the weather was wonderful and traffic light (good thing, since we needed more than one lane...lol) 

Next we stopped for fuel at the Love's in Kimball, SD. Only $2.69 per gallon...Wow! We are used to paying a lot more in Washington State.

We arrived in town in time to attend an evening service at Faith Baptist Church here in Albert Lea. They featured a video by Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis. His theme was the Seven "F's" about dinosaur history:Formed, Fearless, Fallen, Flood, Faded, Found, Fiction. YouTube the video.

We are again parked at a Love's for the night.

Tuesday, August 12...a special day

Today is our final day visiting our kids and grandkids in this area. It's also our 53th wedding anniversary! Wow...and we still love each other.

Yesterday the weather was cool so we didn't do a lot outdoors, but the big sister Zoey was here with the 2 older boys. 

Today the weather is perfect. Roger went swimming with grandsons Wyatt and Odin this morning.

After lunch in the RV, Roger and the boys went on a long hike around the RV park. He taught them how to eat choke cherries and spit out the pits.

There are some great trails for exploring that go down the valley, all within the park.  We always park on the upper level near the pool, but there are two lower levels for camping.

Alan and Galina and their family came for an afternoon swim followed by a chili dinner in the RV. 

After dinner we went back the playground for a final chance for Wyatt and Odin to climb on the play set.

Sunday: The End of Week #1

Last Friday, August 8, we made one final visit to the Buffalo Bill Museum before leaving Cody, Wyoming.  We spent the whole time in the exhibit that features the ecosystems of the Yellowstone region. After that we headed toward Sturgis, SD.

Our next overnight stop would be in Sturgis to visit our oldest son Josh, and his family. However, we didn't realize that there is no fast, low altitude path from point A to point B. Following our GPS, we were shocked to turn the corner and suddenly find the highway squeezed between towering rock walls 50' high. Traveling along Highway 14, we drove up and over the Bighorn mountain range. The road kept going uphill on a winding 2-lane highway for hours until reaching the summit of Granite Pass at over 9,000 feet. We made a few stops along the way to take a few images of the beauty. On the way down, for 9 miles the speed limit was 40. However, we couldn't go that fast and make all the hairpin curves!!

 

We arrived in Sturgis Friday evening and parked at the curb in front of our son's place. We had a nice visit in the evening. The next morning Roger went with Josh to his workplace to get a couple trucks and trailers ready for Monday trips. It was fun watching him load trailers and hitch up semis.

Saturday we parked in our favorite RV park in Rapid City, SD. Our son Alan and his family live in here. He has four kids aged 1, 3, 8, & 11 - a couple of them are like fish and the park has a swimming pool. That will be our primary focus while here - we are the designated baby-sitters!

Sunday morning, not wanting to disconnect the RV,  we walked over to Calvary Baptist Church, just down the road. 

 

When we are parked here both sons show up for meals cooked by their mom. So, we had a good crowd in our RV for an "African Curry" meal (their request). Roger and Alan and two of the boys went swimming later.

On The Road Again...late Summer 2025!

It is Thursday, August 7, and I'm finally getting around to posting on our travel blog. We left home in Kirkland this past Monday morning. It was pretty good traveling Eastward on I-90 except for some delays for road work in the mountains. We like to stop for donuts at the bakery in Cle Elum, but they were closed. We bought enough gas to get us to Post Falls, Idaho, where we fill up our 75-gallon tank. Gas at the Cle Elum Safeway is about 50 cents a gallon lower than our local Safeway, and over a dollar less at the Post Falls, Idaho, Love's station. We stopped for lunch at a rest stop before crossing the Columbia River. I'm glad we did because there were long traffic delays crossing the river due to major road work on the bridge.

We parked for the night in Haugan, Montana, at our favorite (and free) RV park. They have a fun gift shop where we can always find "treasures"!

Tuesday night we parked at the Wal-Mart in Butte, Montana. It's a popular overnight stop for many RV'ers. It's also fun to shop in Montana because there is no sales tax...for Washingtonians it feels like getting a 10% discount. We had time to start and finish a 550 piece jigsaw puzzle.

 

We spent all day Wednesday driving across Montana and on into Wyoming, stopping to shop in the bigger cities. There's a lot of  ranch and farm land in these states.

We arrived late afternoon in Cody, Wyoming, and attended to evening service at the Cody Cowboy Church. It was a time of warm fellowship with other believers. We appreciated how various people read passages of Scripture out loud that the pastor asked for. They were not asked in advance - just spontaneous.The chapter was Isaiah 45, which we then went through verse by verse.

We ended up parking Wednesday night at the local Wal-Mart along with other RV'ers.

Today, Thursday, we went to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a popular museum in Cody. 

Heading Home!

After 2 months we are finally heading home. No more visits, only gas stations and WalMarts.

Yesterday we returned our borrowed car to our son in Sturgis. On the way there we stopped at a Camping World to dump our tanks, take fresh water and propane.

 

Last night we parked at the Greycliff Rest Area. It was a relatively quiet night  parked between semis. Our arrival date is April 8.

Changed plans today!

We had planned to move from the hotel to an RV park that we usually stay at when in Rapid City, and we would do this after Church. We went to a church an hour's drive from the hotel. Our eldest son strongly recommended it to us. It turned out to be just as he said.  Nisland Community Church is in a little town called Nisland, a half hour north of Sturgis, SD.  Village Missions restarted this old German Lutheran church 50 years ago.  Today it is a Bible teaching fellowship of believers reaching their rural community.

Well, the change in plans happened after got back to the hotel where we'd left our RV and found out the swimming pool at the RV Park was not open...not a good thing when grandkids are "swimaholics".

We ended up at a hotel right around the corner from our last hotel. It met the requirements of having a pool with a waterside and a hot tub. (& it was a new challenge!)