Sparks, Nevada to Twin Falls, Idaho

Monday and Tuesday, July 8th and 9th, 2013

The first thing I’ve got to write about is how wonderful all the work Bill did on the air-conditioning is. We’ve had trouble with the dash air for 13 years. We’ve spent the money to take the motor home in to get it fixed but it’s never any better. We’ve spent so much money on 134A refrigerant but it never lasts. We had been buying the 12 ounce cans and out of frustration Bill just bought a 30 pound bottle. I hope this doesn’t burn a hole in the ozone layer. What we’ve always ended up doing when it’s been hot was to run the generator while driving down the road and running the basement air. This year Bill decided to really give it his best at tackling the problem. He worked on it for weeks, ordering one part after another. He replaced two refrigerant lines and the dryer receiver. We crossed our fingers and began the trip. I am delighted to say that the dash air is working wonderfully well so far. I think he did it! And will we ever need it for this trip! In addition to all this, Bill installed a roof air-conditioning unit so now we have dash air, roof air and a two compressor basement air. I shall never be hot again. We’ve been planning this trip for months and it’s now here, in fact, it got here a couple of days earlier than we had planned. We had originally thought we’d leave on Wednesday morning. Bill had the idea that if we left later in the day on Monday we’d arrive at Elko (our first stop) around 8:00 p.m. and it would be cool enough to sleep comfortably parked at Walmart. That would save us one night’s lodging. Hmmm…that wasn’t such a good idea. It was quite hot in Elko, so much so that Bill left our bed and opened a window in the living area and decided to sleep on the couch. That was comfortable until the lawn sprinklers came on and through the window. He said it was like someone squirted him with a water pistol. I think that is hilarious, however, that is probably because I was in the bed sound asleep. We’re starting with a couple little bumps in the road but what trip starts any other way. Our refrigerator broke on July 3rd. Bill started calling around and found out the part (that we’ve replaced four times now) had to be ordered from the factory. Since it was 4th of July weekend we couldn’t get it delivered and installed in time so he decided to bypass the problem and deal with it when we got to Forest City, Iowa where we’ll be stationary for a week. We’ll hope that works out. Bill was also really happy about saving quite a bit of money by changing our cellular phone service. That was done without too much thought of how it would work on the road. It worked great in Sparks but we found out very fast that the service plus the type of phone we bought has terrible coverage throughout the rest of the country. This trip is entirely too long to go without telephone coverage so we went into Walmart that first night and bought is $15 cell phone with month to month Verizon coverage. It seems to be a good workaround. We now have three cell phones with us – SmartTalk, Verizon and AT&T (which has only 1,000 minutes a year). We spent our second afternoon and night in Heyburn, Idaho on the Snake River near Twin Falls. It was about a four drive here so we’ve enjoyed relaxing this afternoon. Daisy is doing well so far although she at times doesn’t let us know when she needs to go outside and today she piddled right in front of me. What is that all about? I’m attributing it to her advancing age. She’s keeping us on our toes. We stop about every two hours to let her out when we’re driving. She used to be such a great traveler. Not so much anymore but she’s worth the trouble.

Squirrel, Idaho

Wednesday and Thursday, July 10th and 11th, 2013 16:20

We drove about five hours on Wednesday, actually we shared the driving. I drove for close to two hours. We ended up in Squirrel, Idaho. We stumbled on a golf resort and RV park called Aspen Acres. We planned on staying here one night but our spot was so beautiful, in a grove of Aspen trees with a view of the 16th hole, we decided to stay yet another day. It is a Passport America park with 50 amp service, sewer and water. Today we decided to be tourists and check out the Mesa upper and lower waterfalls. We took Daisy with us in her stroller. They were outstanding and the forest service did an excellent job in building two boardwalks, one for handicap access and another with a multitude of stairs. We also stopped at Warm River to feed the wild fish. The water was beautifully clear which allowed us to easily see the fish. The only setback so far has been my three day migraine. It finally left my body this morning.

Yellowstone National Park

Friday, July 12th, 2013 17:00

This is our fourth trip to Yellowstone National Park and the shortest by far. We entered the park about 10:30 A.M. through the West entrance and left the park about 12:30 P.M. via the East entrance. The park is as beautiful as ever but having seen everything before there was no need to visit the many spectacular sights. We were lucky enough to see a herd of wild bison plus two bison being chased down the road by a park ranger in his siren equipped pickup truck. We are now stopped for the evening at Buffalo Bill’s State Park in Cody, WY. This is a very large, wide open, beautifully maintained park with asphalt interior roads. All the sites with electricity were occupied so we are on our own power for the rest of this day and night. There is a nice breeze blowing though so we don’t think heat will be a concern. As usual for this trip so far, we have no Internet and no telephone service on our Straight Talk telephone, however, we do have telephone reception via our throw away AT&T and Verizon clamshell phones. We say throw away because they cost less than $15 each. Bill has managed to keep at least one phone working all the time. He is so wonderful to travel with. I am never concerned about our safety. As for tomorrow, we thought about visiting Buffalo Bill’s museum in Coty, however, we have elected to continue down the twisty two lane highway on our way to Sheraton, WY where we will pick up Interstate 90. It will be a travel day much like today was. Today had beautiful sights but difficult driving. I didn’t attempt driving at all today. Tomorrow should be easier driving with less beauty.

Cody, Wyoming to Sturges, South Dakota

Saturday and Sunday, July 13th and 14th, 2013 12:50

Yesterday we went on the most beautiful ride on Highway 14 from Cody to Sheridan, WY. We didn’t know the beginning elevation but we peaked at Granite Pass at 9,033 feet. It was the steepest road that we had ever been on in the motor home. It was an 8% downgrade for at least 10 miles. We had to use the Exhaust brake, gear down plus the brake pedal in order to maintain a controlled descent. The scenery was absolutely stunning. Bill did all the driving and we passed the 100,000 mile mark. That is a lot of miles! Having driven through most of the United States we believe Wyoming to be one of the most beautiful. Today we drove 200 miles from Buffalo, WY to Sturges, South Dakota. I drove most of the way. Again, we saw lush green hills and, to my delight, it even rained when Bill was driving. We did a side trip towards Devil’s Tower National Monument until we saw the first designated photo opportunity sign. We stopped and took a picture from a great distance and turned around to continue on our trip. We are now at Sturges RV Park which I am happy to say is a Passport America participant and we have full hookups (including 50 AMP), water and sewer. It’s a very large park with few occupants. It’s obviously set up for the annual motorcycle rally. The Wi-Fi is terrific with 12 full bar hot spots accessible from our coach. Unbelievable! Bill is a happy camper. Bill is still struggling with the best cell phone plan for our needs. Perhaps he’ll work on it this afternoon.

Sturgis and Deadwood, South Dakota

Monday, July 15th, 2013


It is very interesting to see Sturgis getting ready for their annual motorcycle rally. Tents are being erected for vendors, beer trucks are all over town and there are help wanted signs everywhere. It seems like the only thing that keeps this town economically flush is this annual rally. There are a multitude of bars with outdoor patios and tables with no patrons. In a couple of weeks it will be crazy. I’m glad we won’t be here then. The RV Park that we’re staying at has 160 sites that will be full during rally week. Currently there are about 20 RVs here with perhaps 10 Harleys. The noise created by a few Harleys in an RV park is deafening. I can’t imagine what it will like in two weeks with perhaps 200 Harleys in one RV park. It definitely will not be peaceful. Randy has been to this rally three times. He rides his Harley from Sparks to Sturgis with friends of his. That is a very long ride. It took us seven days to get here. I think they do it in three. They go together and rent a nice home for a few days and become a part of this whole thing. He comes back exhausted but happy. They’re not making the trip this year but I think they plan to come again next year.
Today the three of us took a short jaunt to Deadwood. Deadwood is one of the few towns in America designated as a National Historic Landmark. There are more than 80 gambling halls lining the streets of Deadwood. The town’s history included such characters as Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane and Poker Alice. The town looks the same as it did 100 years ago. We would have taken the Deadwood Trolley, however, we had Daisy with us so we walked up and down the street. It was very interesting.

Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State Park

Tuesday and Wednesday, July 16th and 17th, 2013

Tuesday was an easy driving morning and a relaxing afternoon spent in an RV park. We didn’t do anything but just get here. We saw what Bill thinks is the ideal setup – a Fifth Wheel pulled by a Volvo tractor truck with a Smart car loaded on the walkway space. The owner said there are about 35 of them and they have an annual rally in October in Kansas.



The first thing we saw today was Mount Rushmore, from afar and then close up. Mount Rushmore has the busts of four past presidents.
George Washington, (1st president) led the colonists in the American Revolutionary War to win independence from Great Britain. He was the father of the new country and laid the foundation of American democracy. Because of his importance, Washington is the most prominent figure on the mountain. (1732-1)
Thomas Jefferson, (3rd president) he was the author of the Declaration of Independence, a document which inspires democracies around the world. He also purchased the Louisiana Territory from France in 1803 which doubled the size of our country, adding all or part of fifteen present-day states. (1743-1826)
Theodore Roosevelt, (26th president) provided leadership when America experienced rapid economic growth as it entered the 20th Century. He was instrumental in negotiating the construction of the Panama Canal, linking the east and the west. He was known as the "trust buster" for his work to end large corporate monopolies and ensure the rights of the common working man. (1858-1919)
Abraham Lincoln, (16th president) held the nation together during its greatest trial, the Civil War. Lincoln believed his most sacred duty was the preservation of the union. It was his firm conviction that slavery must be abolished. (1809-1865).



On our way to Custer State Park we stopped at the Crazy Horse Memorial. This memorial depicts Crazy Horse pointing with the caption “My lands are where my dead lie buried”. It is privately funded and accepts no monies from the state or federal government. They are very proud of this. While at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, under a flag of truce, Crazy Horse was stabbed in the back by an American soldier and died September 6, 1877. He refused to live on a reservation and had never signed a treaty.

The last thing we did was drive through Custer State Park. It is a whopping 71,000 acres. We were rewarded for taking that drive by the sight of some magnificent wildlife. We took the Wildlife Loop Road and saw a gigantic, mean looking buffalo up quite close. He was walking down the street coming towards us. The park is home to as many as 1,500 head (of which we saw one) of North American bison, more commonly known as buffalo. Bison can grow to 6 feet tall and weigh more than 2,000 pounds. They are considered the largest native terrestrial mammal of North America. The animals have a short tail with a tassel, a hump at the shoulders, curved black horns on the sides of the head and dense shaggy dark brown and black hair around the head and neck. There were once millions of bison, but by 1900 it is estimated that fewer than 1,000 bison remained on the entire continent.




We saw Burros. The burros in Custer State Park are not native to the Black Hills. They are descendants from the herd that once hauled visitors to the top of Harney Peak. The rides were discontinued years ago and the burros were released into the park where they have become a popular visitor attraction. We saw them on the road where they came up to everyone in their cars to say hello.




We saw Pronghorns, commonly referred to as antelope due to their similar appearance. The name pronghorn comes from the buck’s large pronged horns. The horn sheaths are shed each year. The fastest land animal in North America, pronghorns can run 60 mph for great distances.

Rapid City to Murdo, South Dakota

Thursday, July 18th, 2013

There was a herd of horses that lived next to our RV camp in Rapid City. It was fun to watch them romp around playing with each other. We enjoyed seeing them walking back and forth from the front window of our motor home. Bill walked over to the fence and they came right up to him and let him pet them.

It was really hot on the drive to Murdo (where we are now). During the drive we saw three ponds where the cattle were submerged in the water much like water buffalo. Other time we saw cattle huddled tightly together in the middle of the field. We inquired about these strange sightings and were told the cattle do this to keep cool and to ward off the flies. It is interesting to know that they are smart enough to huddle together to ward off flies.

We stopped at Ellsberg Air Force Base Museum and saw, among other airplanes, a B52 and a B1B Bomber. We had an opportunity to take a tour to see the Minute Man Missile Silos but opted instead to stay cool in the motor home and continue down the road and visit Badlands National Park and Wall Drug Store.

Wall Drug store is very interesting. We expected to find an old drug store and, low and behold, what we found was a two block long string of old fashion stores. We walked through a couple of them but it was so hot today it was very uncomfortable being outside. We did buy our first souvenir of the trip, a South Dakota tea shirt for Bill.

We are parked for the evening now with both air conditioning units running. I think every day how happy I am that Bill had the foresight to work on our air conditioning before this trip.

Forest City, Iowa

Sunday and Monday, July 21st and 22nd, 2013

We arrived in Welcome, Minnesota late Saturday afternoon just in time to enjoy a small town annual festival. Sunday we went to the VFW hall to have a pork chop dinner with the locals. We passed on the parade since we didn’t think there were enough people in town to make a parade. We stopped along the way to see the Corn Palace. The Corn Palace is a structure that has murals on the sides made from corn, grain, rye and other locally grown products. We left Sunday in search for a Verizon Wireless factory store and found one twenty miles from our destination. We purchased a Samsung Galaxy S4 telephone and were ever so happy to rid ourselves of the Samsung Galaxy S3 on Straight Talk. We were very disappointed with Straight Talk since they will only connect to Sprint towers without roaming. We were out of coverage as soon as we left Sparks. There was no coverage in the entire states of South Dakota and Wyoming.

We are now at the WIT (Winnebago Itasca Travelers) Grand National Rally in Forest City, Iowa. When being escorted to our parking spot we had to wait for a 1907 steam tractor to pass. Bill liked seeing that. It was one big tractor. Today I drove a 2014, 450 HP, 42 foot diesel pusher motor home during my “Women on Wheels” class. I did okay until it came to backing up. Bill never showed me how to back up; as a result there were a lot of orange cones with black marks on their side. The inside was absolutely beautiful. The upgrades since we bought ours 13 years ago were all in plain sight. The refrigerator was the size of one in a home and there was a large, flat screen television atop a fireplace among other things.

I went to the vendor’s area today and was extremely disappointed since there were only about 40 vendors. I am accustomed to FMCA rallies where there are in excess of 500 vendors. We didn’t buy a thing; however, we did purchase servicing for our Blue Ox tow bar. Bill went to a 1:00 p.m. seminar and I stayed in the motor home. He was back within 30 minutes. The seminar was in a tent with no air conditioning. Many of the seminars are scheduled in tents. I can’t understand why they did that.

On our way to our parking place we noticed storm shelters on the map and on certain buildings in addition to an extremely large siren mounted on top of a telephone pole. It rained hard this afternoon for about an hour. Later while I was walking Daisy a man told me that we just narrowly missed being in the path of two tornados. We heard that last week (when many arrived for this rally) that lightning hit a TV antenna on top of a motor home and it took out four motor homes. I guess snow and excessive heat is nothing to complain about. We are very lucky to live in Sparks.

Forest City, Iowa

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2013

Last night we went to the outdoor Amphitheatre and listened to comedian Jan who came from Los Angeles. We took our chairs rather than sitting in the bleachers. It was nice sitting outside in the cool evening air. The comedian was just okay. This is certainly an elderly crowd where, unfortunately, we fit right in. Tonight is Line dancing with the Black Diamonds Country and Western band.

The motor home living next to us carries four large sheep dogs. It is hard to imagine anyone wanting to travel like that.

Today we hustled over to the Visitor’s Center in order to catch the factory bus going to Stitch craft. We were two hours too early so we ended up taking the factory tour of the plastic manufacturing facility. It was quite interesting. They take a flat sheet of plastic and mold it with heat and tools to convert it into dash boards, shower enclosures, sinks, wheel covers – just everything imaginable. After the tour Bill went to the Allison Transmission seminar and together we went to a digital camera and software seminar. Later in the day we took a tour of the new motor homes. We selected our replacement motor home, unfortunately it costs more than the value of our house, motor home and both cars combined. We decided what we’re driving is just fine.

The weather was wonderful today, in the mid 70’s.

Forest City, Iowa

Wednesday and Thursday, July 24th and 25th, 2013

We did very little of interest yesterday but it was a nice, relaxing day. We started the day off by attending yet another Microwave/Convection Oven seminar. I’ve gone to at least three of them now and I still seldom use the Convection oven. Bill went with me this time. Other than the fact that the room was freezing cold, I’m glad we decided to go. It was the best one I’ve been to so far. I just might try a few things in the Convection oven. I’ll need to buy a couple of pans first. They had everything you could possibly want for sale after the seminar but there were so many people lined up to purchase that we decided to get what we needed on line after we get home.

We went to a digital camera seminar too. Bill always attends these classes when they’re offered but, honestly, I don’t think he learns anything. He could be one of the instructors.

There is entertainment every night at the outdoor amphitheater. Last night’s show was Jay and the Americans. It was quite good.

Today has been full. I signed up for a sewing class (tote bags) just for the fun of it. It was well attended, about 30 in all. I lasted four hours and then finally gave up. The lighting was bad and I hadn’t read the printout of the class very carefully. It was a quilter’s class. I have never quilted and I was the only one there that hadn’t. I gave it a try but I was frustrated most of the time. My squares didn’t line up and a couple of them were sown in with the pattern going sideways. I have the incomplete project in a bag with me in the motor home. I may try finishing it sometime while we’re driving. I know so many women that love to quilt. I have more of an appreciation for anything quilted now. While I was in the class Bill went to a GPS class (Rand McNally for RVs). He had high hopes that the program would have some things specific to RVs in it but it didn’t so that was kind of a bust too.

Our refrigerator got fixed today. That was a great relief, however, the other two things we wanted done didn’t get scheduled in. We are leaving tomorrow morning. We ordered an awning from Winnebago and it was supposed to have been installed during this stay but they never called the repair number we were issued. Since we’re leaving in the morning, Bill picked the awning up this afternoon. He will do the installation himself.

Daisy has done beautifully on this trip. We haven’t had the slightest problem with her. What a pleasure it is to travel with her again. The Yuma trip was a nightmare.

It has rained a little every day since we arrived and now it is pouring. No wonder it is so lush and beautiful in this part of the country.

Mall of America

Friday, July 26th, 2013

We finally left the Grand National Rally and drove to Minneapolis stopping at a factory outlet along the way. We arrived at our campsite, which is absolutely beautiful, 1,000 acres with about 20 small lakes. Now we see why Minnesota is called the land of 10,000 lakes. We went to the Mall of America. That place is larger than large. One of the many stores was an Apple store right across the isle from a Windows 8 store. There were five times as many people in the Apple store as there were in the Windows store. It is a four story mall with an amusement park in the center. It took at least 20 minutes to make one loop on one floor with no stops to shop. It seemed like there were more people in that mall than in the population of Sparks and Reno combined. We didn’t do any shopping but we had dinner at an Italian Bistro. Minnesota is beautiful. We wondered why we don’t live here but then we remembered the winters.