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| From my truck | At my desk | Front View | Right view | Rear view | Left view |
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August |  |
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| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
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| 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 | ||||||
| View entire year's route | 
223K |
| View year's Camps |
33K |
| View this month's route | 
64K |
Today we continued eastward on US 12  through a lot of beautiful territory including crossing the famous Power River . Much of the day was spent traversing more cowboy country and then we stopped for lunch at Bowman North Dakota. Stopping around us were several long horse trailers with real cowboys complete with dusty spurs, they have to eat too. Or as Charles Russel once said, a little girl asked her mom "Do cowboys eat grass?" to which her mother replied, "No, they're part human." At Bowman we turned northward onto US 85 and headed to Dickinson. The northward part of our trek was through areas that were raising grain and there were fewer cattle present. In the late afternoon we had the pleasure of watching a most unusual weather event of a beautiful set of clouds. In this photo group you can see the clouds along with a Google Earth overlay of the storm and an enhanced satellite image. The storm covered about 1/3 of the state of North Dakota and we could see almost all of the cloud formation in excess of 200 miles across.
Saturday, August 2
A visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park |
Today's trip took us primarily north. We crossed some more eroded landscape around the Little Missouri River where we also crossed into Central Time. We pulled off the road to look at an historic marker which remembers "The Lost Bridge". Here is the story from the marker.
about half way down the center column) shows the Long X brand. Also one of my favorite songs by The Sons Of The San Joaquin is called The Famous Long X brand. The one the song refers to was in Texas but there must have been a connection as many major brands were to be found in many states. (listen)
Monday, August 4 Not much to report today. We did some shopping and prepared rodeo contestant mail out packets. Oh, we found a fantastic home center called Menards. Frank was very impressed. They had electrical parts we can't even order back east. Home Depo should look at these people and follow their example, then maybe they would avoid going out of busness as Frank thinks they will in a few years. The bulk of the Menards stores seems to be centered around Chicago. |
We moved further east today by about 150 miles. This is another casino campground. While the facilities are nice, there is no Internet connection here in the campground and our cell service is very slow. The region we are crossing now is very flat farmland.  The ice age glaciers scraped this area clean leaving various depressions everywhere. These depressions form lakes and ponds. We are on the edge of Devils Lake which is one of the largest lakes in the area. Many of these lakes and ponds have no outlet so water accumulates and can only escape by evaporation. Devils Lake has been rising over the last couple of decades as can be seen by many dead waterlogged trees along the shallow areas. One interesting place we passed today was Rugby, North Dakota which is the geographic center of North America. Geographic centers are determined by an averaging of all the land masses that make up the region being considered and finding a mathematical center.
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As we move further east we are seeing distinct changes in the trees. Five days ago we were in areas of grassy fields and rugged terrain, now we are in areas of northern pines and spruce trees. We are also experiencing a 10 fold increase in the number of cars on the highway. And lest not forget, billboards. We stoped for lunch along the route at a Minnesota rest area. This campground is on a large lake and the afternoon breezes today are very pleasant. The campground is mostly permanents and seasonal's but the overnight area is not bad at all.
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As we head further east, the trees are continuing to change. We are now in the areas of the great northern forests. Shortly after starting today, we crossed the Mississippi river, just 10 miles from its source. At this point the mighty river is about 20 feet across. We went through Grand Rapids Minnesota and had to detour around some construction. Tonight we are camped about 10 miles from Duluth and it is supposed to get down to about 49 degrees. Frank has the windows open and the fan going. While the humidity is higher than it was way out west, the air is clean and wonderful to breathe. This campground has no lights and for the first time we can see the stars in multitudes. Around 10:30 in the evening, Frank put the camera on a tripod and played with some long exposure shots. Had dinner at a local restaurant and it was delicious.
Friday, August 8
Not much to report today except we bought a new vacuum for the trailer. An Oreck Ironman which is much better than what we had before. We did drive through the city of Duluth, found it crowded with cars and people. Saturday, August 9 Again not much to report. Frank worked on web pages, Tom did laundry. We got a lot of small things done around the trailer that have been backing up. Tomorrow we move on. |
A rather heavy driving day at 255 miles. We passed several areas where Lake Superior was visible from the road looking like a large sea. The air today was beautifully clean and clear with scattered white puffy clouds. The temperature only got up to about 70 so this was a great day to drive. This campground is very pleasant with wide sites. The owners very friendly. The Wi-Fi access in a bit limited, being available only near the office. However, with our "gear", we were able to connect from our site. En route we stopped at a small rest area to switch drivers and came across an interesting sign about a small river next to the rest area. Following is the sign's text.
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We drove along the north coast of Lake Michigan today stopping at a rest area for lunch. This beautiful rest area, picnic ground and swimming beach is maintained by the Michigan highway department. The site was so beautiful and neatly kept, one would have believed it was a state park. I thik other highway departments could learn from Michigan. A little further along we pulled into another highway department overlook to view the famous Mackinac bridge. The overlook also had an historic sign about US highway 2 which we have been following for a number of days. One side of the sign was in English, the other in Anishinabe, a local Native American language. Part of the text is included below in the box. We crossed the bridge and followed through to our campsite. This campground is very large with over 1000 sites but with well spaced sites, well managed and very neat. Oh, and we crossed back into Eastern time early in the day.
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A stop over en route south. An old KOA campground which is in need of a bit of cleaning, small bits of trash are scattered around the campsites. The included high speed Internet was so slow we switched to our own system which was faster even though it was slower than a dial up.
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We are slowly moving toward Indiana to have some work done on the trailer. We stopped along the way at a rest area that was listed as scenic. I guess scenic is relative as the view was mostly the tops of trees and the sight distance was maybe a couple of miles. However, I am continually impressed with how Michigan handles their rest areas. They are always neat and well laid out. This one had an historical marker and a memorial plaque to an obviously well loved chief maintenance engineer. This is a very nice campground, clean with lots of trees. And the Internet connection is the best we have had so far on the entire trip. The campground is very near Wyoming....... Wyoming, Michigan that is.
Thursday, August 14
This morning we hooked the trailer up and took it to a nearby Camping World where they installed some deluxe covers on our ceiling fan vents. Now we can leave the fans on during rain and don't have to worry about getting rain into the trailer. We also got new water hoses and a new dish strainer to replace our old one which we have been using since 1988. The new one is exactly like the old one, except less faded. It is a good design and it's nice to see something which works well not fiddled with just to make it new. Sometime during the day Frank's electric blanket controller shorted out blowing a breaker and our main light control module, so our 2 dimable lights are non-dims (a theatrical term) until we can get replacement controllers. After returning the trailer to our site, we went shopping. We went to another Mainerd's and got some new rubber matting for the back of the truck along with some hose connectors. This evening we were blessed with a beautiful sunset. |
This is a brand new condo RV park and at this point is very pretty although the trees still need to do some growing. Wi-Fi works well and is included in the cost. Today's ride was relatively short at 65 miles and the weather was great. We just missed the campground and had to turn around using some dirt roads. The landscape in this region is generally flat with sandy soil. The trees are not much different than what we have at home in Virginia. Traffic is increasing.
Saturday, August 16
We drove down to the local town of South Haven and found it to be very touristy with lots of gift shops. It was very difficult to find a place to park. Tom thoroughly washed the truck and the front of the trailer. The truck now looks like a brand new vehicle. Frank has developed a skin allergy of some sort with major rashes on his legs and stomach. |
Sunday, August 17
We are now positioned in Indiana about 20 miles from our RV's manufacturer. Tomorrow we get up early for the short trip and a 9:00 am appointment. This is a fairly nice campground but big with over 600 sites but only about 100 occupied. Frank got another horse trail ride today
 at a nice little dude ranch called Marshland Trail Riding Farm
, run by a great lady named Kelly. They are just getting started in this business and we hope they do well. They had a mounting platform which Frank was glad to have, but he felt a bit like a green horn, no real cowboy would need a mounting platform. But then again, Cowboy Frank's knees aren't what they use to be. This time Frank's horse was named Sadie rather than Grumpy. Sadie was a good horse, with a touch of draft in her, so she was laid back and docile.
Monday August 18 Tuesday, August 19
We didn't expect to get the trailer back until late afternoon so we looked for something to do. In the nearby town of Elkhart is the RV-MH hall of fame and museum Wednesday, August 20 Today was another day of work in the trailer. This time mostly paperwork consisting of rodeo issues and website items. Tomorrow we head toward Chicago and the rodeo (linked below). We will be positioning the trailer in the parking lot of the rodeo's host hotel and staying in the hotel until next Monday. Therefore, this will be the last entry until next Monday or Tuesday evening. Friday, Frank will be attending the IGRA board meeting where he will webcast the meeting. Saturday and Sunday we will be enjoying the rodeo. Watch for rodeo photos to be posted on the gallery page either Saturday or Sunday evening. |
The next four nights were spent at the host hotel for the Chicago Rodeo so there are no entrees while we attended the rodeo and board meetings. They allowed us to park the trailer in the corner of their parking lot so that made everything easy.
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A VERY long drive of 384 miles today. We are back in the same campground as earlier in the trip but in a different site. We drove all the way from Chicago to Canton, Ohio today. This is the longest distance we have driven with the trailer. We got to Clay's Park about 7:30 PM, set up camp, and headed straight to Swenson's for their delicious hamburgers.
Tuesday, August 26 Wednesday, August 27 |
Was raining some today. This is a fairly nice campground, way back in the woods and is very quiet and plesent except for the wetness.
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We are home. This has been a fantistic trip but we pushed a bit too much near the end.
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