Rapid City, South Dakota

Well at least we are out of the tornado areas of Oklahoma and Nebraska. Saw on the news that they are still experiencing them in those areas. But, our weather here in Rapid City for the last two weeks is interesting to say the least. It can turn on a dime. One day the high is 60 degrees and today we have 87 degrees. The wind comes and goes from 5-10 miles per hour to 35-40 miles per hour. One thing we are enjoying is all the pretty clouds -- something we don't see that often on the west coast.

Parked at Rushmore Shadows RV Resort

On Monday, we have moved on to Hart Ranch, a beautiful RV resort here in Rapid City. It is huge with lots of amenities.

We have made a list of the different sites we will visit while we are here. We made one trip through Custer State Park, but the weather that day was overcast and rainy. Will will go back and hopefully can take better pictures. But, here are a couple of pictures we took that day just to show you the beauty of the rocks and hills.

 First, one more picture of a buffalo near the road.

Custer State Park

Rocky hills in Custer State Park

Stopped to eat our lunch along the way.

Don't think our motorhome could make it
through this tunnel in Custer State Park.

Took a 6-mile bike ride on a path near the RV park this morning
and passed some beautiful areas. This was one of them.

Have a great week, everyone.

Rapid City, South Dakota

They improved this Rushmore Shadows RV Park since we were last here in 2008 -- paved lots of the roads. Sure makes it more pleasant to be here.

On Thursday, we decided to check out the South Dakota Badlands, a 60-mile drive from where we are staying. Must say, they are nothing like the North Dakota Badlands. But, we enjoyed the day and the scenery. Even took along sandwiches which we ate out in a park area near the Visitor's Center. Should have taken a picture of it as we drove right by it before we realized that the small building with no signs was the Visitor's Center. Had to back up.

Taken at the start of the drive.

About the highest peaks we saw.

And more.

Taken on our way out.

Just had to include this one. (Hey Pat and Bill -- we have the 

husband of a niece who moves houses for a living. Should we contact him?)

Weather has been quite windy, raining off and on for two days, and between 68 and 84 degrees (45-55 at night). Sure beats the heat we left in Texas and Oklahoma.

Have a great week, everyone!

Hot Springs, South Dakota

So we made it to South Dakota after driving 360 miles in one day. Actually, it wasn't that bad. Saw lots and lots of long train cars filled with coal while driving through Nebraska.

Train cars filled with coal in Nebraska.

And lots of open space.

We spend the weekend at the KOA in Hot Springs, South Dakota. Felt really good to be back with the trees.

Parked at the KOA in Hot Springs, South Dakota

On Mother's Day, we drove with the Tahoe onto a gravel road (used the 4-wheel drive) to try to see the buffalo that roam wild around here.

And, there they were!

Hey, Shan, here is where I was when I took your phone call.

Today we drove 60 miles to the Rushmore Shadows RV Resort. We've been here before (2008) and really like it. We will be here for two weeks before we move on to another RV park in the area. The weather is suppose to be in the low 80s during the day and 45-55 at night for the next 10 days. 

Have a great week, everyone.

Elm Creek, Nebraska

Actually, the 300-mile drive on Monday from Kansas to Nebraska was uneventful. Of course, we always enjoy moving-on to a new place and look forward to what we will see when we get there. When Jerry booked this place called the Sunny Meadows Campground on the internet, he thought that the place looked fine with lots of trees. We should have known. Any RV park with the name "Campground" in the title is not your typical motorhome RV park.

Sunny Meadows Campground in Elm Creek, Nebraska

We drove into Kearney, about 16 miles away on Wednesday. It is a city of 30,000 with all the usual eating and shopping places (but only one Starbucks).

Tomorrow, we leave early for Rapid City, South Dakota -- another 300-plus mile drive. The weather looks promising. Speaking of weather, it is 84 degrees out now. 

Yes, we are parked right next to what looks 

like a corn field and next to a "classic" RV.

Once we get to Rapid City, we will not be updating this blog on a weekly basis. That is because we will be there for eight weeks and will only update the blog as we visit the various sites.

Take care everyone.

Halstead, Kansas

Left Oklahoma on Monday and spent the week in Kansas outside a small town called Halstead (in the central part of the state). Until we get further north, we are constantly focused on the weather. Unlike California (when you get a fair amount of warning), the weather in these central states can change on a dime. Yes, they try to forecast it, but there is no way they are able to predict actual tornadoes. That's why we keep our NOAA radio on at all times these days. Even though I posted this on FB, here is an example of what I'm talking about.

I captured this on my cell phone on Monday. That was the night our NOAA radio alarm went off every 15 minutes warning us of tornadoes in the area. Luckily, this park also has a couple of storm shelters.

Other than experiencing high winds for a good part of the week, the stay here as been nice. This park, called The Spring Lake RV Resort, is billed as the largest RV park in Kansas. 

The Spring Lake RV Resort in Halstead, Kansas

When we are in a new area, we always ask: "So, what's to see here?" Sometimes our neighbors in the park give us information on what we should see while we are here, and at other times, we just check it out on the internet. In this case, our neighbor told us that we must visit the "health clinic" and the "100 year old hardware store" in Halstead. And that is just what we did on Wednesday. 

First, we visited the Kansas Learning Center for Health

Here, we found a great learning experience about the body -- especially for school-age children. We watched a short movie that discussed the various organs of the body while at the same time observing lights go on in the model designating the organ being described.

With the muscles gone, one is able to see each organ, 

the blood vessels and nerves in the body.

Early orthopedic saws. Ouch!

There were large replicas of various individual 

body parts in the center, also.

Gross! One pound of fat that you will gain if 

you add 500 calories each day for a week.

From there, we found the 

100 year old hardware store. 

Turns out, it is now an 

"antique hardware store." 

Did I mention that Halstead is a very old small town (pop. 1,800)?

When have you last seen a coblestone street?

Wheat Pasta Prima Vera made by Jerry

This Park is loaded with families of geese. 

Some have only two little ones, 

others have five, six or seven.

The basement of that building contains 

one of two storm shelters in this Park.

Just part of this large Park.

A look of our weather earlier this week.

Tomorrow we plan on driving 300 miles into Nebraska -- though still not out of this unpredictable weather pattern. In fact, the prediction is for 25-30 mile an hour winds. We don't like wind!!!!

Have a great week, everyone.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Don't know how this is going to work, but Google just revamped its blogger format.

We spent the week in Thackerville, Oklahoma and enjoyed the peace and quiet. We had to check out the WinStar Casino, though. Neither one of us could remember being in a larger casino (and we've been in many).   It went on and on, like a chain of various casinos all on one level, each room having a different name (Bejing, Rome, etc.).

WinStar Casino outside of Thackerville, Oklahoma

The WinStar Casino (this one taken with cell phone camera)

Nice sign for such a small town

We drove a couple of hours on Saturday to get to Oklahoma City. We wrote about our stay here in our last blog (2010) and our visit to the Oklahoma City Memorial at that time. We are not visiting the Memorial this time. 

We are staying at the same place we stayed at last time, The Twin Fountains RV Resort. It's one of the nicest parks that we've stay at in our travels.

I guess that these are the "Twin Fountains." 

(The rock around here is red, so you are seeing red fountains.)

Last night, our NOAA radio would not stop going off trying to warn us about the terrible weather facing Oklahoma City, with tornadoes in the area. The rain was very heavy at times, lots of lightening and thunder that just wouldn't stop rolling on and on. I'm from the Midwest (Minnesota) and I just don't remember the rolling thunder like we've experienced in Texas and Oklahoma so far on this trip. Of course, Chanti has a really hard time dealing with all of this.

Luckily, the rain stopped this morning, just in time for this city to pull off its 10th Memorial Marathon Run, the proceeds going to support the Memorial. Jerry, having run 6 LA Marathons in a row, still has a great interest in marathons, so much so, that he got up at 6 a.m. today to position himself on the 9-mile marker area to see the run and capture pictures. 

Just some of the 15,000 runners who participated 

in the Oklahoma Memorial Run this morning.

We were also able to hook up with Barbara, a former neighbor of Jerry's in Reseda, California, and her husband, Rob, who took us to a fantastic restaurant called Stella for brunch today. What a nice couple! We really enjoyed our time with them. 

Rob and Barbara

Of course, Jerry enjoyed the fact that the restaurant lets customers

make up their own bloody marys.

Jerry, Barbara and Rob outside of Stella

Jerry was able to catch up this afternoon with a high school classmate, Allen Badgett, who also lives and works in Oklahoma City.  

                  

Even though rain is still in the forecast, we are planning on leaving here tomorrow and continuing our trip northward. It should be one of those long days of driving.

Have a great week, everyone.

Thackerville, Oklahoma

Finally -- out of the big cities with all of their congestion, traffic, noise and pollution and back into the country.

Photo taken while driving past downtown Houston, Texas.

Photo taken while driving past downtown Dallas, Texas.

Spend Monday and Tuesday at Taylor Automotive Repair in Houston to get our in-dash air conditioning system working again. Seems like the guys in San Luis Obispo who fixed it in January didn't do a good job. They connected a 1/2 inch hose to the 3/4 inch hose we have on the coach. So, when we turned on the air conditioner, the pressure going from the larger piece to the smaller piece blew a hole in the system, draining our Freon. It is now fixed and Jerry is trying to get some of the money back from the first fix that was defective.

We had planned to stop in and visit Jerry's cousin in Sherman, Texas, after leaving Dallas this week. But, when he called the number, the phone was disconnected. On further inquiry, his sister, Linda found out that Bob (his cousin) passed away on April 4. Had this weird feeling all along that something was not right. So sorry we didn't get to see him. 

As we travel, we listen to the local radio stations instead of XM. In the Dallas area (actually, we spent a couple of nights in Plano, Texas, which is close to Dallas), we discovered one of the best classic rock stations we've come across. It is Lonestar 92.5 for those of you who want to check it out on the internet or on your smart phone.

We are now in Oklahoma, just five miles from the Texas border, in a small town called Thackerville, population 400. If this RV park were filled, there'd be more people in the park than in the town.

We will be here for the whole week.

We are looking forward to a relaxing week here - they even have a jacuzzi.

Last night, we were entertained all night long with a Nightengale. Every time I woke up, he was still going strong. I was fascinated with all the different trills and sounds he made. I counted 20 different variations. Quite a treat.

Have a great week, everyone.