We Made it Up Nort'

First of all, Happy Birthday to Mama Donna in Palm Springs! We love you!!!

Last weekend we made it up to Minnesota without any weather troubles – yea!!! Matt spent the weekend camping with his brother, Ben, up in Birchwood, Wisconsin and Bailey and I spent the weekend on my Dad & Carol’s boat in Afton, Minnesota. We didn’t take any joy rides on Grateful, but instead took the little boat out a bit (until it rained both times) and relaxed, relaxed, relaxed.

We then hung around our home town of Maple Grove, Minnesota, did some shopping, laundry, and even had a walleye fry at my parent’s house. We even got to play Wii at the Schultze’s and that was a lot of fun! (I think I need to take up bowling seriously after that game!!! HA!)

Then on Thursday morning, we drove out the Schultze lot in Birchwood, Wisconsin where we’ve been ever since. It’s beautiful out here, surrounded by trees, trees, and more trees. The mosquitos have been eating us alive, but ‘knock on wood’ not many ticks here. Deer have been seen all over the place and we’ve had a campfire each night. Mom and Dad Schultze came up on Friday night and of course with Shelia’s cooking, we ate well all weekend. Harry & Matt got to play on their motorcycles and Matt even played with his new remote control car. All of us had a very nice time playing cards, ladder golf (THANKS TO TERESA & DALE – that IS a fun game!) and enjoying the campfires.

Today is Monday and we’re going to keep the camper here at the lot and take some day trips this week. Possibly up to Hayward and then Superior/Duluth so we can drive the North Shore area. Then on Thursday we head to our longtime friends’ cabin in some strange Wisconsin name (starts with an “N” – Nicki help me out here…). If you know Wisconsin, you know that the city names are sometimes unpronounceable and spelled using many vowels. Some examples are Oconomowoc, Ashippun, Neosho, Kokoskee, Kaukauna, and Minocqua. Don’t they just roll of your tongue? Kinda fun native names!

I almost forgot… what would a trip to Wisconsin be without cheese curds? Well, we ordered pizza & cheese curds (I know, really healthy meal) last night and wow, was it delicious. I’m sure we’ll be paying for it today. J Gotta do it.

Hope you all have a fun and safe 4th of July weekend! After the weekend, we’ll be back at the lot and spending the week with the Schultze’s.

Good Times Spent with Good Family

THANKS TO ALL of the Manning's in Le Mars (and surrounding area) that took care of us for 3 days.

• Thanks to Dale & Teresa for letting us invade your home, eat your food, store our trailer, and do our laundry. Glad we were there to share your birthday with you, Dale! Happy, happy birthday!!!

• Thanks, Marlene and Nick, for setting up the BBQ at your house. The chicken and salads were delicious and we appreciate you putting that all together for us. You're the best!

• Shawn, thanks for the lemonade and cookies (secret is still safe with me) as they were yummy. Next time, I'm going to spend some time in that pool of yours. Yeah! It was great to see Chris and Brianna again and also meet Matt and Livie and Sam too!

• Thanks, Ginny, Bob, Ashley, and Jim for meeting us for dinner and for letting us come out to your farm. It's beautiful and once it's all set up, you'll have plenty of room for the puppies. Have fun decorating!

• Thanks to all of the baseball girls (and Dawn & Pat for all of the coaching)! Watching you play was a bunch of fun and we had a great time. You all did very well and we enjoyed seeing you in action.

Much love to you all for making us feel welcome, as always. It was great to see you and I hope that we can all keep in touch more often. Thanks again for EVERYTHING. We love you!

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We made it up to Minnesota (pronounced Minnie-SOOOO-ta by locals and some say, us too). I spent the weekend out on the boat with my dad and Carol and Matt did some camping with Ben. We are getting some minor work done (tires rotated and oil change) on the Tundra today and we'll be off again tomorrow. We got up here early so we're actually going to be doing some site-seeing around Wisconsin and Minnesota for the next 2 weeks and then come back to spend more time with family and friends here. The weather has been wonderfully comfortable at 80-85 degrees but they're expecting rain showers in the twin cities so we're outta here! More later. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!!!

Happy Birthday tomorrow to my FABULOUS Aunt Judy!!! Have a great day. :)

Nebraska - More Than We Expected

After staying another night in A-OK Campground, we ventured up I29 through Western Iowa. Although the flooding is not as bad here as it is over in Cedar Rapids, we did see many of the fields covered in water. If you didn't know they were fields, you would only recognize them as lakes or streams. Many of the large bridges crossing over into Nebraska were either closed or has construction, but up by Sioux City, we were able to cross.

...And into Nebraska, where we stayed at the BEAUTIFUL Ponca State Park. We were amazed at how well the park was set up for visitors; a lot to do and see here. Our site overlooked the Missouri River - Don't worry! We were set back and on an embankment so no flooding here. Tree-covered bluffs behind us and fields to the sides of us. Not quite what we expected from Nebraska and were pleasantly surprised by this park. The mosquitos and biting flies were out in full force, so we got some use out of the bug spray we've been carrying around this entire trip. Gotta use it sometime and now that we've made it to this part of the country, it was time! After one night we drove to Le Mars where the Manning Family awaited us. Pictures of the gang later as we still have one more night here.

Figured out Video!

I finally figured out how to post a video. This one is from Fremont State Park in Utah when Matt and I were on that day-long Paiute Trail adventure. We came across many watercovered trails and had no choice but to go through. It was easier crossing with the 4-wheeler, but Matt had to "gun it" to get through with the motorcycle. Needless to say, he got VERY wet. Enjoy!

Right now, we're in St. Joseph, Missouri (pronounced Missour-ah by locals, of course) in the A-OK Campground. I guess we'd say it is true to it's name as they are nice and the park is A-OK. We were only planning on staying for one night, however today was a Severe Thunderstorm day with lightning, thunder and dark clouds so we stuck around and watched the news and storm roll by. Tomorrow morning, we'll head out, but not sure where we'll go. We may head over to Kansas and up through Nebraska and then to Le Mars, but who knows. We'll figure it out when we get up. We'll be in Le Mars, Iowa within the next couple of days.

Tornado Alley Experiences - Dodging Storms

Hi all!

I'm writing from the Town & Country Motel in Osage Beach, Missouri as we're waiting-out a storm that is supposed to roll through this area. We've been lucky thus far, but being that we're planning to head North through all of the tornados & flooding area is a tad bit scary. Especially now that we live in a trailer. We've been watching the news and keeping up on the storms so we're planning out carefully. By next week, we hope to be with family with basements.


AMARILLO - TEXAS:

Since we left New Mexico, we stayed just outside of Amarillo, Texas at a boon-docking (free camping) area where Matt was able to ride his bike. We were going to stay on Meredith Lake, but from the looks of it much of the lake has receded due to drought in Texas. We've gone from severe drought areas to where we are now, with severe flooding. It was hot there and somewhat uncomfortable being in the desert area with bushes around us and rattling in the close brush (we saw too many rattle snakes along the road), so we only stayed one night. Matt did get some good JUMPS in though (refer to first pictures of his jump and wipe out!) We weren't very impressed with Northern Texas and know that the Southern section probably has more to offer. We'll have to check that out during a different season other than summer as it's too hot this time of year.

BERNICE STATE PARK - OKLAHOMA:

From there, we knew storms were ripping through Oklahoma, so we drove ALL DAY to Bernice, Oklahoma, located in the upper Northeast corner of the state. The State Park was located right on Lake O' The Cherokees - beautiful lake and our site was right on the shore. Matt, Bailey and I all went swimming in the lake and it was perfect because the water was really warm. We stayed there 3 nights, including the last night through a pretty ugly thunderstorm and the morning after, the lake had risen up to the road about 20 feet from our camper (see picture of trees under water). We decided to head out after the storm which brings us to Osage Beach, Missouri.

LAKE OF THE OZARKS - MISSOURI:

Until today, we were staying at the Lake of the Ozarks State Park here in Osage Beach and the park was wonderful. Right on the lake with lots of trees. Reminds us of Minnesota. Even the heat, humidity and bugs - but those parts, not so wonderful. WOW! Hot tamales here. We rented a boat for a day and that was a blast. The lake is HUGE and it was so much fun to be able to enjoy a beautiful day out driving around and swimming. Today, we got up and moved to a motel here in town since a storm is suppose to hit tonight. It may not be a big one, but thought we'd be more comfortable here watching some T.V. and eating Figaro's Pizza from a nearby store. Very delicious!!!


Tomorrow, we'll head north somehow after checking the weather. The next state "up" is Iowa and we do not want to get caught in any tornados, so we'll be careful. Our hope is for all of our family and friends in these states getting hit hard with storms is that you're all safe and keeping an eye on the weather. The tragedies this season with people losing their lives and homes has been horrible and we wish that the rest of the summer is less eventful and calm.

No Aliens or Tornados

Due to some ugly looking "red dots" on the weather map, indicating tornado watches & wind storms, we decided to stay another night in Tucumcari, NM and watch X-files for the entire day yesterday. Afterall, we are in New Mexico. I know it would have been a more interesting posting if we were to be abducted or had a tour in a tornado, but no such thing happened.

I had my eyes open for aliens and tornados, but neither came through here and today it's all clear for us to move on to Texas. No red dots, so we're safe. Off we go to Amarillo, TX for a few days to enjoy the sunshine and desert and do some 4 wheelin'.

We won't have Internet access for probably a week or so, so don't worry about us. Remember, no news is good news.

Have a great weekend - for those of you that look forward to your 2 days off in a row. We've forgotten what that's like, but I won't brag about our not working... :) Later dudes and dudettes. Rock on.

Thanks to Uncle Larry for the cool sign above. Makes sense in our case as some days we fill up (on gas - not yet beer, but may change over) twice. On the road again....

Santa Fe & Route 66

Hellowwww! Our stay in Santa Fe was a great one. We stayed only 8 miles from The Plaza (hang out square in Santa Fe) and we were up in the mountains in the Santa Fe National Forest. We had hummingbirds, robins, and squirrels share our campsite with us - all were O.K. but those hummingbirds caught us off-guard more than once; they are loud and not afraid to come speeding toward you and close to your ears. Fast little buggers.


We went into town 2 days. The first day, into The Plaza where I bought a cool turquoise bracelet made by a local woman. We learned of portals (pronounced "POUR-TALLS") because they are everywhere holding up porches on all of the adobe buildings (refer to picture #1 above). We had read about them in a Santa Fe magazine and were hoping they were portals (POUR-TULS) into other worlds, like on Dr. Who or Star Trek, but no such luck. Hee, hee.

The second day, we did some shopping and got chicken fajitas at Maria's, a restaurant recommended to us by a guy we met in Colorado. Very good food, we must say. They have over 125 flavors of margaritas, so you'd all best try it out if you're in the area!


Matt cut my hair yesterday. It was to be 2 inches, but by the time he had gone around and around, it is now about 5 inches shorter. No biggie, but I can't put it back any more. Less shampoo usage, I guess. He did a good job and I can't complain or he won't do it any more.


Now we're in Tucumcari, NM for one night. We are taking advantage of an RV place here off of Route 66 and getting all of our electronics charged up and filling up with water as we'll be heading to Amarillo, Texas tomorrow and will be boon-docking (FREE camping on OHV land) for a few days. We have to charge up once in a while; plus the A/C feels good with the heat outside.