A Short Trip

It's been an interesting week in my world. It started last when our good friends, Lynn and Becky called that they were in town. They live full time in their motor home and have for about the past 18 years. When they began their journey, there was no Internet or cell phone the way we know it today. There were only these things called pay phones around to help keep in touch when you were on the road. Therefore, every couple of years when they returned home, they would show up on our doorstep and hopefully we would be home. Sometimes we were. Now we are able to keep in touch much more easily. We even meet up with them on the road in the winter. We had a pleasant day with them on Saturday.

Sunday morning after Mass we packed up Bertha once again and headed out for the Grant River Campground in Potosi Wisconsin. This is a Corps of Engineering Campground on the Mississippi River just north of the Illinois border. We met up with our friends the Fox Valley Winnies. Monday was golf outing day. As long as I have my golf clubs and my bike along any trip is okay.

This one proved exceptionally fun. On Monday morning we all went bowling. Bowling is never quite so fun as when you go with a bunch of people who are only out for a few laughs and don't mind making fools of themselves. We had plenty of laughs. This bowling alley was inside a Casino in Dubuque Ia. So after bowling, we had lunch at the elegant and cheap buffet followed by trying to cheat lady luck at the games. I am very disappointed in the way slot machines have changed. They call them penny machines but somehow you bet $.30 to $1.50 each spin and you win pennies with each win. After that machine ate my initial limit, I found the machine I like to play. A plain old quarter slot machine with just one line to watch. I begged an extra buck off of Don and wallah!! I went home with 37 dollars in my pocket.

Yes, this is me in the kayak. It was very hot and humid on the shore and believe it or not it rained all night every night. If you read my other camping stories this year there is a very familiar theme going here. Out on the river it was a pleasant respite from the weather, not to mention the biting flies.

There was an eagle with a child nesting in one of the campground trees whom the experts among us estimated to be about three years old. We spent some time watching them. What a vision when they take to the air.

We had to leave this outing a day early so I could get back to my job at the food pantry on Thursday morning and also because we made another date for dinner with Lynn and Becky. By the time we found the best place to bike, we didn't have time to go. Anyway there was a heat index of 99 so I don't think that was such a bad thing to miss out on this time.

What I did at summer camp (Winnebago Grand National Rally)

Let's face it. Sometimes you need to do things you don't really enjoy in order to please someone else who thinks this is the best thing since Apple Pie.

To me it is the annual Winnebago rally. 16,000 coaches park in a field during the hottest month of the year to attend seminars about generators, chases, refrigerators, satellite systems, etc. Can you see where I am going with this?

So I decided to tailor my week to get the most pleasure I can from it.

Day 1 Friday.

Left home in our coach which is always a great pleasure. We spent the night in Clear Lake Iowa as they will not park you at the rally after 5PM. We also needed to take on water. I should have guessed this might be a problem when the campground host told us they had plenty of "soft water" for everyone. Not even lemonade mix could take away the sea water taste. We had to buy bottled water for drinking. That's another whole post about how I rarely will buy water someone else put in an echo unfriendly bottle out of someone else's tap.
It rained all night

Day 2 Saturday

We arrived at the rally grounds around 10 AM. We thought we would have time to set up and enjoy some of the Forest City Puckerbrush Days festivities. When we arrived, we were kept in line until noon waiting for the field to dry up enough to park coaches on it.

Day 3 Sunday

A great day. We went on a bike ride with 43 people. Believe it or not, the group spread out quite nicely as the various levels of bikers found their own paces. Lunch was catered by a deli and there was a ranger talk at Pilot Knob State Park, our ultimate destination. We were advised that there was an alternate route home which involved crossing over a mountain, but on the other side of the mountain was a winery. The guys I was with were not about to miss the winery so over the mountain we rode (walked). The winery was a delight. We rode up to a little family of 3 generations having brunch on the patio overlooking their vineyard. By the time we tasted their wares we had their life stories.

Day 4 Monday

The rally begins. I had planned on attending a quilting class so I bought a new sewing machine for the trip. We made a lovely, functional tote bag and I met some interesting people which is the best part of GNR.

New sewing machine: $150 - Tote bag kit: $35 -Thread: $2 - Spending the day in the only air-conditioned room on the grounds: Priceless. Anyone want to buy a $187 tote bag? It is very large and very beautiful.

Day 5 Tuesday

It rained all night.
I nosed around the vendors of motor home equipment, and a few craft vendors but the only thing I found to spend my money on was the most beautiful coach I have ever seen. Don decided he had better keep me busy.

Day 6 Wednesday

We golfed at Beaver Creek Golf Club. What fun. On the back nine we fed our balls to the creatures living at the bottom of Beaver Creek.

Day 7 Thursday

It rained all night and into the morning.

Forest City is about 120 miles from Mound Minnesota so I took the car and drove up to cuddle our twins Robbie and Jacob for the day. While they napped I had a nice visit with Gretchen and after a nice dinner with the family I headed back.

Day 8 Friday

It rained all night.

We headed for home with a short stop at a tire place in Mason City. That short stop probably saved us from sitting through what might have been the worst storm and wind we have ever experienced in a campground. We drove to Geneseo, Il. All along the road we saw streaks of lightning and darkness ahead of us. We arrived at the campground to find the electricity in the town was out due to a storm with 70 mph winds and enough rain to flood some of the sites namely, ours. We boondocked for the night.

It rained all night. Do you see a theme here?

Day 9 Saturday

Home sweet home. It was a better experience than I had anticipated. All that rain seemed to hit us mostly at night, I found some great things to do while Don attended his seminars, and enjoyed the camaraderie that always accompanies gatherings of people of shared interests.

Driving Bertha

This morning we set out on a short adventure in our motor home. We call her Bertha, all 36 feet and 16,000 lbs. (add an additional 15 feet for towing the car).

Many women who own RVs with their significant others refuse to learn to drive them. I am here to say that it is not only easier than one would think, but somewhat fun. I set the cruise at 65 and do just that "cruise". I stay in the right lane for the most part and everyone passes me.

I had to find out how necessary it was the hard way.

A few years ago I swore I would never drive this bus. I was about 6 mos. out from retirement. We decided we would want to spend more time on the road and wanted to have a bathroom and a shower in our home so we went into a travel trailer. Our Feather Lite was a lovely little trailer. It had the requisite bathroom and also a TV and a kitchen - big upgrades from our pop-up. Unfortunately our Feather Lite was doomed to last only one night on the road. The very first time I got behind the wheel of the car, a truck barrelled past, set the trailer to walking and as I gently applied the brake, it swung around 180 degrees on I 65 and rolled over. Fortunately the car did not roll so we were safe even though our Feather Lite was totally junked.

We did a lot of soul-searching after that to determine where to go. For the first time in our adult lives we were without a home on wheels. I told Don he had to decide what we would do as he was going to have to do all the driving from then on.

Ultimately we decided we felt safest in a class C motor home - a Winnebago Minnie. She was wonderful and Don learned to be comfortable behing the wheel in no time.

Finally I took the plunge and got behind the wheel from one rest area to another. By the time I went 20 miles we had to pry my hands from the steering wheel. Every time a truck passed me I literally froze and prayed.

That summer we went to the Winnebago Grand National Rally, an annual event for RVers to learn about their equipment, attend a few seminars, craft classes, and entertainment. They had a driving class for women which was just what I needed. It gave me the confidence to get behind the wheel again. We were headed out West for a long trek and I put on many miles growing in confidence with each one. It was preordained that every time I took over the driving we ended up racing down a mountain in a construction zone and over a mile high bridge.

Well after my first experience GNR was not my cup of tea, but Don likes it so much we kind of agreed to go every other year. Two years ago at my second GNR I was bored so while he was at seminars I found us a new coach. Hence, Bertha.

It took a little time to adjust to Bertha's added girth. I also found out that now I needed a new license to drive her. So that winter I took the written test and procured a permit so we could feel comfortable that we were within the law should anything happen.

Last winter Don became seriously ill and was unable to drive the RV home from Florida. I took that baby from Lakeland to St. Augustine, backed her into our site going around hanging tree limbs, and motored her most of the 1100 miles back to Woodridge. By the time we arrived home, driving Bertha felt no different than driving our Tahoe.

Now we are headed for our third GNR. What do you think I might come home with this time if I get bored?