Window to the World...

 

When home, Murphy and Stella like to sit by the patio door, keeping an eye on the goings on in the courtyard.  But, we aren't home, and their routine is different daily in the RoadTrek.

In the peaceful setting that we are in on our site at Hart Ranch, they had the opportunity to watch the birds from the window in our slider door...

 Taken just before dusk, they are transfixed.  I offered to take Murphy out on the leash, but this boy does not like wind.  So, they get to watch from this wind-protected perch.

 

Signs, Signs, Everywhere the Signs...

 

If you said, "A song by the Canadian band Five Man Electrical Band, 1971," you get 25 bonus points.  If you said, "You must be driving across South Dakota," you are correct, but no bonus points.

It has been 4 years since we've driven across South Dakota.  If it weren't for all the billboards (signs), it would be a lot of prairie and farm fields.  So, a look at some of the signs to entertain you along the way...

 Of course, the grand-daddy of South Dakota signs: Wall Drug.  These days, they have a lot of competition in the billboard biz...

Firehenge is new since we've been here last.  It appears to be firetrucks arranged like Carhenge, which is a bunch of cars buried upright in Nebraska to somewhat look like Stonehenge.  Everybody looking to cash in somehow...

 Informational signs...

 Not signs, but windmills that weren't hear when we were last here...

 Many signs...

 Signs on the side of semi trailers...

 Signs that have the item they are advertising alongside them...

 Not a sign, but the river (Missouri River) that divides South Dakota into East River and West River...

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It was windy last night where we were parked; as in: gusts above 50 mph.  Yeah, you notice that.  Not much sleep.  Then today, it was windy, with gusts above 25 mph, as a headwind.  You notice that, too; especially at the gas pump.  At one fill up (we got gas twice today), our miles per gallon was down to just over 13 mpg.  We generally see 16 to 18 mpg.  The van can handle it, but the wind makes a difference.

We are down for the night at one of our favorite places: Hart Ranch in the Black Hills.  It is cool and windy here.  Murphy won't be going outside; he is not a fan of the wind.  But, we will be able to sleep without air conditioning tonight - the first time since we left home.  That should make for a quiet night.  The a/c is necessary, but it isn't quiet... a trade-off for comfort.  We may need heat tonight, but that is much quieter.  Now, if the cats can make it through the night without the zoomies, there is the possibility for us all to get a good night's sleep.

 

 

Land of the two-finger wave...

 

I am talking about Iowa.  We left Denison this morning.  It was a relatively short stay there, but it set my mind at ease being able to see John.

We decided to head north out of Denison (more on that in a bit).  This is Iowa farm country...

 Traffic is sparse and when a car or truck comes the other direction, the driver often raises 2 fingers off the steering wheel as a wave.  Unlike in Phoenix, where the wave is generally 1 finger, sometimes followed by gunfire.  But, I digress.

This farmer must have wanted to be a lighthouse keeper at one time...

 The GPS didn't warn us that our routing took us on gravel - we looked for the fasted way out of that an plugged in a detour; did about 5 miles of gravel before we got back on pavement again...

 Where there are farms, there is occasionally farm equipment on the highway...

 And road construction...

 And windmills being built...

 Must be a profitable "crop" - we saw plenty of them along the way.

The first stop on our northerly route was in Milford, IA...

 For those not familiar, The Three Sons started "the University of Okoboji" t-shirt sales decades ago.  No, there is no "university."  The sale of shirts and other stuff was so successful, they started at charitable foundation.  It has been at least 10 years since I've been able to update my University of Okoboji wardrobe - we took care of that today.

From there, off to Arnold's Park and Lake Okoboji, to allow me to reminisce about childhood summers here.  It has changed A LOT...

 It needed to.  Damage from a tornado and the growth of Adventure Land near Des Moines left the Arnold's Park amusement park a shell of its former self.  The Roof Garden (home to a concerts and other events) was relocated (on the ground floor) and the wooden rollercoaster in the park was rebuilt.  Other rides and shops came back.  The waterfront area looks great.  We stopped for a couple photos...

 

That boat in that photo above is the Queen II.  The original Queen is no longer here (I rode that a bunch in my childhood), but this is a pretty decent substitute.  I rode it enough that the captains would occasionally let me into the helm so I could see the view from their perspective.  Was that an influence on me eventually becoming a boat captain?  I hadn't thought about that before.  There was also a bigger, fancier, more modern boat called the Empress... I rode it once, then went back to the Queen.  Back in the day, the Queen would stop at a couple resorts on the lake to pick up and drop off passengers.  And, of course, a narrated tour.

There are plenty of new shops and museums - it has a nice upscale feel to it.  We stopped for lunch at Maxwell's Beach Cafe, which isn't really on the beach.  It used to be a nice place to eat on the westside of the lake - no idea if that is still there, but the food was very good and the service exceptional.  And, another selfie...

 We chose a table outside, in the shade, so we could look at the lake and see the people walking by.  Surprisingly busy for a Tuesday in early June.

It made my heart happy to see this area come back. 

From there, we pointed the van west.  Miles to make to get us back to Arizona, and this trip north to Okoboji added time, but brought back a lot of memories.

We are down for the night at another casino.  No idea if we'll even go in... it was a convenient stop for the day and a reasonable price for full hook-ups.  The wind really piped up as we drove west.  Good time to settle in for the evening.

 

Getting techy...

 

That's tech (as in: teck), not touchy.  We had a good day with John today.  He asked if we would help him with a few things: first in order - get his Toyota Camry set up with his information and ready for him to use the built-in nav stuff.  Yes, I would have thought the dealer would have done this, but he may have told them that he would do it himself.

It took me a couple hours, mostly because he has a Google Pixel phone and he didn't know his log-in.  I am an iPhone kinda guy and not even remotely fluent in Android stuff.  But, after setting him up with another Google account and g-mail, I was able to get the blue tooth in his phone and car to talk to each other.

Next order of business: he uses an iPad that is old and can't be updated.  Joan helped him figure out what new iPad to order.  

 Yeah, I should have had Joan take a photo where we weren't working on the tech stuff.

This afternoon, John drove us to another town a half hour away where he treated us to an outstanding Italian meal.  In a small town in Iowa.  And drove us by a place that used to be a well-known ballroom - I played there when I was in the Flippers.  Starlight Ballroom, Caroll, Iowa.  Reminiscing. 

It has been a good couple of days.  I really needed this.  I have said how John was such a big influence on me growing up.  He was deathly ill this winter and still isn't 100%... I wanted to fly out then, but he insisted I not do that.  I did what I could from 1500 miles away, talking with his medical team.  After all that, I needed to see him.  Yes, he looks good; for a 90 year old guy coming back from a tough illness.

We will head out in the morning. 

A Three State Day...

 

Haven't had one of those in a while: being in 3 different states in one day.  Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa... the heartland of America.

 

The rural countryside...

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The saga of the power being out: power came back around 10:30 last night.  Joan thought we might hear a cheer from the campers in the park to let us know... nope, a street light was the tell-tale.  I think a good portion of those camping here packed up and went home (seems these county parks get mostly local folks).  I had given up on the power returning, and started the motor around 10:00 pm to juice up the lithium batteries - we already had it nice and cool in the van.  13.1 volts is as low as it got, which put us at 40% battery remaining.  In about 20 minutes of running the motor (and under hood generator), we were back up to 99% (with the a/c running).  But, before starting the motor, we were sweating - literally and figuratively; we had turned off the a/c to conserve battery power.  To this point, we have not truly tested the limits of the lithium system.

With power back on, we plugged in all our devices (laptop, iPads, phones, watches, AirPods, etc).  Minimalism is not our thing - this van and those in it require power.  That said, it isn't quite like the brochures that show these vans in the most beautiful remote settings, with the occupants sitting outside with a cup of coffee, on their laptops, and maybe a faithful dog by their side.  Enjoying a sunset.  Maybe it's a sunrise?

The brochures don't show the daily ritual of moving cushions from the beds to the front cab and back.  You need the cushions for using the space as your lounge; and then the cushions have to go somewhere so you can sleep on the beds.  Likewise, the brochures don't show cat toys, cat beds, and cat cushions filling any available space.

The folks on my RoadTrek group chuckled at the photo of our van parked next to the big coach a couple nights ago... they were feeling sorry for those people in the big coach (and, yes, there are some former big coach owners in the group besides us) because of having to deal with all that extra "stuff."  A couple extra feet to make room for a permanent dinette would be nice.  And a walk-in shower.  And a nice J-lounge couch.  A washer/dryer.  A full-width wardrobe.  Huge underneath storage.  And then you are back to 40+ feet, and limited on where you can park.  Or maneuver.  Compromises.

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We should be to my brother-in-law's house in a couple hours. 

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I have discussed my brother-in-law John before.  When I was growing up, he was the father figure in my life.  He and my sister Joan were a great positive influence for me.  John taught me how to drive; how to shoot and hunt; when I turned 16, he taught me how to fly, renting a Piper J3 Cub to give me an intro.  Joan (my sister) encouraged my music passion.  They were an example to me.

We didn't do anything special today - out for lunch, a lot of visiting, we checked into some tech stuff he has, giving him some suggestions.  We took a "driving tour" of the family farm (John and his nephews and niece have a family corporation; they lease the land out).  We are down for the night at Yellow Smoke Park, a county park on the outskirts of Denison.  John has a parking pad beside his house, but it is not level - Yellow Smoke (not to be confused with Yellowstone) has RV sites, including electric and water; and a dump site as you leave the park.

We'll likely be here for another night. 

My County 'Tis of Thee...

 

If you said, "You left out the 'R'," you get a bonus point (1) for being a good proof-reader.  If you asked, "Are you in a county park?" you get 10 bonus points.  For those keeping track: casino, Love's RV Stop, fairgrounds, casino, and now in a county park.  So far, not in a typical RV park this trip.  County or City parks that have RV sites can be good: generally less expensive than a commercial RV park; and often a bit more "rustic."  We have our own amenities with us, so all we're looking for these days is a place to plug in our electric.

"I thought you could do without a plug-in with your fancy-schmancy lithium batteries and solar," you ask.  Back in the midwest, it is warm and humid.  And parked under some trees for the shade, the solar panels aren't doing much.  We could go a yet-to-be-determined amount of time on just the batteries, but in this brutal humidity, I have concerns about how long we could go without being plugged in.  I have been told an overnight while running a/c should be doable... but I don't want to get a low battery alarm at 3:00am - I already have cats to wake me at that time.

That said, we are down in this park and plugged in...

 And then the power at the pedestal went out.  So, we may find out just how long we can go on just the batteries.  I overheard a woman asking someone from the park about the power... he said, "It isn't just the park - the power company is reporting outages in the area."

Murphy and Stella are enjoying this different environment: there are birds that need to be watched...

 And plenty of window vantage points in the RoadTrek.

Speaking of room: the Stowaway2 cargo carrier has room for our outdoor stuff... and, my Emerald X7 guitar...

 I would never do that with a wood guitar - the heat and humidty would kill it.  So far, my carbon fiber Emerald is doing just fine.  And we all enjoy some music most evenings (yes, the cats enjoy being sung to).

 The Stowaway in use...

 It has been working out great this trip.

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A guy from the county came by just a few minutes ago: the power company told him the power will be back on "late tonight."  He had no idea what constitutes "late," but getting power back at some point is hopeful.  To conserve battery, we turned the a/c off.  Drastic?  Just being conservative.

There is one guy on the far side of the shower house (far enough that we don't hear this) running an inexpensive generator.  I have no idea if there are rules here about generator use (that is the case in some parks, but if you are expecting to have electricity and it goes out, I'd say those rules are off.  Most of the rigs here are smaller travel trailers, most of which don't come with a generator.  I believe this guy may be the envy of his neighbors.

Our RoadTrek comes standard with an "under hood generator," which is essentially a powerful auxiliary alternator.  It will charge our lithium batteries faster than being plugged in.  If it comes down to that... just start the motor on the van and let that UHG do its job.  Typically, it is generating juice any time we are driving.  It will generate power for the batteries even when idling.  That said, the rooftop a/c is a big draw and will pull most of the juice that would go for charging.  For now, this is a good test.

It has definitely warmed up in the van without the a/c running, but the sun is down.  We can run the exhaust fan to pull breeze through.