And, We're Back...

 

If you said, "It's what every radio DJ used to say after a commercial break," you get 5 bonus points.  If you said, "What's a radio DJ?"... get off my lawn, ya damn whippersnapper.

We had a mostly relaxing morning in: leisurely showers and nothing to get done at any specific time.  When Stephanie heard we were at Hart Ranch, she texted us a message with a link to a necklace in the shape of a cat's paw.  It is made by one of the local Black Hills Gold jewelry manufacturers, and they have it "on sale."  Spoiler alert: the silver and gold jewelry made by these local manufacturers is on sale.  But, Steph asked, "If you have time and you go by this place, would you get this for me?"

Pretty sure she knew we would make the time.  There isn't any touristy stuff we want to do in the short time we are here... so, we stopped at this manufacturer and their price was even a little better than the "on-line sale price."  They had it, we bought it.

From there, Joan wanted to stop at her favorite shoe store in the Black Hills.  I dropped her off in front of the store; it is in downtown, and there is no way this van with the storage carrier on back will fit in the snug diagonal parking.  I made a few laps, then found a spot about a block and a half away that actually had parallel parking, kind of off-street.  Just as I finished backing in, Joan called, "I got what I wanted, I saw you going around the corner just as I came out of the store.  I'll meet you at the corner when you come around."

"See you in a minute or two."

From there, we did have one stop in mind: a Mexican restaurant west of town.  Lunch was calling.  It was as good as we remembered.  Two more stops before heading "back to the ranch": groceries and top off the van's fuel tank.  Joan likes Safeway here; doesn't like the one that is about two miles from our place in Phoenix.  Gas tank topped off and we came back to our site at Hart Ranch...

 I put it as close as I could to where it was positioned before we left: the blocks had us perfectly level.  The weather weasels were calling for "a high of 60º, and a strong, cold northwest wind."  It was 68º when we got back, the wind was blowing 12 to 15.  Or, less.  As you can tell from the photo above, Joan left the slider door open and rolled down the screen.  This would allow the kitties to see out, as well as smell and feel the breeze (which was coming from the other side of the van).

Murphy was nosing around the screen, so Joan thought he might be ready to go outside.  Sorta...

 If I had a few days to work on the training, I could get him good on the leash again.  Since we are leaving tomorrow morning, I carried him out a ways and let him walk back to the van.  Repeated that a couple times.  He knows the van is his "safe place," but still a bit too much wind for his comfort.  I let him back inside.

I heard him tell Stella, "You should have seen me out there - I was SO brave!  Dad and I know all about this leash stuff."

To be fair, it has been a long time since he's been on a leash, since we have that great courtyard at home.  I can see that he and Stella could use some practice.

Murph sat by the screen, while Stella watched from behind...

 "Oh, brother, you are so brave"...

 "Go ahead, little sister - I'll be right here if you need me"...

 

I wouldn't say this in front of Murphy, but Stella might be a bit more adventurous than the big boy.  I'm good if they are happy just looking out, and not trying to get out.

A bit more chill time this afternoon, then I'll get tanks dumped, fresh water topped off, and we'll be ready to hit the road in the morning.  Heading for home.

 

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.