We've Done It!

We headed northwest on Interstate 94 this morning after a very rainy night. The sky remained overcast and grey until we left Minnesota --

At last we saw the sign welcoming us to North Dakota! Since we had taken the more southerly route east last Fall,we needed to spend time here in order to say we had been in all of the Lower 48.

We passed lots of large bales of hay made from the grass along the Interstate and fields of grain stubble --

As well as some fields of grain that had not yet been harvested (don't you love the name of this little town?) --

We weren't sure what we were seeing when we first saw these fields --

But soon realized we were seeing fields of sunflowers! Not sure whether they were being raised for oil or for the sunflower seed market --

We pulled into the Bismarck, North Dakota KOA about three PM. We took Toad into town and ate dinner at a Chinese Buffet that also had a Mongolian BBQ. We picked up a few groceries as we were out of orange juice, blueberries and milk for breakfast.

When we got back to Auntie Violet this evening I was able to put the last state on our map of the United States! It's a great feeling to know that we have accomplished this goal.

Hmm, now we'll have to figure out what our next goal should be?

RV Parks and Campgrounds

In the five and one half years that we have been living in an RV full-time (first Al, then Auntie Violet) we have stayed in all kinds of RV parks and campgrounds. They range from very nice almost city resorts with paved streets and all kinds of amenities to very rural places with dirt roads and rocky sites. But, the one we are staying at tonight is the first time we've stayed at one that is primarily a motel with RV spaces next door. The Lakes Motel and RV Campground in Alexandria, Minnesota is just a couple of miles off of Interstate 94 on Highway 27.

Forry was looking for a place to spend the night about half-way through the State of Minnesota. (The other choice was at a gun club that allows public parking.)- The motel park has forty sites with grassy areas separating them. Most of the sites are on the outside of a circular road with several parked in the middle area. There are lots of small trees.

When I called for a reservation yesterday, I asked for a pull-through site.  When we arrived this afternoon I went into the motel office. The lady at the desk said we needed to go back out onto the highway, take a left and then take another left in back of the motel between two businesses and come into the RV area on the dirt road between the businesses. The site is actually on that dirt road with the hook-ups right along side the road.

It turns out that this is the only pull-through site they have... I just hope no hot rod drivers or motorcyclists decide to take that back road tonight. They'll run right into the back of Toad!

Along the Way to Osage

The RV park we stayed at in Minnesota, Hidden Bluffs, is in the heart of Amish country. You get sort of a clue before you ever see a buggy when you see the wide shoulders on the roads designed to separate horse traffic from motor vehicles. Then when you see horse "apples" along the tarmac, you know for sure.

This family was on their way to town in an open wagon --

This gentleman was driving an interesting buggy. I'm not sure if there was a removable panel in the back for air circulation on a hot day or?

I got a chuckle out of the antenna "farm" on top of the Osage water tower --

This is the Main Street of Osage Iowa. It doesn't look all that different than the Main Street of Ritzville, Washington where my Grandfather Lyman Haight ended up --

This was also a common sight along the way. There were lots of these huge windmill towers sitting right in amongst the fields of corn or soybeans. This one was right in the midst of the farmstead itself --

We spent a quiet day today. We voted our Primary ballots and got them into the mail (Washington State is entirely "vote-by-mail"). The campground owner was going to the post office to mail her bill payments and assured me our ballots would be postmarked today.

I really enjoyed my walk around the campground today. The owners must have quite a set of green thumbs. There are clusters of little flower gardens all over as well as a very good looking vegetable garden. Plants are one thing I really miss living full-time in our RV (Our AeroGarden has been displaced by the Keurig coffee maker...). I spent a bit of time pulling pigweed from the flower garden by Auntie Violet this morning and did get a bit of a gardening fix in...