Arizona

 Now that I am retired as of 1-1-2007 we can start making plans for heading south for the winter. So 1-20-07 is the beginning of our 10 week trip that will take us to Arizona, California, Texas, Florida and back home. After spending a couple days loading up the motorhome we started the trip started on the wrong foot. First, when we left the garage about 8:00AM the GPS did not work and second the temperature was -5 degrees. By the time we got to Owatonna I figured out why the GPS did not work, it has something to do with the GPS repeater, so I disconnected it and the GPS is working fine. Well at least I have a future project to look forward to. That takes care it one problem and the only cure for the second is to keep driving south, so on we go. Things went fine until around Lincoln, NE where it started snowing. We finally stopped at Wood River, NE about 3 hours and 80 miles later. After finding a motel that had 11 RV sites, we settled in for the night with about 4 inches of snow on the ground. It was good to have electricity.

 Figuring it was going to be a slow day of travel, we were up by 6:00AM with a temperature of 24 degrees outside and about 6-7 inches of snow.

 

 After breakfast and lots of coffee we hit the ice & snow packed roads. The roads were not quite as bad as I predicted and we were able to travel 50-60 MPH. When we stopped for lunch where 83 crosses I-70 just north of Oakely  we got out and saw we must have had 2000 pounds of frozen slush on the vehicles.

 

Most of the rest of the day was the same except from Liberal, KS to Dalhart, TX It got worse. The last few miles in to Dalhart was on bad ice, 15-30 MPH. We called it a day and pulled into the Corral RV Park.

 When we crawled out of bed it was 51 degrees inside and 9 degrees outside. The vehicles are a mess. Taking off after breakfast and again lots of coffee we encountered bad roads for the first 30 miles. After that all the roads were clear. The roads were good the rest of the day. By the time we got to Holbrook, AZ  it was time to find a RV park with cable so we could watch “24”. Good old KOA would do us for the night. It’s bad when you get hooked on a TV series like this.

 Next morning we were on the road at 6:45AM with 6 degrees outside. When we into Cave Creek County Campgrounds at 11:00AM there was only one campsite left in the campgrounds. After getting checked we went and found a place to wash the vehicles, what a job. The Denali took a little beating from the pea gravel they used on the roads in Nebraska. After washing the vehicles we spent the afternoon & evening at Ron & Jane’s where we had supper and washed some clothes. Even after washimg the vehicles, ice continued to drop off the vehicles for the rest of the day.
January 24th was the start of the SW Lazy Daze get together so we met up with the Ron and Jane to go to the White Tank Mountain Campground just west of Phoenix. It’s getting warmer as it was 40 degrees when we got up this morning. There were 24 rigs on this initial gathering of the SW Lazy Daze.

 

 

 

 

 January 27th was the last day with group so we took a group picture and said our goodbyes, what a great group of people. By 10:00AM we were on our way back to Cave Creek County Campground and later went out to supper with the Ron, Jane and their granddaughter.

 

 The next day we took Ron and Jane’s LD to their storage area and then it was off to Camping World. Seems there is still more stuff to buy. I cleaned up the rig with “Ace It” polish then later we went to Ron and Jane’s to eat supper and do some laundry before we leave tomorrow.

Until next time,

Dave and Sandy
 

Whitewater State Park

2006
  A friend of ours had mentioned that Whitewater was a place that he used to go to for local camping so we thought we should give it a try. I had to drop a boat off in Rochester on September 7th and we decided to give Whitewater State Park a try for a couple of days and  then we were planning to head to NE Iowa for a couple of days. After looking over the site map we chose site #49. It did not have hookups, but the weather was mild so we took a chance. It turned out to be a great site.

This is our view from the campsite.

 

 
We also had this nice bench close by to sit and reflect.

 

 

  It was so nice and relaxing here that we came back on September 30 and spent another three days relaxing. This time we went to a program at the park headquarters on the snakes in the park. They have 16 of the 17 species found in Minnesota, including the timber rattlesnake.

 I’m just siting here thinking that in another three months I will be retired and can do this whenever I want.

 

Until next time,

Dave and Sandy
 

The Lazy Daze Golden Caravan

2006
 The Lazy Daze Golden Caravan was held June 24th thru July 1st, 2006. Lazy Daze was started by Paul Newton and a fellow school teacher in 1956 where they built pickup campers and trailers. In 1966 they built their first and also the country’s first class C motorhome. Somewhere along the line the schoolteacher was bought out and Ed Newton, Paul’s brother, joined the organization. Today Ed’s son Steve runs the company.

 We are meeting our friends, Ron and Jane, from Arizona at the caravan. We first met Ron and Jane in July 2004 at the Lazy Daze factory. We were all poking around and crawling over the rigs the day we met. Later we found out we were staying at the same motel so made arrangements to meet for supper at an Olive Garden close by and have been close friends ever since. It was interesting that we both came to the factory thinking about the 24 foot T/K but ended up with the 26 1/2 foot M/B. They were planning to order one later that year and we were thinking about waiting until 2006. It turned out we were back in September to order one and they waited until 2006.

 Leaving Lakeville at 12:25PM on the 23rd we drove as far as Lexington, NE where we stopped at about 11:15PM at a Wall Mart. Saw our first Lazy Daze on the road, just north of Des Moines, it was a 26 ½ teal. The next morning we were on the road by 8:00 and got into Cheyenne about 1:00PM. The first thing we did there was to get the motor home weighed. Ron and Jane got in about 3:00PM. Tomorrow is a day of rest.

 I was up at 5:45 to 58 degrees and clear skies. By 7:15AM Sandy & I were all cleaned up & 1 cup of coffee in us so it was time to get outside and mingle with the folks. Just spent the day relaxing & walking around. That evening we had supper with the Frisch’s. It was very warm and we have no hookups here. A few people ran their generators, but most were polite enough not to.

 

Here are some of the rigs that are here.

 

 

 This morning, 26th, we went to the Union Pacific Roundhouse .This is a roundhouse, turntable and machine shop where they maintain old historic trains. We used to have two round houses in my home town of Staples, MN, when I was growing up. But they were torn down many years ago.

 

 

The next few days were spent going to seminars and visiting with friends.

 It’s June 29th and time for us to leave. After saying goodbye to our friends we hit the road for home via Sandy’s  parents in Aberdeen.We stayed overnight in Murdo, SD. It was HOT!!! 100 degrees. Guess what, I forgot the power cord, my excuse is that we didn’t need one in Cheyenne as they did not have hookups. So needless to say we did not sleep well.

We got in to Aberdeen midday and spent a couple days visiting.

 

We left Aberdeen on July 2nd and got home at 4:50PM after 1821.9 miles and 33 hours of driving time.

Until next time,

Dave and Sandy
 

Fall trip to Nashville, TN

2005
 Sandy and I made plans to leave after work on Friday, October 21st for a week in Nashville, TN. Our first overnight stop was at a BP station out of West Branch, IA. The next day we drove to Marion, IL. where we stayed at the Marion Motel & Campground. This was not a nice place and would stay at a gas station again rather then here. In the morning we continued on to Nashville while stopping at a Camping World to pick up a few items, seems like it never end finding item we need. Then we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for a meat loaf dinner before gassing up and driving to the Seven Points Campground. This is a Corps of Engineers campground on J Percy Priest Reservoir on the east edge of Nashville. The route we took, not the most direct, took us 930.3 miles in 17 hours 57 minutes drive time. We towed the Jon boat down so we had to get a rental car to get around town.

 Our first day there, 10-24, we just drove around some and came back to grill steak and make some of camp potatoes. Our friend Pat showed us how to mix potatoes, green & red peppers, onions, carrots and what every else your imagination can come up with plus your favorite seasonings and put them in tin foil and grill for about 25 minutes. Delicious. After sunset we played Canasta.

 For our second day there we went for a ride to Cookeville & had lunch there. It got up to 57 degrees during the day.

That evening we had  a beautiful sunset over the lake.

 

 On our third day here we went and got some fire wood and stayed in camp all day just enjoying doing next to nothing. The temperature got up to 61.5 degrees, so it was a pretty nice day.

 

 

 The next morning when we got up the temperature  was 40 degrees and mostly cloudy so we decided to go to the Stones River National Battlefield. This battle had the greatest percentage of casualties during the Civil war. Its hard to believe that there were 24,000 causalities of the 85,000 troops. We will be heading back home tomorrow mid day.

On October 28th after getting up at 7:00AM we had breakfast, dumped the tanks & returned the rental. It was about 11:00AM when we left the rental place and headed back home, arriving there about 4:25 PM on the 29th. We got home to find it had been 5 to 10 degrees warmer here then in Nashville. Even so we plan on getting back to that campground again.

Until next time,

Dave and Sandy

Bigfoot levelers and the 4th of July

 On June 8th, 2005 we left home headed for White Pigeon, MI where we have an appointment to put levelers on the rig. Our stop for the night was at  MILL BLUFF STATE PARK, on I-90/94 next to Camp Douglas in Wisconsin. There is a old saying in the RV world that most campgrounds are built next to an airport, interstate highway or a train track. Well, we got the trifecta,  I-90/94 traffic was to the north, trains with a whistle crossing to the south and fighter jets passing overhead.

 The next morning we continued on to White Pigeon, MI and the  Big foot factory. After stayed over night at a KOA in Middlebury, IN. we headed up to our 7:00AM appointment. Everything was done by 11:00AM so we headed back across I-80 towards Davenport, IA. Sure glad we do not live in Chicago. At our first gas stop the LP gas sensor started to go off. It finally stopped without us doing anything. When we finally got to our camp site in Prophetstown State Park in Prophetstown, IN we leveled the unit, then turned on a light. Everything went dark. I checked the fuses but all seemed ok. Being that we just had work done at the Bigfoot factory, I thought maybe they had done something to cause this. But being it was after their closing time and it was an electrical problem, I called Lazy Daze and spoke with Steve. After some discussion I checked the battery bypass switch. Bigfoot had shut it off while working on the unit & forgot to turn it back on. Prophetstown was a nice little camp when it is not full. I don’t know if the same would be true when it was full.

 April 11th found us working our way to Galena, IL where we toured an old lead mine. Then it was over to Prairie Du Chien up along the Mississippi River to the Effigy Mounds National Monument. Then we drove to Caledonia, MN to stay at Beaver Creek Valley State Park Campground. This might not be a place to stay with rain in the area as you have to ford a creek to get back into the camping sites that are built into a valley with high bluffs around.

The next day we worked our way home through the bluff country.

The 4th of July holiday found us back in the Bluff Country with Dale, Mary Jane, Randy and Marlene where we stayed at the Peterson City Park, Peterson MN. They have 10 spots with water and electric and a remote dump. The spots are close together, but it was really a nice quiet spot. We brought our motorcycles and 1 car. We put a couple hundred miles on the motorcycles driving around the area. It looks like the converter went dead so will have to call the factory on Tuesday to find out how to check it for sure.

Picking up our new “LAZY DAZE” at the factory and our trip home

 On April 5th, 2005 we were at the Lazy Daze factory to inspect and pickup our new Lazy Daze 26 1/2 foot mid-bath class “C” motorhome. We were given a 3 hour walk thru where they explained the operation of all the items in the motorhome, i.e. stove, air conditioners etc. Since this is our first motorhome, we thought we were retaining it all as we went through the items but we were soon to find out how little we retained.

 The next day we had a ICC driver drive us to Ehrenberg, AZ where we signed the paper work to give us possession of the motorhome. We had to do this because we did not want to pay the California sale tax.

 

 When we got to the Phoenix area we went to a campground that Jane said was the best one in their area. It was  the Cave Creek Campground. (Maricopa County, AZ). We got site #10 which backs up to the north on the outer ring of the campground. Jane was right … the campground was beautiful. This is our 1^st time camping in a motorhome so it was interesting. After we got settled in we went over to Ron and Jane’s for supper.

 



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 While Ron went to work, Jane gave us a 4 hour tour of the Phoenix area. We are having a hard time getting used to the 96 degree weather.

 The next day, the 8th, Jane picked us up at 6:00AM and drove us  to the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff & Sedona. It was very windy at the Canyon.

 

 Sandy and Jane with the Grand Canyon in the back ground.This was our first time to the Grand Canyon and we were very impressed. Mother nature did a fine job here.

 

  
I wonder how many couples besides us have had there picture taken here, or we the first?

 

 It was 50 degrees in the Lazy Daze when we got up this morning, the 10th.  We didn’t take any pictures, but 13 hot air balloons took to the sky before we left Cave Creek at about 8:30AM and drove to Show Low, AZ (186 miles), where we stopped overnight at the  Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area. This is also a very nice campground with 50-100 foot separation between sites with concrete slabs.

 

 Our first grill was a charcoal Cobb grill that we got ride of after we got home. It was not very hot and the grease just stayed in the cooking area. On to a gas Weber Baby Q.

 

 Upon leaving Show Low we drove to the Petrified Forest National Park. Sandy really did not want to stop as she had been to several “petrified forest” in the Black Hills that were nothing but rock shops. She said she was glad we stopped. After hearing at the visitors center about how much of the area had been pillaged over the years before the park was established, we were surprised with the amount and size of the petrified trees.

 

 After we finished touring the park we continued on to Albuquerque, AZ where we stayed overnight. The next morning we had the oil changed at Stratkus Engines before getting back on the road again by 11:00. After a stop at the Petroglyph's National Monument we headed up to Santa Fe, then to Taos, NM were we spent the night.

 The next day we spent touring the area. One of the sights we took in was the Taos Pueblo Ruins. These buildings have been continuously inhabited for over a thousand years. 

 

 

 We drove east from Taos on US64. Lots of curves but a scenic drive. Finished driving eastern NM, pan handle of Oklahoma & stopped in Elkhart, KS at Prairie RV for the night

 Along the way we stopped for a nap and when we woke up there were several antelope at the stock tank behind us.

 

 April 14th found us leaving the campground around 7:30. Along the way we stopped in Dodge City, KS and visited the “Boot Hill” museum. Will have to go back to the area. Drove hard the whole day and finally stopped around 6:00PM near Fairbury, NE at the Wagon Train State Recreation Area. 476 miles.

Here are some pictures where we parked by the small reservoir.

 

 April 15th was our last day on the road. Now we will be busy adding accessories and finding out how to pack and store items in the rig.

Until next time,

Dave and Sandy