Dear Diary

I just discovered this post was not published.


This post might be called Dear Diary. Mostly some thoughts that were on my mind and not much about places. Read at your own risk.

A good friend of ours had a man that came over every afternoon at precisely 4:30 to have a free cocktail. He had to leave at 6:30 and waited until 6:25 to guzzle his drink - four ounces of vodka with a splash of grapefruit juice. That way he could be home before he felt the drink. His name was Al. Long retired, he had been a salesman for Dupont, selling dynamite. A job that consisted of entertaining buyers, dinners, drinks, trips, golf games, and more drinks. Al spent his mornings going to see his chums and finding one to buy him lunch. He made friends with the chef at the CC, so he could get free lobsters to take home. Al had money, but was a professional mooch.

Al could not understand why we traveled. He remarked more than once that we had a fine home and wondered why we would leave it. Guess some have wanderlust and others are the stay at home types. Perhaps they have never seen the Northern Lights or a hawk on the wing.

This has almost nothing to do with our travels, but it does with our lives. Before we left, Dorothy washed our ancient flip-phone. The interesting thing about that was that the girl who never knows where the phone is or how to use, it was chaffing at the bit to fly to Verizon to get a new one. We got an iPhone 6. I have to admit it’s impressive. It’s smarter than the both of us together. 

After resisting texting for decades, we now text. I like the speech to text. Dorothy, the dinosaur, plugs away with her fingers. Siri does not allow for pausing between sentences. She wants to send as soon as I pause. I also have a problem with my pauses in conversation with those who wait for the slightest pause to jump in. That’s my clue they are probably not listening to me.

Siri is a help in locating stores. Glenda is seldom up to date. She had no auto parts store in Yankton. Siri knew there were three within a mile of us.

Weather - Yes, we have weather. The rains continue. Wednesday there was nothing in the forecast for the next six days about rain. Thursday, it changed to rain Sunday and Monday. Just great, we were going to move a little north to see a waterfall and a canyon. We will have to pass on that as we need to get to place to hole-up for the holiday. Back in our working life we lived for holiday weekends. The forecast is for rain in the six of the next nine days. 

I know there is a difference between meteorologists and climatologist. One can not forecast the weather for the next 72 hours. The other cannot forecast the weather for the next two decades.

The weather on our first post retirement trip in 2006 was perfect five months. It rained out three days.

We wrote about our foraging for meat in Pella. After eating it all, we can report; the chuck roast was the tenderest we have ever had, the steaks were sweet and yummy, the sausage made with bacon was divine. The strawberry-rhubarb pie was perfect in every way.

Starting in Missouri and increasing as you go west more and more things are named after Lewis and Clark. This morning we heard a radio ad for a L&W Bone In Roast. No further details are available.

Tuesday, May 24

Yesterday afternoon, instead of the forecast rain, the clouds disappeared and we had a spectacular afternoon and evening. The good weather continued as we drove west to Lake Sharpe near Chamberlain, SD. We docked at another COE CG, Left Tailrace, which is, of course, on the Missouri River. The fishing is excellent here based on the line of folks waiting to clean their catch at the cleaning station.

We will hole-up here until the holiday madness is over. Hoping someone will offer us a walleye.

South Dakota was the province of fur trappers, until Custer discovered gold here which created Deadwood, Lead, etc. and eventually got Custer killed. By 1920’s the Dakota’s were known for fishing. Coolidge came here to fish for a month and that brought national recognition. While Coolidge was here the guy sculpting Rushmore got a meeting with him and a promise of federal funds. Today, SD is known for fishing and Rushmore. On the state flag is ‘The Mount Rushmore State’. 

I think a walleye would be better.

I flipped through a tourist guide to the capital, Pierre. Under Points of Interests were listed the numerous boat ramps. Yep, boat ramps. Growing up we learned the names of the state capitols. Pierre was pronounced like a Frenchman’s name, but is actually pronounced Pier. Just a little trivia for your day.

The last time we were through here it was boom times for oil. Trailer towns were popping up along the roads. With the price per barrel below $50, that has changed. We noted gasoline went up 35 cents in the last week.

Wednesday, May 25

Like NM, SD has several large Indian Reservations. We were on one this morning. It was typical, but the houses, while sad looking, looked better with green grass around them, rather than red dirt and brown skinny dogs as those in NM.

We are in waving country. Indians wave too.

If towns want a new school, they tax the residents and build one. Not so on a reservation. They get a grant from the government. That’s you and me. Lower Brule has the usual compliment of government built and staffed buildings: Water Works, Health Clinic, Ambulance Service, Police Station, Housing Authority, Farm Co-Op, schools and an extra fancy tribal HQ. Commercial business were a casino, bank and land leased to whites for farming. An argument could be made that we have been paying them back for taking their land on the installment plan for over an hundred years. The lack of business enterprises on any reservation is a window to results of socialism. Why work, when the government provides.

Good thing we arrived yesterday. The CG is almost full, only a few spaces left.  We have boon-docked only twice this trip. Unusual for us. The places we have parked only have hookups. 

Thursday, May 26

We drove SD 1086 called the Native American Scenic Byway up to Pierre. It runs along the south side of the Missouri River through rolling hills in the Lower Brule reservation. There is nothing commercial and only a few ranch homes you can see in the distance. Dorothy said it was the loneliest road in the country, not US50. We saw two other vehicles on the 40 mile road. Well four if you count a parked convertible truck and an ATV. We stopped to chat with the fellow on the ATV. He was cutting out horses to take to the rodeo the next day. All bucking horses. All paints.

I remarked to Dorothy that the terrain looked a lot like where Dances With Wolves was filmed. I Googled it and found that a ranch on the road was one of the filming locations. I think I saw Lt. John Dunbar riding on the hills. 

There are bison, but they were hiding from us.

We saw an SUV on the side of the road. The rear windows were bashed in as was the hood. Looked like someone had taken a ball bat to it. Then we heard about baseball size hail in the area. Blessed we missed that.

We toured our fourth state capital of the trip today. That brings our total to 14. Some day we will do the Alabama border states.

Our neighbors gave us generous portions of Walleye. Dorothy fried it. It is wonderful tasting fish.

Friday, May 27

What a rain storm last night. Had to stop watching a movie as the rain overpowered our speakers. This morning it’s completely overcast and the wind is calm.

We drove to Chamberlain in the rain to see the Sioux Indian Culture Museum. Great exhibits, lots of history. Well worth our time. 

The sun is partially out at lunch time. Maybe some pictures of rolling hills on the return trip.

We have our place for the holiday weekend. The forecast starting Tuesday is for a week without rain. We will see.

Catching Up On Some Photo's

The Best Shot I Could Get

The Belle Fourche River That Runs Through The Park

The Chinese Hordes. Each With A Camera. We Don't Charge Them Enough To Come Here And Disturb The Peace.

DeSmet Lake - Our Happy Home For The Weekend. Until The Rednecks Arrived With Their Chinese Generator.

Was South Dakota, Now Wyoming

Friday, May 24

We went to Chamberlain for a while exploring.  It's a very small town but has an Indian Museum attached to the St. Joseph School.  There is a lot of history there.  The white man came, decided the Indians would become Christian and give up their way of life, whether they wanted to or not. Between  the 1890's through the 1920’s, the children were taken from their parents and put in boarding schools. They had to change their way of life, including how they dressed and wore their hair, which had to become what the white man wanted.  It's a sad part of history!

Once again we came home and had Happy Hour with our neighbors.  As it wound up, we also had dinner with them and a lovely campfire.  So many times people decide they are camping and must have a fire, but they only have camp-smoke that we all get to smell.

Saturday, May 25

I did absolutely nothing today.  For some reason my feet are really bothering me and swelling a lot, so I thought staying off them would be a good idea. Tonight is Leonard and Kathy's last night and they came over for dinner.  It's great to meet new people and spend time with them.  It's one of the blessings of traveling that we enjoy!  The weather was perfect, instead of the rain that has been predicted.

Sunday, May 26

Tourists don’t know where they have been. Travelers don”t know where they are going. Traveling is more than an adventure, it’s a scavenger hunt. You pick up pieces, clues and soon you find new understanding. Maybe some can figure out life from their arm chair. It takes travel for me.

A large part of learning about a place is listening to the locals. Listening is difficult. For instance, it’s easy to tell others where you have been. It’s far more difficult to ask others where they have been, then shut up and listen.

Leonard was a medical officer assigned to a combat battalion in Vietnam, so we have that in common. He spent his career with Land-of-Lakes which is into more than butter. They have Purina and are the largest seed and feed seller in the country. That’s what he knows about. So I was able to learn a bit about the business of farming.

We have a Delorme map for every state we travel. For those who are not familiar with them, they are large scale maps, over 50 pages for each state. That’s how we find the back roads. One feature they have is a list of geologic wonders/oddities. Sometimes they are little known. Some are in wilderness areas, so we will never see them. But, most are accessible and worthwhile. They range from the Grand Canyon to potholes. Today’s we went to a pothole. Yep, a large pothole lake formed on the prairie by the last glacier to melt here. I was not expecting much and I was not disappointed.

New Mexico and South Dakota share at least two traits. Low population density and road signs touting tourists attraction. NM billboards tout moccasins and Mexican goods. Here they promote about everything except moccasins. Signs for Wall Drugs out number all the rest and they are strung along the highway for over a hundred miles. I would say SD beats out NM and old Florida combined for the number of junky signs.

Tuesday, May 31

I guess were are “west” now. We are in our first canyon, Spearfish. It’s not a great canyon, not one of great beauty, but it has a babbling brook, waterfalls, and Aspen. I picked it at random from the several FS CG’s in the area of Spearfish. It’s at 5,500 feet, the highest we have been so far this trip. It’s fully overcast and a chilly 51. Probably will get into the 30’s tonight. Perhaps the best thing about our site is that the canyon shelters us from the 30mph winds we had all along I90 today. We are by ourselves in a seven site CG. Oops, minutes after I wrote that an Lazy Daze with Colorado plates pulled in. Wonder if they will walk up?

We have enjoyed COE CG’s for weeks. Near immaculate grounds, good showers, W&E and a dump for $9. Tonight, we are paying $9 and the only amenities are pit toilets and trash cans.

Our iPhone shows no service, but the Jetpack gets 3 boosted. I was thinking of saving $10 a month, by putting the Jetpack to sleep, but today shows me she is valuable in some places.

Trivia from 1999 - We saw a sign ‘Dances With Wolves Film Site’ next to the CG. It was the location of the final scene. Wind In His Hair is standing on a rock ledge overlooking the winter camp exclaiming how he is a friend of Lt. Dunbar, as the LT and Stands With A Fist leave the camp. Most of the scenes were filmed in SD with a few in adjacent states.

Wednesday, June 1

Dorothy thought the Gem Saloon in Deadwood would be like the one in the series Deadwood. Of course, it bore no resemblance. The drive through town jogged her memory that she had been here before and there was no need to stay. She stuffed a few dollars in a slot and we were out the door. We drove to the cemetery to see the graves of Will Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Seth Bullock. They charge $2 per person just to look at a grave. We could not believe it and passed it by. We did a mile walk on Mt Roosevelt that had us huffing and puffing. It was continuous steep uphill, more exercise than we needed. We got back to camp at noon, had a sandwich and drove 90 minutes west to Devil’s Tower. We took the scenic route, rather than I90. And a fine drive it was. The hills are an orange-red color. Big change in temperature. It was 66 when we left the Black Hills. It was 79 at Devil’s Tower. 

We are “west” now for sure. The grass is a little stiff from lack of rain. We finally made it into the rain shadow of the Rockies. Now all we have to deal with is storms coming down from the mountains. 

The Indians did not call it Devil’s Tower. Their words for evil spirit and bear sound alike to the white ear. They have a legend about the tower involving a bear, not a devil. It is a great legend about the tower once being a tree stump. I will forever call it a stump.

On the way to Devil's Tower, we stopped in the berg of Alladdin, which is for sale. I could rule over 15 residents.

Thursday, June 2

We got out early, took some more pictures of the tower and decided to head west. Glenda said it was 2.5 hours to Buffalo. It took us 6 with a zillion stops. We were bushed at 3. When we parked we had smoked salmon and whiskey and after an hour I recovered.

We had our first view of snow covered mountains today as we left Gillette - The Big Horns. We have never explored them. That’s why we are here. 

Buffalo, WY is the location of the A&E series, Longmire. I’m a big fan of the show and each July the cast and crew come to town and go with the locals on the trail during “Longmire Days”. Sorry that I am going to miss it.  They tell me it is great fun. Nothing is filmed here. That’s all done in New Mexico.

Friday, June 3

We found a delightful parking place on Lake de Smet with a view of the mountains. Got the laundry done. Had some scrumptious Seafood Bisque at the SageWood Cafe. We like Buffalo and will hang here through the weekend, then go in the mountains. The weather looks good for the next week.

It’s been a wet month

Wednesday, May 11 - The rains started before we left and they have followed us. We have spent a few days parked just to avoid driving in the rain.

It seems weather forecasting has changed. I don’t think a next day forecast has been right all year. Yesterday, the forecast was 90% chance of rain. It was overcast in the morning, but by noon it was warm sun with few clouds. Today, the forecast was for afternoon showers. So we thought we would move an hour closer to Des Moines, park and see the capital. I looked at the weather radar this morning and a hundred mile wide front was just west of the capital. We moved anyway, 10 minutes closer to Pella on the banks of the Des Moines River. Got parked just in time before the rain started.

We are just below the dam and the water is quite swift. It must be good fishing as there are well over a hundred Pelicans, plus a like number of seagulls and then some small back feather birds. When they all take to air, it's a sight. The Pelicans take turns drifting downstream, then flying back up to the dam to again drift downstream. It makes no difference to them in which direction their heads face. But, when they are facing downstream, it looks to us like they are in a shooting arcade. We do not see them feeding on their swift journey, so we think they do it for fun.

More food acquisition in Pella. Today’s haul included a chuck roast, rib eye steaks, smoked chipped beef dip, roast beef, bologna, raspberry breakfast bread, zucchini bread and sour dough bread. Oh yeah, we had sandwiches at Opa’s again. Today we shared a table with two couples from Des Moines who shared places to see in the area.

Thursday, May 12 - It was forecast to be sunny, cooler and windy today. They got that right. However, they have extended the windy part for two more days. The reason we wanted to hang here was to paddle the red rock area on the lake. We will miss that, since after the wind, rain is back in the forecast. And so it goes.

Saturday, May 14 - We drove an hour north to Des Moines and toured the capital. Of the 14 capitals we have visited, this one was the best. Magnificent interior design. What first looks like wallpaper is paint.

 It's all painted

We normally do not try to move on Friday or Saturday, but reasoning that with the bad weather, there would be plenty of sites available. We got the last site and it was due to a cancellation. I should have figured these people do not let a little inclement weather slow them down when we noted five men in waders, at least a dozen on the shoreline and seven fishing boats at 6:30 in the morning with the wind blowing 12-15.

Sunday, May 15 - The Union Pacific RR and the Squirrel Cage Jail Museum were billed as free and several casinos in Council Bluffs offer parking, That was enough us to entice us to drive 2.5 hours west. Turned out the rail museum is only open three days a week and Sunday was not one of the days. The free admission jail wanted $7 a person to take a peek. We passed. Council Bluffs is a has been town. It looks like the casinos are the only source of revenue.

Monday, May 16 - We noticed that the Nebraska state capital was only an hour away.  So, why not? We got an half-hour down the road and saw  a sign that the Air Force SAC museum was the next exit. Rain looked imminent. So we took the off-ramp. It was raining by the time we parked at the museum. We wandered around looking a the humongous planes SAC used, then parked the rig in the beautifully landscaped state park next door, ate lunch, and napped. A long day.

It was designed to hang on a bomber wing and be dropped to defend the bomber. It was abandoned when the pilots were not able to get attached back to the bomber.

Tuesday, May 17 - Are we trying to get in a rut? Today we went to the Nebraska state capital in where??? Lincoln. Good job. Most capitals have parking close by, so we took KoKo to town. We can tell you what they have around the capital for blocks in all directions - No Parking signs. I suspect the largest concentration in the universe. We drove four miles to a mall, parked and took the Jeep back to town. Got the last parking place for a car. Sometimes having the handicap card helps out.

Do you want to know about the capital? It’s not much. A high rise. The inside has lots of murals and such, but the light is so dim, they are a waste. From the 14th floor, you can look in all directions. I can tell you that Nebraska is still flat.

We drove north on US81 to the town of Stomsburg, billed as the Swede Capital of the US. They have free park for overnighting with electric and central water and a dump.

Wednesday, May 18 - Three hours north on US81 brought us to Yankton, SD and the COE campground Cottonwoods. $8 including electricity. [No dry camping at most COE places] At every COE we have parked this trip, we say this one is the best. Well, this one is the best.

We stopped to change drivers an hour south of Yankton and as we pulled on the road Glenda advised us to continue on Johnny Carson Blvd. Johnny lived in Norfolk, Nebraska and graduated from HS there. As we approached Yankton, signage advised us that we were on Tom Brokaw Blvd.

I was disappointed that we missed the Granite Museum in York. We like the stone. Glenda was is a snit and mislead us.

Out Here In The Heartland

It’s a LONG Blog about nothing much.

Monday, May 2 - We have not spent much time in Kentucky, but we can still say that we have seen it. One of the things that we enjoy doing is touring state capitols. Since we were close to Frankfort, we notched the Kentucky capitol. On a beauty scale, the inside is 4.5. Outside, like all limestone structures, it looks dirty. Most capital buildings have a good bit of state history in displays. Not a thing in this one. Another thing that we like is small towns and that is Frankfort - only 27,000 souls. 

The Stable

A pleasant surprise was Linda Garner contacting me to let us know they would be in Frankfort today. We met Linda and Len at Lazy Daze Get-Togethers.  They gave us a tour of "horse country" and we went to lunch at Wallace Station. It is in the middle of nowhere, but is very popular and quite yummy.  After lunch, the "horse country" tour continued. In this county of Kentucky, no house can be built on less 30 acres, unless you were grandfathered in, and most farms are much larger. 

The stables are enormous and you can't see the houses from the road. We saw WinStar Farm www.winstarfarm.com and pulled over to gawk. We finally figured out we were looking at the stable and not the house.  The horses there certainly do live better than most people!

Also on the tour we saw Castle Post  www.thecastlepost.com - it's a castle that was once a home, but is now at Bed and Breakfast. Interesting history can be found http://castlepost.com/

May 3 - We left Kentucky and arrived at Bloomington, IN, staying in Hardin Ridge CG in the Lake Monroe Recreation Area. Once again, we are waiting for the rain to pass. 

Hardin Ridge is a huge FS CG - over 200 sites on Lake Monroe. It’s a COE lake so nothing but a boat ramp is on the water. We are nestled in the trees. The water is down there somewhere, we just can not see it. I think we are the only ones in the CG. I know we are the only ones in our loop. Most sites have electric, a few have W&E. We have three bars of LTE and all the network stations. All this for $17 a night. Bloomington is 30 minutes away.

Sentimental reason for staying on Lake Monroe, we were here in 1994 for the Windmill Nationals.

May 4 - There was rain this morning and we needed to do laundry, so we headed into town. For lunch, we went to Samira Restaurant, an Afghanistan restaurant. Well, it was billed as Afghani, but it could pass for Indian as far as we know. Anyway, it was good eating. This small town is home to Indiana University. 

We stopped at Kroger's for a few groceries.  While perusing the cheese section, the cheese manager asked us if we like smoked blue cheese. We said we have  never had it.  She told us she would give us a sample and we thought that meant a small taste.  She gave us a whole wedge - free!  No sales tax on food here. 

Thursday, May 5 - Drove almost six hours. Dead tired. Stopped in East Peoria. CG’s are few in this area. No free sites listed on any of our resources. Walmart was posted. Settled for a county park where most of sites are taken by the month.

Friday, May 6 - A shorter 2.5 hour drive brought us to Iowa City. This was our first planed destination. Why? To visit the Herbert Hoover Library. Dorothy likes going to them and I am always ready for anything to do with history.

Being near the Mississippi and several of it’s tributaries, there are COE CG’s all around. We picked West Overlook. It’s one of ten COE CG’s in a complex and there are several more just up river. The sites in FS CG’s are in the woods. The COE likes to landscape and have lots of lush green grass. How large is this CG? You remember the scene in the Japanese restaurant where The Bride asks Hattori Hanzo for Japanese steel. He says she must have some pretty big vermin to kill. She says H.U.G.E! Anywho, we have a large paved site overlooking the lower sites and the river - $10.

Being close to Cedar Rapids, the start of the camping season and a spectacular day, the sites are filling up. Mostly families, but there is so much separation any noise made is not heard.

I have been watching the dogs at two sites close to us. They are about 50 yards apart. The dogs know each other. One is on a leash, the other is not restrained, but remains in his site.They want to be with each other and keep a close eye on each other. Mom lets her kids go to their friends site, but not the dog. Sad. 

Saturday, May 7 - Big Day. We have wanted to visit Hoover’s library for some years. The last time we came this way,  the area was flooded. It was worth the wait. I suspect that most people know little to nothing about Hoover. Popular lore is that he was responsible for the Great Depression and is known for Hooverville’s. He went from being immensely popular before his election and through the first eight months of his term. Then the wildly exuberant stock market crashed. He had nada to do with it, but someone had to be the scape goat.

Hoover was a self-made man. He had no money. He got an engineering degree and talked himself into a job in Australia where he found gold for his employer.. In four years he was the highest paid person in the world for his age. In a few more years, he had his own world-wide company employing 175,000 from Siberia to Peru.

During and after WWI he organized organizations that feed kids in dozens of countries. Truman called him to do it again after WWII. He was a leader of men and humanitarian of the first order.

Too often, we condemn the dark episodes of our country - our treatment of Indians, Blacks, Asians, Irish etc. What Twain termed man’s inhumanity toward man. Such treatment has not been unique in the US. In fact, it has always been tempered here. It continues today. Witness only what ISIS has done Christians in the last year. It is just one more instance of what Islam, the religion of peace,  has been all about since Mohamed. However, you see our dark periods, through it all, the US has been the go to nation for freedom. We don’t credit people like Hoover, Marshall, Carter, Carnegie etc. for the good they have done. We need to focus more on the positive aspects of our countrymen. Such were my thoughts on leaving the Hoover library.

It’s good to be in the heartland. From here to the Sierra’s it is like the country we grew up in. Traditional values. A place where it’s OK to wave the flag.

The ideal Christmas present https://www.buybowllight.com/?mid=7892937

Sunday, May 8 - We are getting west. The radio stations now have 'K' prefixes. 

We took advantage of the last dry day for awhile to get west 2.5 hours to Pella, IA.  [You know, as in windows] Rain is forecast for the next 3 days.

In a burst of nostalgia, we stopped at Amana. We were there when our daughter was five. We remembered a yummy lunch served family style. The restaurants are still here, now run by gruff and could not care less folks. Yes, it was Mother’s Day, but casual rudeness does not agree with the town’s motto of of welcoming all comers. It’s just a tourist trap now. We bought a jar of strawberry and rhubarb jam and left town. BTW, Amana is not Amish.

Why Pella? Well to avoid driving in the rain is the main reason. We will stay here and sample the food in the nearby Dutch towns. The restaurant billed as best has Greek fare. Go figure. Maybe we will be able to wet the yaks. They have not been off the roof yet. 

It is the largest lake in the state. Originally the city of Red Rock, Lake Red Rock, is a reservoir on the Des Moines River, about 55 miles southeast of the city of Des Moines, Iowa

Our site on the lake is like having huge yard, but we don't have to do any work. Rain is expected for the next few days, so this is a nice place to be.  We have TV reception, good wifi, books to read and there are always things to do in Koko.

When we reach the 100th parallel [about half-way through SD] we will be “west” and in long rain shadow of the Rockies. There have been high winds all through the southwest this year and extra rain in the central and southern states. Seems we are getting Canada’s fair share of rain and they are burning up.

Monday, May 9 - After the early morning shower, we set out in search of food. Our first stop was Reichert’s Dairy. I found an address on the web and off we went. Down CR 17, then a gravel road and finally to Lois Lane. There was no commercial signage, it looked like a few rural residential homes and it was. But, at the end of the road I saw feed piled up, then we saw goats. A small dog who would not shut up barking greeted us. We looked at the goats and finally a women appeared in the window of the barn. I guess she wanted to see why the heck her dog was barking. We explained and she said to wait just a minute while she finished milking. So with the dog continuing to yap we looked at the baby goats. When she finished, she came out and introduced herself, Lois Reichert. We had a long chat and she offered us three wedges of goat cheese for $20.

[Elizabeth, I really tried hard to think of a clever way to pop Lois Lane on you. But, my wee brain shrinks daily]

If you have cheese, you need meat to go along with it. So I plugged in the town of Melcher-Dallas to Glenda and away we went down more rural roads until we found Northcote Meats. Jim was cutting meat in the back when we arrived, but came out to see what we needed. We settled on four fine looking pork chops and some brats. He threw in a package of breakfast sausage while we chewed on beef and cheese sausage sticks. I am thinking of parking the rig across the street from this place. Beef delivery is on Tuesday’s.

With all the smells in the car, we were ready for lunch, so we tracked to Pella and had some fine huge sandwiches at Opa’s Deli. Oh and strawberry and rhubarb pie. Devine.

Opa's Deli

Now satisfied we walked around the town square to another meat market and two bakeries. We only bought some Dutch Hanke’s almond pastries for breakfast and a loaf of sour dough bread. We will be back for more meat and pastries. It seems will be be here for a few days.

Pella had their Tulip Festival this last weekend. Most of the blooms were damaged by the rains, but a few survived.

On The Road - Again

Nomads Don and Dorothy searching for bop, kicks, speed and the night. We wish. Staying up beyond 10, is difficult.

We have names for all of our trips. No names any import, but names that keep the trips distinguishable to us. In 2007, everywhere we went in the desert SW and Baja cactus were in bloom. That one we simply call the Cactus Trip.

Counting since 2006, this year’s adventure will be the 19th. It will be the 10th long distance - long duration trip. The other nine trips were shorter distance/duration trips. Some years, we did two short trips, other years, we combined a short one with an extended version. Wanderlust knows no bounds with us. 85,000 miles on the RV, 50,000 on the Liberty and 10,000 on the Rubicon. Bite our large carbon footprint.

The tentative name for this trip is North By NW. Our goals include avoiding driving through Texas, finding folks that are doing something a little different and chat them up. Like finding a man riding a lawn mower in the street in “downtown” any small town, Iowa. It would have be the mayor going to the office for a minute on Saturday and we wind up eating dinner at his home. Pork chops, beets and rutabaga’s. How about the couple setting up a tent in the desert who arrived in a 1957 Caddie convertible. I knew there was a story waiting to be learned. And there was.

This will be our third time through the upper tier of states. SD, MT, ID and WA. We hope the weather will be kind to us as we will be pushing the season. Both times we have been to Glacier there was snow on the Going To The Sun road in mid July.

We both hope the green landscape will not bore us, for we so love the exposed rocks of Utah. We will get there in September, the rainy season, hoping we can miss the fall rains in our trade for missing the high winds of the spring. There are two areas there, I have tried to photograph the last two Springs. Both times haze or air born dust made it impossible. 

We managed to get on the road the next morning before 11 and drove north on US27. It winds though the hollows and ridges of the Cumberland Plateau. We stopped at the VC for the Obed Scenic River. We enjoyed a long chat with the ranger there. I know he was glad to see us as we were the only ones there. We watched a film on the scenery of the river canyon and decided to pass on the river. First, it looks much like Little River Canyon in Alabama and more importantly the rain in the area has been so low that not only is there no white water, you have to portage a good bit. Getting in and our of our yaks becomes more of a problem every year.

The trees are in full leaf here, the pollen is dealing us fits, but the vibrant green of the leaves is gorgeous. I suppose we will be dealing with pollen for the next month or so.

The scenery may not be as spectacular as is found in the western states, but it sure beats, crossing Mississippi, Louisiana and especially Texas to get west. So it’s a treat to follow the winding roads and look at the greenery.

Friday, April 22 - After a hectic two weeks, we finally departed Montgomery.  We drove all 90 minutes to Hoover before stopping at Olive Garden to have lunch with my cousin.  Then we went to visit our friends Frank and Sandy in our old neighborhood, We spent the night in their driveway.  

Saturday, April 23 - We had lunch at Bonefish with our sailing friends, Walter & Nancy Bailey.  Food was very good and we stuffed.  Then it was on to Gadsden, AL where we stayed at Noccalula Falls CG. According to legend, Princess Noccalula was promised by her father to a warrior in another tribe as part of a peace treaty. She was in love with a brave from her tribe and on her wedding day, she jumped to her death at the falls. Alecia, Lee and grandchildren joined us and we drove to Attalla for a family reunion. It was good to see the cousins that I spent so much time with during my youth.  It makes the years disappear.

Sunday, April 24 - We finally left Alabama and arrived in Kingston, TN to visit with our long-time friends, Terry & Betty Wood, that we met back in our sailing days. Love spending time with our best friends.

Monday, April 25 - We continued north on US27 into Ken-tuck stopping for lunch at a roadside BBQ truck. There were 18 wheelers and a sheriff there, so we figured that it had to be good - and it was. The buns were stuffed with tender pork and a decent sauce.

We parked at the Blue Heron CG which is in the Big South Fork NRRA. It’s a large park along the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River. One long name. The CG has 47 W&E sites which are paved and mostly level. There is a dump, 3 bars of LTE, free firewood in every site and PBS and the CW channel. All for the low, low cost of $8.50 on the geezer card. There are four other folks here on a Monday. A great place to decompress, look for the cell modem that went missing Saturday night and wait out the front moving through.

The mailing address for Blue Heron and it’s environs is Strunk, KY. Not Stunk, not Skunk, but Strunk. The family is still a part of the community as we noted the funeral home bears their name. And now you know.

Devils Jumps Overlook is a huge deck on the side of a canyon and would make a great place for a party.

Our park service built a Hollywood style set to depict the structures and life in the mining towns that were all over this area of Kentucky. This is a replica of a tipple, a machine that sorts coal by size. The different sizes fall into the train cars under the tipple.

Interesting Paint Job

Our Site At South Fork. Perhaps one of the best sites ever.

Cumberland Falls in Kentucky

The state park at Cumberland State Falls was the worst we have seen. It should be closed. The one at Red River Gorge is much better. Along a road, but the babbling stream drowns out all traffic noise.

We spent the rest of the week, staying put when it was raining and peering into canyons on the sunny days. April has been a wet month for most of the country. One of the areas we checked out was the Red River Gorge. Yep, it’s a canyon, filled with greenness with a murky stream at the bottom and occasional rock out-croppings on the cliffs, There are dozens of hiking trails, enough to take a month or so to pace all of them. We yawned. We are jaded from our western adventures, where the canyons are nude, almost devoid of green. 

In other news, oil is up to $47 a barrel and gasoline jumped 25 cents overnight to $2.37.  Oh well, our energy stocks are up and we are paying more at the pump.

It’s dawning on us that we are in Appalachia. The impoverished section. We have not seen any unpainted clapboard homes as were photographed during the Johnston years, but many are not far removed from that look. Of course poverty is different now. Then, an electric washing machine was a luxury. Now, multiple cars and TV’s are normal.

What we have noticed is the look of generations of inbreeding. The look of mental illness. We have seen pockets of this before, such as one town in Idaho, just large enough to have a Walmart. A town surrounded by mountains. Much like the lower hills here. Does geography contribute? It has in the past. Today “there are still at least four known communities in Eastern Kentucky that have families that have inbred children. One particular county still has quite a high inbreeding rate of 95%. These particular children have been reported with severe medical problems.” It is telling that the three states with highest failure rate on the Armed Forces entry exam are Tennessee, West Virginia and Kentucky - all Appalachian states.

There is more to traveling than scenery for us. There is understanding.

Sunday we plan to move a little west to the Kentucky state capital.

You did get the reference to searching for bop, kicks, speed and the night, didn’t you? Do show your expansive literary knowledge with a comment on the source.