Well I had been thinking about my birthday this year a lot. It was one of many birthdays lately that don’t come with any fun benefits beyond being alive still which of course is a great benefit lol. 68 and younger ages seem to be ages attached to more and more obits lately. It has made both of us ponder mortality lately but frankly in an appreciative way that we still are healthy and able to travel and even drive a truck pulling an Airstream which brings me to our recent trip.

Jo is from NYC and her family have lived and some continue to live on Long Island and have visited LI many times. I’ve always thought driving in NYC was easy compared to my training in Boston but still a challenge at times. And that challenge wasn’t with 47 feet of combined length truck and trailer. There isn’t really any easy way to drive through NYC or time of day it seems that coincide with campground check ins at 3. Sooooo I had been thinking about my birthday (oh and my niece’s wedding) as an event tied to some driving and trailer pulling anxiety. That said, on our cross country trip this year I stupidly drove through Chicago during rush hour with Jersey barriers, lane changes and construction everywhere do NYC no biggy. Bring it on!

A good friend of Jo’s growing up, and now my friend Jim, generously suggested we drive from Maine to CT Thursday and leave 10ish Friday to miss some of the traffic headed out to the Hamptons Friday. The, shall we refer to now as “the celebration”, was on Saturday so we planned to camp on the island Friday and leave Sunday. Some of you are probably thinking if you are coming down from Maine why not take the Ferry from CT to LI? Skip the traffic around NYC. The thought of getting to ferry through the crazy streets to the Bridgeport dock and then pulling on to a ferry was nerve racking in itself but hey sounds like a good idea. Wellll the price was $274 each way so I decided let’s drive and take the Throgs Neck bridge. Did I say I successfully drove through Chicago lol!?!?

Plans were made with final destination reservations at the Nassau County Battle Row campground and off we went to our first stop at our friend Jim’s house. There are several ways to get to Jim’s but when we are not pulling a trailer we always use parkways. Parkways with a trailer are illegal and impassable with low overpasses (trailer 10 ft high) so now to find an RV safe route. We use RV life which knows our vehicle and RV height and weight and should keep us out of air conditioner damaging, backing up the trailer dead ends etc. Well it works fairly well but every so often does some whacked directions suddenly sending us back home or with random four rights and lefts when straight would work but is better than standard GPS which we also have running as backup just in case. The weather looked great and off we went.

Part of our usual, and now this trip , involved I90 in Massachusetts. I assumed the rest stops were RV friendly as I had seen the signs in the past when pulling in. I wanted to fill up one last time to have enough gas to get to our campsite without having to gas up at one of the cute old gas stations in CT that have zero room to maneuver my truck and trailer. On pulling off we saw signs to the right for trucks that led around the back of the rest area and bypassed the gas pumps (not helpful). Signs said RVs and cars to the left which would have been a straight shot to the pumps but I wanted to use the restroom and get breakfast to last til CT so turned off the entrance ramp into the parking area indicated for me. Don’t ever do that at the Cantom MA rest area westbound. The parking area lanes are not two cars wide let alone Airstream and tow mirrors wide. After a hurried prayer and some polite drivers I luckily was able to find several spots open to swing wide and pull through. I thinks we ended up taking five spots with an almost jackknifed trailer lol. And then to get out what would have been a mildly narrow scary row finished with what was two lanes wide entrance/exit road now partially blocked by tractor trailers who decided they were too good for the truck section. (In retrospect should have parked in the curb area as you enter with those trucks). No where near enough room to pull way out and swing wide with the trucks there and not drag my trailer up over the curbs. I prayed all the way in, and out off the rest area building armed with coffee and breakfast burritos, that the trucks would be gone and miraculously they were. Jo suggested I wait and eat my burritos before driving but I grabbed the truck-less opportunity and made it out and on to the pumps no problem! Phew. Thank you prayers answered again.

The drive to Jim’s was uneventful other than RV life trying to take us back to Maine at one point but rebooted and with Jim’s written directions confirmed by GPS we made it. Jim actually drove the route near his home a few days before our trip with our trailer in mind to make sure we had clearance as his roads are beautiful but stone wall lined and narrow even for cars. Thanks Jim.

We backed in to Jim’s without any injuries or damage to his home. Then Jim took us out to a great Italian restaurant. Day one a success.

Nice breakfast at Jim’s with NY area “real bread” rolls and off we went leaving out 10:30 for what should be around a 2 hour or less drive. We would be missing some of the Friday afternoon traffic, note I didn’t say missing all traffic as there was still plenty but better. That did mean arriving 1ish at the campground when check in wasn’t til 3. I called before leaving Jim’s and the gentleman at the campground volunteered to see if our site was empty and ready for us. He actually drove to our site, called back and said we were a go to arrive at 1. Nice guy. Several people on an AS forum suggested I should pay the ferry fee rather than brave NYC roads but off we went hoping they weren’t going to say “I told you so”. People including truckers let me in to go from the left lane merge onto the LIE to go across four stop and go lanes to the right lane exit and in general I was amazed and happy with how manageable the traffic was and nice drivers were. In two hours we arrived at what turned out to be a little oasis on Long Island, the Battle Row campground. Trees, grass, space between sites. Very nice. Oh and the reason we camped vs a hotel was our two old and needy dogs. Mobile kennel syndrome lol.

The “celebration” was fantastic as was our stay at Battle Row. My niece Laura, who is a very amazing and accomplished person (would take a separate blog to list all she has done very successfully so far), married someone accomplished in his own right, a mayor of a LI city. It was great to meet him after hearing great things. He and Laura looked incredibly happy and the bride was beautiful. As always Jo-Ann’s family was fun to be around and took full advantage of the beautiful venue. Lots of dancing to the music from an incredible live band.

As to camping the Battle Row campsites have power and water but no septic hookups. For any of you not used to trailer camping having your own shower and bathroom on board is a huge plus but that means using water and if no septic hookup storing “grey” shower and sink water and “black” toilet water. And while we have approximately 70 gallons total storage that is a limited amount that we monitor. Much easier when you have a pipe from those tanks into a septic pipe allowing draining as needed at your site. So having been careful with water use we succeeded in staying clean lol and left for home Sunday AM, first stop the infamous “dump station”. Great name lol. Dump stations have a tank you hook to and empty the onboard holding tanks. Also a water hook up to connect to an internal tank wash system if you have one. Battle Row only has 45 sites but has two dump station lanes! Many campgrounds with more sites but only have one lane resulting in waiting lines oh and performance anxiety as sometimes impatient exiting campers wait for you to finish up. Very nice designed dump station and campground and no waiting to dump finish to our stay.

The trip home, having done the trip successfully one way already, was much less stressful with minimal early Sunday AM traffic.

I did forget to mention one driving moment on the way to our LI campground. We got off the LIE at the campground exit, merged across three lanes of traffic in 100 yards to turn right. We then drove a 1/4 mile to a traffic light on a curve and left turn across oncoming traffic lanes. As I was well into the turn, with no cars visible at the start of the turn, a twenty something in a souped up Hyundai came into view in the oncoming lanes doing 50-60 mph on a road and traffic light designed for 25 mph traffic. Committed I gunned it to a cacophony of angry horn blowing from the oncoming one car. Had he been driving close to speed limit no issue but it would have been his word against mine if an accident and my on board traffic camera I got for this situation might or might not have recorded it. Disaster avoided and fortunately our only near miss in over thousands of miles travel with the AS so far at least.

It was a great trip, great wedding and great celebration of my birthday lol! Now for the next trip planning!

Well I’m starting to get the itch to do another cross country. Don’t get me wrong I love being on the lake in Maine for the summer but I want to be ready to book when reservations open up. I’m thinking of leaving from Maine right after Labor Day 2024 and being back in Florida mid October Fall of 2024.

This trip will be the second of two trips Jo has agreed to so far. I would like to do some of Route 66 and then head west. I’m not sure if we would have enough time to do Yosemite and the California coast but that sounds great time and distance allowing. Then maybe swing back south and see Bryce Canyon and other Southwest US sights.

To those of you following my blog if you have places and things to see middle America, west coast and Southwest please comment. I’m also looking for the most scenic routes and best (and worst) roads to pull a trailer as I have heard some of the interstates are even worse than I95 in South Carolina!!

More to come but please chime in with any suggestions for the next loop/trip. Stay well and be sure to stop and smell the roses.

Love ya.

We’ve been back 18 days and have been crazy busy. Dock in…thanks Brian Thomas, Raft in after replacing anchors (still wondering what happened to a few cement blocks and a five gallon pail of cement) , boat in (after polishing pontoons. More on the why later), gazebo roof on and screens replaced, furniture out, gardens weeded, lawn mowed twice to name a few things.

Finally got around to cleaning the outside of the airstream. OMG it was dirty. Really noticed when I missed spots see below. Looks good now. Jo cleaned the inside floors and walls and washed linens and sheets. Did I mention the almost full cup of coffee with Dunkin’ Donuts extra extra creamer i spilled into the range and down the cabinets. Learned how to take cooktop off at least. Jo discovered more places we missed while cleaning. What a sticky mess. Extra extra sticky. At least this time I didn’t kill a laptop. Don’t ask….

Our first couple of weeks have pretty much rained every day with occasional glorious breaks of sunshine and warmth. During one of the sunny breaks we had our grandchildren over. Jo wanted to teach them how to kayak so we bought a youth kayak. After an hour or less of practice off we went with Conan urging us on to go to the sandbar in the middle of the lake. Ella sat on my lap in my kayak. We have a new kayaker with one in the making.

As for pontoon polishing I had used muriatic acid to clean them last fall. Takes off the crud and waterlines but also makes them dull grey. Soooo with my helpful neighbor’s polisher ( Dennis has everything – thanks Dennis) I spent a few hours polishing and came out shiny! God forbid I have a dull looking boat.

Back to the raft. Brian and I pulled the raft down the bank to the water and then noticed my float attached to the anchors was gone. On further inspection everything was gone as was my neighbors float. Also no sign of the anchors. In the past someone asked him to remove them as they were in the way of tubing and when he refused they pulled them out of the water and piled them on a neighbors beach. I’m beginning to wonder if this is a repeat but soooo weird that someone would remove the anchors as there is tons of lake to tube and our raft isn’t out far. So far no luck finding any of the two anchors in only 5 feet of water. Odd to say the least.

I have glossed over the fact that Brian had to help me with the dock. Jo had some back pain pre trip making us both worried sitting in the truck for hours would be horrible. Luckily her back got better until a few days prior to return to Maine at the end of the trip and has persisted so no dock work etc. Dr Bill prescribed steroids which initially worked but now not so much so off to Urgent Care today. All those years as an ICU moving heavy unconscious patients catching up. Need to get this girl better for the next trip. Send healing prayers our way please.

Ella me too kayaking

June 9: Well folks yesterday was the last day of our travels this time. We left Verona in a cloud of acid eye burning cough inducing Canadian wildfire smoke. As you have probably experienced lately or at least seen pictures of it, the smoke made mid-day look like dim and apocalypse like. Our trip finally started to get out of the smoke as we entered Vermont and got better as we crossed into NH and then Maine where there was hardly any smoke. I had detoured off the Waze and RV GPS systems routes and grabbed Rt 7 East in Albany and went through Bennington, VT and Keene, NH and then Concord. I did this to avoid driving I-90 in Mass but also to see my Mom who fell and broke her hip two days before and was in Concord Hospital. My sister held down the fort and with her help we arranged for her to go to a Skilled Nursing Facility she had been in briefly once before. And liked the care she got. We are all praying she will have a quick recovery and get back to her apartment at the Peabody place.

Having shocked or surprised Mom by my quick visit we trudged on to Maine arriving around 6 PM. Pulling into our parking area I went to hook up the power from my newly installed pedestal and no power. I finally figured out through my fatigue the main breaker was off. Switch on, circuit breakers on and power. We unloaded a few things and dragged ourselves in for some Panera broccoli and cheese soup and sandwiches courtesy of Jo’s sister Gerry who gave Jo a Panera gift card. Life is good. 24 campsites and 7300 miles and an overwhelming amount of beauty and friendly faces. later so glad we did this.

I may post again after I have a chance to process the trip and get the dock in, boat launched, Tundra in for tire rotation and 20,000 mile service, window boxes planted (after buying flowers) and deck stained etc etc. Maybe I should head back out lol….nahhh I get to see my kids I think I’ll stay for a bit.

Love you all. Thanks for following and all the positive and funny feedback. Now to start planning our southern National Park trip! Don’t tell Jo.

June 7: Well getting back to our place in Maine was getting very real now. One more overnight and we were going to be in Maine the following day. I have absolutely LOVED this road trip. This was a bucket list trip that despite major reservations Jo agreed to accompany me on. I have stopped for meetings or work at different cities in multiple states but always flew over or into and back out of cities. I never really saw the land and people. That said it was time to park the trailer and sleep in our home for a while and it was almost time.

This stop was in Verona, NY near Syracuse and was owned by and adjacent to the Turning Stone Casino. We had made plans to meet with friends from Florida that live and own a business in Syracuse when not in Florida. Looking forward to dining out with friends.

The Turning Stone campground was set in the woods but with plenty of grass and space to park and stay had we been there more than a night. They knew we were arriving, emailed and texted us the day before and had the paperwork ready as we checked in. Our site was on the end and had a rather tight curved paved pull through drive that took some maneuvering but we landed and had an easy hookup to utilities with time to get spruced up for dinner. Phew. What was that smell though? More to come on that.

We had a nice dinner with our friends who came bearing gifts no less. Nice coffee mugs. Dinner with friends and gifts what’s not to love. I have to confess that I have a weakness for the Wheel of Fortune slots. I once did a pre breakfast walk in Las Vegas where I went into many many casinos and played one pull of WOF in each one. Well this time I found the WOF slot but a new modern version that needed an engineering or computer degree to figure out. Off I went to get help and a players card. In doing so I got a free gift of $10. After playing WOF a few times it was time for dinner and I left up $5.65. Winner winner yahoo. After dinner we were all beat and feeling not great from the smoke inside the casino and the Canadian smoke outside the casino so made it an early night to rest up for the longest drive of our trip ending back at our place in Maine.

Well upon getting up on the last day we smelled smoke and exiting the trailer it was like we were in a forest fire or at least surrounded by smokey campfires (which we weren’t). People working at the campground were actually wearing respirators, something that would have been nice to have as I ran around getting ready for the road.

Time to head home Dorothy. There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home….there’s….

June 6: Well we left Indiana without any tears and drove on to Ohio. I dont think I had ever been in Ohio before but traveling and the weather were both great. Our next stop on our way to Maine was at a campground in Geneva on the Lake. This campground was across the street from lake Erie which looked more like an ocean than a lake. There was some haze so the view was shortened a bit but beautiful. Traveling through Cleveland which is about 40 minutes away we came on what appeared to be a motorcycle off the road with multiple first responders flying by us and parking on and near the road as we approached making for a bit of a white knuckle drive as cars braked and swerved to give them room. Eyes straight ahead aiming where I wanted to go we made it through that unscathed. That said Diesel started howling so we made a random exit into what turned out to be a neighborhood with narrow streets and no big parking areas. About the time my anxiety was peaking we did find a supermarket parking lot on our side of the road with not only a wide enough entrance to swing but what looked like an easy exit. Getting into a parking lot without a planned and apparent exit can result in backing out into traffic in this case during rush hour. Not a good thing. And curbs adjacent to entrances without enough room to drive past and swing wide is an issue. Always looking to be sure a car isn’t exiting as you enter is a must or that long thing behind you will be bounced off or up over a curb as the wheels are way back there. Once again a dog emergency solved without damages and we found a way back onto I-90.

The campground was easy to find. Plenty of room to park and register. There was actually someone to greet us and they were prepared for us with a map with our site #. The site was a pull through with plenty of space to park and space between sites. This campground had seasonal sites but the rows assigned to travelers were only for transients so it didnt feel like we were dropping in to someone’s home. The campground grounds and amenities were spotless and plentiful. We had an issue with the 110V outlet on our pedestal and a faulty GFI outlet that kept tripping. I emailed the campground staff who responded immediately and had someone come out and replace it very quickly. Such a change from our last experience.

We thought about going to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but being pretty tired the next day we went out for lunch, explored a bit and walked around Lake Erie on a State Park trail. Relaxed with cold beverages and read later and had a great home cooked meal. Very nice two night stay. I will say that I think we were starting to see the Canadian wildfire smoke that at the time we thought was just fog or haze on the lake but not enough to bother.

More great weather too! Jo is now a good weather charmed person.

June 4: Jo warned me about sharing my experience with our visit to our lakefront campsite in Angola, Indiana. I feel I would be remiss to not share the good with the not so good and in this case the bad. I mentioned in my last blog post that I had snagged two days at a lake and had a site on the waterfront. Well I should have had alarm bells going off when I received an email saying if no one was present on our arrival to just go to our site which mysteriously had changed from site 2 to site 7 (what??? There are always people present or almost unless maybe a state park and then there are boards posted with your site at least.). Well we made several right turns and left turns going down narrower and narrower roads further into the woods but finally saw signs for the campground and headed into the entrance. On arrival we found what had clearly back in the day been a cute replica of an old west town but now was a conglomeration of boards over boards and other repairs made in a rush. The store where the sign said was te registration location was padlocked despite it being 4 PM on a Friday night. Another traveler that pulled in behind us was also baffled but I remembered the email saying to show myself to my site #2 no wait when I read again now it said site 7 hmmmm. We proceeded down a steep and narrow road toward the body of water (more a smallish pond but whatever it was waterfront right?) and not seeing signs or numbers but seeing multiple side by side trailers I was lost and getting nervous. Many of the trailers had giant propane tanks in front of them suggesting we would not be sharing travel stories. Patios, decks, 17 cords of firewood stacked by them also made it clear we were once again crashing a home. A nice man in one of the several hundred (OK Im exaggerating there may have only been fifty) golf carts running about loaded with kids and frazzled adults stopped and asked if we needed help. My pale face and tremors a give away. He found our site which was right on a road separating us from the water and now directly across from the lake and not the site down the way away from the activity resembling the Indy 500. He explained oh they probably changed your site to give the nicer one to a nurse who is a locus tenets traveling nurse because she is here for the summer. I kid you not he said gave the nicer one to the nurse. He then said oh your neighbor is parked in your spot (it was a spot) and he is across the pond fishing and proceeded to scream and gesture for him to move his truck. He did get back quickly (the good thing about this being a pond not a lake) and proceeded. To park his truck across the street directly in front of our site. He seemed upset consistent with my feeling we were barging in so rather than ask him to move it further down I tried to back in having to almost jackknife the trailer while backing up a steep grade into my spot. As accomplished as I am (in my mind at least) I couldnt swing the front of my truck around to straighten out the trailer once it was backing into our spot because his truck was in the way. Jo was great on the walk-in talkie helping but there was no room. I expected he would apologize or at least be friendly and realize he was not in my site but blocking me still and move to be by his site but he and a few hundred other onlookers in the water, on the beach and in golf carts watched as I tried to maneuver. Jo finally had to ask him to please move the truck which he grudgingly did to across from his site and I easily backed it up Kilimanjaro onto our site. Now to level the trailer whose front end was hanging out over a small cliff. The Brewster’s are here!!!!!!

After using everything we had to level and support the trailer on the most un level site to date we connected the water, power and sewer which worked and hunkered down trying to stay out of sight for a bit expecting at some point the owners of the campground would check with us when they got back from wherever. The nice man did say there was karaoke someplace at 7 and left.

The next AM we got up having survived some pretty bad karaoke until midnight. It kind of reminded me of when Jeff Dennett, Gary Byers and I had a band in middle school. While we weren’t awful what we lacked in talent we made up for in volume as if that would smooth out the rough spots. We actually went pro playing at a city of Franklin Rec Center dance where we got our pictures and write up in the Franklin Journal Transcript and made $5 EACH. I was on my way to Rock Stardom. The singers at the lake karaoke did the same thing and despite a fairly soundproof Airstream we were serenaded loudly and off key well into my usual sleep time. But they were definitely having fun.

On walking around the campground I saw site 2 which I had reserved (there was a disclaimer it could be changed as needed which I assumed was a broken RV or medical emergency…nope) which was still on the race track but away from the finish line at the beach. Once again there were a number of full timers wheels off, decks built large propane tanks in front of the hitch trailers. In this case it went from 50% to 95%. Again Jo and I feel that allowing a few travelers in allows them to call it a RV campground and skirt some costly regulations. We tried being friendly with a few of the neighbors but we were definitely going to be people from away until we left. Even Maddie wouldn’t walk with us which she always wanted to do and did before and after this site.

As for the title if you have camped before you know there is usually gravel, pea stone, small rocks or cement pads to park your RV on. In the case of gravel and pea stone we like most RVers have lave polypropylene carpets that allow water through but help keep dirt of the trailer particularly with dogs. This site was a messy mixture of dirt and ashes as the truck guy had thrown our fire ring into a neighboring site and by driving his truck back and forth scattered ash everywhere. Yup it wasn’t pretty. In all seriousness this was the one site so far where I didn’t feel safe. And no I didn’t hear banjos playing….or did I?

I was uncomfortable and I felt really badly as I had promised lakefront to Jo as a reward for a long drive to get there. Jo was a good wife and laughed with me and put up with it. It is only two days..it is only two days (There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home).

Time to pack up and get the heck out of Dodge.

PS The reviews, of which there were only six since 2017…red flag, were top notch. Lesson for Bill…require more than six reviews and more than one a year. “A hidden gem” was one review. Translation in retrospect “couldn’t find the place or my site easily” lol.

June 2: I think I mentioned that when I said I wanted to get a haircut she was perhaps a bit over enthusiastic about the idea…absent minded professor look I believe she said. Well I felt 10# lighter and I think we even got better gas mileage with my new look. It has become exciting and more real that we are heading home to Maine. Jo corrects me when I say home in Maine as we live in Florida more than Maine but I will always think of at east one of our homes being in New England (and I do love Florida and our friends and neighbors there too). But we are getting closer to our place in Maine. And I am ready.

The next stop was an overnight in DeForest, Wisconsin. This was a stop to rest and eat and sleep. These one nighters set up and take down are a bit easier as I don’t usually even unhook my trailer. We typically have water, electricity and sewer hookups so we are able to be comfortable in our trailer but much less to do and undo. These one night stops are typically planned to be right of the road we are traveling and usually a KOA or Good Sam predictable stop. This one was most of that. I say most. Of that because it had all the hookups and was right off the interstate but wasnt a KOA. It had good ratings on the camping websites so looked great.

Well on arrival we had to go over a speed bump about ten feet high to get into a massive parking lot with plenty of room to skid to a stop even without the mountain ridge. That one bump at 5 mph rearranged quite a bit in the trailer. Nothing broken we checked in and like many good campgrounds we were led to our site by an employee in a golf cart swinging wide around corners to ensure we knew to do the same (as if I wasnt already a wide turn expert after one curb and 6000 mile lol. But hey its nice when Im tired to be reminded (unless its Jo of course lol…I know how to drive!!!) Did I say it has been a lot of driving and Im a bit tired.

On arrival at our site I had all the hookups but quickly noticed every other site or so appeared to be a full timer. Grass unmown or dead, bikes and decks and sheds, dogs chained out and…….clearly not moving on. I understand that seasonal workers, locus teens docs and nurses, snowbirds there for the summer all use campgrounds but as we headed east across the Midwest it became apparent that campgrounds were becoming more stationary parks not RV going somewhere parks despite the advertising as such. I think there must be some licensing reason they are trying to get around by having a few mobile visitors for appearance and advertising sake. It is also likely a reflection of the real economy with people working multiple jobs to make ends meet but still not making enough to afford a house. That said it is very uncomfortable plopping into someone’s full time residence surrounded by people who know each other and arent ready to share travel stories. I kind of felt guilty that we had the ability to own a travel trailer we didn’t call home and the money to travel just to see the sights and visit friends. Probably God’s way of making me appreciate all we have but it is much more fun to pull into sites with others passing through like us. I hope this comes across as reflecting my discomfort barging in to others homes rather than joining others who are passing through and not that I have a problem with people living someplace for an extended time. Just not what I was expecting and not something we saw on our way West so much as the northern states coming home. We are truly fortunate and blessed and I realize that every day.

The site was nice and felt safe and served it’s purpose getting us some rest before heading on but no real time to see stuff other than the usual water tower with the city’s name. I want one in our town as it is kind of classic and shows pride in being from somewhere I think. Now on to a highly rate/reviewed campground on a lake where I was able to snag a waterfront site for two days R&R.

June 1: After a nice trip from Bismarck with many many more views of landscape bordering on Badlands rocks interspersed with big sky fields we arrived in St Cloud, Minnesota. I realized St. Cloud (named after a French saint) was close to Minneapolis (twin cities duh I’m slow) where I had visited when In a leadership course I took. The course included a mentor who was very helpful and a really nice guy. I hoped to connect at the last minute once I realized how close we were but he like me had semi retired and his contact number and email I had was for the old position at Health Partners. Oh well maybe another time.

The St Cloud campground was not so easy to get to using the RV Life GPS that supposedly was made for RVs to avoid low overpasses etc. Well this time it took us through the city at rush hour. Not the first time in traffic for us but in retrospect not necessary. The good news is that it brought us by a Great Clips (my hair was getting to look like the absent minded professor according to Jo) and several dispensaries (our endless quest for pet CBD which seemed to be helping Maddie’s hips and appetite). We checked in and because it was a two day stay we stayed put for the night. The weather being warmer meant no noisy heat pumps or gas furnace. Nice to sleep solidly.

The next day we called around and found a CBD store that sold pet CBD. We picked up the CBD and I got my haircut just down the street. A a nice haircut at that. I did get to talking (bragging) about my kids and Teen Challenge came up. Turns out she had just had heard them speak at her church the Sunday before. She had tried to get her Dad who struggled with alcoholism to attend but no luck. I encouraged her to get more info on Teen Challenge and continue to love on her Dad. As I told her it would be up to him to want to attend and by getting more info on the disease she might be able to support and understand what has been a really sad and frustrating experience for her so far. I told her we would pray for her and her Dad. For anyone reading this I would suggest you Google search Teen Challenge or Adult and Teen Challenge as it is called now. They are in every state and something like 80 countries, are a 501C3 relying solely on tax deductible donations and helped Zach find his way out of his turmoil. Great great organization that could use your help if you have the means and desire.

We decided to rest up so no museums and we had a chance to put down the rugs, open the awning and just hang out and read. Very nice. We did however go out for Chinese food. We really havent eaten out much and have had nice healthy home cooked meals most of the time but felt like splurging and throwing caution to the wind as we have had some pretty weird “Chinese” food in different places. Food was great, owner’s teenage sons waited on us and proceeded to do trivia on English royalty with patrons who we think were his teachers. Had to laugh when the husband said all he really cared about was that he remembered what he ordered not just trivia lol.

The next day I decided to skip the RV Life GPS and bravely using Mapquest. We made it out and onto I-94 very easily and quicker than getting to our campsite. yayyyy

5/30 Our stay in Miles City over we departed uneventfully and headed to North Dakota, our first stop in a while that wasn’t in Montana. We really liked Montana and visiting and catching up with friends but it was time to head to Maine and see our family. After driving for 6 hours we arrived in Bismarck, North Dakota. The trip once again reminded us of how spread out things are in the west and frankly how land rich and property poor farmers that feed us all are. The barns and farm equipment were top notch, the homes a place to get out of the weather….period. That’s not to say there arent pockets of affluence where homes are the focus but these seemed to be only in larger cities and suburbs and vacation areas like our friends lived in. I want to be clear though…. The west is beautiful.

We arrived at our site in Bismarck which was an easy spot to get to off the interstate. Another KOA Journey which I think means they are easy to get to for travelers. Our site was an end site surrounded by trees. Not great for my Starlink but nice in the heat. Not a great deal of places to walk the dogs but enough to stretch their legs and meet other pups. Still amazed that people dont clean up after or keep the dogs on leashes. Seems that campers are prone to letting their dogs run free which with a greyhound that doesnt like to be approached quickly by other dogs is not great. Oh well we all survived minus any bites or neighbor issues.

It feels like I am being more cranky than usual as I write this. That said if I could remark how amazing it is that all the trees in our sites seem to be shedding stuff that sticks everywhere. When not camping I must tolerate it or maybe the trees arent so messy at home but there were flowers and other stuff dropping on my truck and Airstream in Bismarck and in Bismarck these paper thin white seed pods evryyyyywheeerrrre. And as part of a design to spread their parent trees were almost impossible to get off once they were on particularly if they were rained on. Guess how I know this lol. Off to the car wash though my poor Airstream is a mess outside. Will need to figure out a way to make time to get to a truck wash place as part of my planning time wise next trip.

We were staying two nights in Bismarck and frankly we were tired from all the driving but decided to check out the North Dakota Heritage Center on the capital grounds. Almost decided to nap instead and we both were glad we mustered some energy to go. What an amazing amazing museum. North Dakota, Montana et al are great fossil areas and many of the finds were on display. The interactive displays and massive dinosaurs on display were great. Learned a lot. They also have a past and today section with amazing recreations of early prarie homes, early farming implements, sixties bomb shelters and public service films along with a minuteman silo recreation, a fifties soda shop (teens became a more affluent customer base with the rise of the middle class and ability to drive and own cars so soda shops flourished as a hangout place) and on and on. There was a very interesting Native American section (sections are giant individual areas in the museum). And so much more including giant stone balls called cannon balls on display outside only present in North Dakota and created by glaciers rolling aggregates and dirt. Very cool.

After doing some shopping at Dan’s a giant supermarket with frankly all sorts of stuff Ive not seen before, we headed home for dinner, reading and a rest. It was raining after dinner so I waited til the AM to hookup etc but we woke to sun and blue sky so an easy hookup and pick up and off we went to Minnesota. Kind of nice to feel we were accomplishing something each day by being in new states and closer to Maine. A very nice stop in Bismarck, ND.