21 Jun 2020 - Packing up at Clear Lake

21 Jun 2020

Happy Father's Day!  This was sort of a down day for us.  We spent the morning emptying our tanks, cleaning and packing the barbecue grill; removing the mat, cleaning and packing it, and basically getting ready to pull chocks in the morning and head north into Minnesota.

This afternoon we drove into town and enjoyed pizza from "The Other Place", better known as the "O.P." The first O.P. started in Cedar Falls on College Hill and primarily served the students from the University of Northern Iowa.  Since then it has grown into 11 locations in Iowa and Kansas, specializing in their signature home made pizza and sandwiches.  Since Doreen and I were both from Cedar Falls during that time frame, we both enjoyed the O.P pizza during high school.  We now enjoy the O.P. in West Des Moines and also in Ankeny and of course whenever we come to Clear Lake.  Another one of our high school classmates, Brian Hagenow, is the owner of this O.P but he was apparently not there today.

Both before and after lunch we watched the mass exodus of campers from the State Park here.  Now it looks like a ghost town, like it did when we arrived.  The camp host said they were completely full through the weekend and through most weekends in the summer.  We were fortunate to have secured one of the few full hookup sites here and we are not departing until Monday.  Those leaving today waited in long lines to get to the dump station so they could dump their tanks.

We weather has been pretty good here but we had quite a storm come through this afternoon  which brought a downpour and some small hail.  As I write this the rain has started again and we are to get rain throughout the night.  It should be clear by morning, though, so we should be able to hook-up and depart in the morning without getting soaked. 

Tomorrow we head to Sauk Centre Minnesota where we will be camping for the next couple days.  It's about 240 miles and depending on our stops will likely take us about five hours.  We will update from there!

20 Jun 2020 - Reconnecting with OB and Narelle

20 Jun 2020

I said before how we loved to camp at Clear Lake and see so many friends.  Today we reconnected with Mike and Narelle O'Brien.  Mike, Doreen and I all graduated from Northern University High School together back in 1973.  Mike was a multi-sport high school athlete who went on to play professional basketball in Australia where he met his beautiful wife Narelle.  They settled in Clear Lake where Mike owns and manages O'Brien Green Technologies and Narelle owns and manages Amaroo Spa, and they raised a beautiful family here. 

Today they stopped out to see our new Alliance fifth wheel and then they invited us back to their house for dinner. 

Doreen, Narelle and Mike.

Mike working on some great margaritas in Mike's Lounge!

Two beauties, Narelle and Doreen!

Narelle's business, "Amaroo Spa" Amaroo is an aboriginal word. meaning "Pretty Place", 

and it is indeed a pretty place.

Mike and Narelle have been working hard remodeling the upper floor of their building for their living space and it is absolutely beautiful.  They have completely remodeled it and welcomed us to their home.  After cocktails Narelle prepared a great dinner and we reminisced about our classmates and our hyjinx at Cedar Falls!  What a time we had!

A view through part of the living room into the kitchen area.

Mike "OB" O'Brien in front of his business.

 We are so thankful to reconnect with our classmates such as Mike O'Brien and friends like his spouse Narelle!  That is why we love to travel the United States - to see the sights and our friends.  Thank you Mike and Narelle for your hospitality.  Now let's plan our 50th Northern University High School class reunion for Clear Lake in 2023, complete with a band! 

We returned to the campground and enjoyed a nice sunset over the lake!

Tomorrow we will wrap things up and prepare for departure on Monday morning when we will travel into Minnesota and our next stop, Sauk Centre MN.

16-19 Jun 2020 - Clear Lake Reunions

19 Jun 2020

I spent some time creating a new map that shows both "phases" of our summer trips with dates and stops.  

This stop has been filled with "reunions".  We love camping at Clear Lake!  Since my last post, on Tuesday the 16th we headed into Mason City for a quick shopping trip for a few items and some groceries.  We also cruised around Clear Lake a bit and went on a few walks around the campground.

On the Wednesday the 17th Terry and Merlea Schultz stopped by to see our new fifth wheel.  Terry and I served together for many years with the Iowa Air National Guard.  They brought lunch and we enjoyed our time getting caught up with them.  We wish Terry all the best as he has a surgical procedure scheduled for today in Des Moines.

Ed and Terry

On the Thursday the 18th we reconnected with a high school classmate Julie Jepsen Johnson and her spouse Rod.  They winter in Florida and then return to Clear Lake in the spring to enjoy the Iowa summer.  We had a fantastic time on their beautiful pontoon boat, cruising Clear Lake and looking at the beautiful homes.  We parked the boat in a public slip at the city park and walked up to a local pub to have some adult beverages.  We then cruised back to their house and had dinner with them.  It is so fun to reminisce about our great times at Northern University High School.  We laughed and laughed about the stupid things we did!  It's great to exchange stories about our families, too!.  

Julie and Doreen on the pontoon

Sunset Sharky's Pub and Grub

Doreen, Julie, Ed and Rod

On Friday the 19th we got fuel for the truck and while there I filled the DEF fluid and someone hollered at me at the fuel station. He had sun glasses on and in the vehicle I could not make out who it was at first. It was Dustin Huston! Dustin and I served together on the Norwalk Fire Department for many years! Dustin was the Fire Chief and then switched jobs now a customer service and sales consultant with HMR Supplies in Forest City IA. He just happened to stop by the fuel station for a soda and saw my truck there!  It was great to see Dustin again!

Dustin and Ed

We were just leaving the fuel station and we received a call for our son-in-law (Jennifer's husband) James Buehner and grandson Lucas.  They live in Battle Creek MI and were in Waterloo IA attending Jame's grandmother's funeral.  Their family events were done and they were headed our way to see us and the new fifth wheel!  After a quick stop at the grocery store we headed back to the camp ground and grilled up some burgers for them when they arrived.  We had not seen them since Christmas due to the virus.  Lucas and Nana headed down to check out the lake while James and I got caught up on what they had been up to since Christmas.  We are so glad they drove up to see us!

James, Lucas, Ed and Doreen

Lucas is taller than Nana now!!  They grow up too quickly!

Tomorrow we will meet up with high school classmate Mike O'Brien and his spouse Narelle.  They invited us to go for a boat cruise with them.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate!

15 Jun 2020 - At Clear Lake State Park

15 Jun 2020
Sorry it has been a while since I posted here.  Until we get out of Iowa there won't be much new going on.

Today we moved from Little Wall Lake near Jewell IA to Clear Lake State Park in Clear Lake IA.  The trip was only 60 miles but took us almost two hours!   We will be here a week, departing on Monday 22 June and heading for Sauk Centre MN.  This is our route from Little Wall Lake to Clear Lake:

 We took advantage of some spare time to stop at a truck stop on I-35 and weigh our new trailer.  It is loaded for the trip with clothes and provisions, so what it weighs now is pretty typical.  We weighed it attached to the truck and then weighed the truck alone and were able to figure our truck weight, trailer weight and pin weight.  We have a lot of towing capacity with our RAM 3500 so no issues with the numbers.  Now we know for sure!

The State Park is one of our favorite camping locations.  We were lucky enough to get a full hook up site this time, although our tanks have adequate capacity to allow us to camp longer than a week without dumping.  The beach area this evening:

We have several friends we plan to see while we are here. 
 - Terry and Merlea Schultz:  Terry and I served in the Iowa Air National Guard together.
 - Mike and Narelle O'Brien:  Mike, Doreen and I went to high school together - Northern University High School Class of 1973
- Julie Jepsen Johnson:  Another high school classmate!
We will also likely stop by "The Other Place" pizza restaurant where Brian Hagenow, another high school classmate is the manager.  They have the most awesome pizza too!

Other than that we don't have a lot of plans for the Clear Lake area.  The wind at Little Wall Lake really kicked up the dust, so I took it to the car wash this afternoon and cleaned it up.  That's about it for today.

8 Jun 2020 - Arrived at Little Wall Lake near Jewell IA

8 Jun 2020

Today we moved from Griff's Valley View RV Park near Ankeny IA where we had been parked since the day we bought our new fifth wheel, 26 March.  Our journey today was north up I-35 only about 49 miles to Little Wall Lake campground which is a park managed by Hamilton County. The 249 acre lake was formed by glacial movements across the area thousands of years ago. It was basically a large marsh area until they started to dredge it and manage the watershed.  In 1905-06 and again in 1936-41 the lake was reported to have gone dry.  Now it is listed as one of the top lakes in Iowa and the associated campground is very nice as well.  They have 106 camp sites and also cabins available for rent.

We arrived today about 1000 hrs and quickly got set-up.  This is only the second time we've set-up with this camper so we took our time and actually developed a checklist to use until we become more proficient.  There are two type-written pages of steps involved.  As soon as we get the trailer unhitched from the truck I start my outside chores such as hooking up water, sewer and power, and then Doreen goes inside and sets that up.  She deploys the slides, powers up the satellite dish so it can home in on the satellite signal and align itself, and all the other things inside.  I stay out of her way and she stays out of my way and it all works pretty well!!

Other than setting up we did not do too much else today.  We took a couple hikes around the park and she walked Liberty a few times.  The beach was very busy as the temps reached 90 here.  The wind was very strong so there were white caps on the lake.  That did not prevent some brave kayak'ers from heading out, though.   

The sites are gravel and fairly level which makes it nice.  Here we are allowed to use out mat and that helps keep the gravel and dust out of the camper.

 Each campsite has a picnic table and fire ring.  We will enjoy that here are we have some Air National Guard friends stopping by to visit.

 You can see the lake in the background here.  It is just a short walk across the parking lot to the water.  I plan to try some fishing here.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) and Wednesday heavy rains are forecast as a result of the tropical storm coming up from the Gulf Coast.  Thursday we will drive back to Ankeny as Liberty has her first haircut since the virus hit.  We also have a couple packages coming in and hopefully we can see the grandkids too as from here we head north and west and won't return home until 26 July.

That's it for tonight.  We will get back in the routine of posting on the blog nightly, hopefully.

6 Jun 2020 - Two Summer Trips Planned

6 Jun 2020

It's been a while since we've updated the blog, but things have been pretty fluid with all the unknowns surrounding the virus.  The last time we posted we had not yet received our new Alliance fifth wheel trailer, but not long after that, on 26 March it arrived!  We completed the pre-delivery inspection at the dealership and found a few minor items so we signed the papers and brought it Griff's Valley View RV Park southeast of Ankeny just a few miles.  Since then we have been working on it, installing various accessory items and getting it configured to use.  For the past few weeks we have been living in it so anything it is lacking could be identified before we "hit the road".

We were fortunate to have a camp site here at Griff's for this long.  Normally this campground would be full of "horse people", jockeys, owners and trainers involved with Prairie Meadows Race Track in Altoona, but with the virus Prairie Meadows has been closed, so the "horse people" had not arrived.  This created several vacancies and therefore we have been able to stay.  This is really a nice campground and we are looking forward to coming back here again.  Now that the virus is slowing down and things are opening up including Prairie Meadows, our stay here is coming to a close.  We have to vacate by Monday 8 June, just a couple days away. 

Since we have to leave and we have a new RV, lets use it!  So we created a couple trips for this summer, primarily in the Midwest.  The first trip starts Monday as we head north.  Our first stop will hopefully be at Little Wall Lake campground near Jewell Iowa, if they have availability.  If not we will find something else.  We will be there 8-15 June.  Then we will head to Clear Lake State Park until 22 June when we head further north into Minnesota.  After that we will visit North Dakota, South Dakota, the corner of Wyoming, Nebraska and then back home on 26 July.  We are calling this "Phase 1":

We will then be home until 20 August when we will head east to Elkhart Indiana.  Alliance RV, the company that makes our fifth wheel, is having their first annual rally, so we will attend that and then head north through Michigan, across the Upper Peninsula and down through Wisconsin before returning home on 27 September.  We are calling this "Phase 2":

Here is our itinerary and schedule.  

Once we finish up here at Griff's and get on the road I will try to be more diligent at updating the blog nightly as before.  I will also get some pictures posted of the new RV!

20 March 2020 - Trip is Off and No New RV Yet

20 March 2020

We have decided to pull the plug on at least the first portion of our 2020 trip.  From a time standpoint we kind of got to a point where we needed to decide and other things hinge on whether we were going or not.  We are not fearful of camping in these times since your "social distancing" does not get much better than being in a campground somewhere.  The issue is nothing is open.  Museums, historical sites, Army Corps of Engineer campgrounds, more and more state campgrounds, restaurants, bars - all closed.  Travel is not recommended and there is no guarantees when this stuff is going to open back up, so we pulled the plug.  We are only going to cancel a portion of the trip though, just until we would get to Washington DC.  That's mid-July so by then or before then we will re-evaluate and if things are better we would go from Iowa to Washington DC and resume the trip from there.  The cancelled portion is in red, below

So I have spent the past few days "unscrewing" the trip up to then.  We got full refunds from most of the locations we had made reservations that required either full payment in advance or partial deposits.  There were only a couple that would not flex their policy based on the world situation.  That's OK.  No issues.

So our plan now is.......in a holding pattern.  We have reservations at a local commercial campground not far from our house from 25 March until 1 May.  As soon as our new RV arrives we will take it there and then spend  the next month or so getting it equipped and configured.  We had planned on doing this anyway, and departing on 20 April on our trip, so we called and got our stay there extended until 1 May.  That will give us plenty of time to familiarize ourselves with it and get those things installed / moved over from the Jayco Pinnacle we are trading in. 

We then hope to be able to camp in Iowa with our new RV but we will have to see how this virus pandemic goes and we will adjust as appropriate. 

Stay safe and we will update after the new Alliance 310RL shows up!

15 Mar 2020 - Waiting for the New RV

15 Mar 2020

Doreen and I hope this finds everyone well and hope you are surviving the impact of the COVID-19 panic.  We are of course closely watching this as it has already impacted travel, "social engagement", etc.  Along with many others we are trying to sort out how this may impact our planned trip this summer, which is actually just a month away.  We've heard a couple states have closed some of their campgrounds (New Mexico, Pennsylvania) .  We stay on military bases in their campgrounds as much as we can, and the military has halted both CONUS and OCONUS travel, so we are watching this closely also.  Time will tell.

Back in February Doreen and I decided to start seriously looking for a new RV.  We bought our 2013 Jayco Pinnacle new in May 2013 along with our pickup, and the Pinnacle has served us well but it has a LOT of miles on it and we would like to move into something a bit smaller.  The Pinnacle is a 38FLFS (Front Livingroom, Five Slideouts), considered a 38 ft RV but actually measures 41' 11".  It's nice but it is huge and it limits us on where we camp.

There is a new up-start RV manufacturer in Elkhart Indiana called "Alliance".  This company was created by a handful of people with decades of RV manufacturing experience.  They all got together and said, "We can do this better.", and they are!  They have created some great fifth wheel RV's and we got our first look at one at an RV show at the state fairgrounds.  The factory sales manager was there so we got first hand information from one of the founders.  We told him of our upcoming trip and he assured us if we placed our order by the end of the following week they would deliver by mid-March.  This would give us time to get it equipped and ready in time for a 20 April departure.

A few days later we put in our order for a 310RL, considered a 31 ft RV but actually measures 34' 11", seven feet shorter than our Pinnacle.  Good Life RV out of Bevington IA is the Iowa dealer for the Alliance RV's.  They gave us good trade-in for our Pinnacle and they have a good reputation for their customer service.

So we are anxiously awaiting it's arrival.  We were told the pre-delivery inspection (PDI) at the manufacturer is complete.  After building it, they clean it thoroughly, fill all the tanks, test for leaks, run all the systems and then take it out on a rough road course and tow it.  Then they bring it back in and check for anything that might be loose, clean it again and then release it to the transport company.  Once it arrives at the dealership they also complete a PDI and then we complete the final paperwork.  They go through it from top to bottom, and then they go through it with us, explaining the operation of each system.

Once we own it we will be taking it directly to a local campground (that is open) so we can work on it to get it equipped.  Most of the modifications I did to the Pinnacle we would get no credit for on trade-in, so we removed them (roof-mounted satellite dish, WiFi system, surge suppressor, etc).  Doreen will spend a lot of time inside getting things all set.

Then on 15 April our local Corps of Engineers campground, Cherry Glen, opens for the season.  It is very close to our house and we planned to spend then next few days loading food, clothing, etc before our departure on 20 April.  Of course our departure hinges on what happens with the Corona Virus in the next month.  We will evaluate the situation and always lean towards the safe side,  We can pull the plug on this trip pretty quickly if we need to.  It will become a futile effort if the venues we want to see are closed.  For instance we have planned a couple weeks or more in Washington DC but many of those sites are inaccessible now.  We have several major League Baseball games on the schedule but they are shut down as of now.  We are hoping to be able to make the trip.  More to follow.....

19 Jan 2020 - Hello from the tundra!

19 January 2020

  -2 degrees F here but at least the winds and snow have subsided.  Our trip planning continues.  The map remains unchanged but I have added the itinerary.  The stop numbers on the map correspond to the numbers on the itinerary spreadsheet:

We have locked RV park reservations for almost all of our stops.  The only one's pending are:
 - Stop #19:  Onslow Beach at Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base, NC (can call 23 Feb)
    Note:  We have a reservation at Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station for this stop, but Onslow
Beach is our first choice since it is adjacent to the beach.  Either one will be fine,

- Stop #29:  Linwood Beach and Marina Campground, Linwood MI (can call 1 Feb)

 - Stop #35:  Prairie Flower Campground - home, last stop! (online reservations on 27 Mar)

We planned our stops and dates to correspond with the following Major League baseball teams being at home and plan to visit the stadiums and watch them play: 

9 May Miami Marlins at Atlanta Braves (1920 hrs)
16 or 17 May Baltimore Orioles at Tampa Bay Rays (unk time)
7 Jun Seattle Mariners at Miami Marlins (1310 hrs)
20-26 Jul Seattle Mariners or Oakland A's at Baltimore Orioles (unk time)
24-29 Jul Atlanta Braves or Colorado Rockies at Washington Nationals (unk time)
AA Baseball 11 Aug Harrisburg Senators vs Altoona (PA) Curve (1830 hrs)
27 Aug Houston Astros at Detroit Tigers (1310 hrs)

Other than that, we are passing the time by knock out projects here at the house in preparation for being gone nearly six months this summer.

Stay tuned for the next update!  Come on Spring!!