April 25, 2012 by Rae

Down and Eastbound

It was a fairly mellow morning in Council Bluffs with a 10AM departure because I was out late with reader P.J. and her husband who treated me to pie. It was so nice to have a social engagement in a place I never pictured myself visiting!

Just before leaving Iowa, I saw something I wish I could have photographed. It was a billboard advertisement for a nearby pharmacy called… Stoner Drug. I kid you not. Thankfully, someone else caught a picture of the storefront.

The first milestone of the day was crossing the Missouri state line:

I was due for fuel and my GPS told me there was a truck stop in Rock Port, so I decided to head for there. Fueling is one of the nastiest RVing chores; I’m always concerned about getting stuck at an RV unfriendly gas station and not being able to get turned around so I try to only go to ‘truck stops’ when coming off a major highway. Anyway, the Phillips 66 station was visible from the off ramp including its “RV lane that way” sign and a nice clear area where I could park after fueling to use the bathroom. I pulled in beside the pump, put in my credit card, and started fueling. A few gallons in, I noticed a man circling around the rig taking notes.

“Excuse me, sir, is there a problem?”

“No, ma’am, just getting your information.”

“Uh, for what purpose?”

“In case you drive off without paying. You RVers do that a lot.”

Let me pause here to have a word with ‘you RVers who [drive off without paying for gas and otherwise do bad things]’: QUIT MAKING US LOOK BAD. PEOPLE DISLIKE RVERS ENOUGH AS IT IS!!! You keep doing that and there will come a day there won’t be room for naughty men like us to slip about at all!!!

Little did I know that this exchange would set the tone for the day.

I stopped for lunch shortly thereafter.

pastoral Missouri, as seen from the first rest area on I29 southbound out of Iowa

Like the day before, no ‘camping’ at rest areas:

I took about 40 minutes for lunch. When I came out of the rig to do one final check before driving off, a guy doing clean up on the site came to remind me that there is no camping allowed at the rest area. “I just stopped for lunch.” “Well, you’ve been here a long time!” SERIOUSLY?!

Nice rest area, though:

I pushed on south, not realising just how far south I had gone:

next exit for Amazonia

Getting around Kansas City had concerned me, but it was very easy, following I435 to meet up with I70 eastbound. It required my undivided attention, but was not harrowing in the least.

I crossed the Missouri River and passed yet another fireworks place, making me wonder what the heck is up with Missourians and fireworks?!

I pulled into another rest area and got a picture of something on which I need my readers’ opinion. What would you think of my painting Miranda my favourite colour?

Lovely rest area, by the way, right about at Higginsville:

Love the architecture of the building:

And the snazzy handwashing station:

Much as I love the prairies, I have to confess to missing rolling hills of green trees (pardon the state of my windshield):

The plan was to stop sometime after Kansas City. As it turns out Missouri is an RV unfriendly state and everywhere states no overnight RV parking! By the time I got to Columbia, I’d had enough of being honked at for going 65 in a 70 zone, being cut off by folks merging onto the highway and immediately slamming on the brakes so that I would have to slam on mine (and be honked at by the guy behind me driving way too close), driving to a Walmart where I’d been told over the phone that parking was okay only to be turned down in person. The ‘No overnight RV parking, as per Columbia ordinance bla bla bla, violators will be prosecuted’ sign just about sent me over the edge. Prosecuted? Oh, lordy, what a miserable state! Do you honestly think you’re bringing more money into the economy that way? I would have probably spent $100 at Walmart tonight in Columbia on things I needed, but I would not pay $40 for hookups I did not need!

It was just past 4PM when I rolled out of Columbia and by this point I decided that another 200km wouldn’t kill me. So I drove all the way to Maryland Heights, within St. Louis proper, to stay at the Harrah’s Casino, where they were very happy to let me stay for a few nights. Not at all the day I’d planned, but this gives me extra time to do touristy stuff here and to possibly hit a few spots of interest in Kentucky. So hurray for Harrah’s. 🙂

April 23, 2012 by Rae

Summery Weather At Long Last

Today’s weather was unbeatable! I had the front door and a bunch of windows open all day. My obligations were completed by early afternoon and I then spent a couple of hours sprucing up the rig before heading out for dinner at the casino. The Monday night Mexican buffet is $16, which I thought was way too much. So I instead went to the restaurant and had a delicious chicken club-type sandwich with honey mustard instead of mayo and a pot of decaf coffee (complimentary). Gosh is the decaf good here! With tip, dinner was a reasonable $10.50. I liked that the server called me Miss. I can’t get used to Ma’am, but Miss sounds appropriate for a gal in a full ankle-length skirt and a kerchief. 🙂

The RV park is filling up and I have neighbours from Manitoba. I’m almost sorry to be pulling out tomorrow, but it’s definitely time to head off. I’ll be heading in the direction of Omaha tomorrow, which is not something I ever thought I would write. I flew over Nebraska once. It was flat! 🙂

April 23, 2012 by Rae

One More Night in Hankinson

I’ll be heading over to the hotel shortly to renew my RV spot for another night. This delay will give me some time to tend to chores so even with having to really get a move on, I am quite happy to spend one last night in North Dakota. I can’t believe that four nights and a seafood dinner will have cost me $50!

These last few days on FHU have really given me a chance to feel at home in Miranda again. It’ll be nice to set off on the next part of my journey with a full water tank and empty holding tanks, plus I have time to do laundry today and I can also vacuum the rig. I may even get ambitious and figure out the next step in the office set up to start taming my crazy nest of wires.

This is my first morning since I left Lethbridge that I awoke to SUN. I hope that this trend continues when I am back on solar power. 🙂

Tabitha enjoying the sunshine Sunday afternoon

Neelix enjoying the sunshine Sunday afternoon

Dakota Magic Golf Course

Dakota Magic RV Park at dusk

April 20, 2012 by Rae

A Crabby Kind of Mood

Since I’m paying for my RV spot, I don’t feel obliged to spend money at the casino, but I decided to check it out anyway and discovered that they offer a buffet every night. I checked the list and went Mexican, meh. Chef’s, huh? Surf and Turf, pass. BBQ ribs and chicken, hmm. Snow crab and seafood, what day?! Today! So I headed over around 5:30 and paid the $20 for the buffet. This amount included soft drinks, too.

Except for the garlic shrimp and crab cakes, the deep fried seafood offerings (clam, oysters, calamari, shrimp) were pretty meh and tasted the same. The side dishes were pretty basic, but there was a really nice chicken Alfredo and the salad bar was splendid. The star of the show was the endless mountain of steamed crab legs. YUM. They were so good! I pretty much gave up on the other stuff and sucked and picked my way through as many crab legs as my belly could hold. It was a lot of work to get a meal out of those succulent morsels, but worth the effort.

I had a pretty decent slice of apple pie for dessert with a really good decaf coffee. It wasn’t the best buffet I’ve been to, but I feel it was worth the entrance price.

Next, I decided to try my hand at the penny slots, putting in $10 and cashing out at $20. So dinner cost me only $10!

April 20, 2012 by Rae

Heaven, I’m In Heaven

Today’s travels took me from Minot to Hankinson by way of Bismarck and Fargo. Google Maps had a more direct route, but my GPS kept arguing with me and I decided that an extra few kilometres weren’t a big deal. The roads were good and clear, but I had rain and grey sky all the way to Oriska.

I have to share a story about the last time I was in Fargo. It was like being in a Mr. Bean movie. I came into a mess of construction and got stuck in a roundabout with no idea which way to go. This was in the days before GPS and I didn’t have a detailed map of the city. I must have driven around that roundabout 50 times before a construction worker took pity on me, flagged me down, and told me which way to go! Today’s travels through the city were uneventful.

I am now parked at the Dakota Magic Casino and Resort, which has a full hookup RV park on the edge of its parking lot. I had expected power only to be on at this time of the year, but nope. I’m so excited that I’ll be able to take a long shower tonight. 🙂 I have tons of stuff to catch up on, so I’ve decided to stay for three, possibly four, nights. The rate is $31.50… for three nights. That’s right, FHU for just $10 a night!!! And my internet connection works here. What a nice respite this will be! Since I’ve gone through half a tank of propane in the last week, I hooked up Gary’s present since I’ll be here for a few days and save the on board propane for when I’m moving down the road.

I had planned to spend a couple of nights here and am only a couple of nights behind schedule since I left Lethbridge early, but I am going to have to start boogeying if I want to get to Virginia for May 1st. I have a couple of itineraries in mind and not being in too much of a hurry to cross the Mississippi, I am tempted to keep going due south to Kansas City and then straight east to Virginia. The slightly more direct option is to get back on I-94, skirt around Minneapolis, detour to Cedar Rapids to avoid Chicagoland, and then shoot eastwards. The first option is barely longer and more appealing since I have done most of the second option already. I am concerned about the the severity of the current tornado season in the mid-west, however. I welcome any thoughts on both options and, yes, I know that I need to get a weather radio. 🙂

Ooh, I almost forgot. I actually took pictures today!