Walmart and RV parking

     We're in Butte, MT tonight after about 250 miles of driving.  Couldn't get an RV spot because they have a jamboree and a Folk fest going on this weekend so it's Wal-Mart in a pinch.  It's a full house tonight, we're here with about 18 other units and thank God for Wal-Mart allowing this.  This letting RV's park overnight in their parking lots is just another in what has been great ideas by the Wal-Mart folks.  When we park at a Wal-Mart we 9 out of 10 times go in and pick up supplies, no different tonight and I know most all of the 19 units parked here tonight did the same.  We were in need of quit a few things and as usual when we get in there we pick up just other shit we had no intention of picking up.  Like to night I got a new pair of lounging shorts, Bev some footy socks, a couple of baskets for the coach and a throw rug.........then came the groceries!  So far our camping tonight was the most expensive nightly charge since we've owned the rig, $191.30 got us out the door!  Yep Wal-Mart came up with another winner and I don't usually like the store and never use them back home, but on the road there is no place better is seems.

     Not sure what we're going to do tomorrow, we can't get into KOA Polson, Flathead Lake MT. until Sunday the 14th and need to be to Blackwell's in Couer d' Alene til the 16th so maybe another night here or maybe check out down the road a piece.  

       Ran into a group of folks right out of the 60's man....in a small class C Winnebago and out of gas at the station I'm filling up at.  One of them asked for some money for gas, I said no man real fast.  Thought about it a minute and seen him walking across the lot and summoned him over.   "Dude where you from?" "San Diego man"....."Where you going?" " Denver man"...(just like country Joe would have said it.) How do you leave "San Diego for Denver via Butte Montana without gas money?"..."Don't need money man...need gas!"   Wow.........I've been fortunate lately and gave the dude $40 and said "make sure this goes into the tank" "Wow dude..thanks" He looked at the two $20's like they were hundred dollar bills and went to tell his mates!
Wait..........the best part is we're at the store (Wal-Mart waiting in line and ask the clerk if there is low unemployment since he's the only one working 30 check out lines and folks lined up 6 or 7 deep. He says as straight as he can "No one in Butte can pass a drug test!" Wondering who I actually gave the $40 to?  They call them rainbow people around here and don"t agree with giving them anything.............man right out of the 60's I'm telling you but it's their grandparents who actually participated in the "real 60's and their just wanna bee's!

     I love the "Big Sky Country of Montana" it's a beautiful place especially in the summer months!  Did I ever tell you I spent the coldest winter of my live in Great Falls, Montana in 1967-68.....the Hawk as it's known blows mighty hard and cold.

 

Short days travels full of stuff..............

     We didn't travel far today 195 miles that's only about 2 1/2 hours of driving.  Left Bismarck, ND and ended up in Glendive, Montana and the only RV park here is just that, a real DIVE!  It's cheap at $20 for 50 amps and water but I was just plain bushed and didn't feel like driving into Billiings which was our planned stopping point.  Why so bushed..........well we stopped for nine holes of golf at "Bully pulpit Golf course" in Medora, ND.  A young man at Nevada Bob's in Duluth was telling us if we came anywhere near this course we should give it a go, so we did and enjoyed it for the most part and found it to have some holes equal to some of the best holes in Arizona.  The North Dakota Bad Lands surround this golf course which was made by and with the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation, dedicated to preserving the rich history.  It was named "Bully Pulpit" because Bully was Teddy's favorite term and Pulpit because the way all the tee boxes are like platforms or pulpits looking down and over the fairways.  I'll be putting some pictures on FB of a couple of the holes and the beauty the course holds.
     On a different subject, I think of a lot of things while driving down the roads.  I have a lot of time to myself with Bev usually busy with her phone, computer and work calls especially when there's a 3 hour time zone difference.  At times it's nice just being alone with my thoughts and others it's probably annoying to Bev when I sing to my hearts content, especially when I can find an oldies station on the radio.  Anyway for the past couple of days I've been dwelling on who's the keepers of the highways and byways, the interstates and the back roads, who's constantly watching over these roads?  I've come up with what I think is the answer, it's the "Red-wing Black bird"............I find that no matter what State I travel in is seems these birds are always along the road side sitting up on fences, reeds, sign post, mile markers etc.  You usually can't travel much more than a mile without seeing one or two or flying across the road looking for something tall and skinny to lite on.  Other than watching those birds I also to this point must keep my eyes peeled for deer running onto the road.  Iowa and Wisconsin was freaking nuts with deer along the road sides and jumping out and running out and many just laying along the roads dead.   We've seen literally dozens of deer just standing along the roads in the weeds thinking about it, it seemed the closer to towns and cities they became more plentiful.  We had one close call with on yesterday darting out of the trees, I seen it running towards the road and started hitting the brakes and all of a sudden (with things flying off shelves and tables in the back) the stops at the roads edge as I pass it by..........close call.
     Gotta enhance, crop, shade and basically get my pictures ready for FB, check them out the golf course and Bad Lands should be some good pics.





   

On the move westward.....

     OK, yesterday we left Superior, WI. and ended up spending the night....you guessed at a casino called 7-Clans near Thief River Falls, MN.  It was out of the way but a very nice place and always a good place to have a little dinner and gaming.  Didn't start off very good gaming wise but ended up winning about $100 so it was worth the stop and the space rent was free.  Took off in the morning and made a stop in Larimore, ND where Bev and her family lived while Dad was stationed at the USAF base outside of Grand Forks, North Dakota.  As it turns out it was were Bev had some of the most fondest memories of her childhood as it turns out, and she was very happy we made the stop.  We visited the school Mark attend (he asked if we'd look in on his trophies in the trophy case) and visited a while with the schools A.D. and reminisced with her about some of names Bev could remember going to school with.  She indicated that next year in July the 3rd week they were having an all school reunion and all old trophies would be brought out of storage and displayed for anyone to take theirs if they found them.  We found the house they lived in, some changes were or had been made and a barn was missing but all in all Bev recognized the place right off.  The DQ her Dad took them to was now a place called "Scoops" and was still serving ice cream to the folks of Larimore.
     We continued our travels westward after Larimore toward Bismarck, North Dakota and I even thought about driving on a while into Montana and Miles City but why push so we looked up a KOA camp ground in Bismarck and found one with an opening for the night.  So it was right about 4:30 and we got set up for the night but after a big lunch at Arby's we had a light dinner, Bev ate leftover Ribeye steak from Grizzly's in Superior and I added my left over wood fire chicken to some chips and made myself some nacho's.  This was all topped off a bit later with some popcorn  and Mike's hard lemonade....good dinner!
     We'll leave her probably by 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. and head into Montana and try and make Billings, figure it's about 5:30 or 6 hours of driving at the pace we travel.

     Oh I forgot to mention Bullyan RV in Duluth, MN. and the RV repairs.  The had the shroud in stock and said they'd replace a fuse for the bedroom reading light but as they had told me when I called initially they would be having to squeeze us in.  They opened at 8:30 and we got there at 8:00 a.m. and about 8;15 I met a service tech by the name of Vince and talked a bit about what I had talked to the service manager about a few days before.   He was nice about it but didn't want to promise anything and figured it might be the best part of the day.  When 8:30 came I went in and Vince wrote up a ticket and just said we'll do what we can why don't you guys go get some breakfast and that's what we did.  After a good breakfast and reading the news paper we decided to head back to Bullyan and see if the RV had even been moved inside yet, it was about 10:00 now and when we got there it was being pulled out and into the pickup area...amazing!  Vince was going to call us when it was finished so we went inside and picked up a few items we needed and while shopping he called and I told him I was in the store already.  They got us right in (knowing we were on the road and it was starting to rain) put the new shroud on, sealed around the A/C unit, replaced the filter inside and broken vent that had been glue repaired by me and replaced the fuse for the lights in the bedroom.  Top notch service once again by an RV service center while on the road, Camping world in Mesa you have a lot of changing to catch up with some of these places we've visited in the past few years!  All is good, no leaks, lights for reading and all is well.

Wrap up day on the North Shore of Lake Superior

     Yep, it's time to wrap things up and get ready to pull out of here tomorrow. There are chores to be done in preparation for our departure, but we've done it so many times it a routine now. We need to be at the RV Service center tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. and hope that they don't have it all day, but whatever we need this taken care of for rainy days and leaks into the bedroom. The A/C shroud will take care of this and we can be on our way. They are squeezing us in and getting there at 8:00 a.m. might help insure the 11:00 a.m. time they have for us will be met.
     Bev is doing a load of laundry so that when we leave that is all caught up while I clean around the coach.  She keeps robbing my "Big Texas" cup on the counter in which I throw all my change for the kids piggy bank for the quarters, so I just gave her a $20 to get quarters at the office.  The cup is one I bought in Texas when we were last there, it actually holds about 2 to 2 1/2 cups of liquid and it was full of change before last laundry day.  The grand kids religiously get every penny of change I get at the end of each day.
     Read for the second time in the past year of so about the pennies in a half full sandwich bag (baggie) of water getting rid of fly's.  A friend, Sherri Cox had posted it yesterday on Face Book so I tried it where we were having a bit of a problem with fly's, so far after 24 hours it is working great.  No fly's today or last night so I'm sold on this nifty trick on the fly's and those many eyes they have!
     By the way I may not denote paragraphs with all those ............................ anymore, what a goof, trying to do this on the "compose" rather than "HTML" and this should work, don't take me long to catch on does it....duh!
     We road up the South Shore yesterday to Bayfield, WI. and ran right into an Indian Pow Wow, the Red Cliff 35th traditional Pow Wow.  A nice souvenir button for the $5 to get in and Bev naturally had some Fry Bread (a fry bread taco actually) and I had a Bison burger which was terrific!  Many colorful outfits worn by the Indians participating in the dancing and ceremony, and I'll never figure out how those big bad braves have such high voices when doing their chants while beating the drums.  At times and I'm not being disrespectful, when their chanting it's almost or sounds similar to packs of coyotes I heard so many times living in Arizona.  Besides the colorful outfits and all the feathers and skins, the high point for us had to be the young boys participating in the hand held drum singing as they call it.   This is chanting with English rhymes or words to the songs mixed in with the chanting or Indian words and some where really funny, overall these were brave little guys....no pun intended.  Check FB for some pic's of these colorful outfits and more.  Oh yes, they had a casino there also and we had to give it a go as you might imagine and so glad we did the kitty grows once more!

    

Raining like hell to end a good day

Did some sightseeing today, took some pictures and ended the day on a 3 hours train ride up the North shore. Found a lookout spot over looking down town and the industrial parts of Duluth, the day was cloudy but still got a few good pic's. Had some coffee and tea at a little joint on the lake side, met a gal working there from Mesa, Arizona, she said she liked walking on the green grass. I asked if she liked walking on the grass after is was covered with a few feet of white stuff and she said no..........you learn to bundle a lot and you also learn to appreciate the good days even though there aren't that many(her words not mine). We ate lunch at a Mexican joint in Fitger's and it turned out to be very good, Jalisco type Mexican food and it tasted like it too. From there we went across a third bridge here in Duluth which crosses over onto a long peninsula reaching out into the lake. For the most part while driving to the end of the peninsula we could see water off each side of the single road running the length of the peninsula. For the most part this couldn't be more that two football fields wide and to enter you crossed a hydraulic bridge where the deck was raised up and down to let the big ships pass through. This was amazing and something we had never seen anything like it before(pic's on FB). From there we had a date with a train, the North Shore Scenic railroad, a three hour train hide up the North shore with pizza, beer and soda and other snacks served while traveling. This was very relaxing but not very scenic. Bev and I seen far more super scenery driving up the North shore the day before, but still enjoyed the company and the relaxing train ride.................................... Like I start off with, it started pouring down rain as soon as we left the depot and hasn't really quit some 3 plus hours later. Very heavy rains and we have a small leak where the rear A/C unit is with a cover (which will be fixed on Tuesday, pray for no more rain until after that). Tomorrow morning it's breakfast with our friends the Nelson's and the last we'll see of them until we meet again on the golf course at Orange wood village in Phoenix. We will thank them for their hospitality and the golfing we shared, their days are full Sunday and Monday and we hope to leave Tuesday if repairs go smoothly. The next couple of days will be most likely largely uneventful, maybe laundry, reading, and just relaxing and maybe doing some cleaning of the coach.

Happy 4th of July ******

A good day all around, started off with a round of golf with friends, a terrific burger at "Aces on 29th", then going to the movies with Beverly to see "The Lone Ranger" and then some fireworks over looking Lake Superior and down town Duluth, then a few minutes at the casino down town Duluth with about a $300 profit........long day but very good day and improved on yesterdays round of 96 with a round of 92 today. First off the Movie the Lone Ranger was great, we both loved it and would/will see it again for sure. Regardless if you grew up with the Lone Ranger or not you'll really enjoy this flick and Johnny Depp makes Tonto so much fun you won't believe it. Not just your run of the mill western, no it's got plenty of laughs to be had throughout.............................. Fireworks in this area is a hoot, all around the Lake you see fireworks being launched and then the big show off the lake shore from down town Duluth is very good, no Las Vegas on New Years Eve but very, very good for sure. Folks are out in the thousands parking wherever they can, on boulevards in between the freeways up on curbs, all parking lots full and the Jeep fit just fine in this grass area between overpasses and freeways with the rest of the nuts!................................. After leaving the fireworks just before they ended to beat the traffic we drove down town to this casino like on main street right down town in a three story building. Not the fanciest casino you'll ever visit but we've stopped in twice and won at least a few $100 each trip so why not so we did and took another $300 out of the joint. In that respect the trip has been a big success, the kitty has been in the thousands ever since the first stop at a casino outside of Flagstaff, yes I'm knocking on wood as I type! We have slowed down and they dwindle a bit between here and Idaho and believe it or not Mike is getting a bit tight with the funds.......................... Tomorrow is a sight seeing day and a trip to an RV service center to see about getting an appointment to get an A/C cover for the back unit, as far as I can tell it might have been blown off during that storm leaving Des Moines and all the strong winds and sheets of rain we drove through. No big deal just hope they have one in stock and ready to install................................. We'll probably stay here in the Superior/Duluth area through the weekend and leave Monday for points further west, planned on leaving Friday but need that A/C cover and today was a holiday and they were closed. It's late and I'm up way too long so off to bed and see ya tomorrow!

Day 5 in Superior/Duluth

Hard to believe we've been here 5 days already, so much more we want to see and do here and now not sure when we will leave. Had planned on leaving after 7 days but a couple of things may change that, like another round of golf and looking up an RV service center. The only thing I can figure is that while driving in the storms and strong winds and sheeting rain from Des Moines into upper Iowa/Wisconsin we lost the cover off one of the A/C units on the roof. Need to see about getting another one and having the black water valve checked since it's been working hard to close (not a good thing) and don't want problems with that shit (literally)!........................ Had a great dinner with Kathy and Alan Nelson last night, born and raised in Superior, Wisconsin but now and have been for some years winter residence of Phoenix (Orange Wood village). We have golf with them today and then again tomorrow before celebrating the 4th and fire works over looking the lake. It's nice hooking up with friends while traveling and we have more of that to look forward to in Idaho and Oregon as we travel on towards home. We are really looking forward to seeing some things in North Dakota believe it or not but as I've said more than once before "there is so much to see and do in the United States" and we love exploring new towns and areas of this beautiful and wonderful country...................................... Once again this morning I looked at my phone(which I do occasionally while traveling)and seen 3 voice-mails all of which were from my Mother. When she calls I answer the phone, but so far I haven't been returning all, some but not all of the voice-mails. To hear them you'd think she might be in real trouble but since this last visit to Davenport I'm understanding more of what my family is and has been going through with her Alzheimer/Dementia. And yes my sister mentioned the "sun downer syndrome" which really is true I'm finding. Most the calls and voice mails are towards evening when she really seems to get bad. This is very hard to deal with and harder to understand from her side I'm sure as from those around her. I give my niece Mandy all the credit in the world for handling this on a daily basis and taking care of someone we all love dearly. Mom does not remember calling me or talking to me 5 minutes after we talk or call, it's hard to answer her questions honestly when you know just agreeing and going along with her will end things sooner if you know what I mean. It's oh so sad to watch someone who accomplished all that she did and go through all that she has gone through end up this way. You can see it scares the hell out of her and then in turn scares the hell out of me and the family. I will call Mom today and hopefully she'll be better and not so scared as in the voice-mails last night, she sounds so afraid in those evening calls as I'm sure she really is but there's nothing we can do.............................. On a brighter note we have a great day planned and since it doesn't get dark here until well after 9:00 p.m. we may do some more sightseeing and picture taking after golf and dinner. The days are flying by it seems, it's hard to believe we've been on the road for over a month already but oh so thankful the weather has been much better this past week. Heading to the stove to make a little breakfast and get ready to leave the motor home in about an hour for today's activities!