Kansas is HOT, and I'm talking temps

Hello,
We are surviving the Kansas bake oven temps, well, mostly!  We arrived at Perry Lake on Friday, July 13 and we've been humming with activity ever since.

We set up our "pull thru" site with temps of 98 and I think it got hotter.  We have the only campsite that has no trees (or I should say, baby trees that in 15 years might provide shade).

 East side of camp (notice the trees in front at the NEXT campsite.

Baby trees are on the west side, along with a picnic table and it sits in the bald, prairie heat!

It is a pull thru to house the big girl, BUT we only have 30amp service which means only 1 A/C. So we are trying to keep as cool as possible and have enjoyed the overcast days which really help out not having direct sunshine.  Finding spots for Zoe is challenging so we are grateful to have the spot and are making do -- A/C handles the nights so sleeping has been OK.

Mostly we have been visiting and catching up with family and friends, celebrating my mom's 85th birthday a little early, partaking of family dinners and catching up with friends, pulling stuff from  storage, business appts and doctor appts, so lots to accomplish before heading to OK.

I had to pass on the open house as the campground gets really full on the weekends and clears out on the weekdays -- the heat just made our camper too hot to host any kind of "party".

After Sunday departing there were only 4 campers in our loop at the Peninsula Campground.  So it is kind of nice to have the place mostly to yourself.

We are headed out on Friday, July 27 for Oklahoma and the temps don't appear to be much better.  I keep telling Darrel, no summers in KS or the midwest for that matter -- but it will probably become forgotten memory soon.

Love to you all, and thanks to everyone for visiting and feeding us, too!  If we missed you this trip, we will be back in 2019 -- thinking it might be the Fall to also avoid the spring/summer storms -- don't really care for the 50 mph windstorms.

S & D

PS  We did sit one night out on the patio to watch the sunset and stars come out.  We have a great view of the cove when nightfall allows you outside.

PSS  We also are entertaining gnats (we call them Midges from our Lake Powell trip -- so I guess, I do have a long memory) -- they are just swarming and although they don't bite, they sure get in everything and are a mess to vacuum up!!!

Bumps & Bruises "Redo"

Hello,
Wow, a couple of posts in one evening as I am sneaking in "catch up" computer time -- Notice the post title?  Well, here goes a few bumps and yes, one more bruise for Susan 😩

OK, celebrating July 4th with chili dogs and we were taking the lazy man way to microwave them, well, at the end of the cooking time, the microwave made this "grinding noise and the turntable stopped turning!!!"  With the long holiday weekend, we contacted the dealer on Monday, 7/9 to see about a replacement and having it sent to Topeka where we would be there for a couple of weeks.  Ugh, we manage with a few salads, eating with Jeremy & family and a few meals out.

Other bumps are the bumpy roads --- on our way to Yankton, we pull in and Darrel says to me, we lost a cycle which means, the tie-downs didn't hold and now we have one loose in the garage -- well, it wasn't as bad as "down on either the other cycle or the floor" but it was leaning on the tie-downs on my cycle.  No damage, thank goodness, but a stressful moment for sure.  We had been so good about checking them every stop or 60-70 miles but we were tired and didn't do our check in!!!

And for the last bump, Beau's new windshield has a "beauty mark" -- yes, once again traveling in SD a car threw up a rock and it bounced off the windshield, this time only a slight chip (you really have to look for it, so I call it a beauty mark) and we are hoping it stays that way as we are NOT wanting to replace another windshield.  I am trying to figure out how to avoid these rock experiences....

Now for the bruise, OK you have to image Darrel and Susan loading the cycles up a ramp into the back of a 13.6ft box (best example I can provide).  We use a piece of wood as a ramp to bridge the gap between the ground and the ramp door lip -- well, some times we have the cycle engine on to assist with the push up the ramp --- and the ramp kicked out and whacked my big toe and 2nd toe ---

OMG, I thought, I don't even want to look -- yes, I had on shoes (athletic shoes) so I should have been wearing my boots.  Well, there wasn't any blood, and Darrel insisted on ice immediately.  After 30 mins of icing a couple of times, it was feeling numb and so it didn't hurt as bad.

So far day 2 and other than a slight limp (because it is really sore), I am very lucky it wasn't worse.  No broken skin, and really not much bruising but just really, really sore -- like if you stubbed it on a piece of furniture.  Boots from now on!!!

PS  The new Micro/Convection oven arrived in Topeka so we picked it up and have it installed!  So we are up and running on convenience cooking and hopefully this one will hang in there longer than 5 weeks.

PSS  Hope to have some pictures of our new location near the lake when it clears out a little over the weekend.  We are very full this weekend with campers and I don't like to intrude on their privacy.

Happy RVing (most days),
S & D

Backroads of Iowa

Hello (did you think we had fallen off the face of the Earth?),
We left Jamestown, ND and had an overnight stay at Yankton, SD KOA before taking the scenic highway through Northern Iowa to Harlan, IA to visit Jeremy, Michelle & Chloe.... I know have the directive that if Darrel says "Hey, Let's take the scenic way...." I am to reply "Nope, we need to stick to the Interstates!!!!  😀

Well, IA had a lot of rain so we had a few concerns about closed highways (but we were OK) and then the bigger concern was fitting BIG Zoe into the campground at Prairie Rose State Park, which didn't happen.

With some help from the Park Rangers, we contacted the Shelby RV park (a few more miles away from Marne) but found a place we could drive through and "fit".  We definitely need to buy the "Big Rig" RV guidebook so we can find where to fit her in.  The Parks list back in sites at 55ft or even 65ft but unless you have the road bed and a pivot point to swing her in, it just doesn't work PLUS factoring in non-moveable objects ie. trees, signposts, other campers, vehicles, etc. you may not get a wide enough space to navigate.  All in the learning curve of RVing with a 43ft 5th wheel.

We did have fun visiting with Jeremy, Michelle and Chloe -- although the temps were HOT the last couple of days -- we spent time at the park, a trip to the library (you have got to read "Possum cames a knocking..", played with kitten, Freddy Mercury, watched a gymnastics class session, ate ice cream to cool off and of course, had a Walmart shopping trip.

Chloe is growing like a weed, will be 5 years old in August and all-day Kindergarten starts this fall. Grandpa got to read a book or two and took a spin around the globe.

It was hard to say good-bye but we packed up on Friday 7/13 and traveled to Kansas (where it is as hot or hotter) to our site at Lake Perry.  We at least have a 100ft max size pull through BUT we only have 30 amp which means limited A/C -- but it hasn't been too bad to fit.

So stay tuned for our Topeka, KS stay updates!  We hope to have some time to show off Zoe and have you drop by to visit our "tiny home".

Safe Journeys,

S & D

North Dakota Sight Seeing

So now on to the "fun" things (at least what the Pendergast's define as fun???😀)

We visited the Biggest Buffalo monument in Jamestown -- and Darrel just had to try and measure up to its stature ....

We also saw the "buffalo" herd which touts a "white" buffalo at Frontier Town where this monument is standing as well.  You cannot see them very closely as they were on the Range ... but finally we saw 3 of them out grazing, a mother with her baby.

We took a motorcycle ride over to Valley City (I think I mistakenly called it Valley Center in a past post -- sorry Valley City) -- There is a university there and this is the alumni bridge which crosses the Sheyenne River (with merges with the James River -- hence Jamestown) --- we strolled across and walked the campus (on summer break) and saw a memorial to WWII servicemen.  Quite a nice campus.

We visited Bismarck (North Dakota's Capitol) and didn't look much like a "capital building" as I expected dome, and really elaborate but more like an office building -- it was constructed in 1933 so it struck me as futuristic and resembling Topeka's Docking building.

There was an observation deck that was enclosed and had a lounge type atmosphere -- we took the elevator up to the 18th floor and looked out -- the North Dakota seal was displayed on the 2nd floor where I took Darrel's picture. 

From the observation deck we saw part of the town and the flower bed directly below has the state name (although from our view it was upside down)

Last but not least, are the stormy skies of North Dakota -- we have had fabulous weather with warm days (upper 70's to mid 80's) -- 1 day that reached 91??, maybe for a few minutes!  But most nights we have had storms that develop late night or early morning -- and I have more great "sunset" shots but I haven't downloaded --- they are for another time to dazzle!!!

We depart to head for Iowa with an overnight stop at Yankton SD -- try to keep our mileage to 300-350 miles a day --- We think of everyone often, appreciate the emails and texts to keep up informed.

Love and safe travels to all,

S & D

Lakeview Meadow Resort - Jamestown, ND

Hello,
So after much stressing about moving this big rig around after July 4th with campgrounds full (we will have to see about next year planning a little better to be there before and staying the 2 weeks over the 4th so we don't find ourselves trying to navigate out of close quarters), we found a RV park down the highway from Pelican Point Landing and contacted the number on the sign. Amy has been really awesome in accommodating us into a spot for our stay through July 5th with lots of phone calls and she even dropped by to pick up our payment.

Our next door neighbors are full time RVer's and both work here in ND and stay through the winter.  I'm not sure I'm quite that hardy to want to winter a ND winter (30+ inches of snow some seasons) in our 5th wheel.  I'm still adjusting to weathering T-storms in the RV!

We have a "snapshot" view of the lake and no trees but we do have full hookups (which means, water, electric 50AMP and sewer which helps with not having to "hold" tanks and be careful with water usage.  There is no shower house so we are adapting to the shower in our RV which is really adequate and has had plenty of hot water.  Just tighter quarters as you can image.

Oh, and of course, we had a T-storm on Thursday night but thankfully, no hail --- and it came in around 3:30am so went back to sleep around 4:30am -- I am ready for some "non-threatening" weather segments --- but it did cool us off!

We put down the back patio today (our temps have been nice this weekend, mid 80's and Sunday is overcast and quite nice at 75 degrees right now.

We have this view of the lake along with a boat ramp and small dock.  It is quite the hill down to the water as you might be able to see from the picture.

Today we have rumbles of thunder as the overcast sky has me sitting on the patio updating the blog as Darrel is working on "window" shades and installing a toilet paper holder in the 1/2 bathroom -- you would think these rigs would come with those items but I guess they figure you will want to place the roll holder where you want it vs. where they place it???

The clouds are gorgeous and you can see from them that we have a possible storm brewing??  The winds are light but have picked up as the afternoon is waning.

We did take a motorcycle ride last weekend (before the rains came) to Valley Center, ND -- will try to post the bridge picture from the campus there and we plan to visit Bismarck, ND on Monday 7/2 to see the capitol.  Will wait to post until I have "trip" pics to share.

Love to all and keep the prayers coming for safe travels,
S & D

Pelican Point - Jamestown, ND

Greetings from the Travelers -

Here's the first place we stayed at in Jamestown, ND -- Pelican Point Landing (Corp of Engineer campground) and it has a public access beach and boat dock (now you can understand how busy the place was over the weekend) --- We had a beautiful site (after 4 attempts to get backed in to the best spot) -- but it wasn't very level which is challenging with you have Zoe at 43 ft.

We finally leveled manually (unless we wanted to be about 4 feet off the ground -- actually, I could walk under the camper hunched down just a little).  We used about every "leveling" item we had, from plastic blocks to wood blocks and still had a lean to one side which meant you watched the cabinet doors and room doors to make sure you didn't hit one when you opened it.

It was a lovely site, we had a secluded backyard and a view of the lake -- Jamestown Reservoir creates the lake upstream tucked in the rolling hill landscape.

 Side view of the camper (Darrel relaxing on the picnic table from getting us backed in -- he is getting much better and only yells at me occasionally when I don't give the right hand signals.

Front view from the camper door -- the lake was gorgeous and we saw Pelicans -- yes, big white pelicans as I didn't realize the dwelled in both SD and ND

Another view of the back deck as we disassembled -- we had shade most of the mid-day and afternoon -- our site was an East/West back in and the deck was just inches off the ground in back.  We had to leave the side cables attached as the legs wouldn't adjust that low to allow the cables to drop.

One draw back, we were across from the playground as you can see from this front view -- with the busy weekends, children would play until past dark as there were lights on the playground.  So we had a little playground noise in the evening but it wasn't too late at night.
NOTE:  Most campgrounds have Quiet hours and these were listed as 11pm - 6am which made it past the Pendergast "bedtime".

If you look closely you can see the lineup of campers and here's a shot of campers across the street.  It was packed Friday - Monday -- checkout time was noon with check in at 2pm -- think there was some latitude on this time frame.

So after realizing no cellular service and the fact that we needed to depart early July 5th to head towards Iowa, we decided we would see if we could find other lodging for Zoe so that we would be able to pull out early on the 5th and not be stranded in our camping over the 4th of July.

So I will close with Jamestown Pelican Point Landing and post our second location --- 

OBTW, we had rain at Pelican Point Landing but since we were tucked away in the trees, it was very enjoyable and we could sit on the patio and just "chill".

Check out the next spot in Lakeview Meadow Resort.

Love to all,

S & D

   

Father's Day relaxing

Hello F & F,
I know this is a little late but the picture was on the phone and as mentioned in the remote camping we had spotty cellular service until this past Thursday but I found a couple of fun pictures of how Darrel spent Father's Day -- we were still at Left Tailrace campground in SD and we had a nice camp fire and made smores to celebrate...

and yes, he shared!  I tried a "selfie" again but it isn't much better than the 1st one -- maybe I'll get better with practice or hand the phone over to Darrel ????