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 ????

Remote camping

We arrived at Pelican Point Landing and we found a beautiful campsite, a view of the lake but absolutely no cell service.  So we will check when in town or can find service!!

More later,
S & D

This & That...and we leave for next spot

Hello Out There,
We have wrapped up our stay at Left Tailrace and are headed to Pelican Point, near Jamestown, ND.  We are leaving a day early as we have learned you need to travel Tuesday-Thursday, NOT Monday or Friday!!!  We plan an early morning and are hoping that the rain holds off as we load up and break camp.  One of these posts, I'll clue you in on the "setting up & breaking camp" checklists.

We have had great motorcycle rides and went to Chamberlain the back road through Ft Thompson and you see the Missouri most of the way. Once in town we stopped at a river walk park for a short break and I ventured out on the "quartzite boulders" again -- and yea, no bruise but the wind was blowing and I am hanging onto the big cottonwood tree. Bridge behind crosses the Missouri.

Here's the motorcycles waiting for us to return from the walkway.

We have been working on Zoe's window shades.  Remember the Pendergast's slept in the basement so we have been adding blackout shades to windows in Zoe that don't have those room darkening shades.  A trip to Walmart for the window curtains and velcro we have been creating our custom shades.  Darrel is just so darn handy.... and it really does work -- this one is on the front door.

We have several more to make as it takes a little time to cut, install the sticky velcro and add to window frame.

But we have had some relaxing time --- Darrel hanging out on the patio because when the cycles come out to play, we have extra room in the garage and we sit out there for dining or just to watch what is going on.  Has its own awning and steps to enter, plus the railing to keep you from falling off.

The doors in the background allow you to close off the outdoors when you don't want the rain or bugs.

Finally, I have pictures of the bedroom.  Today was laundry day before we head out tomorrow (Thursday, 6/21) and the bed is made up so nice and neat -- the pictures are from several views and I'll try to explain what you are seeing.

This view is from the hallway door, extra blankets on Darrel's side!

This view is from the bathroom door (we have a pocket door which allows access to the bathroom without going into the hallway that leads into the living area.

This view is from Susan's sitting on the bed -- to the left is the doorway to the living area and to the right is the pocket door closed -- yes, there is a TV in the bedroom!  

NOTE:   We have better TVs in the 5th wheel than we owned in our home of 33 years (go figure!)

This view is with the pocket door open and you can see the bathroom wall with the linen closet on the right hand side (mirror) -- we have made extra room by adding over the door hanging hooks because clothing storage is at a premium!

This is the view we have from our stairs to the front door of the cove when other campers are here.  The weekends are busy with a full campground but it clears out on Sunday night or early Monday, and we have more openness to see the water.

So we say good-bye to Left Tailrace Campground and a big thank you to our camp hosts, Ron & Linda, plus Yorkie, Chico, who really knows what is going on -- as they have provided us with a wealth of information and good tips!  Plus a big thank you to Ranger Bob for trimming the tree to the north of our campsite!

Catch up with you from Pelican Point next time!

Happy Travels,

Susan & Darrel

Bumps & Bruises

Hello Family & Friends,
You might notice from the title that we have had some bumps and bruises over the last couple of weeks -- mine is the bruise from climbing down the lake banks and falling on my butt on the quartzite rocks that line the shores.  They are boulder size so I have a really nice bruise, no pics but trust me, it is a rainbow of colors!!!

Now a bump -- when you see a BUMP road sign it means either missing patches of paved road and/or 4 or 5 huge dips in the road which makes you feel like you are on a roller coaster ride... pay attention to the road sign warnings!!!

Another bump is that flying rocks from passing Fed Ex truck will hit your truck windshield and within 5 miles will cause a crack.  I don't have to send a picture of that for you to imagine that image.

So several hundred dollars later we have a new windshield.  I have to give a shout out to Ron's Auto Glass in Yankton and Tim from Tinting Pro for the repairs.  It was a long trip back to Yankton but we couldn't have been treated better.  We were suppose to have a loaner vehicle so we could run errands while we waited for it to be repaired but the loaner was already out, so the secretary loaned us her Personal car .... I definitely will need to send her a thank you for helping us out.

Another bump is figuring out grocery shopping and laundry as we are 25 miles away from these services.  We definitely had a spoiled previous life with all these conveniences at our fingertips which we probably took for granted or didn't recognize their convenience.  We are still learning to remember the cooler for foods that need refrigeration on these warmer/hotter day temps!!!

But as the Pendergast motto goes "Nobody got hurt (well, I did get a bruise)" and as our granddaughter Reilly would say "I'm Okay" --- we are doing OK!

So until next time (and pray for no more bumps OR bruises),
Susan & Darrel

PS  I will try to have some fun pics for the next post!

2nd Destination - Left Tailrace Campground

Yes, we are still alive -- the Internet service is slow and I haven't had the patience to wait to post.  I am hoping this goes well or it will be really a short post with more to follow when I find a quicker connection.

We arrived Friday, 6/8 at Left Tailrace Campground - Big Bend Dam project located by Ft. Thompson on Lake Sharpe (found out it was named after a Governor of South Dakota) -- it is absolutely beautiful with bluffs lining one side of the lake and more grassland type landscape on the other side.  We are about 25 miles from Chamberlain, SD

We have a nice campsite that is a pull through -- a couple draw backs is that the water is nonpotable which means you cannot drink it (something to do with lead pipes or soldering when installed?? but is on the schedule to be replaced by next year and no sewer, which is pretty common at Corp campgrounds so we are conserving water usage to make it for the 2 weeks).

Here we are ----

We took the motorcycles out of the garage area today (Monday, 6/11) since we had storms on both Friday & Sunday nights.  We think we are rainmakers -- it seems like where we travel, we bring rain.

Oh, here's the pics promised from Laura Ingalls Wilder home in De Smet, SD.  The first picture is in front of the surveyors house the family lived in the 1st winter they were in De Smset.  

The 2nd picture is in front of Pa & Ma's home (Laura never lived there) but that is the final home they stayed in until their passing.  The young lady holding the door is our tour guide (a high school student) and she was very good in explaining the historical site and all the buildings on it.

The 3rd picture shows a shot of most of the 2 story house.  Pa kept building on the original house until it was fairly large for those days of homesteads.

We are headed to Pierre, SD on Tuesday through scenic byways on the motorcycles following the Missouri as it makes a loop back on itself.  We hope the temps hold at a pleasant 75 degrees -- and that the breezes stay light.

Signing off for now,

Traveling Pendergasts