Pender, NE to Des Moines, IA

Yesterday, we moved from the campground on the Blue Ox property to Cutty's Campground in Des Moines. The winds started gusting AGAIN up to 30 MPH or so to start. As we were getting set up, we told our new "friend," a bird that had been laying on either some rocks or eggs next to our rig. As we would approach, she would scream and splay her tail feathers telling us to get away and she was getting bigger to force the issue, if needed. When this wouldn't work, she would take off into the grass so that we would chase her instead of going near her "nest." Gutsy little lady! On our trip, we were even smiled on by a Smiley Face from a water tower in Adair, IA. The gusts picked up along our journey to over 40 MPH but at least the last half of the trip had the wind at our rear instead of the right side like it was for the first half. We got set up at Cutty's just before it started raining. The other day in Omaha at lunch with MOC friends, Ron and Mary suggested stopping at a dairy farm in Northern Indiana where there is a "milking carousel" and many calfs being born every day, among other interesting things. We will be camping nearby at Monticello, IN but, since we have not given Sunshine serious "separation training," we are not going to be able to see it this trip. We will work on that while home and hopefully see the farm in the fall, when we leave the MOC Rally in Goshen. Tomorrow we go to Utica, IL and then on to Monticello. From there, we head home. Looking forward to seeing family that we have not seen since the holidays.

We had a great day today!

Yesterday, the engineer from Blue Ox took our hitch and old bedsaver from our truck. We spent the night in their on-site campground. This morning, we were advised that our bedsaver was good to go. I took the truck to the factory they reinstalled it. We advised them that we had plans for this afternoon and were advised that we could stay the extra night, if we wished. This was done all for no added cost to us. We then drove to Fremont, NE and had lunch with friends from the MOC, Ron and Mary Lichtenberg and Paul and Jan Kelpe. We made it back to Pender late this afternoon and will leave in the morning for Des Moines, IA. We are now slowly making our way home to Michigan. All in all, a pretty good day!

Mitchell, SD to Pender, NE

Today we traveled from Mitchell to Pender. The first half was with a 30-40 MPH tailwind and then the last half was south with the strong winds coming from the west. We arrived at the Blue Ok hitch and tow bar factory. Since our 5th wheel slider hitch on our new truck would not handle the "bed saver" from our old hitch, they will design one for us, install it and we will have a new bed saver and Blue Ox will have the design for this hitch for future orders. We have used Blue Ox products in the past and liked them but this action really impresses us. They have a campground on their property with full hookups and will let us camp here until they are done on Friday. What's good about being in this area is that we will be having dinner with friends from the MOC that live in Omaha tomorrow or Thursday. Can't beat that! When we leave here Friday or Saturday, we will be slowly winding our way home to Michigan.

Sundance, WY to Mitchell, SD

We finally made it out of Sundance today. This morning we returned our truck to the mechanic who had "changed the fuel filters" because it was still difficult starting and discovered that he only replaced one of the two filters. Now, hopefully, it is good to go. The day was sunny and cool, finally rising to 66 degrees as we arrived in Mitchell. The winds that we have been having seemingly forever were relatively calm and it was a great day to travel. When we arrived at the Famil-E-Fun Campground said that he had just heard on the news that tomorrow the winds back between Rapid City and The Missouri River were to be 55 MPH SUSTAINED tomorrow. WOW!! Once again, our timing was quite good. Tomorrow we travel from here to Pender, NE, the home of Blue Ox hitches. They are taking our old "bed saver" that fit onto the hitch from the truck we traded in for this one in Texas but does not fit on the new slider hitch. They have not manufactured one that fits our hitch so they will design and manufacture one and give it to us for free, and then they will have a pattern for future savers for this hitch. This is great PR by Blue Ox. They also have a campground on their property that we will be camping at while there. The only cost to us will be time. We then will be winding our way home, probably arriving about May 14.

One more day in Sundance

The weather geniuses have issued a Winter Weather Advisory calling for snow and 25-40 MPH winds with 50 MPH gusts for today. Tomorrow should be much better so we will wait until then to leave here. This is the same campground that we were in last spring and stayed inside the Montana for a few hours with the slides in while 65 MPH gusts lambasted us. Is Northeast Wyoming trying to tell us something? Sunshine had a difficult time sleeping last night with the rockin and rollin that the rig was going through. Think we will let her sleep today and tomorrow will be a better day. We are warm and dry in here.

Cindy B's Cafe

Last spring, we discovered this little, out of the way cafe that had the best pie we ever had in a restaurant. Today we returned and found out IT STILL DOES!!!! It is located in the "town" of Aliddin, WY, population 15. It is near Sundance, WY and Devil's Tower National Monument. The food is all homemade and we have never left hungry. The 110 year old Aliddin General Store is still next to Cindy B's. This also is worth the trip just to spend some time there. Last night, between rain and snow storms, we had a beautiful show out of our picture window - The sky and the mountains were beautiful! Today, we awoke to a couple of inches of wet snow sticking to the grass and melted on the roadways. The temperature "soared" to 38 so it melted quickly but flurries and rain fell off and on all day. The weather geniuses are talking four inches or so by tomorrow morning with winds. We are planning on leaving Sundance in the morning so we hope the roads have melted the snow by the time we are ready. We will be pointing to northeast Nebraska where we must be by Tuesday afternoon. IF the snow is melted from the roadways and IF the winds are not with the force they have been lately, we will be good to go. Looks like we will be home around May 15, give or take.

Casper to Sundance

We finally got out of Casper. The wind was still blowing but not as hard as yesterday and a snow/rain combo was on the way so we left. The drive was mostly sunny but we could see storm clouds coming from the Northwest. Before we left, Sunshine jumped on the bed and said "This is OUR bed!", including herself if our. Now we shall see. Saw some interesting rock formations during our journey today. Also started seeing Bison and Pronghorns. When we finally set up in Sundance, we looked out our picture window and saw the storms hiding our view of the mountains. The forecast is calling for 6-8 inches of snow here between noon tomorrow and noon Saturday. Guess we will not make it to Rapid City this weekend because of the weather. We have an appointment with the Blue Ox factory Wednesday in Pender, NE so will have to change our planned agenda. That is what makes this lifestyle so great, though. When snags come up, we do have our "house" with us so we can either stay or go and always be home and comfortable. We saw Devil's Tower last spring so we will probably not go there tomorrow through the snow but we will definately make Cindy B's Restaurant in Aladdin, WY with the best pie in restaurant land anywhere!!!