Back On The Road

Once again we are fortunate enough to hit the road to escape our winter weather.  And as it is every year, we try to beat the snow and cold.  Well, this year we almost made it but Old Man Winter got here first with a big dump the week before leaving.  Fortunately, there were enough  days after that so most of the snow melted - that is except the pile on top of the motorhome which had nicely formed into a layer of ice.  In order to avoid a potential problem, Gerry did climb up and broke up as much as he could and removed it - sure didn't want a chunk of ice come falling off and hit the jeep, or worse yet, hit another vehicle.  A bit dangerous to be up there but all was good.

We hit the road with the first stop being the border crossing.  We try to cross with very little in the way of groceries as we certainly don't care to get held up.  While the crossing was easy,  they apparently do have a policy of having an agricultural inspection of all RV's so it was basically a time thing.  I did lose part of a package of mini peppers but nothing serious.  And we are then off.

There was a bit of harvesting going on - mostly corn.  And there were some pretty big piles sitting out just waiting to be hauled somewhere. 

The traffic was mostly truck traffic - largely grain and cattle haulers.

While travelling was great - mostly sunny with fairly mild winds, we were obviously in windy country.  There were miles of these wind turbines.

We found a nice little area the first night near Hague, ND - it was the Rice Lake Recreation Area.  No one was around, it was off the main highway, and super quiet.

Throughout the Missouri River valley we encountered some fog.  In places it was quite heavy but those distances were not far.  It was really interesting in how some areas were foggy, while in others, it was gone.

From there our next stop was in Oberlin, KS - another small town with lovely park.  We went for a walk and were able to enjoy some great fall colours.

We did hit some muck on the road - you don't need a lot to make a real mess of things.  The weather was great, our camping spot was great, so we decided to spend an extra day and get the vehicles all washed up for the desert.  We also toured the town (population 1600) and we saw this interesting way to decorate a chain link fence.

The streets downtown were all laid with brick, it appears to be quite an old town according to the downtown buildings, and main street is lined with banners with  photos of local military personnel.

As we were headed out, there was a fellow at the gate putting up a sign about a Fall Festival which happened to be just down the road from us so we decided that we should go.  It was sponsored by Merriam's Hope Ranch.

When we were by it yesterday we thought it was an actual ranch as they had been hauling bales of hay.  Wrong - it is a hope for single mothers who are at risk of losing their children to foster care.  It is a fundraiser (I understand) but it was by donation only.  They had tons of things for kids to do and some of the activities were certainly creative.

We went, walked around and enjoyed the fun, had supper and came home.  That was our exciting Saturday night fun!!!

Until next time, have a great week