My First Love

Oh that wonderful feeling. Anticipation. You catch yourself day-dreaming about the next meeting, how you will spend your time together, what new things you'll notice about them, how they feel, smell, look..taste.  They occupy your thoughts, thinking about what has happened in the past and timidly you start thinking about the future, planning, hoping.  You start to get a little embarrassed by how bold your thoughts of the future get to be.  How will they look in 5 years, 10 years..then you stop.  This is absurd. One season at a time. Goodness you barely even have all the beds prepped yet and already you're dreaming of adding trees in the front garden.

Yes, gardening was my first love.  I was completely captured by it.  I fell hook line and sinker.  From the moment I was given a 10 x 10 plot to tend to for a mere 3 months during the summer up to the present moment where I live on 5 acres and can garden as much as I desire.  I live in a climate where gardening is next to impossible and I still love it.  I live at 6400ft altitude in the High Plains of Colorado. It is high and dry and very windy.  I always said I love a good challenge and I got one.

When I was a young girl in grade school our local Botanic Gardens offered a summer program for kids.   They would let you tend to a small garden plot as long as you made your commitment to show up every weekend to water/weed/harvest, whatever was needed.  You could come during the week too, if your school schedule allowed.  Well mine did.  I made sure of it.  With help we first designed our gardens on paper, then planted.  Oh how thrilled I was when the seedlings popped out of the ground and began grow into plants.  I loved every bit of being at the garden.  They let us borrow the tools which I thought was really nice of them and they taught us why we needed to use them and how to use them.

I grew summer squash, corn, cucumbers and flowers.  We had a limited supply of seeds to chose from.  In the fall when our harvest was done we entered our prized produce into the "Garden Show".  There were several different entry levels, strait up veggies or fancy stuff you could do with your veggies.  I wish I had taken photo's, but I still have my blue ribbons somewhere.  My summer squash won a blue ribbon. It was beautiful.  My fancy entry won honorable mention but I have forgotten what I had done.  Summer squash (yellow) is still my favorite veggie.

I am still in love with gardening and always will be.  It always brings me joy, gives back way more than I could ever give it.  Even the year when I was too sick to have a garden, I somehow managed to drag my sick butt out and drop a few pumpkin seeds into a bed without adding any compost or turning the bed.  Nope.  Just dropped the seeds in and hoped for the best.  And they grew of course.  My garden never lets me down.  It is a love that never disappoints, no matter the odds.  A love that will last forever.

End of the Road

Coming home is always bittersweet. It's nice to be off the road and on stable ground, but it's sad to be home back to the routine of everyday life. It was sad to drop little Kira off at her home with Jenn & Joziah.  We had so much fun with her, she has the sweetest personality and just loves to have fun.

We thought this would be a good test run for renting RV's since we made our plans for this trip very last minute.  We originally asked for a 31' Class C RV which we thought would be adequate for our daughters and their families plus pups if they all decided they could come.  At the last minute they upgraded us to at 32' Class C, which sleeps 8-10 and has 2 slide outs instead of 1.  Turns out it was a good thing because the crates we brought for the pups took up a lot of room, in fact they took up an entire bed.  The rule is you must be buckled up any time the RV is in motion.  But...they tell you they know people don't follow the rules.  We did follow the rule for Kira.

We were frugal.  We packed our cars up, drove to the Rental facility to load up the RV and get on our way.  This was to avoid renting another day to bring the RV home to load as the RV rental facility more or less on the way to pick up Kira.  It was a savings to be sure, but a hassel to off load out of our cars.  Luckily our cars were safely kept in a gated area.

We planned our menus, activities and overall supply list well.  However we did plan too many activities for too little time.  That is usually the case with our vacations.  We would have loved another day for each park we stayed in to enjoy it.  Because we stayed in state parks we really didn't need an RV with a toilet and a shower as they are available at the parks.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the RV, but we could have done with less for sure.  I loved sleeping inside safe and fairly warm.  Yes even with a furnace, it got cold at night.  Not sure if this is due to the type of RV or just the nature of the beast. We had lots of blankets and I got to cuddle with Kira so we stayed toasty warm.

Having a kitchen was awesome. The refrigerator was perfect, the stovetop was great and the oven would have been great to use had we known how.  It even had a microwave which was nice to have but we could have done without.  We brought all our own kitchen supplies and did fine.  They gave us a checklist to pack by and that helped a lot.  A few things were left behind but nothing we couldn't make do without.

Our shampoo and conditioner mysteriously disappeared.  We figured a crafty raccoon must have reached in and grabbed them...until we got home and figured out they must have dropped into the trash which was stored in the shower when the RV was in motion, then moved out to a different part of the RV when the shower was in use.  This wasn't figured out until we unpacked.  The raccoon story was much more fun to tell :)

The company we rented from was great.  They sell you different packages with the cost of the daily rental. You are allowed 100 free miles per day and pay .29 per mile above that.  Then you purchase one of three packages. The standard, the something better and then the works. (I forgot the real names)  These packages have to do with what is supplied with the RV and what you will do yourself when returning the RV.  The Standard (what we chose) is pretty much you get the RV, with full tanks (gas, propane, water) empty tanks (black (potty) and grey water).  The deal is you are responsible for returning the RV exactly how you get it.  You have to clean it, refill/empty all the tanks.  With the Something better and Works package you pay them do some or all of that stuff, which can end up costing around $650.  So we paid for an extra day costing us around $170, brought the RV home and scrub & dubbed it up, filled/emptied and saved $$$.  Yes it was work, but very much worth the savings.  It also gave us extra time on the last day of our vacation.  Had we not extended it one more day we would have been rushing like crazy and most likely had to cut something out of our trip.

Is is a good way to take a road trip? Yes, heck yes!  I would do it again in a heart beat.  It was great. I hope we can do it again when more of the kids can come along.  If we have more folks going it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a car following for those little side trips.  Buying an RV may be something I would consider but I'd have to test different models out before I'd make a purchase like that.  I can't help but think of my friend Lori and her Teardrop that she just recently upgraded to a Raindrop. So many styles to check out...

Crazy times

Anyone who has spent a few days in a RV gets a little crazy. Add a toddler and two dogs into the mix and it gets pretty nuts. In the best way possible. Kira has been so much fun asking millions of questions, playing games, working on puzzles and lots of time just being silly. She loves stories and I have made lots up along the way. We have also picked up books at the places we stopped.

Mount Rushmore was much better than anticipated. I had been before but Al wanted to go for the first time. It really is an amazing sight to behold and as Americans we should be proud to have such a work of art. Even Kira was impressed. We were delightfully surprised by a group of youngsters from a St. Mary's School, as they performed "America the Beautiful" On hand chimes.

Hand Chime Video

Not a sound was heard as they played except the wind and those beautiful chimes. That was crazy lucky. 

We made an unplanned stop at "Walls Drug Store".  Now that place is crazy!  A it is like a drug store on drugs. I just can't think of any other way to describe it.

We spent the night in Custer state park. It is a massive state park where I am sure one could spend an entire vacation at. However we were there for just one night in a nice little camp spot nest to a duck pond. The park is full of wildlife and during our shirt visit we even caught a glimpse of Buffalo and lots of Antelope and Deer. 

The last morning of our days of fun finds us at Mt. Crazy Horse. It is a work in progress and a sight to behold. They are doing an amazing carving out of the mountain and let you take rocks from the carving home. No way I am missing out on that!  I am looking forward to following the progress on this monument. Google Mt Crazy Horse to learn more about it. 

Now we are on our way home. I am sad this trip is nearing the end. We learned a lot about RVing which I will summarize in the near future. Most of all we had the opportunity to vacation with family. Bucket list item. Check.

The Twist Cone

Aberdeen, South Dakota.  This smallish town was our destination for the day because that is where the infamous fast food place called "The Twist Cone"  I was sure with a name like that we could get an ice cream cone that was actually twisted.

We drove from Sioux Falls at the bottom of the state to Aberdeen about 3 hours driving (RV with toddler time) to get our twist cone. This place is just as cute as can be with a big neon cone on top.  With all the confidence of a self named twist cone connoisseur I stepped up and placed our order.  Kira had the strawberry butter/vanilla twist, I had the classic Chocolate/Vanilla twist and Al had the same twist.  Here
 is a picture of Kira's cute little cone:

There is no argument that this little cone is adorable, but twisted? No, not at all.  The Twist Cone, fails to live up to it's name.  I did not get a chance to take a picture of my cone nor Al's because the blobs that they were, they were quickly melting and we had lots of licking to do.  It wasn't even warm out, the ice cream is just very very soft. It does have a really good flavor I have to say.

We departed Aberdeen with light hearts because we are on a great adventure.  Our next stop will be in Oahe State Park.  Yet another wonderful camp site with a beach side view.  We arrived late in the afternoon with plenty of time to take the dogs for a nice long walk, take a walk along the swim beach and Grampa took Kira to the playground.  Tomorrow is a big day.  We are going to go fishing for Walleye.  I have never caught a Walleye and I hope to while I am here.  If not, I know I will enjoy the task regardless.

Sioux Falls

Our two goals for the day were Falls Park in Sioux Falls where I would get to meet up with a fellow breast cancer sister and the 2 nd goal was to visit the Corn Palace in Mitchell Palace. 

Falls park was very cool. Kira like climbing up the observation tower so much she had to do it once with gramma and once again with grampa owl. 

Sadly I wasn't able to meet up with a sister breast cancer patient as she has had a set back and was in the hospital. With a toddler with a runny nose we didn't want to compromise her health. We will have to make another trip to see her. Please join me in sending prayers for Lisa!

Off season The Corn Palace is only open until 5pm. We scooted or butts in at 5  :01pm. The doors were still open but all the employees had gone home. It looks to be a fun place. We'd go back again someday. 

Today is a really big day. It is the day we go to The Twist Cone. Yay!

Welcome to SoDak!

After a very long and windy drive we arrived in Yankton, SD in the wee hours of the Saturday morning. Ok so 1am may not be considered wee by some but it was by our standards. 

I've learned a lot about traveling by RV in the past day, the most important is wind is your enemy. Unpacking is only fun if you aren't in a hurry and walking while moving makes for lots of bruising.  (Sometimes you just need to move around)

Our first night we parked the beast at Lewis & Clark recreation area in SD. We woke up to an beautiful mist covered lake surrounded by green trees, flowering shrubs and grasses everywhere. Simply beautiful. I took lots of pictures with my new camera to post later but here are a few I took with my phone to share. 

Kira with her Teddy Bear Pancake.  

Kira's new favorite phrase "are we there yet?" 

Having a great time!  Love to all!

Road Trip!

Who doesn't get excited about a Road Trip? Well, I am so completely excited about this road trip I can hardly type slow enough to make sense let alone spell the words right.  Thank you spell check :)  

I have a bucket list.  On this bucket list is an experience I hope to check off during this road trip. We are traveling to South Dakota.  Any guesses as to what the experience is?  Could it be Mount Rushmore?  Surely the carving of our great Presidents is a sight to behold by any American? Nope. Not it.  Perhaps it is the Beautiful Black Hills, home of Black Hills Gold.  Such beautiful jewelry, delicate, sparkly. mmmm  Nope.  Not it.  I know, I know you must be thinking it is a trip to the Missouri river to fish because I have always wanted to catch a Walleye and they are bountiful there.  That has to be it right???

Riii..Wrong.  Not it.

The reason I am traveling to South Dakota is quite simple.  I am a self appointed connoisseur of the "Twist Cone". You would think this is a simple thing, however many servers simply can't manage to pull off the simple twist and you end up with blobs of vanilla and chocolate ice cream on your cone.  That is not twisted.  In an effort to find a place with an authentic twist cone I came across a place in Aberdeen, SD.  

"The Twist Cone"

With a name like that it has to know how to twist a cone right?  Well, I have to have faith that it does :)  So we are renting an RV and picking up Kira and off we go to The Twist Cone.  One our way in and out of the state we are going to see some fabulous sights and even meet up with a fellow breast cancer sister in Sioux Falls.  We will be teaching Kira to fish, showing her camping the easy way with the grandparents.  Playing cards, cooking, making smores all kinds of fun stuff including a lot of driving.  It will be a whirlwind trip but a very important one.  Our pups are coming along because they too need adventure in their little lives.  I will actually be checking two items off my bucket list.  1. Traveling with family in an RV with our pups. 2. A genuine twist cone.  I am sure to check off number one.  We'll see about number two...

I'll be taking you along with us along our trip as Al gave me a new camera for Mother's Day.  Today will be a day full of packing.  This packing I do not dread!  I am so excited!