5/30/16

Happy Mudding

Hello again and Happy Memorial Day to everyone! Kathy & I salute our veterans and hope you are all enjoying your long holiday weekend.  We have been camped all weekend at the Dallas County Fairgrounds just outside the small town of Adel, Iowa.

Last Monday we arrived in Sioux Falls, SD and setup camp in the fairgrounds. We were excited because on Tuesday we were to go to a mail forwarding service to start the process of becoming citizens in the state of South Dakota. Tuesday morning we awoke and went to meet our new friends, Larry and Rose Marie, the proprietors of “Your Best Address” mail forwarding service. We spent about 3 hours doing all the necessary paperwork to obtain a new mailing address and register all the vehicles. All the while Michael & Sara are waiting patiently for us to complete our business so we can all go explore Sioux Falls. After obtaining our mailbox and registering vehicles we all head over to Falls Park to see the sights and have some lunch. The falls were spectacular and the park immaculate. The pictures really don’t do it any justice whatsoever but if you’re ever in the area, don’t miss seeing the park and be sure to stop in for lunch. I recommend the Ultimate Hot Dog. A large hot dog stuffed with horseradish mashed potatoes, wrapped in bacon and drizzled with their house dressing. Delicious!

Ball of rubber bands in hallway

My lunch

After lunch and touring the falls we headed over to the License Exam center. We were told there are no DMV’s in South Dakota. We enter the building to find the power off. There were thunderstorms in the area but we’re not certain this was the reason for no power. Apparently it affected some 3800 customers that day. We picked up the necessary paperwork and decided we would return the following morning.

By the old pump bldg that is now a cafe

Michael studying the lay of the land

Sara never stops smiling her infectious smile

Click on pic to see it larger

The following morning Kathy & I rose early and again headed to the licensing exam center. We walked in to lights and computers. Hooray! After having our paperwork looked at we were told to take a seat. Within just a few minutes we were called one at a time to the window to obtain our SD license. I went first. For those of you used to dealing with the grumpy people at the California DMV this experience would not disappoint. The lady at my window spent the entire time eating her breakfast as she stumbled thru the process of getting me my license. Any attempt at humor on my part was not heard or ignored. I never figured it out completely. As it turned out I was told the California DMV computer system was down. Now I’m thinking great! Here we go again… Another day we have to return to try and get our license. About this time the lady behind the counter looks up over my shoulder and asks the gentleman on the ladder behind me wiping the dust off the lights and signs up by the ceiling what she should do. I thought it odd because she was asking the janitor a question she should already know the answer to. It turns out he was a supervisor of sorts. He stated to wait as he proceeded into the back part of the building and came back a few minutes later and using some code my lady didn’t know anything about overrode the system in order to get my information into their database and print out my new license. I was now officially a South Dakota resident. Kathy finished up at her window and we celebrated with breakfast at the local Fryin’ Pan restaurant! She told me later she too noticed almost every employee in the building was eating something during the time we were there. Her lady also had a difficult time trying to enter her passport information in the computer as one of the forms of identification. Apparently they were all new to the process or maybe just new employees.

After breakfast we toured the South Dakota Battleship Museum just down the street. The museum is unique in that they have constructed a full-size replica of the outline of the ship out of concrete on the grass of the park in which it resides. The conning tower is the museum part with loads of memorabilia donated by the sailors of the flagship who served on board during it’s time in our Navy fleet.

Kathy & her 16"

Thursday we headed over to Farmington, MN where we spent a few nights at the fairgrounds in that city. Beautiful flat ground with thick green grass and Dakota City which was a replica 1900’s town. Friday was spent at the Mall Of America. I think we went in circles a few times but still managed to see a little over ¼ of the mall. The mall is ginormous with a theme park in the middle and from what I read, a Sea World type attraction on one end. To celebrate having survived the mall we stopped for ColdStone ice cream on the way back home.

 

Friday we left Farmington and arrived at the fairgrounds in Adel, Iowa, about 16 miles west of Des Moines. I was leading as we entered the campgrounds which was already quite full when we arrived. Having long motor homes as well as towing a dolly and cars behind us tends to make choosing a camping site a little harder than normal. Pull-thru’s are perfect because we don’t have to remove the car, remove the tow dolly and hook the dolly on the car before parking.

As I came around the corner I saw what I believed to be 2 pull-thru sites side by side. I turned into the first one thinking Michael would then take the one next to me when I felt the front tires as they seemed to sink down a bit but I was still moving. About this time the rear wheels dropped off the gravel road onto the grass and I was immediately stuck in my tracks. Oh how I wished I had my jeep about this time. I tried rocking back and forth and we even placed wood under my tires but all I did was bury myself deeper. As I was now on the phone with AAA looking for a large tow truck with a winch Michael walks down to the camp host and returns with half a dozen good ol’ boys who have a tractor.  Almost as fast as I can exit the motor home a tractor appears along with enough help do get us out of a very mucky situation. It almost took less time to pull me back out as it did to get into trouble in the first place. I imagine Mallory and Darryl will have a good laugh over the pictures!

So glad she missed them pulling me out

 

So here it is Memorial Day. I am sitting here typing away as Kathy bakes oatmeal cookies and we make plans to move on to Kansas City, Mo. tomorrow. We’re looking forward to exploring the area around Kansas and eating some great BBQ.

Stay tuned for next week’s surprises. Hopefully I won’t be stuck somewhere I don’t belong!