Friday, August 1

Camp-On-The-Heart Dickinson, North Dakota   $16.00 per night

Today we continued eastward on US 12   through a lot of beautiful territory including crossing the famous Power River . Much of the day was spent traversing more cowboy country and then we stopped for lunch at Bowman North Dakota. Stopping around us were several long horse trailers with real cowboys complete with dusty spurs, they have to eat too. Or as Charles Russel once said, a little girl asked her mom "Do cowboys eat grass?" to which her mother replied, "No, they're part human." At Bowman we turned northward onto US 85 and headed to Dickinson. The northward part of our trek was through areas that were raising grain and there were fewer cattle present. In the late afternoon we had the pleasure of watching a most unusual weather event of a beautiful set of clouds. In this photo group you can see the clouds along with a Google Earth overlay of the storm and an enhanced satellite image.  The storm covered about 1/3 of the state of North Dakota and we could see almost all of the cloud formation in excess of 200 miles across.

Saturday, August 2 A visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park was the outing for today. This park protects several natural areas in honor of our first conservationalist President. The park has north and south units which encompass areas near where Roosevelt had stakes in several ranches in the late 1800's.   It was hot and dry today so we didn't do any hiking. Besides some beautiful scenery we saw lots of prairie dogs but none of the park's wild horses or buffalo. The park also contains the original cabin built by Roosevelt. We stopped by a local RV repair shop and got a replacement handle for one of the gray water tank drains which stripped its threads and came off a few days ago.

Sunday, August 3

Roughrider Campground, Minot, North Dakoda   $23.00 per night

Today's trip took us primarily north. We crossed some more eroded landscape  around the Little Missouri River where we also crossed into Central Time. We pulled off the road to look at an historic marker which remembers "The Lost Bridge". Here is the story from the marker.

The Lost Bridge   Lost Bridge spanned the Little Missouri River about 500 yards northeast of this point. The bridge symbolized many aspects of our cultural, social, and economic heritage. Large cattle ranches dominated the area in the late 1800's and those that survived the rigorous winters prospered. The route on which the bridge existed was a cattle trail leading north to spring pastures. Cattle herds forded the Little Missouri River but were often stopped by high water. To gain access to the north side during high water required a long drive to the west across the Long X Bridge near Watford City, over 60 miles away. Since this route was not economical the idea of a bridge was born. Political influence generated by successful cattle ranchers, coupled with the insistence of surrounding communities, led to the appropriation of state funds for the construction of a bridge. The bridge was built in 1931 at a cost of $73,677. But in 1930, Congress cut the funding for road construction projects on public lands by 50 percent. Since land north of the bridge is public land because it lies within the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, the 50 percent reduction hindered the state's ability to immediately construct roads. But the road had a low priority even without the federal cutback. An ungraded primitive two track trail led to and from the bridge for the next 22 years. Thus the structure became known as "Lost Bridge".

The original bridge was dissembled after a new bridge was built in 1991. A portion of the old bridge serves as the mount for this historical marker. As an interesting connective point, this historical marker refers to the "famous Long X bridge". One of the brands on an historical marker we saw on July 30 (see lower left photo about half way down the center column) shows the Long X brand. Also one of my favorite songs by The Sons Of The San Joaquin is called The Famous Long X brand. The one the song refers to was in Texas but there must have been a connection as many major brands were to be found in many states. (listen)

Monday, August 4 Not much to report today. We did some shopping and prepared rodeo contestant mail out packets. Oh, we found a fantastic home center called Menards. Frank was very impressed. They had electrical parts we can't even order back east. Home Depo should look at these people and follow their example, then maybe they would avoid going out of busness as Frank thinks they will in a few years. The bulk of the Menards stores seems to be centered around Chicago.

Thursday, August 7

Ogstons RV Park, Saginaw, MN   $29.00 per night

As we head further east, the trees are continuing to change. We are now in the areas of the great northern forests.   Shortly after starting today, we crossed the Mississippi river, just 10 miles from its source. At this point the mighty river is about 20 feet across. We went through Grand Rapids Minnesota and had to detour around some construction. Tonight we are camped about 10 miles from Duluth and it is supposed to get down to about 49 degrees. Frank has the windows open and the fan going. While the humidity is higher than it was way out west, the air is clean and wonderful to breathe. This campground has no lights and for the first time we can see the stars in multitudes. Around 10:30 in the evening, Frank put the camera on a tripod and played with some long exposure shots.   Had dinner at a local restaurant and it was delicious.

Friday, August 8 Not much to report today except we bought a new vacuum for the trailer. An Oreck Ironman which is much better than what we had before. We did drive through the city of Duluth, found it crowded with cars and people.   Nice town but too cluttered for us after having spent the last few weeks in the wide open spaces of the west. The Internet connection at this campground which was great the first evening has become very slow and sluggish.

Saturday, August 9 Again not much to report. Frank worked on web pages, Tom did laundry. We got a lot of small things done around the trailer that have been backing up. Tomorrow we move on.

Wednesday, August 13

Woodchip Campground, Bryan Center, Michigan   $37.00 per night

We are slowly moving toward Indiana to have some work done on the trailer. We stopped along the way at a rest area that was listed as scenic. I guess scenic is relative as the view was mostly the tops of trees and the sight distance was maybe a couple of miles. However, I am continually impressed with how Michigan handles their rest areas. They are always neat and well laid out. This one had an historical marker and a memorial plaque to an obviously well loved chief maintenance engineer.   This is a very nice campground, clean with lots of trees. And the Internet connection is the best we have had so far on the entire trip. The campground is very near Wyoming....... Wyoming, Michigan that is.

Thursday, August 14 This morning we hooked the trailer up and took it to a nearby Camping World where they installed some deluxe covers on our ceiling fan vents. Now we can leave the fans on during rain and don't have to worry about getting rain into the trailer. We also got new water hoses and a new dish strainer to replace our old one which we have been using since 1988. The new one is exactly like the old one, except less faded. It is a good design and it's nice to see something which works well not fiddled with just to make it new. Sometime during the day Frank's electric blanket controller shorted out blowing a breaker and our main light control module, so our 2 dimable lights are non-dims (a theatrical term) until we can get replacement controllers. After returning the trailer to our site, we went shopping. We went to another Mainerd's and got some new rubber matting for the back of the truck along with some hose connectors. This evening we were blessed with a beautiful sunset.  

Friday, August 15

Sunny Brook RV Resort, South Haven, Michigan   $45.00 per night

This is a brand new condo RV park and at this point is very pretty although the trees still need to do some growing. Wi-Fi works well and is included in the cost. Today's ride was relatively short at 65 miles and the weather was great.   We just missed the campground and had to turn around using some dirt roads. The landscape in this region is generally flat with sandy soil. The trees are not much different than what we have at home in Virginia. Traffic is increasing.

Saturday, August 16 We drove down to the local town of South Haven and found it to be very touristy with lots of gift shops. It was very difficult to find a place to park. Tom thoroughly washed the truck and the front of the trailer. The truck now looks like a brand new vehicle. Frank has developed a skin allergy of some sort with major rashes on his legs and stomach.   We are scratching our heads trying to figure what is causing it, and Frank is scratching his legs from the rash. Our latest idea is it may be the laundry detergent, so Tom is washing some of Frank's clothes with no soap to see if that helps clear the condition. This evening we went to a pig roast here in the campground put on by the hosting company. Bar-B-Que was pretty good but the company was not very friendly. Just about every family stayed separate and there was very little mingling. As the evening approached, Frank climbed on top of the trailer and scrubbed the roof areas of the slide-outs. Tomorrow we move on to Indiana.

Sunday, August 17

Pla-Mor Campground, Bremen, Indiana   $32.10 per night

We are now positioned in Indiana about 20 miles from our RV's manufacturer. Tomorrow we get up early for the short trip and a 9:00 am appointment. This is a fairly nice campground but big with over 600 sites but only about 100 occupied. Frank got another horse trail ride today   at a nice little dude ranch called Marshland Trail Riding Farm , run by a great lady named Kelly. They are just getting started in this business and we hope they do well. They had a mounting platform which Frank was glad to have, but he felt a bit like a green horn, no real cowboy would need a mounting platform. But then again, Cowboy Frank's knees aren't what they use to be. This time Frank's horse was named Sadie rather than Grumpy. Sadie was a good horse, with a touch of draft in her, so she was laid back and docile.

Monday August 18 Early this morning we packed up and headed toward Syracuse to take the trailer to Ameri-Camp for some service. We hit some unexpected road construction and the detour began taking us completely in the wrong direction to get where we needed to go. Luckily we had GPS maps so we were able to re-route our detour through back roads which, as we learned the next day, saved us about 10 miles. After dropping off the trailer and showing Charlie and Mike what needed doing, we left and got a room at the Oakwood Inn. That's when we learned the Oakwood Inn will be closing next week so we got in just in time.  Frank and his Sister Sallie stayed here last year when they brought the trailer up from Clifton for work. I'm going to count this as being the same group because when we got the trailer back on Tuesday afternoon we took it back to the same campground and site we were on yesterday.

Tuesday, August 19 We didn't expect to get the trailer back until late afternoon so we looked for something to do. In the nearby town of Elkhart is the RV-MH hall of fame and museum , which contains a great exhibit of travel trailers and motor homes from the past and present. The current museum building is very new so, as of this posting, Google Earth only shows an empty field. For the moment I am including photos of the signs for information on each display. At some point I may translate these signs into text for easier reading. Note that this is a large gallery currently with 85 images so it is its own page rather than a popup gallery. After an interesting afternoon at the museum, we picked up the trailer and took it back to Pla-Mor campground onto the same site we had on the 17th.

Wednesday, August 20 Today was another day of work in the trailer. This time mostly paperwork consisting of rodeo issues and website items. Tomorrow we head toward Chicago and the rodeo (linked below). We will be positioning the trailer in the parking lot of the rodeo's host hotel and staying in the hotel until next Monday. Therefore, this will be the last entry until next Monday or Tuesday evening. Friday, Frank will be attending the IGRA board meeting where he will webcast the meeting. Saturday and Sunday we will be enjoying the rodeo. Watch for rodeo photos to be posted on the gallery page either Saturday or Sunday evening.

We are now heading west to the Chicago area to attend the Windy City Rodeo August 23-24. Then we will trek back to Washington DC area and home for the Atlantic Stampede Rodeo. After a short break we will probably start out again, but we may decide to delay trailering for a month or so. We will be back in Denver for the IGRA Finals Rodeo October 11-12 but may decide to fly rather than drive the trailer. Then we will go to New Orleans for the IGRA Convention October 30-November 2, where Frank will be webcasting the event. This may be a truck drive or trailering trip, we haven't decided for sure yet. But we will definitely begin traveling with our trailer again sometime after Convention, we just don't know where we might go at that point. These pages will continue to be updated as we trailer around so this is not the end by any means, I just wanted to give those who are interested a heads up on our current plans.