As we wrap up our second week of our trip to Alaska, we've had some challenges but more fun to offset it!
After we left the SPAM musuem, we went to Minneapolis and played tourist for two days. Our favorite site there was Minnehaha Falls Park and we also toured the James J Hill home (look him up; he was a personal friend of JP Morgan!) and went to the Mall of America. After we left there, we ventured to Gonvick MN, where Dean's grandad was buried. We toured Mrs. Olson's Lefse Factory which is in an old schoolhouse and we emerged with a small case of the stuff (which is delicious!).
Our challenge set in as we reached Rugby, MN which is the "Geographic Center of North America." GREAT. We were getting our last slug of cheap gas (at $3.97) in the US, when the motorhome started smoking and stopped dead in its tracks. We lost a fan belt, and after a call for assistance, figured out that the compressor locked up and had to be replaced. This guy manhandled the motorhome into the Chevy dealership (it had lost the power steering) and started looking for parts. We finally decided the parts could only come from the Workhorse folks and they had to come overnight to the closest authorized dealer, which was in Minot. We volunteered to drive our little Honda to Minot to pick up the parts the next morning, so we slept in the parking lot of the dealer that night. Sure enough, the mechanic got to work as soon as we got the parts back and had us on our way (minus air conditioning) by 3:00 p.m. Ya gotta love people in small towns! So, I took this picture of the "geographic center" with Dean and Molly in the foreground and the motorhome stranded in the Chevy lot in the background.
Skip to today; which made up for the challenge. We were riding through Riding Mountain National Park and we happened upon a mama Black Bear with two cubs munching on the side of the road! That makes it all worth it. As we type, we are in Yorkton, SK and well on our way to meeting up with our tour group in a little more than a week.
Stay tuned and be safe!
Friday, June 27, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
First Week of the Alaska Adventure
Well we have managed to travel a little over 700 miles this week and have seen some awesome places! As we left Lake of the Ozarks, we out ran a major thunderstorm (and of course, we had just finished washing the motorhome) and made it to Columbia, MO for an oil change the next morning. We traveled north to Iowa and visiting some of the flood-damaged areas we mentioned in the last post. We also went to West Branch, IA and visited the Herber Hoover Presidential Library which was very interesting. This is the second one we have visited and we come back with a greater appreciation of what was happening during those times. From Iowa we traveled north and saw the Little Brown Church in the Vale and took a tour of the Winnebago plant (we have a Fleetwood Pace Arrow but were interested in how they are constructed). From there we travelled on to Minnesota, stopping in Albert Lea at the Myre State Park where we met an interesting couple and their daughter who winters in Bandera, TX and occasionally plays in a band at Arky Blues. How small is this world, anyway???
So yesterday, we visited the SPAM Musuem in Austin, MN. Ok, don't laugh. It was a lot of fun and very informational. We ended up with some very specialized products that are only sold at the musuem, so if we invite you to dinner sometime - don't complain! We travelled on to the Minneapolis area and are staying here for two nights. Today, we visited the Minnehaha Falls Park, which is just beautiful, the James J Hill House (the Empire Builder who was good friends with JP Morgan) and went to the Mall of America.
So we will close with a SPAM recipe that we already tested that is VERY GOOD. I call it "Ham Salad with a KICK".
So yesterday, we visited the SPAM Musuem in Austin, MN. Ok, don't laugh. It was a lot of fun and very informational. We ended up with some very specialized products that are only sold at the musuem, so if we invite you to dinner sometime - don't complain! We travelled on to the Minneapolis area and are staying here for two nights. Today, we visited the Minnehaha Falls Park, which is just beautiful, the James J Hill House (the Empire Builder who was good friends with JP Morgan) and went to the Mall of America.
So we will close with a SPAM recipe that we already tested that is VERY GOOD. I call it "Ham Salad with a KICK".
SPAM SPEEDY DIP
1 12-oz can SPAM Classic
1 onion
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded
4 TBLSP mayonnaise or salad dressing
In a bowl or food processor, blend together the SPAM, onion and peppers until smooth. Stir in the mayo. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour. Serve with crackers or on a sandwich.
ENJOY!!!!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
The floods are receeding in Iowa . . .
Well it hasn't been a week since we left and we said that we would avoid flood-ravaged Southeast Iowa but once we got to Oskaloosa we started getting the "local" news which sounded a bit more positive than the national news. Yesterday, a quick call to the Amana Colonies RV Park revealed they were okay and welcomed us to the park. We simply had to avoid one short highway and slow down where part of the detoured road had been washed away. The moral of the story is that this is the MIDWEST. People here take it on the chin, pick themselves up and help each other recover.
We arrived on Tuesday and are parked in a facility that houses on average, about 200 campers; there may be only about 20 motorhomes as we record this. A quick trip into Amana proved that all the shops were open and we were welcomed with open arms. Only a handful of people were visiting the shops so we probably spent a little more than we would normally would have.
One more piece of heartwarming evidence that this is a hard-working community: There is a Whirlpool Refrigeration Plant (used to be Amana) in Middle Amana on the Iowa River that now looks like it is surrounded by a moat (which used to be for employee parking). The employees work in three shifts and are parked on the road bordering the RV Park. Each shift has a specific parking area so that school buses know where to go pick up the next shift of workers. I took pictures of both the Whirlpool Plant and the parking situation. If you look closely, you can see the almost empty RV park in the background. It may not look like much, but we were so relieved to find happy people who weren't expecting to be pitied; just working hard to recover!
We had another interesting event today - in West Branch, Iowa, but we will save that for another post. Have a good rest of the week!
We arrived on Tuesday and are parked in a facility that houses on average, about 200 campers; there may be only about 20 motorhomes as we record this. A quick trip into Amana proved that all the shops were open and we were welcomed with open arms. Only a handful of people were visiting the shops so we probably spent a little more than we would normally would have.
One more piece of heartwarming evidence that this is a hard-working community: There is a Whirlpool Refrigeration Plant (used to be Amana) in Middle Amana on the Iowa River that now looks like it is surrounded by a moat (which used to be for employee parking). The employees work in three shifts and are parked on the road bordering the RV Park. Each shift has a specific parking area so that school buses know where to go pick up the next shift of workers. I took pictures of both the Whirlpool Plant and the parking situation. If you look closely, you can see the almost empty RV park in the background. It may not look like much, but we were so relieved to find happy people who weren't expecting to be pitied; just working hard to recover!
We had another interesting event today - in West Branch, Iowa, but we will save that for another post. Have a good rest of the week!
Saturday, June 14, 2008
We are OFF to ALASKA!
Greetings from Dean and Anna as we prepare to leave for our trip to Alaska. To refresh your memory, we are joining a TRACKS Tour of 19 motor homes commencing on July 11 in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. The tour will last for 40 days and it will take us about a month to get from Laurie, MO to Dawson Creek and about a month to get back home.
Meanwhile, we plan to take our time and visit some noteworthy sites along the way. Our original plans included heading directly to the Amana Colonies in southeast Iowa but with the flooding on the Iowa River and in Cedar Rapids (which was on our itinerary as well) we will have to pass for now. The first week we will focus on heading North to Columbia, MO then on to Minneapolis/St Paul to spend a few days. Dean's mother was from northwestern Minnesota so we plan a slight detour to visit Gonvick then we are off to Bemidji, MN, Devils Lake, ND and will enter Canada via the International Peace Garden in Manitoba. We plan to stay a while in Riding Mountain National Park, a town called Chelan in Saskatchewan (where Dean's mom's family homsteaded) then on through Edmonton, Alberta ultimately ending up in Dawson Creek, BC.
After the tour is over and we return to British Colombia, we will spend some time in the Banff and Lake Louise area, then enter the US via Montana. We will travel down the Rocky Mountains to Yellowstone and over to South Dakota to visit the Badlands then on through Wyoming to visit friends in Colorado. From Colorado, we will head east back to Missouri. Our tentative itinerary has us getting back to Lake of the Ozarks late in September.
Molly has been monitoring our activities and remembers that the motorhome is one of her favorite places to be. She has been very patient with us these last few months as we caulked and painted the garage, worked on building out the basement, power washed the decks, replaced and cleaned windows on the house, tackled the landscaping and generally ignored her as we raced around trying to get all this work done. She will be very happy once we are on the road again!
We were hoping that the rainy Spring weather would have abated by the time we left, but it doesn't look like we will be that lucky. Let's just hope the stormy activity calms down a bit and that our trip is uneventful (at least weather-wise!). We will be posting at least weekly updates and adding pictures as we did last winter, so feel free to follow along and send us comments or suggestions on places we should see. Just remember that we can talk about anything except the price of GAS! Happy Summer . . .
Meanwhile, we plan to take our time and visit some noteworthy sites along the way. Our original plans included heading directly to the Amana Colonies in southeast Iowa but with the flooding on the Iowa River and in Cedar Rapids (which was on our itinerary as well) we will have to pass for now. The first week we will focus on heading North to Columbia, MO then on to Minneapolis/St Paul to spend a few days. Dean's mother was from northwestern Minnesota so we plan a slight detour to visit Gonvick then we are off to Bemidji, MN, Devils Lake, ND and will enter Canada via the International Peace Garden in Manitoba. We plan to stay a while in Riding Mountain National Park, a town called Chelan in Saskatchewan (where Dean's mom's family homsteaded) then on through Edmonton, Alberta ultimately ending up in Dawson Creek, BC.
After the tour is over and we return to British Colombia, we will spend some time in the Banff and Lake Louise area, then enter the US via Montana. We will travel down the Rocky Mountains to Yellowstone and over to South Dakota to visit the Badlands then on through Wyoming to visit friends in Colorado. From Colorado, we will head east back to Missouri. Our tentative itinerary has us getting back to Lake of the Ozarks late in September.
Molly has been monitoring our activities and remembers that the motorhome is one of her favorite places to be. She has been very patient with us these last few months as we caulked and painted the garage, worked on building out the basement, power washed the decks, replaced and cleaned windows on the house, tackled the landscaping and generally ignored her as we raced around trying to get all this work done. She will be very happy once we are on the road again!
We were hoping that the rainy Spring weather would have abated by the time we left, but it doesn't look like we will be that lucky. Let's just hope the stormy activity calms down a bit and that our trip is uneventful (at least weather-wise!). We will be posting at least weekly updates and adding pictures as we did last winter, so feel free to follow along and send us comments or suggestions on places we should see. Just remember that we can talk about anything except the price of GAS! Happy Summer . . .
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