Lyn's been handling the task of locating RV parks for each day's destination. The app 'RV Parky' is her best friend. She found a real winner for tonight...one that suits our RV needs and her gambling fondness: Prairie's Edge Casino Resort and RV Park in Granite Falls, MN. So that will be our destination today.
After applying the gorilla tape to the awning/roof and a foot-long piece to the windshield seal which whistles sometimes in the 65 mile per hour breeze, we hit the road. Should be a nicer drive today...cooler temps as we head north and only a 4.5 hr drive.
Our route took us east on I-90 for about an hour. You can tell we're in 'Sturgis' country (the Harley Davidson gathering begins this Friday) as the number of motorcyclists heading west toward Sturgis was much higher today. Perhaps twice as much westbound traffic as eastbound! Lots of riders and toy haulers, trailers, etc, with HD stickers.
Thankfully, today's drive didn't present any new issues. Well almost none. I've been tightening up the steering gear with good results and had pulled in at the rest area just before the SD/MN border to give it another quarter turn. Lyn was going to go into the Tourist Info building but she couldn't open the door! It wasn't locked but it wouldn't open. I finally got it open and the lower striker mechanism had come loose. Whew! That was a quick fix.
Once we got off I-90 and headed north, it was quickly apparent that we weren't in South Dakota anymore. Pristine Minnesota corn farms one after the other provided us with very pleasant scenery for the next 2 hours.
I should probably insert a note here about the challenge of taking pictures through a bug-splattered windshield while moving. We've taken many more pictures than we've posted, but a lot of them are either full of bug spots or are too blurry. Bear with us on this aspect of our blog.
Although we had a shorter drive today, we were both ready to call it a day when we reached the RV Park. Lyn picked a winner this time. The park was the best one so far on this trip. 75' long pull-thru concrete pad on a very spacious site with full hookups for only $26. And an all-you-can-eat prime rib buffet dinner at the casino for only $16. If only we were staying here for 2 nights, we could see Martina McBride in concert at the casino tomorrow night, but we decided being with family in Marquette on Friday was more important than Martina in Granite Falls.
Lyn tried her luck on a few slots with the hope of making enough to cover our first PG&E bill for our new home in Fresno. We knew it was going to be much higher than our Folsom bills and it was: $573! But that was for 31 days of 100+ degree temperatures so guess it could have been worse. Definitely need to put solar on the home though but we are not going to be doing it with casino winnings.
Mother Nature helped us out with our buggy windshield by providing hours of steady rain during the night. The bug spots aren't all gone, but the casino has a diesel fueling station too, so we should be able to clean it when we refuel.
The rain also reminded us that we have rain-sensing automatic vents. We normally keep them open at night but without the fans running. As I was reading during the night, one started to close and I thought 'Oh no, the Gremlins are out.' I didn't realize it was raining until I got up to investigate why the vents were closing and was happy to be reminded of this forgotten feature. The rain must have let up because 5-10 minutes later, the vents opened again. There's a "rain override" switch in each one, so I flipped them on.
We're headed to Duluth for tonight's stay and looks like we'll be chasing this rain storm and most likely catching up to it at some point. It will be a good test of our windshield wipers but a hindrance to our photo-taking.
Man, what is all that grey stuff up in the sky. I haven't seen any of that in a long time. Still hot here. New plants are not doing well. Keep up the fun and blogs.
ReplyDeleteI got behind on my blog reading because we had Kayla over for 2 days. I have caught up now and am both delighted and amused by your adventures (& misadventure). It sounds like every day has been something new and your misadventures make good commentary AFTER the trouble has been fixed. Your photos are great. So many sights I haven't seen. Continue the fun.
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