Those who have read my blog, Wichita KS – Much More Than Cowboys and Cattle Drives, already know about the computer gremlins that haunted me near the end of 2015 and can skip to the next paragraph. For those new to my blog, welcome. A long story made short found all my MS Word blog files and my accompanying picture files deleted, so this blog is atypical of my standard product. It is brief and concise and is without pictures. My apologies, but regardless of the unadorned nature, I hope to provide potential travelers with some useful information that might make their trip more fulfilling. Thanks for reading, and please examine some of my pre-September 2015 blogs for a more representative sample of my work. I headed west on I-40 after departing the Fort Amarillo RV ... read more

Those who have read my blog, Wichita KS – Much More Than Cowboys and Cattle Drives, already know about the computer gremlins that haunted me near the end of 2015 and can skip to the next paragraph. For those new to my blog, welcome. A long story made short found all my MS Word blog files and my accompanying picture files deleted, so this blog is atypical of my standard product. It is brief and concise and is without pictures. My apologies, but regardless of the unadorned nature, I hope to provide potential travelers with some useful information that might make their trip more fulfilling. Thanks for reading, and please examine some of my pre-September 2015 blogs for a more representative sample of my work. I departed Air Capital RV Park in Wichita KS on the ... read more

I got a mid-morning start as I departed the Pine Grove RV Park in Greenwood NE for a week-long stay at the Tuttle Creek Cove Campground in Manhattan KS. I had selected Manhattan for my base camp because of its centralized location, unlike my circumstantial midpoint landing in Nebraska the previous week. I returned to Lincoln NE from Greenwood to head south on US 77. Near Beatrice NE, I made a stop at the Homestead National Monument of America. This National Park Service attraction is actually two separate facilities. A coin flip found me first visiting the Homestead Education Center which is the more artifact laden of the two. The Farm Implement Room has an awesome collection of well documented vintage agricultural equipment. One room of the center has an interesting exhibition of photographs of one-room ... read more

According to MapQuest, the drive from General Sibley Park in Bismarck ND to Farm Island Recreation Area in Pierre SD would be a little over 200 miles and would take about 3 ½ hours. I took I-94 east to its junction with US 83 south and traversed rolling hills covered by seemingly endless grassy plains. The fields of grazing cattle and bales of hay awaiting relocation were enjoyable and relaxing, and the countryside was sprinkled with pockets of trees along streambeds and stock tanks frequented by both thirsty livestock and wild game. I arrived in Pierre without incident. My first tourist stop in Pierre was the South Dakota State Capitol. There are no guided tours (except by reservation), but an excellent self-guided booklet provides as much or more information than I or the average tourist needs. ... read more

Several weeks before I arrived in Rockford IL, I had had a malfunction of the toilet in the Pilgrim. Normally, on that particular brand of toilet, the flushing mechanism operates via a foot lever that returns to a neutral position after flushing. Suddenly, it stopped returning to neutral. That was not a big deal, as all that was necessary was to lift the lever with my toe to return the lever to neutral. When I had the Pilgrim in the shop for maintenance, the toilet was one item on the repair list. As I noted in my previous blog, after retrieving the trusty old gal from the dealership I had taken her to a friend’s place (my sister-in-law’s brother) for storage for five days before I departed Rockford on a Wednesday. On the first weekend following ... read more