Day 1

---

The bedroom skylight woke us up early. Dave opened the shade and the window was covered with frost. The temperature was 32°. Brrrr...
By 7 we were at the Cabin Coffee Company slurping delicious coffee and turtle hot chocolate and inhaling bagel breakfast sandwiches. A final quick trip to Bill's supermarket and back to the RVs. Tom and Dave took the van to Dick and Vera Hynes' to store until they return post Alaskan Adventure. We thought we could park it at the Winnebago Wonderland but we were mistaken.
We checked in to the AA headquarters, listened to important information, and watched a video that explicitly demonstrated all the mistakes we could make ultimately causing destruction to the RVs. Ouch.
And so at 11:00 we hit the open road with winds gusting up to 25 mph. Yikes! The video compared the RVs to sailboats and believe me we were sailing and rocking and rolling and so was everything in the RV that wasn't tethered.
Our RVs were full of gas and if it hadn't been so violently windy, we probably would have gotten better gas mileage and arrived in Kennebec, SD without the need to fill up before we arrived at the KOA. We were told that we should get 8 miles to the gallon. 55 gallon tank and we drove 347 miles... You can do the math. Well... We needed gas prior to reaching our destination and the challenge began. Neither of us could get more than $20 worth of gas in the vehicles without the pump shutting off and spurting gas. We decided it must be the gas station. So, we drove on in search of a better gas station. We pulled off at a second station. After a battle, Tom was able to get $80 worth of gas in his Winnie, but Dave could only get in another $20.
After 2 phone calls to the AA team, crawling under the RV, several other campers crawling under the RV, scouring the manual we still don't know why Winnie is rejecting her fuel. Alas, tomorrow is a new day.As we were checking in, another KOA guest overheard us say we were from IL. Long story short... He graduated from Lena-Winslow and knew Dave's brother-in-law, Dale. Small world as he now lives in Ohio.
We grilled out and enjoyed a delicious and healthy dinner topped off with German chocolate cake! Yum.

---