Onward to Missouri, Iowa and South Dakota!

Since my last post, we have just about run out of data on out hotspot, so I have to conserve the hotspot and had to wait until I could find some free WiFi to upload another post! So, we left Eureka Springs, Arkansas on September 22nd and moved to Peculiar Park Place RV Park in Peculiar, Missouri. Peculiar got its name in a peculiar way! Click here: Peculiar
The park is near the interstate which, of course, is good and bad. However, since we were still using air conditioning, the interstate noise did not bother us.

The park is nice, well maintained, had good water, electric, sewer and fair WiFi. We didn't do much in Peculiar, mostly because our mission has now shifted to one of business. It's all about getting to South Dakota, becoming residents and getting out of there before the snow starts falling! Since we arrived on a Thursday and our rules do not permit traveling on weekends, we stayed until Monday. We did a little sight seeing, but not much. The highlights of the visit was that Dodie and Maggie got their hair cut, in different places, of course! :)

 When we left Peculiar, we moved north to Pacific Junction, IA. The town was actually established and named by the railroad. Most of Iowa seemed to be corn fields. For that matter, most of Iowa, Missouri and South Dakota seems to be cornfields! We've never seen so much corn! The campground is named i29 hwy 34 campground. It's kinda like naming a cat, Cat! The campground is near high 34 just off of interstate 29! Anyway, it was a farmers move into a sideline business. When he is not running a campground, he and his brother run a 2000 acre farm. I believe he (Joe) said that he started it 10 years ago. At first, business was slow and locals laughed at Joe. The construction started in the area and he quickly filled up with construction workers. Soon, he had to expand. We were in a site by ourselves that he reserves for over-nighters.

There was good water, sewer, electric and good WiFi. Everyone was real friendly. I wouldn't mind staying here again.

We left Iowa on the 24th of September and arrived in Salem, South Dakota. We are in a beautiful little park called Camp America Campground. The grounds are meticulously maintained and there is a lot of grassy areas between campers.

They have good electric, water and sewer. The first two days, the WiFi was awful and I was using our hot spot and carefully monitoring usage! However, last night they got the WiFi fixed. It is not as good as farmer Joe's, but it is acceptable. Thursday, we went into Madison which is about 35 miles from here. It seems that everything is about 35 miles from here or more! There is just endless farms between towns. So, we met Terri at the mail service. She has been handling our mail for the last month and a half. She fixed us up with the paperwork we needed for registering our truck and getting our drivers licenses. The only thing is, we can't do it all in Madison. The drivers licenses are not done in Madison on Thursdays or Fridays, so we need to go to Mitchell (about 60 miles away) for that! So, we got the tags for the truck and went back to the campground and dropped off Maggie. Then on to Mitchell for drivers licenses. We were armed with many years worth of documents and the paperwork from Terri and it all went smoothly. We were now residents of South Dakota with drivers licenses to prove it! Only problem...waiting for paper to get the camper registered. It should be here on Monday.
One little problem we encountered when we got here was with the satellite set up. Until we crossed some imaginary line somewhere heading north, we were able to get our local Dish programming with major network feeds from satellites in the southeastern arc. Now, we must get our signals from the satellites in the western arc. However, that requires a western arc LNB ( in simple terms, it's a part for the antenna) for the satellite dish. I didn't have one. After a few phone calls, I located a Dish retailer that would be in Madison while we were who could sell me a western arc LNB. So, after lunch on Thursday, I met him and traded him $50.00 for an LNB. Later that afternoon, we were receiving all of our programming and local channels were from Sioux Falls, SD.
Friday, we went grocery shopping and took care of laundry and other chores around the camper.
Today, we did some sight seeing. We went back to Mitchell and saw the Corn Palace.

The Corn Palace was interesting. Check this link I took a lot of pics and I'll have a link to them. There are mosaics outside and inside the corn palace and they are all made of corn.

 

 

 See how the mosaics are kinda like a paint by number picture only it's corn by color! LOL! 

 

After the Corn Palace, we went to lunch. We weren't sure about local eateries, so we just cruised down Main Street. At the end of Main Street there is the Depot Pub and Grill. Click here to see the Depot

When we decided to stop here for lunch, we didn't realize it was an historic site. Pretty cool! And...they had Buffalo on the menu! So I had my first ever Buffalo Burger! 

After lunch, we decided to go back to the camper because Maggie had been alone for about 4 hours. While there had only been 4 RV's here, we found some more had checked in. I believe we are up to 7 RV's and there's one young couple in a tent.

Tomorrow, we'll take it easy. Take care of some chores and such. That's it for now. As always, here is the link to more pics! Link thingy

Here are some pics from this morning (Sunday 9/28). Maggie saw her first horses.  Click here

 

Still touring Arkansas

I'm still fighting this cold, but there is a marked improvement today. So, I haven't kept up with the blog. I know it is a flimsy excuse, but it's all I got! On Saturday, Jami, Ed and Amy came over to spend the day and Ed helped me with the shower door modification. For some stupid reason, the RV manufacturer chose to use clear glass for the shower doors. They looked great until after the first shower! It is nearly impossible to keep water spots off the glass. We found some glass film at Lowes for about $30.00 per roll. It takes a roll for each panel. So, Ed and I took the doors out and put the film on the doors. It wasn't too difficult, but was definitely a two person job. We'll still have to clean the glass periodically, but it won't show that it's not perfect!

On Sunday, we all went to Fayetteville to a birthday party at a bowling alley for 5 year old Conner. Conner is Amy's boyfriend! We all had a good time, but the kids really enjoyed it.

On Monday, we went to the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. The refuge is a rescue center for large cats that people think they can make into house pets. Each one had a different story. Some were abused, some declawed, some abandoned, etc. One cat was "dropped off" by its owner some 60 miles from his home and it made it back home! So, the owner then took the cat to Turpentine Creek. It is interesting to note that Tyson Foods and Wal-mart contribute quite a bit to feeding the cats. I believe the tour guide said they go through 600 pounds of meat a day! There is a self guided tour of the upper part of the refuge and a guided tour on a trolley through the lower part of the refuge.

Tuesday was a non touring day. We acted like we were retired or something! LOL! I took care of a couple of projects. One of those projects was to install a back-up camera on the RV. This is going to come in real handy when backing up, but also when changing lanes. I'll be better able to see when I have cleared the vehicle that I am passing. The camera was bought with money the guys at work and Dodie gave me for a retirement gift. Thanks y'all! Yesterday, Wednesday the 10th, we picked up Amy at her pre-school and took her to the Promised Land Zoo. It is a self guided petting zoo and a drive through zoo. We got a bucket of food for the animals and fed them along the way. It was a fun time for us, as well as Amy!

As always, you can see more pics at this link: Link

Today, we toured the old Eureka Springs. When we took a trolley tour in Savannah, GA, we learned that trolley tours can really be a great way to see a city. We were not disappointed with today's trolley tour of Eureka Springs. To quote from Wikipedia: "The city has steep winding streets filled with Victorian-style cottages and manors.

 

The old commercial section of the city has an alpine character, with an extensive street-scape of well-preserved Victorian buildings. The buildings are primarily constructed of local stone and lie along streets that curve around the hills and rise and fall with the topography in a five-mile long loop. Some buildings have street-level entrances on more than one floor. Eureka Springs has historically been called "The Little Switzerland of America" and "The Stairstep Town" because of its mountainous terrain and the winding, up-and-down paths of its streets and walkways. The streets wind around the town, and no two intersect at a 90 degree angle; there are no traffic lights".

One stop along the way was the Cresent Hotel.

It was completed in 1886 after 2 years of construction. The group of men that decided to build it thought it should be built using the same techniques that were employed in Great Brittan to build castles. So, they brought over masons from Ireland to build it. One of the masons fell from the roof into room 218, was killed by the fall and is said to haunt that room. There are other ghost reports, as well. If you stay there, ask for room 218 and tell us all about it! There is more history to this hotel than I have typing skills to display. Read all about it here: Crescent Hotel
On the 4th floor of the hotel, you can get a great view of the surrounding mountains. Over on one of those mountains is a huge statue of Christ. Clicky thingy 

I used a telephoto lens to get this picture.

This is where they hold the Passion Play which is an outdoor play performed in an amphitheater about Christ.
 After the hotel, we continued through town and stopped at one of several springs that originally brought people here. As soon as you stepped down inside, you could feel how much cooler it was in there. Natural air conditioning! Many people believed the spring water had powerful healing properties. They drank and bathed in the water and many ailments were cured. Of course, it may be that they left dirty polluted cities, drank a lot of good mineral water, ate better natural foods, and got a lot of fresh air and exercise from walking all over the city! 

 Here the tour guide tells us about the springs and how the city has them had to cover them to prevent people from drinking the water directly from them.The reason...if someone got sick from the water, they could sue the city. Sad but true. 

The tour continued through the city and we saw other springs and many beautiful homes and shops along the way. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and made it an enjoyable tour.

After the trolley tour, we went to the Thorncrown Chapel. Here is the link This chapel is made of wood and glass. It has 425 windows! Id sure hate to be the window cleaner!

This is the view looking forward.

 The view looking straight up at the roof.

 This is the slate floor.

 

So, that was it for today! You can see all of the pics we took today at the following link: This is the link