Rough First Week

It was going too good.  The hospital is nice, the campground is working out well, family is nearby, the transition to Minnesota was perhaps just too easy.  Alex was sick during the commute with an upper respiratory virus that he seemed to recover from, then he declined over the last five days.  Not eating, laying around on his stomach.  Long story short, spent 36 hours in the hospital getting a bit of glucose and rehydration.  We're back home now, and I can't wait for him to wake up so we can see if he's turned the corner.  My hunch as a health care worker is that he has, but as a worried parent..........well, we worry.

Some pics of the campground.  A very quiet place with daily duck, geese, and pelican sightings intermixed with the occasional nocturnal beaver swimming, or turtle cruising by.  Now that Memorial Day has passed, we essentially have the place to ourselves again.

Jamie's back

Steffi, Jamie, and Karni came to visit.  Looks like our city park has filled up for the holiday.

City Park

We might be staying in this city park.  It has 30amp, water, no sewer, no wifi, one mile from town.  It's a pretty, quiet place, but like everyone else these days, we are addicted to wifi, and no sewer will be a hassle.  Or, we might stay here part time and somewhere else, who knows.

Minnesota, 1700 miles later

Glad to be done with that drive!  Ughh.......5 of the 6 driving days were vicious head or cross winds, today not excluded.  Not fun with a fifth wheel.

Arrived in the tiny farm town of Morris, MN.  Flat as a pancake, grey skies, and no buds on the trees.  Still looks like spring, and a stark contrast to the browning grass of southern California, and the full bloom of Utah.  Should green up in a week or two I would imagine.  Tomorrow it's time to check out the town before going back to work Friday.

How you know you're in farm land

Some dam on the Missouri River with a cool campground on it

Native Americans and settlers, 200 years ago.

Random South Dakota city park for lunch, Alex is over driving

Playground for lunch

Kennebec, South Dakota

210 meager miles into a stiff headwind, with all of us sick with a cold.  Enough of that, stopped early in Kennebec, basically a one horse town in central/southern SD.  We've left the mountains and the foothills until September 7th, and now it's time to get used to no horizons other than water towers.

Dinner last night at Legion Lake Lodge, a place we used to eat dinner with family about five years ago.

Need a caption?

Pull in, set up camper, run outside to playground, ride bike, play in dirt, eat dinner, wash, rinse, repeat.  That's been the last seven days.

Good thing we have the Terry EXTREME EDITION, Bro!

Trees are just starting to bloom.  Weird, as they bloomed quite a while ago in Southern California.  Driving into another climate over a week is always interesting.

Mural at the campsite.  Fitting.

Custer State Park

A twenty mile ride on some forgotten single track, then a hike in the Cathedral Spires, and a trip through the wildlife loop.  Fun day.

Eye of the needle

Needles Tunnel