Leaving Forest City -- arriving at Shelby, IA

We had the troublesome microwave oven replaced yet again, hopefully for the last time. Anyway, we are ready to roll and headed west toward Council Bluffs, IA. We ended up in Shelby, IA at a nice overnight park right next to the interstate.

Before leaving Forest City, we took a walk around the courthouse square and took this picture featuring a Civil War statue that honors the service that the city residents offered during that conflict.

Orinda looks happy to hit the road with her oven now 100%. We had a nice drive toward Council Bluffs except for a heavy crosswind that kept Rick busy! Fortunately, the coach ran well and we arrived without issue -- except for the minor detour we took when the first RV park we choose didn't pan out (what a dump that was!).

Tomorrow, we are planning to visit the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in the morning and then head down the road toward Council Bluffs. Should be fun!

Touring Emmetsburg and on to Forest City, IA

We enjoyed our free breakfast this morning and then toured around Emmetsburg, IA which is a small town in northeast Iowa. We were surprised to learn that the town is named after Robert Emmet, an Irish patriot and orator in the late 1700's. Mr. Emmet has the unfortunate distinction to be the last person condemned by the British court to be hanged, drawn and quartered! Wow -- this gave me the chills.

We learned that there are only 4 statues of Mr. Emmet in the world, including this one in Emmetsburg. Emmetsburg was settled by the Irish and it was natural to name the new town after their great patriot.

Located next to the statue is the Blarny Stone, which Cody thought was very interesting. He also was enthralled with the beautiful lake that is located at Emmetsburg. This looks like a very nice town to live in.

After an enjoyable morning, we headed for Forest City which is about 70 miles away. This was an easy drive in the coach and so after lunch, Orinda humored Rick by joining him for 9 holes of golf (Orinda does not golf, but provides advice!). We tried the Forest City club which was beautiful and a fun place to play. Rick had a good time, but I don't think he is quite ready for the PGA Tour. That said, he did have some good shots including this par 3 where his tee shot ended up about 6 feet from the pin (yeah, he missed the putt!).

Time to Leave Sioux Falls!

We had a great morning today as Orinda visited with her doctor who said she was doing great after her surgery and could hit the road. The physician was very interested (and a bit wistful) about the idea of fulltime rving and was very supportive of Orinda moving on. She is still a bit sore, but ready to go. We enjoyed staying at the Fairground in Sioux Falls as you can see by Cody's happy expression. There were a few rigs in the park, but plenty of room for many more.

We headed out towards Forest City to have the troublesome microwave replaced next Monday, but decided to stop in Emmetsburg, IA at the Wildrose Casino and RV park which is on the way to Forest City. Our first stop in Iowa was at Estherville where we stoped and had lunch in the coach. Cody like the impressive city identifyer and wanted it recorded.

We arrived at the casino and found only 4 coaches in over 70 sites -- plenty of room. The casino was very big and only a couple years old, so it was a nice stop over. Plus, the site only cost $16 for the night which included breakfast -- a nice deal (of course, we made a donation at the casino!). We also enjoyed the site right on this small lake which was loaded with Canada geese.

Still in Sioux Falls, but the news is good!

We are still in Sioux Falls allowing Orinda to recover from her surgery for an ovarian cyst. Fortunately, the cyst, while large, proved to be benign which is great news for sure. The Fairgrounds RV park has proven to work just great since it is only a couple miles from the hospital.

I also took this opportunity to reward the amazing "photo dog (Cody)" for all his hard work posing in the pictures and bought him a rawhide bone. Now, this is no ordinary bone, but a true big dog bone! Cody absolutely loves his bone and even sleeps next to it now. This seems a bit much to me.

We hope to hit the road again on Saturday and will need to head BACK to Forest City for a replacement of the microwave. The number and display panel is attached with some cheap plastic tabs that have broken and the panel starts to fall off -- bummer! This is especially frustrating since this is the second oven that this has happened on, so I am going to do some investigating on the Sharp oven.

Adding a baffle to the Norcold Refrigerator -- much better cooling

Our Norcold 1200 series 4 door fridge had a hard time keeping temperatures cool and consistent in our new 2008 Tour. We had the rig looked at by Winnebago during the Grand National Rally and Winnebago found a problem with the fans in the back and fixed it. I thought we were home free, but it turned out we still had a problem.

Last week, we had the chance to drop by Forest City again and they took another look at it. This time, they made a simple baffle out of sheet metal that forces air to move more directly over the heating coils. This simple baffle seems to have done the trick! The temperatures inside the fridge is now consistently in the mid 30's and hardly fluctuates at all. Works great! You can see the baffle in these pictures -- looks like an easy fix.

If you are having similar issues, you might give this a try.

Visiting the Falls at Sioux Falls

Sioux Falls is actually named for a series of waterfalls on the Big Sioux river. The falls were a natural barrier to water travel upstream and is one reason that the city was established where it is. There is now a beautiful park area that surrounds the falls and is a great place to spend a morning. Unfortunately, this morning was windy, cold and raining, so we spent an abbreviated time visiting the falls, but still had a great time.

Here is Cody the photo dog showing us the upper falls and the larger, lower falls. We learned that there was a very large flour mill, called the Queen Bee, that dominated the area and used the river power to power the mill. This 7 story high building must have been very impressive based on the remaining parts of the building still standing. Cody is also showing us the old power turbine feed pipe foundation that helped drive the mill.

It was fun to see the old water-powered technology as well as the beautiful falls area. This is a worthwhile stop for anyone checking out the Sioux Falls area.

The Sertoma Butterfly House in Sioux Falls

Today, we had the opportunity to visit the Sertoma Butterfly House located in Sioux Falls. Orinda is shown standing next to a small part of the butterfly display at the entrance. This is a great facility that you walk through and features over 1,000 live butterflys and beautiful flowers and plants. I was amazed at the colorful species that you could see up close and personal. There were many types of habitat and butterflys everywhere. This is a very worthwhile stop if you are in the Sioux Falls area.