Day 46-51, Wednesday-Monday April 15 - 20: Visiting Family in Minnesota and setting out for home.

Wednesday our touring vacation officially ended, all good things come to an end and it was time to head for home. However, before we head for home we will visit family in Minnesota. 

We had a short drive to Uncle' Earle's place in Minnesota and spent the next few days visiting family. 

Minnesota Fam!

Our Minnesota (and California) Family 🩷.

Sunday we woke to 30F, and snow!

Leaving Uncle Earle's

We planned to depart about 06:30 but one of my leveler jacks refused to retract. This is the same jack that has caused issues in the past.  I fooled around with it for about 20 mins and it finally retracted. 

I am pretty certain it was the swearing that made it start working.  

It was an easy drive to brother Richie's in Minooka, Il., we arrived about 17:00 and had a nice spaghetti dinner with Rich, Kris and Mike.

Rich, Mike and I played poker until around 22:00, I was happy to take their money for once 😊.

Monday, as we readied to leave Rich and Kris's my left front leveler jack refused to retract again....I fooled around with it and swore to make it retract.

The company that manufactures my levelers is EQ Systems in Michigan. I sent them an email on Sunday night asking for help, but had not heard anything. Since they are kind of on the way home, I plotted my route to their factory. 

We arrived around 12N at EQ Systems. 

I went in and basically said, I have a problem and need help. 

After a discussion and demonstrating the issue, they called in a tech and he diagnosed the problem to a bad controller, which he replaced. I paid $3500 for the levelers in 2023, the bill for the controller replacement was $1000! I protested a bit and they made the bill ~$750, but since I had this same problem back in 2024, it still seemed a bit much. Sometimes you just have to bend over, grab your socks and say thank you! It would have been very difficult to diagnose at home, I don't have a spare controller to just pop in and try..... We were happy to get it fixed and back on the road. 

The EQ diversion took about 2.5 hours making our intended destination of Cracker Barrel in Erie, PA a late arrival, so I picked a Harvest Host on the east side of Cleveland and requested a stay, they approved immediately. 

Halcyon Ledges

We pulled into Halcyon Ledges just about 19:00.

Halcyon Ledges

After a video call with the grand kids, we went in and had a nice meal. Nice people, good food. 

Tuesday, we expect to make it back to Vermont. 

Day 45, Tuesday April 14: Driving Nebraska to South Dakota to Minnesota

Tuesday, was a driving day, we made our way across Nebraska, crossed a bit of South Dakota and entered into Minnesota. The wind was out of the North, so I did the usual battle with the Mercedes ESP and drove much of the time without cruise control 😡.

June is always on the look out for wildlife and overall on this trip we have seen very little, however this day we saw American White Pelicans, Pronghorn Antelope, Buffalo and an Eagle. 

White Pelicans

As we exited the Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest on the southeast corner is the Merritt State Reservoir Recreation Area. It is here that we saw the White Pelicans, they are beautiful and huge. We thought they were swans at first....

Much of our drive was on secondary roads with nice scenery including seeing some Pronghorns, they technically are not deer or antelopes but most people consider them closer to the antelope family. Pronghorns are the fastest mammal i North America, capable of 60 mph.  

We did not get pictures of the Buffalo or the Eagle, but we have both of those at home. 

Serenity Weight

As we drove on Rt 12, I saw a 'Public Scale', so I turned around and weighed the Serenity. The Serenity listed GVWR is 11,030 pounds. We are fully loaded for travel, with a full fresh water tank, bikes on the front, a scooter and spare on the back. With all this, I was pretty sure we were over the GVWR and I was not wrong, we are 770 pounds over weight. That is only about 7%, so not terrible. I expect that 90% of RVs on the road are over the GVWR since most manufacturers load up the unit close to the GVWR. 

I have no idea if the scale is calibrated/certified, so some day I will get an official weight. 

We stopped at Lewis and Clark Lake on the Missouri River in Crofton, NE but it was closed for the season and apparently the season is a secret, we couldn't even find an open time on the internet. 

Lewis and Clark Lake

The site did provide some nice views of Lewis and Clark Lake, and the Missouri. 

Discovery Bridge

We crossed the Missouri on I81 (Yankton) on the Discovery Bridge. 

We were planning to go to a Cracker Barrel in Sioux Falls, SD but I did a quick look for a Harvest Host and found Take 16 Brewing Company in Luverne, MN. I made a request and they immediately accepted it. 

Take 16 Brewing Company

Take 16 was a fun stop with good beer and pizza. 

We retired to the Serenity Falcon and watched the movie Fargo. We had seen it a long time ago, but it was all new to us again, I did not recall it being so dark.  

In Fargo, ND

Don and Louann were in Fargo yesterday watching the movie too...so we will have something to talk to them about when we see them. 

Wednesday we will visit family in Minnesota. 

Day 44, Monday April 13th: Scotts Bluff, Agate Fossil Beds and blowing across Nebraska

 Monday was a pretty easy day.  We had a nice quiet night at Papa Moon. Before departing I added a quart of oil to the Serenity and topped off the DEF. We have traveled 8000 miles and this is the first quart of oil I have had to add, not bad. 

As we travel around the country we continue to bounce between Lewis and Clark memorials and the Oregon Trail memorials, we find both fascinating. 

Scotts Bluff

It was a short drive to Scotts Bluff and you can see it from a long distance. 

Poor Hiram Scott

The bluff is named after Hiram Scott.

Scotts Bluff location is the Star on this map.

Scotts Bluff was the second most mentioned landmark in pioneer diaries, signifying the transition from the plains to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. 

You can drive a vehicle to the top of Scotts Bluff as long as you are less than 25 ft long and under 11 ft in height. I talked to the Ranger at the visitor center, they were most concerned about turning radius and height.  My height is only 10' 3", but with the bikes we are about 30 ft, but they let us go. It is nice to see that some government employees still have some common sense. 

Scotts Bluff Tunnels

Climbing the bluff there are 3 cool tunnels, thus the height limitation. 

Scotts Bluff

Nebraska, like Wyoming is windy, it is really windy on top of a bluff, it will mess with your hair. 

Chimney Rock

The other famous landmark in the area is Chimney Rock, it is the only landmark mentioned more often in diaries than Scott's Bluff. Chimney Rock is now a state park and we considered visiting it, but it requires timed entry and there were no immediate times open.  However, we could see it from the top of Scotts Bluff. 

While in the visitor center at Scotts Bluff, volunteer Doug encouraged us to stop at the Agate Fossil Bed which is only about 50 miles to the north. 

We arrived at the Agate Fossil Bed visitor center and the first thing the Ranger said to us was "Did Doug send you?", too funny. 

Agate Fossil Bed is a head scratcher, here they found piles and piles of bones from about 20 million years ago.  They are not dinosaurs, the last dinosaurs roamed earth at least 60 million years ago. They have theories about why the bones are all piled here, but I think they are still guessing. 

Agate Fossil Bed

Since the early 1900s paleontologists have been sorting through the bones and constructing them into what they were 20 million years ago. They have some interesting beasts. 

The Agate Fossil Bed was a quick stop but pretty interesting, I am sure kids love it. 

Our next planned stop is a Lewis and Clark exhibit in Eastern Nebraska, but it was still over 400 miles away, so June picked out some BLM land in Nenzel, NE and we headed for it. 

Once we hit RT20 east, it was an easy drive, it was still windy but was mostly behind us, giving us a nice push. 

The BLM land, McKelvie National Forest, was about 10 miles south of RT20, then finding the campground was another 11 miles in the sparse forest. We nearly gave up but eventually found Steer Creek Campground. It is a nice self service campground that cost us $7.50 for the night. 

Steer Creek Campground

Steer Creek has about 22 sites, but we were alone, just us...kind of nice. 

Camping alone at Steer Creek

We had a nice quiet evening relaxing at Steer Creek Campground. There were no people, no cell coverage, a great place to disconnect. (yeah we had our Starlink 😊)

Tuesday we plan to visit another Lewis and Clark memorial. 

Day 43, April 12th 2026: Windy Wyoming

 

KOA in Rock Springs, WY

Sunday morning was 32F but sunny, it felt like 50F.

It was our intention to drive to Scottsbluff, NE and have a look around in the afternoon. 

We set out on I80 and headed west, we did not get far and the Banner on the Highway said it was closed for all Campers less than 20,000 pounds (we are about 11,000 pounds) due to winds. The wind was not that bad, we have driven in far worse conditions. I don't even understand the logic, do they think that people are going to park it and wait, like we did yesterday afternoon? Well I sure wasn't. Do they think the wind doesn't blow on the secondary roads? I just get very frustrated when the government bureaucrats think for me. So we got off in Rawlins, I needed propane so went to a Tractor Supply. I said to the guy filling me, "It's windy today", he said "No it's not, this is Wyoming", EXACTLY. So we got off I80 and diverted to Casper, WY via Rt 287. 

In Casper, we picked up I25 towards Scottsbluff, and again they closed it to Campers under 20,000 lbs. I can not express how pissed I was, this is some serious BS; the winds were not that bad but some bureaucrat is doing CYA calls from their office.  If you have an RV, don't put Wyoming in your route, the wind always blows and they will not let you on the highways. We ended up taking secondary roads, including 3 miles of dirt road, to get to Rt26 that goes to Scottsbluff; we arrived around 18:30, about 3 1/2 hours later and 100 miles longer than we planned 😖.

Papa Moon Headquarters Brewing and BBQ

When were were in Rawlins we requested a Harvest Host stay in Scottsbluff at 'The Farm at Papa Moon'. By mid afternoon we had not been approved or denied, so June called the business. It turns out the Farm is seasonal and is closed until 1May, but they said come to our town location 'Papa Moon Headquarters Brewing & BBQ'. 

Papa Moon HH

Papa Moon, was a great stop, we enjoyed their brews (Cider and Beer) and had a nice meal. the staff was very friendly and helpful.

Monday we plan to check out Scotts Bluff National Park.

Day 42, Saturday April 11th: Fossil Butte National Monument and getting blown east.

Saturday Morning it was 47F and looking gloomy. We said our goodbyes to the Forhans and set out east around 08:00. 

Fred, June, Sheri and Tim

We all had morning hair (some of us more hair than others 😑) but took the picture anyway, Angela was still in Bed. 

 

We had a nice visit with the Forhans and hope to see them out east soon.  We plugged in Lava Hot Springs as our next destination.  

Lava Hot Springs

It was cold and raining, so just drove through for a look. Some people were using the springs, they are more hardy than us. 

From Lava Springs it was only 2 hours to Fossil Butte National Monument. 

Fossil Butte is the location of a lake that existed about 50 million years ago. The lake conditions were such that the fossils are very well preserved in the layers of rock.  They are amazing in detail and show that this lake was at times both a fresh water and salt water body. 

Fossil Butte National Monument

In addition to the fossils, the area has beautiful scenery, even on a rainy day. 

Fossils from Fossil Lake

The detail of the fossils is remarkable. 

Natural Gas Tanks

From Fossil Butte NP we took Rt 30 east, again there was almost no traffic and we saw a lot of natural gas fields, but little else. 

From Rt 30 we hit I80 east, the wind was cranking, but mostly from the west so it wasn't that bad, the Mercedes ESP system had not even bailed, which it does in strong winds. 

We did not get far on I80 before the overhead banner on I80 stated "I80 is closed to high profile vehicles under 35,000 pounds due to 40+ mph winds". I pulled over and did a quick google, the fine is $750 if you get stopped, so we doubled back on I80 to Rock Springs where we booked a KOA.  

We did laundry and watched the movie "Air Plane" because we had listened to a Mike Rowe podcast where he interviewed the writer and director, David Zucker. It was OK, but is much funnier if you are with a bunch of guys and a few beers into it 😁.

Sunday we will continue East, our next planned stop is Scotts Bluff National Monument in Nebraska.

Day 41, Friday April 10th: Visiting The Bonneville Salt Flats and Friends in Utah

 Friday it was another nice morning, we left the KOA about 8AM, it was 45F and sunny making it feel much warmer. 

I have kind of wanted to see the Bonneville Salt Flats since I was a kid but the movie "The Fastest Indian" really made it a must stop if I was in the area. If you have not seen the movie, it is a great flick and a true story about how in 1967 Burt Munro, a New Zealander, who set the less than 1000cc land speed record on a 1920 Indian Scout he modified in his garage. 

Bonneville Salt Flats

We approached the Salt Flats from the West on I80. There is a rest area on both sides of I80 but you can only access the real flats from the West bound rest area. If you are coming from the West, to get to the West bound rest area, you need to go 31 miles to the next exit and come 31 miles back. I calculated that at $6 per gallon and 16 mpg, that double back cost us $23.25, and an hour of time....Crazy.  I later found that if we had got off the earlier exit, you could access the flats from there, that is what you get for not doing your research. 

Bonneville Salt Flats

I wanted to take the Serenity Falcon out for a speed run, but there was no access from the rest area for a vehicle :-).

Despite my whining, we really are glad we made the effort to see the flats, they are impressive. They are so bright that without sun glasses it hurts your eyes and I did verify that they are very salty...yuk 😏.

After the Flats we set out to visit friends who live in the Pocatello, Utah area. The drive was pretty easy, we doubled back on I80 East until we hit US30, the road is nice, straight and has no traffic.  Lucky for us there was a gas station in Montello about 25 miles into the US30, the next fuel was 100 miles; we were happy to pay the $6/gallon. 

We arrived at our friends the Forhan's house in Blackfoot at about 18:00.

Reserved Parking at the Forhan's

Tim had reserved our parking spot.

Tim, Sheri and daughter Angela treated us to a nice meal and we spent the evening catching up. They have a beautiful piece of property that is on a tributary of the Snake River. It is always nice to spend time with dear friends. 

Saturday, we will continue our journey home.

Day 40, Thursday April 9th: The Oregon Trail and onto Nevada

 Thursday it was a chilly 35F when we got up, but still another pretty day. 

Copper Belt Winery

We had a nice night and sunrise at Copper Belt Winery, the views from their place are quite pleasing.

As we left our HH we drove by the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and stopped in to check it out. 

The Oregon Trail

The story of the 300,000 to 500,000 settlers that made the trek across the country in wagons is a bit mind bending.  It was nearly 2000 miles of torture and many did not make it. 

The Oregon Trail

They had lots of realistic displays and many quotes from the diaries of those that made the trip. Reading the diaries was enlightening, it was a difficult journey with all kinds of challenges including Cholera, starvation, and Indians. I could have read the diaries for hours. 

We were glad we stopped and spent about an 1 1/2 hours touring the displays. They also have a movie but the next showing was not until Noon, so we moved on. 

Van Ornum Massacre

As we drove south we saw a marker for the Van Ornum Massacre.  Although they say Indian attacks were rare, they did occur and since we live on 'Van Ornum Drive' in Addison, this peaked my interest. It is a sad story. 

You can read more detail here: Van Ornum Massacre

We took I84 south to Rt51 to Elko, Nevada. The scenery had more hills and scrub brush, but still no trees for miles and miles.  I just can't imagine traveling this country in a horse and wagon, little water and no shade. 

There is nothing for a long ways

Free Range Cattle Sign

There is much of nothing but cattle ranching as we drove south, much of it is free range so you need to keep an eye out for cattle in the road but only once did I have to really slow down because there was a cow on the shoulder. 

We had planned to camp at a place about 60 miles from Elko, it was primitive camping, too primitive. As we drove in we had flashbacks to Golden Bluff Campground in California.  We would have toughed it out but they had no water and we needed to reload our fresh water tank. 

Elko KOA

We elected to go to the closest KOA which was in Elko, we arrived around 19:00. The KOA is just what you expect with a KOA, nice, clean and $72/night.  

Tomorrow we will make our way to Idaho and visit friends. 

Day 39, Wednesday April 8th: A Very Scenic Drive

 Wednesday we woke to another beautiful morning in Seattle. 

Fred and Jack

Katie had long left for work by the time we got up, and we said our good byes to Jack around 09:00. Jack and Katie have a beautiful home. 

Jack made some suggestions of stops in Seattle we should make, but we decided to save them for a next time. 

Space Needle

We chose to depart Seattle via I5 south rather than take the 'worlds largest floating bridge' which spans Lake Washington. This route gives nice views of downtown Seattle including the famous Space Needle. Again we will leave this for a future visit. 

Snoqualmie Falls

We did make a quick stop at Snoqualmie Falls. We got a little moist in the falls mist but nothing like what we experienced in Yosemite.  You can just view the falls or hike to the bottom and back.

Our next planned stop is in Idaho, but we have been debating dropping down into Nevada since we skipped Nevada on the way out, so we took a southern route out of Washington and into Oregon. 

We did not take many pictures but we were in awe during the entire drive, the scenery of distant white mountains, lush high prairie and green mountain passes were all very scenic.  Once we got off I90 onto I84 the traffic was light and the roads excellent, what a very nice drive. 

Crossing the Columbia River

We crossed the Columbia River into Oregon on I82. I thought it was interesting that they had two very different bridges depending upon if you were going north or south. 

When we stopped for lunch I booked a Harvest Host, Copper Belt Winery, for the evening in Baker City, Oregon.  Copper Belt Winery is about 20 miles off I82 and as we made our way to the Winery, we saw several Historical Oregon Trail Markers. It is interesting to think of the Chuck Wagons crossing this prairie. We drove by the National Park Service National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and may stop there on the way out tomorrow.  

We arrived at our HH around 19:00, they closed at 18:00 but said we could arrive after hours. We were met by Mike, the owners' father who was still working, it seems he has a similar retirement to mine. 

Copper Belt Brewery

The place is beautiful.

Mike at Copper Belt Winery

Mike treated us to a tasting, had some wine with us and gave us a bit of the history on the property. The property was owned by his great grandfather who had a gold mine on the property. Mike is the fourth generation, his son, Travis, runs the Winery so it is staying in the family; it is a feel good story. He talked about how the State of Oregon almost put them out of business during covid since they cut off all his sales channels. He said that the Harvest Host business kept the business afloat, so they are very accommodating to Harvest Host customers. 

Copper Belt Winery

After the tasting, we bought a bottle of wine and Mike sent us out to the RV with a complementary glass of wine; he even said keep the glass, but they are a bit large for the RV. 

We would highly recommend this Harvest Host, they could not be more friendly. 

Thursday we will drop into Nevada before making our way to Idaho. 

Day 37 & 38, Monday & Tuesday April 6th & 7th: Some Repairs, Tulips, and starting for home.

Monday after breakfast Todd and I headed for his local upfitter shop to see if we could get parts to fix the Serenity exhaust and rear stabilizer. 

Todd took me to 'Better Off Road' where he has family connections, his son went to school with the owner. They had in stock what we need to fix the exhaust, a new tailpipe and the clamps to put it on. We left the stabilizer bracket so they could either find a replacement or weld the broken one. 

New Exhaust Tailpipe and Hanger

We returned to Todd's and cut the tailpipe to size and a little welding to make a hanger, we repaired the exhaust, it was a pretty simple job. I am grateful that cousin Todd got the handyman gene and has a complete shop for working on anything mechanical.

Once we got that done, we had lunch and headed out for some more touring. On the way, we stopped by Better Off Road. Although they could not find a replacement sway bar bracket, they welded the broken one back together and did a fine job. 

Todd took us on a driving tour through the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.  I did not take any close up pictures because we did not want to meet the MPs personally. 

EA-18F Growlers, from a distance

We saw lots of aircraft, including their primary fighter jet the The EA-18G Growler  which I thought was an F/A-18F like the Blue Angels fly but it is a specialized electronic warfare (EW) derivative of the F/A-18F Super Hornet. It is cool to see them and watch them fly over Todd's property, which they do frequently. 

Both Todd and Ann worked on this base when they were active in the military and have many personal stories about their experiences. Todd was in the marines and Ann in the Navy, the banter is entertaining and never stops 😊.

Tulip Town

After the base Todd took us to Tulip Town. We had no idea that Washington State was famous for Tulips and they have the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival every April. 

Tulip Farms

The place gets mobbed with people from Seattle and tourists (us) but what you see is truly spectacular. 

Tulip Town

With the flowers and mountains in the background, the scenery is second to none. 

We were very lucky to hit Tulip Town when the flowers are in bloom, it is a little early this year. 

Taylor Shellfish Farm

We stopped at one of the local Taylor Shellfish Farms where they farm oysters. 

Taylor Shellfish Farm

It was another beautiful day and everyone was having a great time. It made me wish I liked oysters 😐.

Taylor Shellfish Farm

It was clearly low tide.

From the coast we drove Chuckanut Drive which was the first road (1896) connecting this section of WA with points south, before then you needed a boat.

Chuckanut Drive

The views are spectacular. 

Todd and Ann are great tour guides and took us to more places with beautiful views and then we eventually made our way to the port town of La Conner for dinner. 

La Conner

La Conner, Washington is a renowned historic waterfront village, it is really beautiful.

Ann and Todd

We browsed the shops and walked the boardwalks; it was gorgeous on such a sunny day. 

We had dinner at La Conner Seafood & Prime Rib House, it was delicious.  

We had another fantastic day, Tuesday we plan to depart for home. 

Tuesday morning we made preparations for our trek back east. 

Repaired Rear Sway Bar Bracket

I installed the repaired Rear Stabilizer Bracket, it will probably be good for a long time, but I do plan to replace both brackets when we get home. 

Ann took June to the Commissary for supplies. I washed the Serenity Falcon and we departed around 12:30. We have had a fantastic visit and really hated to leave. We hope that Todd and Ann come east soon and we can show them the same hospitality that they have treated us to. 

Our next planned stop was to visit Steve and Patti's son, Jack and his wife, Katie, who now live in Seattle. We stopped at a rest area that had a dump station on the way to Seattle and I found that I stole Todd's hose nozzle....oh well Todd will have to come to Vermont and get it. 

We set a plan to meet Jack and Katie for dinner around 17:00 but I arrived 2 hours early, no traffic. I had no idea that Seattle has streets on hills much like San Francisco, I even dragged the scooter rack on several intersections. 

Jack

Luckily, Jack was home and we got nice walk in with Jack and their dogs, Luna and Kona. 

He has great views around his house in all directions. 

Katie, June, Fred, Jack

After Katie got home from work we went to dinner at Cafe Lago, a very fine Italian restaurant. 

We enjoyed our time with Jack and Katie, they seem very settled and happy in Seattle. 

Wednesday we are planning to either head east to Idaho or south to Nevada....not sure.