End of our month at C.A.R.E.

We have had an interesting and fun month volunteering here at C.ARE.  C.A.R.E. stands for Continuing Assistance for Retired/Recooperating Escapees.  This was a vision of Kay Peterson, Co Founder of the Escapees RV Club.  The residents are very appreciative of the volunteers that are hear and seem to be really pleased at having the volunteers.  As you spend time here, you get to know the residents and some will steal your heart!  You really get to know them if you get the chance to drive them to places they may need to go, such at the doctors or the store to shop..  This is an experience that I would recommend to all Escapees to have.  You will not be sorry.
We have made our reservations for the trip back to see the kids in Jacksonville, stopping at the Escapees RV Park in Summerdale, AL and attending the Escapees Chapter 57 rally at Harbor Lakes RV Resort,  and of course the Florida Good Sam Fall Rally in Eustus, FL,  Then on to NAS Jacksonville for Debby to have surgery on her eyes to take care of her cateracts.  At least we will be with the kids for the holidays. 

Y'all travel safe and I'll type more later,

Here at C.A.R.E.

We left McPherson Campground in McPherson, KS, which was a nice campground.  The owner had not had it that long and has been making improvements, but it is a small campground, but sure met our needs.  We next arrived at Cedar Valley RV Park in Guthrie, OK.  Once again, a nice campground that met our needs.  Staying only a couple of days at each campgrounds doesn't require us to have a lot of amenities, so even the simplest of campgrounds is just fine for us.  I'm usually happy if I get satellite and can put up my Ham Antenna.

Next we went to Lazy L RV Park in Sherman, TX.  Once again, a nice campground that met our needs.  It was interesting to take this trip towards Rainbows End.  This is where we observed the Eclipse.  Only 79% coverage here.

Next we stopped at Watts RV Park in Gilmer, TX.  Debby does really well in selecting our campgrounds and once again, this one was just the ticket for us.  The campground was nice but the road to get to it left A LOT to be desired.  We survived though and enjoyed out days there.

Our next stop was Rainbows End RV Park in Livingston, TX.  This is the National Headquarters for the Escapees RV Club and home to C.A.R.E.  (Continued Assistance for Retired/Recooperating Escapees)  This is an independent living facility, where the residents live in their RV and are provided meals and a place to play games and socialize.  There is a paid staff, but rely heavily on it's volunteers.  We will be volunteers here until the 1st of October then we will be heading east toward Florida.  We have enjoyed our time here so far, and hope we will enjoy our remaining time here.

We came a little early to get here before Hurricane Harvey arrived.  I am glad to report that there was not damage or excess flooding here.  They did close the headquarters as some of the staff were evacuated, and, of course, as the mail comes from Huston, there was NO mail service.  We were surprised that we had mail delivered to CARE yesterday, which was a holiday.

We are now watching hurricane Irma, and pray that it will miss Florida and the US altogether.  I would ask that everyone pray for the same.

Y'all travel safe and I'll type more later.

What Happened to the Time?

When the kids left from Bozeman, WY we headed to 7th Ranch and RV park in Little Big Horn area.  We stayed there for a few days and enjoyed Little Big Horn National Monument and celebrated our 33rd Wedding Anniversary.  It was a very interesting area to visit.  When we left, I filled up with fuel and 10 miles down the road, the check engine light came on.  I assumed it was due to poor fuel, but later found out that was not the case.  I stopped and checked to see that the fuel cap was on correctly, and found that it was.  The next area we stopped at, I added 5 bottles of "Heat" to get rid of any water in the fuel.  That did not work either.  So we continued on.

We left the Little Big Horn area and headed to Scully Creek State Park in Medora, ND for the 4th of July week end.  We did not have hook ups there, but the campsites were spacious and the generator worked great.

We left Medora, ND and headed to Jamestown RV Park in Jamestown, ND.  We enjoyed our short stay there and then headed to Forest Hills Golf and RV Resort in Detroit Lakes, MN.  This was a very nice private resort for the Golf Club members.  We were able to get in there with RPI.  

When we left Detroit Lakes, we headed to Sioux Falls, SD.  We stayed at Tower Camp Ground and found it to be a nice campground.  

After our week at Tower Campground, we were headed to our friends, Bill and Donna Nixon, but we thought we should get our check engine light checked out to ensure it was not to serious.  We were wrong!  We spent 5 days at the Cummins Sales and Service center in Sioux Falls, SD.  It turned out that our belt had shreaded down to 4 ribs and what was gone had shreaded several electrical pieces and took out the electrical fan clutch.  $2500+ later, we headed to our friends house.  To make a long story short, they had to order parts and the last part took longer than expected to come in.

We finally left Sioux Falls and headed to Bill and Donna's in Springfield, SD.  We had a GREAT visit with them.  We can not thank them enough for the hospitality they extended to us.  Debby and I both look forward to the next time we can get up in this area and visit with them again.  Bill is very talented with wood work and make me a neat call sign plaque.

We also attended the local ham club bar b que with them and had a really good time.  Once again, we REALLY enjoyed our visit with them.

We left their place and went to York Campground in York, ND.  We only stayed one night there and yesterday we drove to McPherson RV Park in McPherson, KS.  We got here yesterday afternoon and the owner is a real nice guy who have not had the campground very long.  The sites are level, fresh rock has been laid and they have a VERY nice club house.  It is a small campground, but they will do well here I suspect, due to their attitude.  

Today Debby and I drove to Wichata and went to the commissary.  We will be staying here until Monday when we will continue our trek to Livingston, TX to volunteer at C.A.R.E.  We will spend 3 nights in OK and then head into TX.

I will try to do better about updating the blog.  We had so much going on that I just lost track of time. Y'all travel safe and I'll type more later.

Visit With The Kids

We left Bothell, WA and headed to Sunrise RV Park in Bozeman, MT.  We traveled each day for 5 days, about 190 mile per day.  I'm not used to that, so I was pretty tired when we got to Bozeman.  We got there and rested the next day.  The following day we traveled to West Yellowstone, MT at Buffalo Crossings RV Park.  This was a really nice park.  No amenities, but right outside of Yellowstone National Park East Entrance.  That was the 8th of June.  The next day we drove back up to Bozeman an picked up the kids.  It was really nice to see them.  We drove back down to West Yellowstone and rested the next day.

We spent the next 1 1/2 weeks exploring Yellowstone National Park.  There is just to much to tell.  We entered the park each day.  Visited with our friends Bob and Sue Guthrie at the north entrance to the park, spent a day in Cody and explored the musieun there.  We have had a great timel.   I will share just some of the pictures of Yellowstone and Cody.

These were from the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery.  A nice experience.

While in West Yellowstone, we experienced much more weather than we wanted to.  We had hard rain with HIGH winds, snow and even experienced a 4.5 magnitude earth quake.  Luckily it did not last long.

we also visited Jackson Hole, WY and went through the Tetons.  How beautiful.  

We finally headed back up to Bozeman, MT and are once again, at Sunrise RV Park.  Yesterday we toured the Museum of the Rockies.  What a great exhibit of dinosoars and the history of the area.

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So we have had a fun visit with the kids.  We took them to the airport this morning and they are currently flying home.  We will next be headed east and look forward to visiting with Bill and Donna when we get to their house in southeastern South Dakota.  

Y'all have a great time, and I'll type again later.