Amana Colonies, IA

 

I've made it to the Amana Colonies where I'm staying at the Amana Colonies RV Park in Amana, IA, with no problems. I'll leave out from here tomorrow morning on my last leg to Oconto.

 

The Amana Colonies are seven villages on 26,000 acres located in Iowa County in east-central Iowa. The villages were built and settled by German Pietists, who were persecuted in their homeland by the German state government and the Lutheran Church. Calling themselves the True Inspiration Congregations, they first settled in New York near Buffalo in what is now the town of West Seneca. However, seeking more isolated surroundings, they moved to Iowa in 1856. They lived a communal life until 1932.

 

For eighty years, the Amana Colony maintained an almost completely self-sufficient local economy, importing very little from the industrializing American economy. The Amanians were able to achieve this independence and lifestyle by adhering to the specialized crafting and farming occupations that they had brought with them from Europe. Craftsmen passed their skills and techniques on from one generation to the next. They used hand, horse, wind, and water power, and made their own furniture, clothes, and other goods. The community voted to form a for-profit organization during the Great Depression, the Amana Society, which included the Amana Corporation.

 

I went to the Millstream Brau Haus for dinner. I asked for a brewed ice tea with my fischbrötchen. They didn't have brewed ice tea. The fischbrötchen was good though.

Council Bluffs, IA

 

After 7 hours on the road, we finally made it to Council Bluffs, IA. Tomorrow's trip is a hundred miles shorter, where we'll end up in Grandview Plaza, KS. Grandview Plaza is a small town just outside of Junction City, KS, where Fort Riley is. I was stationed at Fort Riley for two years after returning from Vietnam. My daughter Evon was born at Fort Riley. We will be at Grandview Plaza for two nights.

Day Two of our 6-Month Road Trip

 

Today is day 2 of our 6-month road trip. Today, we will put on 310 miles stopping for the night in Council Bluffs, IA.

On The Road Again

 

We were on the road by 9:30 this morning. After 6 1/2 hours on the road, we are spending the night in Cascade, IA. Tomorrow night we will be in Council Bluffs, IA.

We were on the road by 7:45 this morning on our leg to Oklahoma City where we are staying at Twin Fountains RV Resort. 

Homewood, Kansas

Waking up to a light dusting of snow here in Kellogg, Iowa from last night. Much better that trying to drive through the snow and winds that is hitting Wisconsin this morning. Kansas City got a good snow fall last night but the highways will be clear by the time we get there this afternoon. Tonight's planned stop will be Homewood, Kansas.

Our first trip in our new 5th wheel we call Château de Sallé

Château de Sallé

It's been awhile since I've posted anything on our trips, but, with our new RV I'll try to keep my posting up to date.

We were planning on leaving on our trip on Friday, but, after seeing a forecast at 6:00 this morning of a snow storm across Wisconsin for Friday, we hurried and got on the road by 8:00 this morning.  Our first destination was a little over 400 miles away at Kellogg RV Park in Kellogg, IA. We pulled in just before dark. The reason I picked this park was because it was the first one that we would come to that was still open this time of the year.

Winter trip 2016 - Day 1

Most of our bags were packed and we were about ready to hit the road. Destination today was just under 200 miles away, Fort McCoy, Wisconsin.  I spent 4 months there on a TDY assignment with the Army back in 1973. My first wife Chin and I were married just a couple of months prior to getting there so she went with me. We lived in a little house just out side of the base. Well that was a long time ago.

We were loading the last few things in the motorhome. Nancy was putting things in the refrigerator and I was putting some things away in the bedroom when all of a sudden the refrigerator door fell off. The bottom hinge just broke. OWFISH! It's made out of plastic and was only some 20 years old. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Stay calm I told myself. Lets see if I can find the parts to fix this thing.

While Nancy went to her nail appointment I got on the computer and started searching the internet for parts. I call the manufacturer and was told I was going to have to replace the whole door but they didn't have one, a dealer might be able to come up with one though. He gave me the name and number of a dealer in Rapid City, SD where I could have it fixed since our plans were to stop there for a few days. There was no door available. It was some 20 years old and discontinued years ago. OWFISH! My best bet was to try to find one in a RV salvage yard somewhere or replace the refrigerator with a new one. The replacement refrigerator was taller and deeper which would require some remodeling to get it in and then the retail price of it was some $4000. OWFISH! My best bet was to find a used refrigerator.

I got back on the computer searching the internet for a used refrigerator on ebay or somewhere. I found one at a RV salvage yard outside of Joplin, MO. $1500 and another $250 for truck shipping to Rapid City. But there was a RV shop right across the street from them who could install it for me. So... change of plans. We're not going to South Dakota and Montana like we had planned before heading to Tombstone. Got to be flexible while traveling in an old RV.

We were on the road by 12:30 with an appointment at the RV shop outside of Joplin. MO for Thursday morning to replace the refrigerator. I didn't know how far we were going to travel today, I just knew a direction. 350 miles later we pulled into a rest stop on I-480 between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City at 8:00 PM. Tomorrow we'll make an overnight stop in Independence, MO for some sightseeing. Wednesday we'll stop for the night at a RV park just down the road from the RV shop. I've been just about everywhere so we'll make a good trip out of this anyway.

On our way to Oklahoma City

Nancy and I got the last thinks packed this morning and we were on the road by 8:35AM. We made it all the way to the first stop sign when Nancy said she forgot her sunglasses. So back around the block to go get them. No problems on the road today except the water tank is empty. Showers at the truck stop. We stopped at 4:00PM for the night at a truck stop in Brooklyn, IA. Tomorrow we should make it to Emporia, KS for the night then on to Oklahoma City on Saturday.

On the road - Day 2

Day 2 catches me awake at 4:30 this morning. Not bad though. I went to bed at 8:30 last night and I was tired. So that's 8 hours of sleep. Well I was hoping I didn't leave anything behind, but when I started looking for my electric skillet so I could cook breakfast, that's when I realized that not only the skillet, I forgot my coffee cup too. OWFISH! I needed to get a new electric skillet anyway and I've got other coffee cups onboard.

Today promises to be a nasty day with rain, snow and winds.  I was on the road by 6:15 and at 6:16 I was crossing the Mississippi River. At 9 o'clock, I stopped at a truck stop restaurant for breakfast that Barb and I always stopped at going this direction. There was snow and ice on the ground. Afterwards, the closer I got to Des Moines, the more snow there was on the ground. At least the roads are only wet. I stopped at the Pilot Travel Center in Des Moines for fuel. $206.81 for 56.676 gallons of diesel. I'm glad I only needed half a tank.

After filling the tank, I kept heading toward Kansas City on I-35. I thought of stopping north of the city for the night, but since I was making good time, I wanted to get through that mess before the traffic got ugly. In fact I kept going until I made it to Emporia, Kansas. A total of 515 miles today. Boy was I beat fighting the winds driving this rig. I pulled into the Flying J Travel Center for the night, topped off the tank with another 41 gallons for a whopping $151.42, and $15.14 to replace the wiper blades. So far I've spent $358.23 for fuel and have drove only 784 miles. 256 miles to go. At least Flying J has WiFi... for a cost.

Back in Oconto, Wisconsin

We made it back to Oconto today getting here around 5:30 this afternoon. We left Kellogg, IA around 8:00 this morning and drove the last 434 miles in 9 hours driving time. As soon as we get here we find that there's a winter storm warning out for Tuesday and Wednesday expecting around 8" of snow here. At least I don't have to drive in it. We'll be here until the end of October.


From the time we left Oconto last year, we drove the motorhome 3479 miles, used 453.465 gallons of fuel, costing $1629.45, which averages out to 7.67 MPG, $3.593 per gallon, $0.468 per mile driven. We spent $3244.12 staying in RV Parks this past winter.

Kellogg, IA

Once again we were able to get on the road by 7:30 this morning leaving from Homewood, KS to continue our trek to Wisconsin. Today we drove 297 miles with a fuel stop in Des Moines, IA where I topped off with 68.6 gallons of diesel costing $280.00. We have averaged 7.9 MPG since leaving Oklahoma City. We have stopped for the night staying at the Kellogg RV Park in Kellogg, IA. Tomorrow we should make Wisconsin before stopping for the day and make it to Oconto by Tuesday afternoon.

Hannibal, MO

"I have found out there ain't no surer way to find out whether you like people than to travel with them."

---Mark Twain

Barb and I have been traveling together for 6 years now and we still like each other.

We left Kieler, WI around 9:00 this morning on our way to the Mark Twain Cave & CampGrounds in Hannibal, MO. We travelled in 4 states today, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois & Missouri, and crossed the Mississippi River 3 times. We went through towns named Dubuque, Key West, Davenport, Roseville, Tennessee & West Point. We'll be here for 2 days leaving out Sunday for Grove, Oklahoma.

Mark Twain wrote...
Tom Sawyer: "By and by somebody shouted, "Who's ready for the cave?' Everybody was. Bundles of candles were procured and straightaway there was a general scamper up the hill. The mouth of the cave was up the hillside - an opening shaped like a letter A. Within was a small chamber chilly as an ice-house and walled by nature with solid limestone that was dewy with cold sweat." -excerpt from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

Kieler, WI

We are staying at the Rustic Barn RV Park in Kieler, WI, just outside of Dubuque, IA, for the night. Next stop will be in Hannibal, MO, home town of Mark Twain.

Kieler, WI

Getting an early start again this morning, we left Amana right around 8:00am and headed to the Dubuque, IA area where we are staying on the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi River in Kieler, WI at the Rustic Barn RV Park. The wind was blowing somewhat this morning and we had some snow flurries but nothing sticking. Barb didn't like the idea that it was snowing. Frank and Jill are following us but shortly after getting on the road, Frank call on the radio saying his motorhome was over heating. We pulled over about 3 times in our 100 mile trip today to let it cool down. I think it's more a bad temperature gage than it actually over heating.

Amana Colonies, IA

We got an early start this morning leaving Independence, MO around 7:30am. Our destination today was the Amana Colonies RV Park in Amana, IA. It was a good trip today until we got into Iowa where the wind always blows. Today's winds were coming out of the west with gust up to 40 mph. We stopped for fuel at the Flying J in Des Moines where we paid $4.119 for diesel. With a west wind, we had a strong tail wind pushing us 100 miles until we turned off on US151 for Amana then it became a bad cross wind. Everything is closed here at the Amana Colonies on Sunday so we will probably stay an extra day leaving out on Tuesday so that we can tour the colonies. Our next stop will be the Rustic Barn RV Park in Kieler, WI where we will spend a couple of days while we tour Dubuque, IA.

Independence, MO

Well we are back on the road again after leaving Grove, OK around 9am this morning. Our destination today is Independence, MO where we are staying within walking distance of the President Truman House. Our friends Frank and Jill Welti are following us. We are at the Campus RV Park and will be here for 2 days and then off to the Amana Colonies in Iowa for a couple of days.

World's Largest Truck Stop

We said our good byes last night and this morning as we left Hilly Haven Campground around 9:00 this morning. Today we put in 267 miles until we arrived at the Iowa 80 Truckstop just west of Davenport, IA. We've seen this truck stop a couple of times on the Travel Channel and since we were going this way we had to stop. I think the only thing that makes this the world's largest is because it has 800 truck parking spaces. We'll spend the night here and go on tomorrow morning heading to Steedman, MO.

Wisconsin at Last

We finely made it to Wisconsin on Monday. We couldn't get into our campground until Tuesday though. After we left Topeka on Sunday our next stop was in Des Monies, IA for the night. We stayed at Cutty's Camping Resort. From there we only had another 400 miles to go so we went for it. By the time we made it to Wisconsin we were both tired. The winds were strong and it made driving OWFISH a challenge. After we get settled in we'll take the Shangri-La out of storage by the end of the week and hopefully have her in the water by the end of next week. Click HERE for updates.

Our summer campsite at
Hilly Haven Campground
Cascade, Wisconsin