May 15, 2013 - 3 more trips - Turkey Run State Park, Terre Haute KOA, & Dunes State Park

We have made it through the 2nd wettest spring in Indiana history! We made week-end trips to Turkey Run State Park and Terre Haute KOA. We purchased a membership in KOA and we will use the Crawfordsville KOA during the few days we actually move out of our apartment. We noticed there were several ladies camping alone or in pairs at the KOA and guessed that they might feel safer in a more organized place. Then we went to Dunes State Park for 3 nights where we camped many, many times years ago with our daughters. It's many improvements make it...

Apr 9, 2013 - 3rd Trip - Back to Prophetstown

We have made a lot of progress since our 2nd trip! Our South Dakota license plates came in the mail, our Blue Ox towbar has been installed, we have a 3rd set of keys in case we get locked out again, and we have had Direct TV installed! We also bought a wireless printer that will fit into one of our overhead cabinets, a little lockbox for our important papers, and a plastic filebox for our files. At home we have been sorting belongings for storage, donation or auction & throwing out stuff. Our next task is to get WiFi and a tablet! Our 3rd...

Mar 17, 2013 - 2nd trip - Raccoon Lake SRA

Our second trip to Raccoon Lake State Recreation Area was another learning experience! We had not called ahead and arrived to find out that the water stations were closed and there was no place to fill our fresh water tank! We ended up stopping by the Park Office and they let us fill our tank from the spigot outside the office. Then we were off to choose one of the 4 campsites with 50 amp service. Our daughter, son-in-law, 4 year old grandson, and 3 month old twin granddaughters were joining us the next day in their new travel trailer so we...

Mar 13, 2013 - Our First Trip - Prophetstown State Park

We have made a lot of progress! I'm so glad that we didn't wait any longer to buy our RV! There is a lot to do and it all seems to take a lot of time. After following all the trouble shooting ideas we read & heard about our non-functioning slide-out, we called Camping World and made an appointment to bring it in. We knew we were going to have to leave it there, but we didn't realize it would be there for 2 weeks! We needed a new motor for the slideout and luckily, that was still under warranty. While it was there, we asked them to readjust...

Feb 14, 2013 - South Dakota is our new home state!

Our trip to South Dakota February 10-12 was a great success! On Monday, we arrived at Alternative Resources before they opened with what we hoped was all the information we needed to sign up for a South Dakota mailing address, get our driver's licenses, and register to vote. We did not have the title information and statement of the tax we paid when we bought the RV that Camping World promised would arrive in the mail by February 8 and we knew that Karen, the vehicle registration specialist at Alternative Resources, wasn't available until...

Jan 17, 2013 - Picking up the rig!

Today we drove Brad's car to Camping World in Greenwood to pick up our Winnebago Vista 35F. Our salesman greeted us and took us to Vickie in the Finance Office to sign papers. One of the things that Paul at Alternative Resources in South Dakota had said was not to let the dealer bully us in to paying the Indiana Sales Tax which is 7%. He told us to tell Camping World that we were going to license the RV in South Dakota and would pay their Sales Tax which is only 3%. I called Camping World a couple days before our appointment to pick up the...

Jan 15, 2013 - Full-time RV'ing at last!

We found the PERFECT RV for us and bought it last Wednesday, January 9. We pick it up the day after tomorrow, Thursday, January 17! It is a gently used 2012 Winnebago Vista 35F with only 9000 miles on it. We tent-camped several times after we got married in June, 1972 and then bought a Coleman Apache 400 pop-up camper in 1973. We used that thing probably a couple hundred times with our daughters, Jennifer & Karen. We all loved it! We finally got rid of it when we sold our house in Crown Point in 1997. I was sadder to see it go than I was...

Jul 14, 2012 - Crawfordsville, & Childhood home

John was born in Indianapolis and has some great memories of his childhood. He wanted to see his old house and the street he had lived on. After all, it has been over 50 years since he lived there so he was expecting some changes. It was about an hour’s drive from the campground so we headed off early in the morning. On the way there we hit pockets of rain. Very different from what I am used to in Seattle. We could see the cloud coming, and, boom; there we were in a downpour. Then, within 5 minutes it was gone and the streets were dry,...

Jul 13, 2012 - We made it to Indiana

We did a speed run through Illinois today, arriving at Sugarcreek Campgrounds in Crawfordsville, Indiana later this afternoon. Hot, tired and definitely ready to stop driving. The seat gets hard, the floor gets hot and I have already moved my legs in just about every which way they can be moved to get more comfortable. By the way, I may have a problem next time I go to a pool. My legs are getting tanner from the knees to the top of my shorts. The backs are still white, and the bottom half is a lot lighter. Gonna look pretty weird, but what...

May 3, 2012 - Crawfordsville, IN

Back to the “real world” now! No more green, rolling hills and lush farmland. We sure enjoyed it while it lasted, though! The up side is that there aren't so many large bugs to splattttt against our windshield...lol We over-nighted at Sugar Creek Campground and enjoyed our walks along the creek.

Oct 11, 2011 - Ah...Retirement!

I drove Dan to visit the Ropkey Armor Museum, on the north side of Crawfordsville, as it contains one of the finest collections of U.S. tactical military vehicles in the country. Dan especially enjoyed his visit as he helped do maintenance work on a tank for which he received a free T-shirt (he also bought another T-shirt and gave a $5 donation as there are no admission fees). I returned to the campground to clean the motorcoach (fortunately it doesn't take very long), walk around the campground which certainly has the "it" factor, and sit...

Oct 9, 2011 - Football and NCLS Baseball

After yesterday's very busy touring day, today we took it s-l-o-w and easy. I did laundry at a 24-hour laundry as it is attached to a gas station in Crawfordsville while Dan searched for a coax to get both tuners working (I think). He watched football while I walked around the campground on this awesome (low 80's and sunny) day! For dinner, Dan grilled steaks which we ate with mushrooms in butter garlic olive oil as well as small red potatoes that I had purchased yesterday at a farmer's market in Crawfordsville. As we are enjoying ourselves...