Aw, Shucks!

Today, Monday, June 30th, Bob and I took a drive to Mitchell, SD-the home of The Corn Palace. It is about 60 miles from Sioux Falls and it took us a little over an hour to get there. We had a free guided tour and it was quite interesting. The Corn Palace that sits on Main Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues is actually the third Corn palace in Mitchell. It is a very unique site to see the murals inside and outside of the building made of corn and native grains. As the story goes, when Lewis and Clark passed through the Dakota region they said the area's soil was not good for farming and crops. So to prove them wrong, the founding fathers of Mitchell decided to display their argicultural bounty on the building's exterior to prove the fertility of the region's soil. And it worked! Over one-half million people travel each year to view an "a-maize-ing" sight.The Corn Palace is definitely a tourist attraction, but it is also home to the local basketball teams for their high school season. Pretty spectacular! And as you can imagine, it is also called the world's largest birdfeeder. After the tour, we walked to the gift shop located on the gym floor. We purchased a few items and finished checking out the time line with photos posted in the entrance hallways. Once we finished with that, we stepped outside and took a few more photos and then stopped for iced tea at an outdoor stand.
Heading home we saw a sign for A Fatima Shine in Alexandria, SD a few miles down the road. So we stopped. It is located on the grounds of St. Mary of Mercy Catholic church. What a beautiful shine dedicated to Our Lady of Fatima. Just out in the middle of nowhere! I enjoyed seeing that very much.
On the road again, we arrived home about 1:30 PM. After a short nap, on to pick up the mail and pick up a few groceries.
Tonight's supper was spinach tortellini salad and strawberry coffeecake for dessert.
Now we are getting ready for our evening bike ride.
As always, we appreciate our family and friends and think of them often.
Mary, Bob, and Miles, too

Resting..Sort of

We decided to take a day off from sightseeing and stay home for the day on Sunday, June 29th. Well, I am not so sure that we really rested. I washed four loads of laundry and hung the clothes outside to dry. With the amount of wind around here, drying time was very short. Bob decided to wash and wax the passenger side of the motor home. That was an all day job for him. But it looks very nice. He has decided to complete the other side on Tuesday, July 1st. Cleaning the motor home inside is almost as much work as a regular home. It seems like if you don't constantly keep everything spit-spot, it won't take long to become a problem. I think because most of the components that make up the motor home are not conventional materials as in a regular home. So every other day I polish all of the woodwork in the coach. I vacuum everyday (having an inside cat, you can never vacuum enough) and it is a good thing that Miles lets me vacuum him! I clean the mirrors in the bathroom and living room and dust everyday. Even though there are just the two of us, washing dishes is alot of work. Maybe because anytime a glass is used, I wash it. We just don't have room for anything to sit around. We have limited space for our trash can, so the trash has to be taken out on daily basis. But I enjoy cleaning so it's not a problem. At the end of the day, Bob grilled steaks for us and we had leftover shrimp casserole. A nice meal to end a busy day.
We made our plans for Monday-off to see The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.
As always, we appreciate family and friends and keep them in our thoughts and prayers.
Mary, Bob, and Miles, too

Little House on the Prairie

Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace Ingalls were quite gracious today. We visited their homestead in DeSmet, SD. The musuem and buildings on the grounds are actually sitting on the very land that Pa homesteaded uinder the Homestead Act of 1862. It is a quarter section (160 acres). Laura writes of their time there in her book titled "On the Shores of Silver Lake". There is a replica of their "Little House" that Pa built (a very nice house by the standards back then), a shanty that they lived in when they first arrived on the land, and a sod house which was a step up from the shanty.
The guide told us that this area was where the Ingalls made a very good living. Pa farmed oats and wheat. The girls attended school in town and were able to walk to school each day. We also were given a ride in a covered wagon-one similar to the Ingalls owned and we stopped at a replica of a one-room school house. It is like one the Ingalls girls attended and Laura taught at.
The day was cool with a little rain and very strong winds. We were glad that we had dressed for cool weather bringing along our jackets. We ate our lunch before we began the tour.
There is a very nice welcome center and gift shop on the premises. We were able to send an email from the shop to the Campbell kids. I wanted to send an email to Matthew but after the Highlights subscription fiasco, I decided not to.
We left this morning around 10:30 AM and arrived home around 5:00 PM. I drove the last 25 miles home because Bob was a bit sleepy.
Tonight we will have a quick supper of shrimp casserole-it's very easy to fix and tastes great.
We thank everyone who vists our blog. As always we appreciate our family and friends and think of them often.
Mary, Bob, and Miles, too

Biking the trail

Today (Friday, June 27th) Bob and I biked 5.1 miles on the Sioux Falls Park trail. The park is located in downtown Sioux Falls. The bike trail runs throughout the industrial area of downtown. It is uniquely engineered and designed. At no point does the trail cross a street and it is incorporated throughout the beautiful park. We had a beautiful day for outdoor activities. The temperature was 80 degrees with constant "prairie winds" blowing. There is no humidity here and that is quite a change from what we are used to.
We picked up some groceries from the local Wal-Mart and we found the prices to be just about what they are at home. An interesting side note to today's shopping: I purchased a package of grape tomatoes that were from 3 Generations Farm in Park Hills, Mo!
Our dinner tonight was homemade sloppy joes, chips, and pork and beans. Ice cream for dessert-yummy!
Tomorrow's activities will include a trip to the post office to mail Joe's birthday present and a few other mailings. Then we plan on traveling to DeSmet, SD (a drive of about 95 miles) to visit Laura Ingalls Wilder historical museum and one of her childhood homes.
We do miss our family and friends and they are always in our thoughts and prayers. Note to Steff: we do miss our basement living!
Mary, Bob, and Miles, too!

Central Plains of the USA

We arrived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota today, Wednesday, June 25. Blue skies, flat lands, no humidity and lots of stockyards. We didn't see them, but we knew they were there!
We drove 201 miles today, leaving Avoca, Iowa at about 8:00 AM this morning.
Last night we met our nephew Bryan (married to our niece Jeni) and their 2 little boys-Reilly and Liam. Bryan and the boys met us in Council Bluffs, Iowa for dinner. Jeni is in San Antonio, Texas and will be back home (Papillion, Ne)at the end of the week. Jen, Bryan, and the boys will be moving to San Antonio in a week. We had an enjoyable dinner together and were kept entertained by Liam's antics. He's 19 months old and all boy for sure! Reilly told us about his field trip that day with his pre-school class. He had a great time. Bryan does a great job taking care of the boys and running the household while Jen is gone for schooling and training. We thank them both for their commitment and service to our country. Go Air Force!
Miles has handled the traveling quite well. He seems to enjoy his outdoor time in his mesh enclosure.
Our plans for tomorrow include finishing our residency requirements for South Dakota and then sightseeing. We are staying at a KOA camp for the week.
Will close for now. We keep our family and friends in our thoughts.
Thanks to Brandy for getting the blog set up for us!
Mary, Bob, and Miles, too!

Heading on Down the Road

Today, June 23, will be our last day in Winterset, Iowa. We have enjoyed the week's stay here very much. The town is set up quite nicely for biking (which we have done on a daily basis). In fact, this morning we biked 5.8 miles throughout town. We rode out to the Aquatic Center at the west end of town. It features two swimming pools and several slides. A very nice addition to a wonderful town.
We are at the town library using their wi-fi to update our blog and send emails.
When we are finished here we will pick up a few groceries and head "home" to the city park. We plan on leaving tomorrow at around 10:00 AM and hope to arrive in Avoca, Iowa for a night's stay. Then on to Siopux Falls, S.D. to finish our residency requirements. We will blog more when we get to Sioux Falls because the RV park has wi-fi at each site. Take care all! As always, we appreciate our family and friends very much.
Love,
Mary and Bob (and Miles, too)

Is this Heaven?

No, it’s Iowa. Maybe it is heaven. We arrived in Winterset, Iowa on Tuesday, June 17th. Winterset’s claim to fame is: it’s the birthplace of John Wayne. We toured his birth home and visited the museum next door.
The RV park that we are staying at is in the city park of Winterset. It is quite beautiful and well taken care of. We have full hook ups which means that we have water, electric, and sewer facilities at our site. We plan to stay a full week-all for the reasonable price of $98.00. Can’t beat that. When we arrived on Tuesday, there were about 12 units in the park and today (Friday, 6/20/08) it appears all 34 sites are filled. We are about 10 blocks from the town square and we walked to town today. We checked out the court house-very nice-and saw some beautiful plaques to memorialize their native sons war service. Stopped at the post office to mail a few items and then checked out the town square. This area is very picturesque with gently rolling hills and a quaint small town feel.
Our motor home has been great. All the appliances are running properly and make for a very comfortable home on wheels. Having the washer/dryer combo has worked out perfectly. I wash a load of clothes once or twice a day and stay caught up on the laundry.
Bob has been the exercise guru and plans our daily exercise. What fun! We walk, hike, and or bike each day. Not one of my favorite things (exercise), but I know it has to be done.
On Thursday, Bob and I met Amy Huedepohl ( a former teacher at Hillsboro) now back in her home state of Iowa. It turns out, she is only about 25 miles from where we are staying. We took her out to dinner and had a very nice visit. She is doing well and seems happy to be back in Iowa.
Our meals have been mostly home cooked by me and we have enjoyed that very much. We shopped at the local Fareway grocery store and the prices seem quite reasonable. I was impressed by their old fashioned meat counter. The hamburger and pork chops that we purchased were very tasty.
We stopped at the Winterset library and used the Wi-Fi today and emailed the kids. The library is nice and we plan to go back tomorrow to use the internet again.
Miles (the cat) seems to be adapting very nicely to life on the road. He is the only cat in the RV park and I think he knows he is the top cat. He hasn’t lost the ability to nap, eat, nap, nap, and eat. He is fun to have along with us.
We are listening to the Cardinal baseball game right now. The score is not in our favor but hopefully we will rally and win the game.
I will close for now and write more as we travel along.
Thanks for stopping by and checking on us. We appreciate our family and friends!
Bob, Mary, and Miles (the cat)

Blast Off!

Last night at the Campbell household. Things have been pretty hectic today, Sunday. Two trips to the RV, and it is packed! This evening we will be enjoying a turkey dinner for Father's Day. Hopefully, we will be in bed early and ready to go by 7 a.m. tomorrow. Stay tuned for blast off updates!