6/14/2011 So Many Choices Of Places To Go

There is so much to do and see in this area of South Dakota. We couldn’t make up our minds where to go before we left so we decided to play the day as it came.

After our usual morning activities, which now includes a daily 8:30 a.m. card game for me, we got in the truck raring to go. We were going to spend this beautiful day doing something.

We had some errands to run so we started with them to get the boring stuff out of the way. We made a stop at Lowe’s and when we were walking back to the truck we noticed the clouds that weren’t there when we entered the store. What’s going on here???? Its supposed to be a beautiful day. Blue skies, non-existent wind, warm temperature. We kept telling ourselves it would blow over and the blue skies would return. On to Walmart.

We picked up the few things we needed there and when we got in the truck we noticed two RV’s in the parking lot. Fellow RV’ers this geared to you. What do you see wrong with this picture? Look very closely at the one on the right, especially the roofline.

While the RV’ers who are reading this are busy making their list of what’s wrong with this picture I’ll fill the rest of you in. RV’ing etiquette says that when you are spending time in Camp Wally World (Walmart’s or Cracker Barrel or ANYWHERE that is kind enough to let you stay for a NIGHT) you don’t make yourself at home. Slides aren’t put out, unless its on the curbside, then its ok. The TV antenna doesn’t go up, BBQ grills don’t come out, and lawn chairs aren’t put out unless you are on the curbside of the rig. The whole idea is to NOT make your presence known. RV’ers are being extended a courtesy of a free place to stay for the night. The people above…they are CAMPING! They are here for an extended stay from the looks of it. This is an RV’ing no-no. The only place that I have ever seen this as acceptable was in Alaska. Maybe “acceptable” isn’t the right word but it was certainly the norm.

So we pull out of the Walmart parking lot and the rain started. No, this can’t be happening! It’s our day off, we have things to do, places to go…. Let me tell you, raindrops on a windshield can change the mood of the vehicles occupants in a nano-second! We were both beside ourselves. We’re sick of rain, we’ve had enough!!! It poured. We went home. We didn’t care, this rain wasn’t going to let up let alone stop and who wants to go sightseeing in the pouring down rain?

Enough! We’ve had enough!

6/13/2011 And Then There Was One

Our little friends left the nest today. Well, all but one left. As you can see in this picture there were barely contained anymore in this tiny nest.

One by one they stood up, flapped their wings and sat back down. At one point one of them must have lost its balance because we found it on the ground. It was ok, it was hopping around, flapping its wings for a few seconds and it would land back on the ground. We looked again a half later and it was gone, we saw it across the field with its mom or dad.

The adult bird would fly to the ladder and talk to the babies and one would get up on the side of the nest and flap its wings again. Wanting to go but afraid at the same time.

At one point I looked and the second one to leave the nest was standing on the edge, flapping its wings and off it went. I was proud!

We missed the third one leaving because the next time we looked there was only one. This little bird had no intentions of going anywhere. We think he was enjoying all the elbow room he had for a change. It looks like this one was the smallest of the four and the one who probably was on the bottom of the nest with the three other bigger ones on top of him.

For the rest of the afternoon the adult birds would come and chirp but he was stubborn.

Mom caught sight of me watching and took off.

So when we pulled the shade this evening there was only one robin left.

We’re off tomorrow and we’ve got plans!

6/12/2011 Yet Another Storm

Everyone keeps telling us that this weather is unusual. That spring brings showers and the occasional thunderstorm but that’s just so everything greens up. Yep, this is unusual they say. Thunderstorms several times a week is not the norm.

After an uneventful day “at the office” the wind picked up as evidenced by this small tree outside our back window.

Our little robin friends huddled all together, ready to ride out the storm. The nest is really too small anymore for the four little birds. There is one that is nestled under these three.

So if this isn’t the norm then why do we have evening skies like this?

Lightning bolts from sky to ground off in the distance. Jagged bright white lines streaking across the sky that make the night look like day.

Try as I might I couldn’t capture the lightning, it came and went much too fast.

The winds picked up and once again we had to pull the slides in for stability. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just matter of pushing the button and the slide-out rolled in. In our case, throw rugs have to be taken up, decorative pieces have to be taken off the shelf at the top of the slide-out, Our space heater has to be put away if its out or the same with the fan depending on the days temps. When all this is done, then we push the button and the slide-out rolls in. And before you know it, the storm passes. Slides go out, rugs are put back down, decorative pieces are put back in their places, the fan or heater is brought back in and we wait,,,,for the next storm.

6/11/2011 Rainbows and Robins

Back to work for us today and of course by early afternoon patches of blue sky were showing and the sun was peaking through. Doesn’t it figure?

It was a really slow day and there is no sense in both of us being in the office so Bob took the morning shift and I took the afternoon.

Every morning my co-worker, Shari, and I meet at 8:30 a.m. in the laundry room where there is a table for folding and we play a card game called Hand & Foot. We’re keeping track of who wins and the one with the most wins at the end of our time here owes the other one lunch. I plan on winning this one and as of right now I do have the most wins.

Our little ladder buddies are really getting big. They are growing by leaps and bounds every day. They are barely fitting in the nest, even more so this afternoon than this morning.

The fourth one has got to be underneath these three!

Just as we were sitting down to eat dinner this evening we had a storm come through. Just as it was starting Bob went out to check the truck windows and called me and said to bring the camera. There was this really strange break in the clouds and the sun from above was shining through it.

These clouds aren’t nearly as dark as the ones we had the other night.

The darkness didn’t last too long and the sun came out but it was still raining. I just knew there had to be a rainbow.

As far as rainbows go it wasn’t all that but then it doesn’t take much to make me happy about one.

Pretty uneventful workday for us and we think that’s the best kind. Keep your fingers crossed that our next days off we have sunshine.

6/8–6/10/2011 Three Days Off…..

Three days off and we had three cool, cloudy. drizzling, sometimes pouring down rain days. We didn’t do anything. We played a lot of WII, played a lot of Scrabble on the computer and took pictures of the baby robins living on our ladder.

We thought we had three babies. We were wrong, there are four. Boy are they growing fast! They’ve all got downy feathers and they would eat 24/7 I think.

They are so crowded in this little nest. Bob thinks one will get pushed out soon. I’m afraid he’s going to be right.

Mommy shows up to start the feeding.

Open wide….

Wider….

I just don’t know how they can all be comfortable in there.

A reader asked about the web site the coupon lady I met in the Commissary gave me. It is www.krazycouponlady.com This site will certainly teach you everything you ever wanted to know about couponing. I think every trick to the trade is written about here. It will also lead you to many other sites where coupons can be printed from. I call the 800 numbers listed on packages of things that we like and just come out and ask for coupons. I don’t ever recall being refused and they are usually higher cents off coupons than you get in the Sunday paper. While I don’t have the desire (or the room) to be an extreme coupon-er I’m all for using them, if you don’t you are just throwing money away.

Back to work on Saturday for the next three days. I haven’t checked the weather but I bet it will be nice out!

6/72011 Just the Nicest People in South Dakota

Bob and I have met nice people all over these United States. Everywhere we go we meet people who are pleasant, helpful, courteous and many who become friends and some even really, really good friends! That being said, I’m here to tell you that South Dakota is no exception.

When I go into the post office just outside the main gate I’m greeted with, “Hi Mrs. Quinn, how are you today?” Our bank has a branch outside of the main gate also and it’s the same thing there. Always greeted by name and drawn into a conversation about the what attraction we’ve seen or what we’re going to do on our next days off.

Today I went into the Commissary to pick up salad fixin’s for dinner. In the produce section I wasn’t really thrilled with the selection of green peppers they had. The employee in that department saw me looking through them and leave the bin without selecting one. Before I could leave the department this young fella called to me that he had a new crate in the back and would bring them out to restock and that I should stop back. Two aisles over I saw a woman with a huge binder filled with coupons and wondered if she was an extreme coupon-er. Figuring the only way to find out was to ask her, so I did. As it turns out she isn’t but does use them as much as she can. In fact, she had an abundance of $1.00 coupons for Tuscan butter which was on sale for 99 cents. She gave me four of her coupons so I stocked up on four tubs of Tuscan butter! (We had never had it before so we tried it on our dinner rolls,,,,YUM!) She also wrote down some web sites for me to visit to print coupons. Some I already knew of but she gave some me new ones.

At Michael’s hobby store I was buying something that was sixteen dollars and change. The cashier asked me if I had any coupons and when I told her no she gave me one for 40% off.

Everywhere we go people go out of their way to do for us, to make us feel welcome and are just plain really, REALLY nice!

Come to think of it, we’ve met some people in our travels as fulltimers who hail from this state and they too are just nice, nice people. Something in the water perhaps?

If it wasn’t for the brutal winter weather South Dakota would be a great place to live year round. Oh yeah, minus the wind.

6/6/2011 It Was a Dark & Stormy Night….

A few days ago I wrote about what a difference a day can make as far as weather is concerned. We learned today just what a difference an hour can make.

After work we were sitting with our co-camphosts, Gary & Shari, at their site talking about the day and enjoying a perfect early evening.

The campground lawns had been cut earlier in the day and the aroma of fresh cut grass filled the air. There was the gentlest of breezes blowing and early evening air was warm but not too warm. Perfection.

And then…..

The wind picked up, we noticed the sun had gone in and sitting in the shade of the RV it hadn’t gotten noticeably cooler. This all happened within minutes.

I don’t recall who got up first but I remember somebody saying, “Oh my God, look what’s coming.” With that we all jumped up to see.

The dark sky coming towards us was downright scary looking and it was coming F A S T!

In a matter of minutes we went from sunny blue skies to this.

With each passing minute it got worse. Clouds black as night.

Things were blowing all over the place. Door mats that campers had in front of their steps, the lid to our barbecue grill, Bob’s hat, the trees were bending nearly in half and I had a hard time standing in one place to take these pictures. I snapped three off within just minutes and went inside. As I entered I was facing our 22 foot slide out and I saw it lifting and moving inward. I screamed for Bob but he couldn’t hear me as he was busy chasing down things caught in the wind. I put both palms against the fridge frame and just pushed trying to keep the slide from coming in. The 5th wheel was just rocking. I can tell you right now,,,,I was scared!

Bob finally came in and the rain started. I felt so sorry for our robin and her babies but she stayed right with them. I was so afraid the nest would be blown off the ladder.

The difference between night and day.

We learned that the next time, we are truly hoping there won’t be a repeat of the this (!), that one of us needs to run to the rig and pull the slides in. Doing that will give us a much better center of gravity and the rig won’t move so much in the intense wind.

An hour later, the black skies moved on, the blue returned and the sun came out until sunset.