July 1-August 31, 2018
The silver lining to leaving Durango CO early was the chance
to see family and friends.
Family
We’ve been fortunate to get two visits in with my folks who
live about 280 miles away. We stay in our go to place of Forrest Bo Woods in
Sullivan IL about 25 minutes from my folks house. This is our go to place to
stay when we’re in the area. On our first visit we got to check out what’s new
in Casey IL, a small town with big things. We also checked out a few of our
favorite restaurants and helped my folks with some projects at their house.
Moonshine IL home of the Moon Burger. A favorite stop with the motorcycle clubs.
Casey IL the new big things.
On our second visit we celebrated my folk’s 60th
anniversary!!! Again we did a few projects and also got a quick visit in with
my 94 year old aunt.
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| Hope I look that good at 94 |
Our friends Paul and Cindy spend their summers near Des
Moines IA at another COE project, Paul volunteers to cut grass. They took a
ride over one day to check out our project and to see some COE friends who now
work here. We’ll see them a few more times in the next few weeks J
Friends Mark & Nancy already had reservations at one of
the other campgrounds around Coralville Lake. We had a fun few days visiting
with them on our days off. As is the case when we see them, fun times going by
way too quickly. We’ll be catching up with them when we leave here.
DuWayne and Jackie live in Prairie De Chein WI about 2 hours
away. We decided to meet up for lunch at Potosi Brewery in WI. Great to see
them, we’ll see them again when we get down to our place on the TX Gulf Coast.
Since we planted ourselves right in their path our friends Curt & Glenda, of the blog Camp Lowry: That's How We Roll stopped into see us. They were fortunate to get one of the best sites on the lake. Our few days were spent catching up, making plans for traveling together in September and doing a bit of the tourist thing.
Great friends, a campfire and beer-for some of us, doesn’t
get better than that.
We went to the Iowa Raptor Project which only a few
miles from our place here at Sugar Bottom Campground. While there we took a walk down to Lake McBride,
along the way Curt and I found a geocache. It was a great place to get a few
pictures in.
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| The Queens |
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| And their consort |
We’ve made some new full timing friends this summer, Greg
and Jill have been on the road for 6 years. They came to the park for a month
and have been splitting wood and doing landscaping around Sugar Bottom. Their
goal is to volunteer in all the lower 48 states. We’ve gotten some great info
from them on different types of places to volunteer and workamping. We look
forward to seeing them down the road somewhere one of these days.
We decided to play tourist with them so off to the John
Deere Museum we went. An interesting museum made better by the personal tour we
had with a great docent.
After the museum we headed to Antique Acres where there was
an antique tractor show going on.
Being a Grand Design RV owner has brought many new friends
into our lives. We’ve known Annette online for a while now. Recently they were
passing through the area and stopped in for a few hours so we could finally
meet in person. Conversation flowed with lots of laughter. Thanks Annette and
Mike for stopping by, we look forward to our next meet up.
Food
We’ve been pleasantly surprised at the quality of food we’ve
found here in North Liberty. Iowa has some of the best sweet corn we’ve found
anywhere, we’ve frozen up 2 one gallon bags full of it for enjoyment when we
leave here.
We enjoyed four meals at Fiesta Mexican Restaurant and plan
another meal there before we leave. Run by three brothers who know how to cook
some great meals, we’ll be comparing future Mexican Restaurants to theirs.
Mirabito’s Italian Restaurant has become our go to Italian
dinner place, just wish we had found them sooner. Between the specially Veal
Parmigiana and Tiramisu, Stuffed Shells and Antipasto appetizer and the other
things we tried on our second visit we highly recommend them if you’re in the
area.
Fixes
As with any home there’s always fixing and upgrading to do
to our home. Our entry steps recently broke, we decided to go replace them with
MORryde step above steps. After reading the installation instructions on their
website we ordered a set. Installation was quick and easy, they are sturdy and
so much nicer than our stock steps.
Our 5th wheel has always been heavier and listed on
the off door side. The slide on that side houses the refrigerator, pantry and
entertainment center. We upgraded the springs on that side, the 5th
wheel now rides much more level. Forgot to take pictures but it once we had all
the parts the installation was relatively easy just messy.
While not the summer we planned on, being here has worked
out. The Visitor Center here though has been quite slow so the days are long
but we’re thankful we found a volunteer position in the middle of the summer.
Being here has afforded us the opportunity to enjoy Iowa for a few hot humid
months. Our time is winding down here, we leave on 9/7 and will be exploring
new places as we slowly head south to the TX Gulf Coast. We have a Grand Design
Rally in San Antonio TX in late October. We plan to arrive at our place in TX
on 11/15 where we spend a few months before we start a year of traveling.
Until next time…
