Visiting Larry's Son Nic

We had a good time in Omaha visiting Larry’s son. We had a beautiful space in Bluff’s Run R.V. Park and Casino. Bluff's Run is located across the river in Iowa but is close to Omaha. Because we were busy with Nic we only went in the casino one night. We went up stairs to the non-smoking section sat down at a slot machine and within 20 minutes won enough money to pay for the R.V. space. That was good enough for us we got the heck out of there.

Nic and his girl friend came over for dinner one evening and we ate out side on the picnic table. The weather was prefect.

Nic took us on a bike ride called the Taco run. It was an eighteen mile round trip on a very nice trail. The trail leads to a small town in Iowa were we stopped for tacos and marguerites. The ride back was in the dark which made it interesting especially after a few marguerites. What a blast!!

We also went on a hike with Nic and his girlfriend and then went bowling one night. We also got to see Nic’s new dorm room which is in a brand new building.

Nic and Larry

Grain Trailers!

On the way to Omaha, Nebraska Larry's cousin wanted us to stop in South Sioux City and check out some Grain Trailers that were going up for auction. He needs another one for this years corn harvest. We found the fair grounds were the auction was to be held and got the okay to spent the night right there on the fair grounds. My cousin sent us an email telling us what trailers to check out. It was interesting looking at the trailers and learning about them. We fed the information back to Larry's cousin who will go to the auction and bid on a trailer. We'll let you know in a future post if he acquired one.

South Dakota

Continuing down the road, we went through Wyoming and into South Dakota Went through Strugis, South Dakota and then stopped at the town of Wall. The town of Wall is home to the famous “Wall Drug Store”. This Drug Store opened in December 1931 and did not have very much business until the owners Ted and Dorothy Hustead started offering free ice water to travelers. The store is so big now it takes up a whole city block and has everything you can imagine. Wall Drug gives away an estimated 5,000 glasses of ice water every day during the summer. What is interesting is the signs along the interstate that tell you how far away you are from Wall Drug. These signs are now all over the world telling people how far they are away from Wall Drug. People will make-up a sign showing how far away they are from Wall Drug and then have their picture taken. Then they will send the picture to Wall Drug, South Dakota and it will be posted on the wall. It’s pretty interesting looking at the pictures from all over the world.


We also traveled through the Badlands National Park. The French trappers who explored the west in the early 1800’s called the area a “bad land to cross”. And the Dakota Indians labeled it “land bad.” We enjoyed seeing this area and did some short hikes but it was so windy. The wind blew our refrigerator vent cover off. We came back from a small hike and we noticed it was gone! We were able to get a new cover the next day at Jack’s Campers in Mitchell, South Dakota.


Mitchell is known for the Corn Palace that was first established in 1892. Corn is used to make decorations that covered the whole building. The building in use to day was build 1921 and each year a new theme of decorations is chosen for the Corn Palace. In early September the decorations are stripped off and a new décor is applied. It takes 275,000 ears of corn cut in half to make up the decorations. The corn grown for this comes in 9 different colors. The corn half’s are nailed in place to make the picture. It’s kind of like a big paint by number. Very interesting.
http://www.cornpalace.com/

Motor Home Repaired

While waiting for the Motor Home to go in the Auto Body shop we stayed at the “Square and Round Dance Center”. As you can tell by the name a lot of Square and Round Dancing is done here. Connected to the center is a beautiful R.V. Campground. Very nice camp sites set-up among the trees. While staying there we cleaned up the Motor Home and did some hiking in the woods.

The Motor Home was in the shop Monday thru Tuesday and all the damage as been repaired and painted. It’s almost like new again! We were able to sleep in the Motor Home every night which worked out nice for us. We kept ourselves busy during the days by doing different things.

One day we drove through the National Bison range. This is range set aside for the Bison Herds. We have learned that the correct term is Bison. In the U.S. Buffalo and Bison are used interchangeably but, what we have in the U.S. is Bison. Buffalo are a little different and from Europe. Another day we went to the Lo Lo Hot Springs and sat in the hot mineral baths. Very Nice! Another day was spent getting hair cuts and walking around the mall. We also hiked up and down the Forked River which goes through the city of Missoula and right pass the University of Montana. Missoula also has a very nice Library which we spent some time in.
Now we are on the road headed for Nebraska so Larry can help with the Corn Harvest. First we are going to Omaha to visit Larry’s son Nic who goes to college there. Then to the little town of Elgin were Larry’s relatives live.

Motor Home Damage

A couple of weeks ago some clown backed into the left front corner of our Motor Home. We had just pulled into an R.V. park and were inside the office registering. There was lots of room and we did not park very close to this truck. The way the truck was parked you would think it would pull forward to leave, but for some reason the guy backed up! The guy and his wife were also in the office and saw us come in so they had to know we were in some kind of vehicle. He later said he didn’t see the Motor Home! He was driving a pick-up truck without a camper shell or anything else to obstruct his view. A least he came back in the office and told us and called his insurance. Another funny thing he did was (we’ve seen people do this before) rub the damaged spot as if it will go away. Well he cut his hand on the fiber glass and was bleeding all over his insurance information.

Damage to the left front


About a month ago another clown named Larry damaged the left rear of the Motor Home in a (don’t tell anyone) Wal-Mart parking lot. Wal-Mart’s usually try and keep their cost down but this Wal-Mart spent some money on big landscaping rocks. On the Motor Home the distance from the rear wheels to the back end is so long that when you turn the back end swings out quite a bit. If it’s just a curb the back end swings over it but, it something is in the way like a big rock it will damage the Motor Home!

Damaged to the right rear compartment door.


So we are now getting all this fixed. We are in Missoula, Montana and scheduled to take the Motor Home in on Monday. The Motor Home will be worked on during the day and then we will take it in the evening so we can sleep in our home. Rick’s Auto Body is the shop and so far we are very happy with them. Rick is the owner and his brother Tom is who we are dealing with. A very nice shop and everyone is professional and nice.

Spokane, Washington

We have been trying to visit Washington State ever since we’ve been living in the motor home. We had a plan to visit Washington and then Oregon and then follow the California coast all the way down back to Arizona for the winter. But my cousin from Nebraska called and wanted to know if we were coming out to help with the harvest. Since I like playing farmer we decided to go to Nebraska for the Harvest season which roughly September 25, to November 5th. But before heading to Nebraska we decided to go see Spokane, Washington. At least we could say we had been in Washington State!

One thing we wanted to do in Spokane was look up one Larry’s distant relatives. This is a relative we met while researching the DeMuth family tree. He told us if we were ever in Spokane to come to a restaurant called The Onion. Well we found “The Onion” and sure enough he was tending bar that evening. It was a great time as we sat at the bar having a few beers and eating dinner. The Onion is a very popular place for tourist and locals alike. We enjoyed our food and had a great time visiting with another DeMuth.

Spokane was very nice. It rained on the way there but at least we had good weather while there. Riverfront Park is right down town and along the Spokane River. In 1974 a world Expo was held there and that was the start of Riverfront Park. There is also a huge Carrousel that was hand carved in 1909 called the Looff Carrousel. The Centennial Trail runs through the park along with many other walking and biking trails. We just happened to be there when the “Pig out in the Park” was going on. Three live bands and over 50 food booths so you could pig-out all day. We had a good time but what we enjoyed seeing most was this “Radio Flyer Wagon” in the playground. It’s the biggest wagon we’ve ever seen!

It was fun to watch the kids come down the wagon handle, which was made into a slide.