Day 1~ We made it!

Saturday ~ June 18, 2011

Road Rash 2011 got off to a great start! We left home at 6:15 am on Saturday morning! Our itinerary called for a 14 hour drive with our destination being Tower Campground in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Jim started off and drove a marathon 7 hour shift! Dave did some driving too!

What did the women do, you may be asking? Well, not a whole lot!! They had a lovely time watching the scenery fly by, reading, napping, looking up future stops on the internet and talking...
well, by the pictures it looks like Diana did a lot of the talking! Was Kathy listening?

Not so much.

How about Dave and Jim...

Don't think they were either!

Lunch time was a blast trying to maneuver while the rv was moving at 70 miles an hour! Ha! Bet they are all listening now! That's a big knife!

We stopped at places like this...
to get stuff like that...
and to check that these were still hanging there!

We found our way to Minnesota!

We saw many wind turbines~

We were very excited to see this sign go flying by... South Dakota!

We arrived at campsite at 9:15 central time and we had traveled 975 miles! Great job guys!
CHEERS!

Morning Day 2, brings us Sunday June 19th. Father's Day!

We have a couple of those aboard!

Kathy and Diana treated them to a fabulous breakfast!
Happy Father's Day!

Tower Campgrounds...
We have been on the road about an hour today and plan to drive to Rapid City, South Dakota. Our camp tonight will be The Horse Thief Campsite and Resort! We have taken beautiful pictures on the road this morning and plan on visiting Mount Rushmore today!

Too often travel, instead of broadening the mind, merely lengthens the conversation. ~Elizabeth Drew

Let's fill'er up!

The girls came over to wish their Papa a Happy Fathers Day and were so excited to see the BIG RV in the driveway.... this is them sitting on the dashboard!

Sarah is ready to come along with us!
Molly too!

Look... Jim DOES fit in the shower!!

And, those who know Diana, know she loves a hot bath! Seriously, it is a little 8 inch deep tub!

Plenty of closet space!

And the TV works too!

The girls played inside all night... a little paper, scissors, rock!

Kisses for Meme~
We are ready to go!! Thank goodness we did get the rv the day before. So much to do~ to pack in, but we did it!

Happy trails to us!

Jim and Kathy stay the night. We wake at 5 am and will you just look at these shiny, smiling, happy faces...

Jim takes to the wheel, and after an hour or two makes this comment...

"This is going great. We haven't killed anybody yet!"

And Kathy is holding her end up too!

Kathy offered up some snacks! "Here, I made them myself!", (in her best southern drawl).
Insert giggle here!

More later~

Diana

It's... H E R E

First of all, who remembers Bill Cosby comedy about his brother Russell?? At the library, I picked up some classics, including Cheech and Chong..."CLASS, CLASS!"

Does anyone know what I am talking about?
These should provide some comic relief as we drive along!

Dave and I decided to run out to Neff Brothers RV, just to go inside the Daybreak one more time before we were to pick it up tomorrow morning. The plan was to have the walk thru in the am at 9, then load it from our cars and head out. Jennifer, from Neff, asked if we wanted to take it today~to have the walk thru right now? We called Jim and Kathy and decided that YES, we would bring it home so that we could actually be on the road by 6 am tomorrow instead of waiting till 10!

This sign welcomed us to Neff Brothers Rv... to be referred to as NBRV from here on out!
Jennifer starts the walk thru, going over every little detail and answering any questions we might have about the RV!
Dave signs his life away and the keys are ours!
Woo Hoo!

I follow the big guy home! What a surprise to our day!

We got home in time to find Tom stopping by and invited him in... wow~ our first guest!

I realized once Dave left to go back to work that I was blocked in ... no more errands for me today~
This is REAL people.... ARE YOU WITH US?

Thanks Jennifer and Ralph at NBRV~ you were great!

Diana

Final countdown has begun.

One day to go.

We have checked our lists ~ twice.

Our dining room tables are filled with gear.

Internet ~ secured.

We needed a picture for our blog header. I thought it was a simple idea.

It is not always easy for me to get these three to do whatever I say to do!

Someone isn't listening...

Here we go~
Jim, Kathy and Dave look like they may not see, hear or speak much, but really this blog will be a joint effort, with all of us posting about our adventures!

Saturday 8 am.

All our bags are packed. The journey begins! It promises to be full of surprises~ Stick around!

Diana~

Only 11 days till we hit the road!

We received a call yesterday from Neff Brothers RV. Angela called to inform us of some rather good news! The owners of the 2010 Damon Daybreak RV we have rented were picking up a BRAND NEW DAMON DAYBREAK on Tuesday... today! This is exciting news to us! We will be traveling in a BRAND NEW RV! We can't wait to see the new RV!

Only 11 days to go...

New Ride!

Jim and Kathy have great bikes... cruisers, that they planned to take on the road with us. Jim's new bike reminds him of his first communion bike from back in the day! Dave has an old bike and is planning on taking that one. I did not have a bike so today I went out and found this baby...
Sweet, right? I will be one of the gang now! I even found a basket for the front and can't wait to ride to Trader Joe's tomorrow for my grocery needs!
I can hear the catchy tune in my head of the witch on the bike in the Wizard Of Oz.... can you?