First long trip - To Washington

After repairing leaks and packing everything as tightly as possible, John, David, and I took off for Seattle Washington where our son David was starting his freshman year in college.  We purposely purchased a smaller RV (26' long) so that we can camp in National Parks.  Many of these parks have limits of 30' or so.  Three people is basically the limit with a 26', as we proved on the trip up.  It works, but doesn't leave much space for moving around and forget personal space! 

Our first lesson in RV'ing in a motorhome is that yelling is acceptable while driving.  There is a lot of noise from the road or rattles in an RV so talking quietly is pretty much impossible.  David was very good helping us find the sources of various rattles or repositioning items that fell on turns.  We learned where to put towels to prevent rattles, what doors have to be pushed closed, etc.

We drove through parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska.  Kansas and Nebraska were full of LARGE farms.  I (Cindy) grew up on a small farm of 72 acres.  These farms were thousands of acres!  While we plan to enjoy our National Parks, one of the things we hope to do is spend time at the small, unique, or unexpected attractions along the way. Nebraska had one of the coolest rest areas I ever saw on a lake full of pelicans (20+). I thought this was only an ocean bird, but apparently American White Pelicans are regulars in some Nebraska lakes.

Corn Palace

In Mitchell South Dakota we visited the Corn Palace.  It's a building that is decorated each year with different designs using corn or other grains.  The part I enjoyed most was seeing pictures starting from 1892 of the building and the tourists.  I liked seeing the different clothes and hats from the early 1900's.  While interesting, it wasn't a major thrill.  But it was free and on our route.

Corn Palace Mural

We really enjoyed the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village and Archaeodome.  This is an actual archaeological site where you can see where archaeologists are working in uncovering a 1000 year old village.  Highlight for us was a station where you can throw a spear using a atlatl (a tool to increase the speed and distance).  David was the best at this but I had fun trying!