Mount Rushmore

John surprised me with a new camera this morning!  A Canon EOS T6 which is pretty fancy since I've been using my cell phone's camera. It is perfect timing, we planned to spend today at Mount Rushmore.

Wow! Mount Rushmore is magnificent!  The best part was walking the President's Trail which gives various vantage points to view George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

We stayed until 10PM for the evening ceremony to see Mount Rushmore in lights.

Taking it easy...

Today was a nice day for walking and talking to some of the locals. This little bird caught our attention tweeting from a bush.

Amazing Fajitas

It was a rainy day so we stayed in and watched a marathon of Longmire on Netflix. 

When the storm cleared we went to  "On the Border" Mexican Cantina for some amazing fajitas.

Custer State Park

John and I had a wonderful day at Custer State Park. Custer State Park is large, 71,000 fabulous acres of Black Hills terrain with over 1,300 buffalo roaming the area. As soon as we entered the park, we came across three lounging in some tall grass. Later when we stopped for a picnic, a few came out of the woods into our clearing, so cool!  We moved back and gave them their space. While driving out of the park a few bison were ready to cross the road so we stopped and they walked right by our jeep!  We also saw a few hundred off in the distance grazing in a field, but we did not see the big heard of buffalo, we will be back.

Driving to South Dakota

Driving today was smooth, very little road maintenance going on from Omaha to Rapid City, North Dakota. Chris greeted us at Ellsworth AFB RV park and got us checked in.  We are in Lot #19, nice space. We jumped in the jeep to explore the area.

Omaha, NE

We spent a few days in and about Omaha, just hiking and bike riding. Offutt AFB has a very nice RV park, we enjoyed our stay here.

Tomorrow, we will drive to Rapid City, South Dakota. We will setup home base there and take off in the jeep to see Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the caves and so many other wonderful places!

Moving to Omaha

We drove from Amana, Iowa to Offutt AFB, Nabraska, just to the south of Omaha.  We jumped on our bikes and rode around the lake as soon as we arrived. This is a very nice RV park, well maintained. The boat house rents everything you can imagine from bikes, kayak to motorboats.

After exploring the area on bikes, we jumped int the jeep to see more. We drove around town until we were hungry, we had a nice dinner at Outback.

Amana Weekend

We spent the last two days bicycling through the Amana Villages, shopping in the boutiques

and talking to the locals. They still make many of their products the same way they did in 1855 when they moved here from Germany and setup the colonies.

We attended a wine tasting, bought a few bottles, picked up some sandwiches and had a nice picnic. We learned how they worked the looms at the Woolen Mill and bought a couple of scarfs and visited the Amana Museum. Stocked up at the Meat Shop and Smokehaus.

We we've been blessed with the best weather! In the evenings we relaxed outside watching sports on TV.

Amana, Iowa

We woke up early and went for a bike ride around the Great Lakes Naval Station. This was a great place to stay while seeing Chicago. The best part is the RV lots are directly on the shores of Lake Michigan, we loved waking up to an amazing water view every morning. Our lot's front yard could have been a little bigger and it only had 30amp and no other hookups.  We did not have a problem with the 30amp, even in our 45ft RV, we always had enough power. Fresh water connection is just down the road by the beach house and the dump station is at the marina.

We got on the road before 11am, and it was a smooth drive to Amana, Iowa. We were setup and out exploring the area on our bike within 30 minutes of checking into the Amana RV. The Amana's have wonderful bike trails. When we were riding around a lake, we saw two sets of trumpeter swans swimming and a bald eagle flew by us. We wanted some good German food for dinner and found The Ronneburg Restaurant,  the Jaeger Schnitzel was very good!

Lake Michigan: Last Full Day

We've been blessed with great weather for the last five days, each day is prettier than the last.  Since this was our final full day at the Great Lakes Naval Station we spent the day walking and bike riding along Lake Michigan.

Bike riding in Chicago

Today was the best day in Chicago! We got up early and drove into the city, took our bikes

off the jeep, and started to ride. First we headed to Grant Park, otherwise known as Chicago's front yard, to see Buckingham Fountain, designed in a rococo wedding cake style, is so large and beautiful, it is breath taking. 

We rode to the northwestern corner of the park known as Millennium Park. We walked around the Jay Pritzker Pavilion which is an amazing outdoor theater, to get to Cloud Gate, better known as 'the Bean', this has to be one of the happiest places on earth. Who would have ever imagined a humongous, shiny, silver bean could bring so much joy to so many; everyone there was enjoying the way the cityscape and sky reflected of the bean.

Whether it was a group of six people or just a single person, everyone was having their own experience and taking pictures with the bean. I think you have to be there to understand it; it really does bring an instant smile to your face.

We also enjoyed the Crown Fountain, two 50 foot high, glass brick walls with an LED displaying close-up faces of Chicago citizens and then a fountain starts spouting water from their mouths; very interesting.

We walked the BP Pedestrian Bridge to get to Maggie Daley Park. And then it was back on the bikes, we rode through the marina and around the Adler Planetarium, Field Museum of Natural History, and the Shedd Aquarium. They have a walk/bike track that runs along the water's edge; fabulous ride!

Once we got the bikes back to the jeep, we were out on foot looking for authentic deep-dish Chicago pizza. We came across Pizano's Pizza on East Madison St. and gave it a try. It was delicious!

Quiet Day

We went for a bike ride and then we set out looking for true Chicago pizza, you know the deep-dish loaded with all the good stuff, but once we saw a Maggiano's Little Italy restaurant we stopped our search in favor for great lasagna.

Chicago: Lincoln Park Zoo

We spent the full day in Chicago. We packed a lunch and had a nice early picnic in the park, then spent a few hours at the Lincoln Park Zoo; we loved it!  

After walking around enjoying the parks and window shopping, before we left the city we stopped in to J.R. Grunts. Nice vibe, been in the same place since the 70's, the wood-paneled walls are decorated with photos of the many waitresses who have worked there over the decades. John enjoyed one of their famous hamburgers and I selected the nachos.  While we were eating, just outside the window where we were seated, a bike tour brigade pulled up and about a dozen people came in and bellied up to the small bar near the entrance to sample a brew. I talked to one of the bike riders, she said it was a fun biking tour that stopped at a few locations along the tour.  We plan to ride our bikes in the city later this week.

Lake Michigan

We went hiking today, started with a walk to the marina and then we found a bunch of sand dunes and trails.

Later we went to see the movie "Jungle Book 3-D."  I love when John and I curl up on the couch with the glow of the fireplace and watch a Netflix movie on the big screen TV with Bose home sound system (at the RV); but I'm also a little old fashion and still enjoy sharing a big bucket of popcorn while watching an ultra large silver screen at the theater.

Plan for Entegra's Summerfest

We were able to get in a nice walk along the shores of Lake Michigan before the rain came. Since it  was a cold (40's) wet day, we decided to work on our 'road to the Big Alaska Trip plans'. We signed up for the Entegra Summer Fest at Big Sky, Montana July 16 -19. We really enjoyed Entegra's Springfest last month and we looking forward to the Summerfest. We now plan to head north to Alaska when we leave Big Sky.

Loosely planned, we leave Great Lakes Naval Station on May 20th and drive to the Amana Colonies in Iowa for a few days, and then on to Nebraska and then to South Dakota; which will take us to Montana for Summerfest and then on to Alaska.

This afternoon, when the storm broke, we headed out in the jeep to find a good sub sandwich. I spotted a Potbelly Sandwich Works shop; I have not been to one of them since I was working in DC at the Pentagon. It was John's first time at a Potbelly, we thoroughly enjoyed our 'Clubby' sandwiches.

"Chicago" in Chicago!

 

Today we went to downtown Chicago to see the musical Chicago!  We had time to stop and get a bite before the show; Randolph's Tavern was right across the street from the theater.

It was 5pm on a Friday afternoon, looked like it was the place to go for the after office workers, pretty crowded. We were seated right away and our server, Alexander, was good. We enjoyed dinner, John had meatloaf and I had the smoked pulled pork. We ended the meal sharing an apple crostata; yummy, served hot and topped with caramel and vanilla ice cream.

We saw "Chicago" at the Cadillac Palace Theatre, one of the most charming theaters I've been to. Beautiful architecture; the marble walls, grand chandeliers and gold ornate staircases greet you in the lobby. The Palace's auditorium has a regal atmosphere; red velvet seats, scallop-shaped balconies and the most amazing gold detailing around the stage and ceiling. This theater opened its doors in the 1920's which makes it the perfect place to see Chicago, the musical set in the jazzy, roaring 20's.

The show was great fun! The cast's dancing and singing throughout the play was awesome! It was good to see John O'Hurley on stage as lawyer, Billy Flinn; I loved O'Hurley as J. Peterman on "Seinfeld" and he did not disappoint on this stage.  Dylis Croman is outstanding as Roxie Hart; she is all in with her singing and dancing, her character is funny, self-centered, sexy, and vulnerable; everything you want in Roxie. Great performance!

Flying North

My youngest son Schuyler graduated UCF and he is ready to move on to the next chapter of his life, it is an exciting time for him. I was so happy to be there to celebrate the milestone.  

It was a wonderful five days in Florida. Was able to spend a good amount of time with both of my sons, Schuyler and Brandon. I am so proud of both of them, they are smart, strong, tall, handsome and moving forward towards their goals.  It was also nice seeing my parents, got some quality time with them.

I flew into O'Hare Airport this afternoon. John was there to greet me with a big hug, a box of Godiva Chocolates and dinner plans, it was fabulous to be in his arms again, I missed him.

Flying Out

Today I fly to Florida to celebrate my youngest son's graduation from the University of Central Florida. I will update the blog when I return to the Chicago area on Thursday.  

Last day at Spartan

We woke up early so Spartan could do the annual maintenance on our generator.  And then Gary worked with us to adjust our tire air pressure to optimize support for our rig's weight load. Spartan weighed all six axle ends earlier in the week.  Gary was great to work with, so knowledgeable. John gave him the nick-name "The Tire-Whisperer".

The Spartan class was a very good investment, we know more than we ever imagined we would know about our coach. We said our good-byes to the other class-mates and to the Spartan team.  We will be back here next year for our annual maintenance.

I drove the RV most of the way to the Great Lakes Naval Station. John took over the driving when we got into a lot of road maintenance. A gravel truck kicked a stone into our windshield and left a pitted crack that we will need to have filled.

We got lucky and were assigned to the same RV lot that we had when we were here last month, lot # 14.  It has a beautiful view, right on Lake Michigan!

Driving School

We spent the morning with Gary as he explained the entire air system; we had a full chassis in class to examine both the air brakes and the air leveling systems.

John and I took a driving class this afternoon. We started with tight maneuvers in a closed lot and then moved on to cruising the highway then on to the trickiest part... driving almost all of the narrow streets of Charlotte, MI; it was very good training .

Spartan School - Day 3

Big Mike

In class today, P.J. provided demonstrations of RV lighting systems, and heating systems.  Also, the coaches were weighed, Greg explained how they weighed each RV from six axle points so we can optimize the air pressure in each of our tires; this provides a safer, better ride. Our coach spent half the day in the shop to receive its annual Spartan maintenance and is now ready for the Big Alaska Trip. 

The day ended with P.J ., Greg and Big Mike presenting each of with a special Spartan/Entegra chair and certificate to take with us.

Spartan School - Day 2

Today while John and I were in class learning about our air brake system, our coach was in the shop for it's first annual maintenance.

 The technician discovered that our axle and wheels have grease where there should be clean oil, so our RV will need to be back in the shop tomorrow.

We joined two other couples for dinner, it was nice getting to know some of our classmates. One couple is also full-time RVing.  I am amazed at how many people we have met that have moved from the traditional idea of home to one that fits their desire to keep traveling.

Spartan School

Trying out the new firetrucks at the factory.

The first day of class included a tour of the Spartan factory with Big Mike as our guide and an inspection of our coach.  


The inspection was so interesting, John and I were standing in the maintenance pit with our coach above us.  Gary, our knowledgeable Spartan engineer, gave us a full tour of the underside of our RV, it was so cool to see how it all goes together.

Charlotte, MI

After a good nights sleep, we woke up at the rest stop.  Two hours of driving and we arrive at Spartan.  

We setup the RV and then headed out in the Jeep to see the area. Charlotte, MI is a pretty quiet place on Sunday afternoon. We stopped at Tequila's Mexican Grill for some good food.