The Sixth Adventure Has Begun

October 10, 2019

We left Escanaba on Saturday, October 5th. It was a grey dreary day as we pulled out of the Walmart parking lot. (Our time was up at the fairgrounds and we still had a few things to take care of on Friday so Tom drove the Stinger "B" over to Walmart and we spent our last night there.) There may have been dark clouds outside but inside the Stinger "B" there was a feeling of excitement as we headed out on our Sixth Adventure. This is the route we planned on taking two years ago and when that did not work out we thought we would do it last year. We did not want to jinx anything so we did not make any firm plans but we thought this year the third try would be the charm. Some times things just do not work out. 

Plan A was to take US-2 West through the UP and continue until we connected with I-94 in North Dakota. Eventually turning South into the Black Hills of South Dakota and continue South to Cheyenne then West towards Utah. Checking the weather we found predictions of snow in North Dakota so we said, Plan B it is. US-2 as far as Iron River then we will make our way towards I-90 and take it across South Dakota to the Black Hills. Again checking the weather there are predictions of snow. So we are presently enjoying Plan C and have made our way south through Minnesota and Iowa as far as DesMoines were we connected to I-80 and turned West towards Utah.  As I finish this blog this morning we are parked at a Walmart in Grand Island, Nebraska. 

Looking ahead at the weather yesterday we could see that cold temperatures and wind was coming this way. So we have found an RV Park about 60 miles down the road and called ahead. We will be heading there this morning. It rained last night and it is presently 39 degrees and the wind is rocking us.  It will be nice to just sit back and relax for a couple of days. 

(Side note: the majority of the pictures in this blog were taken through a dirty front windshield.)

Leaving Escanaba on US-2 South and US-41 South.

The colors are pretty, of course, sunshine would have been nice.
One thing for sure with all the rain  this is the greenest fall we have ever
seen.  Neither one of us can remember the grass being this
green in October.

So why only 90 miles the first day. The answer would be to stop and see my youngest brother in Iron River. (In September before we left Escanaba Tom and I drove down to Green Bay to have lunch with his sister and brother along with their spouses. My sister drove up for a weekend and spent a couple of nights with us which was nice. We, also, had the opportunity to go out to dinner with my other brother and his wife.)

Way back when Tom and I were first married and Tom was canoe racing this guy came along more than once and tented with us.  I hate to admit it but back then he was 9 or 10. It had been awhile since we had seen each other and it was so nice to just be able to sit and talk. We spent two days there and it was really fun.

I even remembered to take pictures for once.

We went to Mass at St. Agnes Catholic Church and I thought it was such a pretty church I needed to include it.

St. Ann and Mary I just love this statue.

The Klint Safford Memorial RV Park right in Iron River.
The sites are large and even though you are right in this small town
it was quite and peaceful. We would definitely stay her again. 

As we drove through the UP then into Northern Wisconsin on Monday the colors were beautiful.

We stopped for the night, October 7th, at the Walmart in Chippewa Falls.
The next morning we made our way into Minnesota and crossed over the Mississippi River.

I could see this  sign off in the distance.
How could I not include it?

There definitely is wind.

We are seeing water in farm fields.

The color is not has vivid here yet but there are spots of color.

As we were driving through Minnesota today on I-35 one of the times we had to merge left because of construction Tom saw a sign that said: Begin merging...take turns. I wish I had seen it and got a picture.

We saw this and Tom said, take a picture which I did but if there was a
sign saying what this was we missed it.

We stopped for the night, October 8th, in a rest area near Dows, Iowa.
Tom read  inside at the rest stop that Iowa lost more men per capita  then
any other state during the Civil War.  This rest stop seemed to be dedicated
to honoring those lost.

As we left the rest stop this morning the sky was blue with a soft covering of white.  We were also grateful that no one knocked on our door and told us to leave. during the night. According to what I read Iowa allows overnight parking in there Rest Areas with 'extenuating circumstances'. Not sure what their definition of  'extenuating circumstances' would be but we figured we would go with...no signs and extremely tired.
One last note about this rest stop there was a dump station available.

We have made it past Des Moines and we are heading west on I-80.
We will be on this Interstate for several days.

We saw quite of few of these wind turbines today not moving and there
was wind. I caught this rest stop with one of the blades out my side window
as we drove by. That little white diamond shape is on my window.

Passed lots of farm fields.

Then it did a little raining.
Very grateful to be going down the road inside the Stinger "B".

We crossed into Nebraska and looked like we were headed towards blue
skies. They soon disappeared under more clouds.

The first rest stop we saw in Nebraska it mentioned on the sign  travel
information but there was not even a map available.

Going by York, Nebraska they have a very colorful water tower.
 It reminded me of a hot air balloon

So this is the beginning of our Sixth Adventure.  

Not exactly as we planned it but as I have mentioned before we like "to fly by the seat of our pants" and do not need everything and day planned out so we are as the saying goes, Enjoying the Ride.

We are enjoying our days and hope you are doing the same. 

We are so glad you took the time to stop by.

If you have time to leave a comment we would enjoy hearing from you.