Decorah to Saylorville to Kansas City

Our site at Prairie Flower Campground
The prairie is still blooming!
We've been on the move. Left Decorah on Monday and stopped at the Prairie Flower Campground on the Saylorville reservoir north of Des Moines. This is a beautiful COE campground. The loop we are in is the Coneflower Loop and all of the sites are cement drives and patios. Almost all are long enough for the biggest rigs with plenty of room for another car or in the case of one of our neighbors - a boat, a truck, a car and  a van. The view from this loop is out on to the lake. Right now both the walking trail and the bike trails are closed, they are doing some major resurfacing of the trails. Disappointing for us as we were hoping to bike but since we won't be here long it just makes us want to come back.  It is probably one of the nicest campgrounds we have been in. The only drawback is it only has electric sites.


Ken and Sarah
One of the things we wanted to do while in Des Moines was to meet our cyber-friends Ken and Sarah.  I have been corresponding on and off with Ken. They also have an Excel, just retired (same week) and are taking off on their full time journey this week. Our paths to retirement have many parallels. We got together for breakfast and it was a great visit. Sarah broke her foot just before retiring so it has delayed their leaving but she is on the mend. You can follow their journey on their blog, Dreams Do Come True. We wish them well on their travels!


Fall is here
Left this morning for the Kansas City area to visit more family. We are at the Blue Spring Campground in Fleming park. It is a very nice county park and we have full hookups! Yipee!!!! No more wondering if I can get another shower in before we dump. Water conservation is the name of the game when you don't have a sewer hook-up. John's brother Walt has the week off which will make for a fun week. We already have a birthday dinner planned and  a hockey game to see.  It is going to bee a fun week.


Happy Trails....

Comments

  1. Travels with EmmaOctober 6, 2010 at 10:32 PM

    Thanks for the info on the Saylorville COE campground. The sites seem to be much better than I had imagined! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mary BrooksOctober 16, 2010 at 5:29 AM

    Wow....wish I had kept up better with your blog. Might have tried to see you all at Blue Springs. My husband fell and broke his hip, and has been in the hospital for the past 14 days. Home now, finally. Walt said you all had fun at the zoo. We love the COE campgrounds. Half price for us at age 62 + so that makes it even better.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Time for me to learn to drive this rig.

Image
Trail at Squaw Creek park Yesterday we moved back to Morgan Creek park (about a 15 mile drive) and I drove the rig! We have always said that I needed to start doing this but I never seem to do it. The first year I think John just felt he needed to get proficient at all the driving & parking things before he had me do it and then we just got lazy. It was just easier for him to do it. Recently friends of our that we met in Tucson, John and Terri had a very harrowing experience that reminded us why we both need to be able to drive this rig. John they think had a seizure while driving, luckily not towing but still it is amazing that they survived it. What this meant is that now Terri had to do the driving back to their former home town Sacramento and like me she had not done much driving. She did great and they are now coming off the road and starting a new phase of life. All of John's test look good so far and we wish him the best and hope that it was just a one time isolated...
Read more

Three plus years of full timing....what have we learned

Image
Zion National Park,  Utah, December 2010 Harris Hawk at Sonoran Desert Museum, Tuscon Feb. 2011 When we left Cedar Rapids it began our 4th year of living and traveling in our RV. The last three years have flown by and we are still not ready to go back to a sticks and bricks life. We have traveled a lot of the western US but even with time out there all three years there are so many places we have yet to discover. This year will be our first going south and east, all new places for me and many new ones for John. I think one of the things that I learn every time we find somewhere new is how beautiful this country is. If you slow down and take the time you will find amazing things everywhere. I think the thing I appreciate the most about this lifestyle is that freedom to take it slow. BLM land near Quartzite, AZ in January 2011 Putah Creek, Winters CA in Jan.2013 Crater Lake, Oregon, fall 2012 Diamond Lake, Oregon, fall 2012 When we first took off we w...
Read more

The Urban Life

Image
The view from our balcony I have been thinking about this post for awhile. When we are not traveling I find it hard to sit down and write but I have wanted to tell you about our new digs and what living downtown has been like for us. Another balcony view We moved into a one bedroom apartment on the west side of the river in the downtown Cedar Rapids area. This is a brand new building that actually they are still working on. The first floor is businesses, floors 2 and 3 are apartments and floors 4, 5, & 6 are condos. We love the building. Every apartment and condo has a balcony that looks out over the river and the McGrath Amphitheatre. Our little apartment in this building is 767 sq. which, after living in our 5th Wheel for 7 years, seems huge. We feel these apartments were well thought out. The kitchen is wonderful. It has a large island (all  solid countertops - quartz I think) with a large sink and plenty of seating room . We started by buying 3 barstools but f...
Read more