Sioux Falls

We left Wisconsin this morning and traveled across Minnesota, only stopping once for gas near Albert Lea. Our plan was to overnight at a Harvest Host location just west of Sioux Falls but we arrived at Sioux Falls mid afternoon so we did a little touring there first. There is a pleasant park aptly named Falls Park where you can see the Big Sioux River cascading over the rocks. There is a walkway that offers several lookout points for taking pictures. We spent some time doing just that, then drove a short distance to St. Joseph Cathedral for a look inside.  Visiting churches is another of our common tourism activities.

It was a short drive from Sioux Falls to our overnight location.  We took a quick run into Montrose, SD thinking we might find something to eat before camping for the night, but there were no food options we could find in a town of 480 people.  Fortunately we have bread and lunchmeat and Twizzlers in the RV so we didn't starve. :)

Our camping location is a roadside attraction just off I90. It's called Porter Sculpture Park and consists of an array of small to huge metal sculptures created by the owner, Wayne Porter.  For the cost of admission, you are welcome to walk around and enjoy the artwork, then dry camp overnight.  We were fascinated by the sculptures which vary from whimsical to disturbingly dark. The owner/sculptor Wayne is a pleasant fellow who spends 6 months a year running his exhibit, and the other 6 working on new additions. His albino dog Bambino loves attention and believes all the RVers come there to pet him.

This is our first time dry camping with no electrical or water hookups.  I'll let you know how it went. :)

Falls Park

Falls Park

St Joseph's Cathedral

St Joseph's

St Joseph's

St Joseph's Organ

Goldfish

Goldfish Bowl

Dragon

Monks

Giant Horse

Butterfly

Blue Dragon

Giant Bull

Giant Bull

Wayne Porter

Bambino

The Tardis

RV Odyssey - Part 2

Dinner stop 

 During the Florida leg of our trip we put almost 2700 miles on the RV, and slept in it 6 nights. After escaping Florida ahead of the hurricane, we stopped at home to refresh supplies in the RV, and exchange shorts and seersucker for jeans and flannel. Today we got back on the road and are traveling west across the northern United States to meet up with Jennifer in Seattle. We’ll spend some time visiting with Christian, then begin exploring Washington & Oregon & perhaps northern California. We’re hoping to do a little sightseeing on the way west. Watch for pictures in a couple of days. 

Riders on the Storm

 We cut short our stay at Disney due to the approaching hurricane. Because Florida was in a state of emergency, we were allowed to check out early without penalty and only pay for the nights we actually stayed. Also our unused park tickets will remain valid for future use. 

Hurricane Ian

We enjoyed our stay, visiting the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios parks. On Saturday we drove to Inverness FL, to visit Roland & Peg. Roland was a valued member of the St Linus choir before he moved to Florida and has been a regular attendee of my Zoom virtual open mic sessions. It was good to see him again in person. The four of us had a nice dinner together at a local seafood restaurant.

Roland & Peg
(I didn't get a picture during our visit so I borrowed this from Facebook)

Indiana Jones Show

Millenium Falcon at Smuggler's Run

Woody

Sunday we made a trip to Costco and Home Depot to pick up some things needed for the van. We also stopped to visit Austin at his apartment. Sunday evening we checked in to the Polynesian Village Resort and stayed overnight in DVC accommodations. Dinner was at the Ohana restaurant with all you can eat servings of a variety of food selections that satisfied us both. The Mai Tais were delicious too. 

Deer in Fort Wilderness Campground

Polynesian Village Resort Lobby

Monday morning we made the decision to break camp and head out of Florida. We ran into some pockets of heavy traffic as many others apparently were doing the same. 

Traffic leaving Florida

Candlelight Dinner in the RV

Rise of the Resistance

 Rise Of The Resistance is the VERY popular new attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It's so popular that one of the entry options is to pay $15 to schedule an Individual Lightning Lane Selection to ride it without waiting 2+ hours in the standby lane. Another option is to arrive when the park opens early for resort guests. I chose this option which meant I was up today at 5:30 AM to be at the campground bus stop in time for the first bus to Hollywood Studios so I could stand in line outside the gates with hundreds of other people until they let us in at about 7:50 AM. 

Waiting to enter the park

It didn’t matter if you didn’t know where Rise of the Resistance was, you were swept along with the tide of people heading in that direction. You wouldn't believe the grown men knocking down 10 year olds to secure a place near the front of the line. (Just kidding, I only knocked over one.😉)

My early morning maneuvers paid off. I  literally walked through the winding queue lanes and right on to the ride. When I exited, the standby wait time was already up to 95 minutes.

Walking up to the entrance

The Rise of the Resistance experience is fantastic.  It's amazingly realistic, and the cast members do a pretty good job of staying in character. I don't want to spoil it for anybody, but the shuttle ride back to Batuu was thrilling!  If you visit, you don't want to miss this attraction!

Realistic Stormtroopers

RV Odyssey WDW

 Part of the reason for this trip was to visit Disney World during their 50th Anniversary celebration. We were there the year they opened, and more than a few times since, so it seemed appropriate to celebrate 50 years with them. 

WDW 50th Anniversary

We spent the first day in the Magic Kingdom, taking the boat over from Fort Wilderness Campground. We saw Austin working and visited some of our favorite attractions. It was a hot day but we were in no hurry so we took advantage of the air conditioning in shops and some indoor attractions. We got hungry late afternoon and stopped at Pinocchio’s Village Haus where it is air conditioned and it turns out the chicken strips and fries are pretty good. 

Castle Reflections

Enjoying a favorite attraction

Austin hard at work

The Magic Kingdom has some cute Halloween decorations up. We have plans to attend the Not So Scary Halloween Party in the park Tuesday night. 

Halloween Decorations

Halloween Decorations

Around 7:30 pm we faced the dilemma of staking out a good viewpoint for the fireworks and waiting there an hour and a half or squeezing in a quick ride on Pirates of the Caribbean. We went with the ride, but after found ourselves thrashing through throngs of people, trying to claim 2 sq ft of ground where we could get a view of the castle. We successfully staked a claim, but I swear the heat of those thousands of shoulder to shoulder people was worse than the midday sun. However, Disney’s Enchantment didn’t disappoint. Afterwards we let the crowds thin out and enjoyed a Mickey Ears ice cream bar before heading back to the campground for the night.

Disney Enchantment Fireworks

RV Odyssey Day 3

 The first 3 days of this trip were travel days to get to our first destination. The first morning in the RV took way too long to get back on the road. The second morning we felt like we focused on efficiency and speed, but it still took almost 2 hours from the time we woke up til we pulled out of the campsite. We may be able to improve that but probably not by much. 

We stopped at the Florida welcome center on I75 and enjoyed a sample of what always tastes like the best orange juice ever. By 3:30 we reached the Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness where we will stay the next 7 days. We hadn’t encountered any rain since leaving home but as we arrived the typical Florida afternoon rain arrived. It let up a bit as I made the RV hookups, but I still got significantly soaked. 

Florida Welcome Center

After getting settled we tried the RV shower for the first time. It is very tight quarters for a shower, but it is possible to soak down, soap up, and rinse off and come out feeling refreshed. However there’s no way you can dry yourself in there. 

Fort Wilderness Campsite

Once we were clean and settled, we contacted Austin and Sarah and invited them to visit over dinner. We selected the Margaritaville Resort as our dinner destination because we also hoped to meet up with our friends Keith and Kelli who are staying there this week. 

Margaritaville Resort Entrance

Austin and Sarah picked us up drove us to the Margaritaville Resort where we did manage to reach Keith and we all had a nice evening of dinner and drinks at Euphoria. It was a great kickoff for our week in Orlando. 

Kelli, Keith, Dan, Jan, Austin, Sarah

Campsite: Disney Fort Wilderness. $$$

Gas: Gainesville FL.   3.68

RV Odyssey Day 2

Today was another long driving day. We've had a problem with the kitchen drawers opening when driving around a corner or tight curve. So we stopped at Lowes this morning to pick up some magnetic drawer latches but I haven't installed them yet. After gassing up we started another driving day. We stopped in a rest area for lunch. Yesterday's lunch and dinner, and today's breakfast and lunch were all food we brought in the RV.  Dinner tonight was from a McDonald's not far from our KOA campsite near Macon, GA.  So far the RV is running nicely.

Campsite KOA near Macon GA.  $51 with full hookup.

Average gas mileage: 15.7 mpg

Gas prices:

Kevil KY    3.20

Paducah KY    3.12 

Smyrna TN    3.00

Forsyth GA    3.15

Monday night's campsite behind a barn on a private residence

RV Odyssey Day 1

Today we drove about 400 miles and stopped at a Boondockers Welcome site in Kevil, KY. Getting out of the house and on the road was difficult. We had already put most of our stuff in the RV but it seemed like endless trips to and from the house to do the final packing. And finding a place for everything was enlightening.

Once we got moving we stopped at Danny's house to borrow his Spot gps tracker so anyone interested could follow our progress.  If your're one of those interested persons, the link is here: https://maps.findmespot.com/s/KT3Z

We followed Waze's directions to our destination, and were taken on an obtuse route down two lane roads between corn and soybeans to get to I57 from Danny's house.  Once we got on I57, the drive was uneventful. We did push the gas tank a bit low, causing the low fuel warning light to come on, but we made it here on one tank.  Tomorrow we'll probably do a long driving day and finish somewhere in Georgia.

Campsite:  Tobacco Road, Boondockers Welcome site. $10 for 30A hookup.

RV Odyssey

With plans to do a lot more domestic travel with an emphasis on road trips, we started shopping for a class B RV in March of this year. We ended up choosing a 2022 Thor Sequence. So far, we’ve only done a couple of overnight trips with it, but we are about to embark on a 33 day, 7500 mile trip across the USA.

Preparing for such a trip has been taxing. There's so many things to consider when staying away from home for so long. And deciding what we can bring with and what should stay behind is equally challenging.

Some people name their B vans, and I chose to call ours The Tardis, but trust me, it's not bigger on the inside. :)

I'm hoping to log some of the trip details here like gas prices, mileage, and campground info. And I'll try to share some impressions of our experience as well as some pictures.  I probably won't post every day, but check back every few days for an update.

The Tardis

Entrance

Cab area with pet guard and curtains

Blackout curtains closed

Pet perch

Sleeping area