Today's the day we pick up the RV and start the journey. Two words describe a lot: windy and loud!
Rick was nice enough to drive us from Bondurant to the Winnebago headquarters in Forest City, IA, where we picked up the RV.
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| Winnebago HQ. In the future, I'd like to take a tour. |
The Grand National Rally Grounds across the street from Winnebago were the staging area for all the RVs heading to Alaska. Our RV is one of the last couple of the far right in this picture.
The RVs are new. Ours had something like 3 miles on it when we got in. It is a Winnebago Minnie Winnie 22M. It is about 24ft long and has one slide out for one of the beds. It sleeps 6, but that would be super crowded. Drive each other nuts crowded :-).
Here's a short video Rick took of the RV.
The following picture shows a point where our MPG was 3.4! That was early though, and we are averaging in the 7-8 MPG range so far.
Driving the RV is something to get used to. We took off from Forest City and opted for a scenic route on the IA and MN state highways. Our plans of listening to audio books were quickly dashed because the RV was loud. We've learned that it was partially because of the strong winds. The other reason is that it is just loud. Overall, though, driving the RV is like driving any other large box. It actually isn't that bad, but is still requiring more focus and energy for us than driving a regular car or van.
Our plans for the trip include stopping at some breweries. At some point I read that Drekker Brewing in Fargo, ND, was a great place, so we decided to stop. We enjoyed only a little since we had another 90 minutes to drive.
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| A couple tasty brews. Ignore the butt in the background. |
After the brewery was a quick stop at Walmart for some food and supplies that we didn't bring from Aurora.
Then it was on to Jamestown, ND. A coworker of Lynda and mine from 1992-ish had mentioned this pioneer village where one of his relatives was shown in the visitor building. We got there after all the shops were closed for the day, so we didn't find the picture of his relative. We did, though, see the world's largest buffalo, so the day was a success.
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| World's Largest Buffalo. Built for only $8,500 in the later 1950's. |
Our intention was to find a spot to camp in Jamestown, but we didn't see anything that looked good. Actually, the Walmart and Menards' parking lots looked good, but we wanted to be in a darker location in case the Northern Lights returned. We hit the road planning to stop at a rest stop a few miles down the road only to find a sign stating "no overnight camping", so we continued on.
Lynda hunted down a great camping site in Medina, ND. Nothing fancy, but it had water and electricity hookups, which of course we didn't know how to use. Now we do!
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| Ready for our first night of camping. Medina, ND |
Total distance traveled today: 597 miles.
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