Our route was up I-76 to Nebraska, joining I-80 just after the state line, and heading straight east to Lincoln, Omaha, and Des Moines. We'd planned on just a short day, only going as far as North Platte, and doing a Wal Mart stay there. Even though we lost an hour crossing into central time, we got to North Platte by 2:30, and it was just too early to stop. We called Mark and Sue - who we were going to meet up with on Friday evening, and found out that they were going to be at the Double Nickel RV Park near York, Nebraska in an hour or so --- so even though we were about 160 miles away, we kept going and pulled in there about 6 PM -- after traveling a "short" 425 miles for the day. It was a good day for traveling, even though we ran into a lot of rain -- and we posted a new record for fuel mileage -- when we filled up at the North Platte Flying J, our mileage since our last fill at Colorado Springs calculated out at 9.1 mpg!! We were able to snap a few pictures of our soggy stay at Double Nickel before we convoyed out on I-80 to Des Moines with Mark and Sue.
We arrived there mid-afternoon after an easy non-rainy day of travel, topped off fuel and LP at the Flying J, and found our way to Adventureland in the Des Moines suburb of Altoona. The campground is wonderful, with lots of grass, trees, and blacktop sites. We got situated and began unpacking for our summer stay here (and most importantly, Mark set up his Internet satellite dish) -- but before long we took a break and had a few refreshments.
As we were leaving for dinner at the nearby casino, we ran into (almost literally) Bob and Vicki, Tiffin Phaeton owners who we'd met at the rally in Murchison, Texas last fall. This is their third year here at Adventureland, and they showed us where they're parked, just around the corner from us in "Tiffin row" -- where we spotted about 4-5 Busses, Bays, and Phaetons all parked together.
We began our exploration of the Des Moines area on Saturday, by going downtown and going to the first Farmer's Market of the season. According to everyone here, this is the third largest Farmer's Market in the nation, only surpassed by Pike Place Market in Seattle, and the Farmer's Market in Madison, Wisconsin -- we're not sure if that's entirely accurate, but it was pretty good size, especially this early in the season.
We were also near the Polk County offices, including the county jail -- so we had to stop for a picture . . . .
We went back to Adventureland and went on a short tour in the afternoon and even rode on a couple of the rides - although the weather was turning nasty again with rain squalls and wind.
That night and the following day continued very windy, with occasional rain -- we did a bit of shopping, and running around -- but the big event of the day was celebrating Mark's birthday. Mandy baked a cake and made her famous chicken and bean soup (it really was a hot-soup-for-dinner day). We had a few drinks and a wonderful meal to mark the occasion of Mark's birthday and to celebrate their start at full-timing.
The weather cleared on Monday (although it was a bit chilly for those of us from the Sunbelt) and we all got on our bikes for a 13 mile ride, taking advantage of the bike trail network in and around Des Moines - but unfortunately did not remember to bring the camera. The weather continued nice through the afternoon, and we took the opportunity to do a bit of grooming of our sites -- I'd almost forgotten how to run a lawnmower, but it came back quickly after a lesson from Mark.
. . . . . all of which required that we have a break for refreshments . . . .
That evening we all drove 30 miles north to Ames to Hickory Park Restaurant for a great BBQ dinner with Bob and Vicki, and their friends Don and Margaret. Mark was able to take advantage of being within 3 days of his birthday to get a special dessert as well as being serenaded by the wait staff.
We are scheduled for orientation, training, and other pre-work activities Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with our first work day on Friday. There are literally hundreds of other workamper couples already here in the campground, getting set up and ready for the summer, so it looks like we'll be having lots of fun!
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