Rain, Rain, Go Away!

The sky on our way to take shelter during the second tornado warning at Blue Springs Elks Lodge

      It's been a busy year and the blog has suffered the consequences and again fallen behind.  At this point, rather than attempt to catch up with six months of events, we will just start with now.  Valerie will attempt to add photos we have taken, along with a few comments, on our Facebook pages for those of you who follow them.

Enjoyed dinner with friends Jim and Pam MacArthur in Missouri

      We left Kansas City yesterday after several weeks visiting Valerie's family.  We stayed at the Elks Lodge in Blue Springs before and after a two weeks' stay at Lake Jacomo Campground in Lee's Summit.  The weather was hot and humid and it stormed much of the time.  Twice we were awakened in the night by high winds and rain, and twice we took shelter when the tornado sirens went off.  The kids got moved, despite both of their kids being sick on moving day, and we took in lots of T-ball and barbecue.

Storms, storms, and more storms in Kansas City

George at Summit Custom Cabinetry installed a new drawer

      Our plan was to take off fairly early on Wednesday morning, when we received a phone call from a contractor whom George had provide an estimate on making a new drawer for a void space in the Monaco, about which we had all but forgotten.

      The fact that it was pouring down rain necessitated us taking the rig to his shop to install the drawer which he had mostly prepared.  This was supposed to take about an hour and it was a bit of a difficult back-in, but we managed.

      Valerie went out for sandwiches for lunch, and once the job was finished and George began to move the coach out to hitch the car, Valerie noticed that the entry step had not retracted as it was supposed to do.  After attempting to get the step to retract so that we could head on towards Minnesota, George decided to go out in the rain and disconnect the power and force the step up with nylon ties in the contractor's parking lot.

George disconnected the entry step to retract it

      We finally got on the road around 4 p.m. and headed up I-35.  George started the drive and Valerie took over about half way to Osceola, Iowa, were we stopped at Lakeside Casino RV Park.  The turns are a little tight and the pavement of many sites is broken, but for $20/night it's good to have full hook ups for a night or two.  We've stayed here before and have really never understood how the shuttle works, so we walked over after parking the rig.

      The registration desk clerk at the casino walked us over to the gift shop so that we could pay by credit card.  The gift shop clerk was full of information and led us to believe we could get player cards downstairs and $5 free play and, since we have the RV Plus Pilot card, that we could get half price off the buffet.  We walked further down into the casino and got all registered, spent our $5 in the slots, and headed back up for dinner.

      Dinner was delightful and they ask you to pay on your way out, but with our half price discount,  we were not expecting the cashier to ring up $36.36.  We questioned and were told that we needed to take the Pilot card back downstairs and get a coupon for half price.  Valerie walked the distance back to the coach to get her card so we could both receive half off.

Geese at Lakeside Casino RV Park in Osceola, Iowa

      We were then disappointed to learn that we needed to have CDL licenses to take advantage of the half price buffet.  Anyway, we paid more than expected and ate more than we should, but we enjoyed a comfortable night's sleep and awoke to sunshine!

      Our reservation at Dakotah Meadows in Prior Lake Minnesota actually begins on Friday, and so we called to see if our site might be available if we came in today.  But it seems that it will be occupied until then, so we decided to stay here and catch up on some work and give everyone a chance to rest up for the remainder of the drive.

The sun is shining at the Lakeside Casino RV Park in Osceola, Iowa

      Valerie walked over to pay for another night, carefully watching her step as there is goose poop everywhere!  Plan for tomorrow is to eat breakfast at the casino, fuel up at the Pilot up the hill and head towards Minneapolis, where George is preparing for cataract surgery on his eyes, and we look forward to time with his family and friends, and to meet with the RV Driving School's instructor in Savage.

      Hoping for moderate weather in Minneapolis!