6 Jul 2023 - Busy Day at Sioux City, Doreen Birthday, Dinner with Brad and Val Rose

 

Val, Brad, Doreen and I at Oscar Carl Vineyard!

Wow!  What and awesome and busy day here at Sioux City on Doreen's birthday!  We started off heading to the Sergeant Floyd Museum, which is located in a dry-docked river boat, the MV Sgt Floyd, next to the Missouri River.  It is also the home of the Iowa Welcome Center as you enter Iowa from South Dakota on I-29.  Inside the boat is a museum that depicts native American culture, fur trapping, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the steam boat era and other exhibits.  A few pictures:

One of the two engines

A depiction of Sgt Floyd, a member of the expedition who died here in Sioux City

Various displays about the Lewis and Clark Expedition

Doreen heading up to the wheel house!

At the top.  We even got to ring the ship's bell!

More about Sgt Floyd tomorrow when we visit his memorial.

Next we walked to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.

William Clark, Meriweather Lewis, and Lewis's dog Seaman, a Newfoundland dog

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center is co-located with the Betty Strong Encounter Center.  We were amazed by the beautiful scenes depicted therein.  These are learning centers and when we arrived there were dozens of children from local day cares learning about the Lewis and Clark Expedition which came right through here.  

The trail of the Lewis and Clark Expedition

This is one of several robotic characters in here.  This one is of Sgt Floyd, with moving eyes, head, lips, etc.  He tells his own story.

We will visit this memorial tomorrow.

Awesome displays

Again, we will talk more about Sgt Floyd and the role he played in the Lewis and Clark Expedition tomorrow.

Then we drove to the United Flight 232 Memorial.  

This is a tribute to the response that occurred here on July 19, 1989 when a United Airlines aircraft flying from Denver to Chicago had issues and crashed here while attempting an emergency landing at the Sioux Gateway Airport.  112 personnel died but 184 survived due to the heroic efforts of the flight crew and emergency responders on the ground.   

This sculpture depicts the rescue of three year old Spencer Bailey by Lt Col Dennis Nielsen of the 185th Tactical Fighter Group, Iowa Air National Guard

A short drive from there was the Siouxland Freedom Park. 

The Freedom Park features "the ONLY exact half-scale replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.  “The Wall” as it’s dubbed, is made from the same granite from India as the wall in D.C.   It features the names of 58,272 fallen service members from the Vietnam War."  The Wall is 250-feet wide and 130 of the names on the wall are soldiers from the Siouxland area. 

 I've been there before but it has changed a great deal, including the addition of the Brigadier General Bud and Doris Day Interpretive Center building (was not open yet), and a Freedom Rock.  

The park also features a dog park, walking trails, lighting, and a 30×60 foot American flag, flown at 150 feet high.

This evening we drove a short distance to the Oscar Carl Vineyard and met with Brad and Val Rose who are friends from the Iowa Air National Guard here in Sioux City.   I first met Val when she was Master Sergeant Val Rose serving as First Sergeant with the 185th Air Refueling Wing of the Iowa Air National Guard.  Her husband Brad also serves there with the Security Forces. As Wing Command Chief in Des Moines I had the opportunity to work along side the 185th Wing Command Chief Dave Miller as he guided and mentored his First Sergeants.  Later as State Command Chief I had even more opportunity to visit the 185th and help them in any way I could.  One of those opportunities was when I was asked to meet with both Val and Brad to give them some suggestions on how they could further develop their leadership skills and advance in their military careers.  Since then they have both continued to grow and excel and we are so fortunate to be able to stay in touch with them.  Doreen and I were so excited to have been invited to Val's Chief Master Sergeant promotion ceremony which of course we attended!  So Chief Master Sergeant Val Rose is now serving as the Mission Support Group Superintendent here at Sioux City.   We are very proud of them both.

At the Oscar Carl Vineyard, we shared some local wine, charcuterie, some great conversation and pizza! Brad and Val presented Doreen with some beautiful birthday flowers and delicious cupcakes from a local bakery!  

We are so lucky that our paths crossed with these two wonderful Airmen years ago and that we have been able to stay in touch. They are the epitome of the "citizen soldier", serving the citizens of Sioux City and Woodbury County during the week, and serving our Nation as traditional guardsmen. We are thankful of the opportunity today to reconnect with them!  

Tomorrow we plan to visit the Sioux City Public Museum, Sioux City Police Department, the Sgt Floyd Monument, possibly the Midamerican Museum of Aviation and Transportation at the airport.

5 Jul 2023 - Arrived at Scenic Park Campground in South Sioux City NE + Stats

 

We had a long, stressful day but everything turned out fine.  We pulled chocks this morning about 0830 hrs and headed for the dump station to empty our black and grey sewage tanks before hitting the road to Sioux City.  <I just deleted a whole bunch of narrative that you would not care to read...>  Bottom line my indicators showed full but the tanks really were not and when I went to empty them not much came out.  Crap!  Literally!  I suspected a plugged pipe.  So we towed the coach back to our camping spot, unhooked, drove to our house, picked up my sewer "snake", went back to the campground, reconnected the coach, and headed back to the dump station.  Nothing went well and of course someone else showed up to the one-hole dump station wanting to dump and head home.  Ugh.  Screw it.  

At 1018 hrs we packed it in and headed down I-80 towards Sioux City.  The problem with that is it is not advisable to travel with full tanks.  The stress of the weight (52 gallons x 8 lbs/gallon per tank) and bouncing can cause braces that help to hold the tanks in to fail and that would totally suck!  The rest area at Casey was supposed to have a dump station but according to the attendant some farmer stopped and dumped a load of hog manure (I doubt this) and the state closed the dump station.  So I decided just to head on up to our next campground and deal with it there.

We arrived at Scenic Park Campground in South Sioux City NE at 1402 hrs after traveling 205 miles, worrying all the way along that my sewer tanks were going to drop on the interstate...  As soon as we finished setting up I dove right into it, and there were things that just did not seem right.  

One of my troubleshooting tools is a "borescope".  It is a camera and LED light attached to a 15 meter fiber optic cable, all sealed in plastic. It displays on my iPhone.   I was trying to run it up the pipe to see the blockage but was having trouble negotiating the bends.  Doreen suggested I run the camera down the "old poop chute" through the toilet.  Great idea!  So in we go, and guess what - I can see the bottom of the tank!  Not only can I see the bottom but I can see the pipe connection at the bottom!  The damn thing is empty except for some sludge on the bottom.  That's why nothing was coming out, not because it was plugged!

So, after flushing the tanks a few times the sensors are back like they are supposed to be, the tanks are draining like they are supposed to be and all is well!  Whew!

That was surely a whole lot more about sewer tanks than you really wanted to read about, but I am glad it all came out well, so to speak!  It was a crappy way to start Phase II of our trip!

Back to arriving here, so this is the official start of Phase II of our journey, which will take us west and south all the way to Las Vegas, north to Ogden UT, then back east.  We will be visiting many national parks along the way, including but not limited to:

• Arches
• Canyonland
• Mesa Verde
• Monument Valley
• Grand Canyon (south rim)
• Lake Meade/Hoover Dam
• Zion
• Bryce Canyon
• Grand Canyon (north rim)

This portion will be about 3900 miles point to point and 87 nights where the first phase was 4642 miles point to point and 112 nights.  

The campground here is city-owned as is the adjacent swimming pool and park, which  are free for us as camper.  The campground has 135 RV sites, 4 cabins, and 6 tent sites.

Entrance to the campground.

The campground is right on the Missouri River

Nicely spaced sites.

Tonight we relaxed a bit and grilled a huge pork chop from the Fareway Grocery Store package our kids got us for Christmas.  It was awesome!  

The pork chop was gigantic and thick!

After dinner we took Liberty for a walk, and along comes the ice cream truck.  Perfect timing for dessert!

During my time as State Command Chief with the Iowa Air National Guard I used to visit Sioux City every quarter, so I am not new to the area.  We don't have any huge plans here except to hopefully reconnect with some military comrades, friends and a relative and of course celebrate my bride's birthday tomorrow, 6 July!!.  We will also revisit the Siouxland Freedom Park and the Sergeant Floyd Museum and Monument.

Stats:  

This is campground #25 of 42 

# States Traveled Through So Far This Trip, in order: 17 (IA, MO, KS, OK, TX, LA, MS, AL,GA, TN, KY, OH, IN, MI, WI, IA, NE)  

# States left to visit on this trip:  10 (CO, UT,  CO, AZ, NM (4 corners!), UT, AZ, NV, UT, WY, CO, KS, NE, IA)

Baseball Parks Visited So Far This Trip:  1 (Globe Life Field - Texas Rangers)

Lighthouses visited:  1 (Biloxi Lighthouse)

Lighthouses climbed:  0

Point to point travel miles:  4890 miles 

  - Avg point to point travel miles between campgrounds:  188 miles

Vicinity miles:  2084 miles 

  - Avg vicinity miles:  83 miles

Total miles driven:  6974 miles 

Total point to point driving time:  99 hrs 07 minutes

Total diesel fuel purchased: 634.536 gals 

Total diesel fuel cost:  $2278.45 

Average diesel fuel cost/gal:  $3.620

Max diesel fuel cost:  $4.139 (Traverse City MI) 

Min diesel fuel cost:  $3.139 (San Antonio TX) 

Avg MPG:  11.69 miles/gal

Cost/mi of operation:  $0.33

# Nights at end of this stay:  117 (Includes Griff's start)

Total lodging cost:  $4403.56  (includes Griff's start)

Average cost/night:  $37.64

4 Jul 2023 - Last Day at Bob Shetler Campground

 

Happy Fourth of July!

This is our last day at Bob Shetler Campground here at Saylorville lake.  It has been a great stay as we were able to spend some time with our son Dan and his family and watch at least one of the two grandson's baseball games.  My sister Karen visited and dropped off some family treasures.  We unloaded our accumulations from Phase I and reloaded our coach for Phase II which officially starts tomorrow morning when we pull chocks here and head towards our next stop, South Sioux City IA.

So today we went into town to our house one last time.  Doreen put up some sweet corn, did our final load of laundry, and unloaded the freezer with our meat for Phase II.  I washed the truck and cleaned it out a bit and also did one last sweep through the yard picking up fallen sticks from recent rain/wind so the yard would be ready for the next mow.  We are lucky to have the son of our neighbor right next door doing our mowing this year, so they are able to stay on top of it easily.  This time of the year the yards start slowing down as the heat of the summer arrives and rainfall is infrequent.  Even as dry as it is the yard still looks great.  

We buttoned up the house one last time and then headed to HyVee for groceries and fuel.  Back at the campground our friend Ken Danley and his wife had arrived.  They are camping right across the street in their Class A  In year's past we have run into Ken at some of the other campgrounds here near Saylorville, but this year both Prairie Flower and Cherry Glen campgrounds are shut down for the entire season for some upgrades.  Ken and I served together with the Iowa Air National Guard for many years.  He was a traditional guardsman Chief Master Sergeant in the Personnel section and I was the full time Chief in Communications.  Ken was the Fire Marshall for the Des Moines Fire Department full time, so we had a lot in common.  He has since retired from DMFD and they enjoy camping in their spare time.

That's about it for now.  Last night was a late one so we will be turning in earlier tonight.  Tomorrow's trip is just over 200 miles so with one or two stops we are looking at around five hours.  In addition, because this is not full hookup, we have to make a stop at the dump station to download the two grey and one black tanks before we head on westbound on I-80 and then northbound on I-29.  

Next report, South Sioux City IA

3 Jul 2023 - Fireworks in Slater IA

 

Today we were in and out of our house in Ankeny, the Ankeny post office, Menards store and the campground.  Sweet corn hit the streets today with trucks in most towns in central Iowa.  We bought a couple dozen ears and Doreen will blanch, cut from the ears and freeze for future use.  She likes to use Iowa sweetcorn in her award-winning salsa. 

Bad reflection on this picture.  Both ears were perfectly colored

Back at the campground, the onboard tank indicators looked like we were not going to make two more days with our black tank so I brought our my "turd-mobile".  This device holds 35 gallons and allows us to "download" either black or grey waste from our onboard tanks and then tow it behind our truck to the campground dump station.  Using this is much easier than completely packing up the RV, loading it on the truck and then towing it to the dump station.  The only time this comes into play is for campgrounds that are not full hookup and for stays that exceed a week or so.  Both of those conditions exist here.

This evening we joined our son Dan and his family and Eddie Rosado and his family at Slater Iowa to watch their city fireworks.  Tomorrow they have their big parade but we will be busy wrapping things up at home and getting things ready to go here at the campground as we depart Wednesday morning.

Over the past few years Dan found a nice spot at the local Slater co-op to watch the fireworks.   Behind us are huge concrete silos but there is a grass area and a clear view of the fireworks that are launched from the Slater sports field.

These large silos store grain, typically corn

Discs and other farm implements here

Here we are

We had snacks, adult beverages, bags boards, connect four game, and our own (legal) fireworks including sparklers, bottle rockets, smoke bombs and other pyro techniques as we waited for the big show to start!  Young kids and old kids like fireworks!

At 2200 hrs the Star Spangled Banner was played and we all stood and rendered the appropriate respect.  Then the show started and it lasted for almost 30 minutes!  This is an incredible show for a rural Iowa town with a of population of 1,543 in 2020!  

Check out the moon here!

Dang it.  I have cool video to insert here but the cellular coverage is not good and it will not upload. One of the videos is the kids lighting off a dog that exudes a long "snake" out the rear.  It is a classic !!!! Trust me, the Slater fireworks show was amazing.  

It's late and I am done.  Tomorrow (that be today since it is almost 0100 hrs now) is our last day here and we will wrap things up and get ready to hit the road on Phase II of the Schellhase 2023 RV Trip.  Stay tuned for more adventures!

2 Jul 2023 - Final Day of Baseball Tourney

 

Another full day of baseball in Norwalk.  The Game Ready 12U team was in the championship bracket, so they only played one game yesterday and then the next game was noon today, so about 1100 hrs Doreen and I headed south to Norwalk.  Parking was again insane, so we drove east a few blocks and put the big ol brown truck on the street.  She simply won't fit in these parking lots, plus there is a real down side to the parking lots adjacent to the ball fields.  We discussed this yesterday.  Like I said, you usually only make that mistake once.  Well today we heard that familiar sound moments after a well hit foul ball...!  Someone say "Safelite"?

The Game Ready 12U team played very well but lost their first game 1-11 against the Gamers Academy.  With little break they moved to the losers bracket where they could fight back and still take the prize.  They won their second game against the Ballard Baseball Club 12U 13-5.  Again with little break they moved to the championship game and again faced the Gamers Academy and lost 3-6 taking second place overall in the tournament.  Daniel had a great tourney with time behind the plate, some pitching innings, a stint at shortstop, 3rd base and even a few innings in center field.  

Warming up on-deck for an at-bat

And there it goes!

Daniel getting ready to deliver a pitch

Both the first and second place teams get rings (they don't do trophies anymore) and a banner for pictures.

The kids all seemed to have fun and we saw a lot of great hits including a few home runs and a lot of great defensive plays too.  We are so glad we were able to attend the whole tournament and see Daniel play many innings.  Liberty did great as we were able to keep her in the shade most of the time.  

Tomorrow evening  we will enjoy fireworks near Slater IA just north of here with Dan and his family.  Over the next couple days we will be wrapping things up here at the campground and at home in Ankeny and then Wednesday morning 5 Jul we will pull chocks and head northwest to South Sioux City IA where we will camp for five nights.

1 Jul 2023 - Rain, Baseball in Norwalk Day 2, Walk Through the Campground

 

We woke up to rain this morning and we headed into Ankeny to our "sticks and bricks" to meet my sister there so she could see our remodel projects.  They just stopped for a few minutes and were on their way to other locations in Iowa to visit friends.

The rain continued as we monitored the Game Changer app for updates on grandson Daniel's baseball game scheduled for noon.  One of the advantages of the synthetic turf fields in the new Norwalk Sports Campus is they are not impacted by rainfall like the old dirt fields were.  I remember years ago at Fort Des Moines Little League when we would spend hours trying to make the fields playable after a rainstorm.  We even used diesel fuel and burned the pitchers mound to evaporate the moisture!  The coach posted "no delays" so we headed south to Norwalk.

We arrived at the Norwalk Sports Campus and the rain had ceased. There were no parking spots anywhere close, so we parked on a side street and walked to the complex. Unseasoned baseball game spectators would take that nice juicy parking spot right behind the field, but that is a sure way to take a foul ball in the windshield LOL. Voice of experience speaking here!

As we walked in the gate for the noon game, the Mullets food truck had no wait so Doreen placed and order while I took the lawn chairs to our field.  Mullets is a restaurant/bar in Des Moines near the river and they are apparently running a food truck here, rather than a traditional concession stand.  Back in my running days I would start running at Cumming IA and run up the bike trail that used to be a railroad right-of-way, through Des Moines Waterworks Park and further east to Mullets Bar.  If I crossed the river and then back across the bridge to Mullets, I could get in exactly 13.1 miles which is a half marathon, and Doreen would be waiting for me there.  I ran that many times as I trained for the many 5K's, 10K's and half marathons I ran, and finally the 2013 Air Force full Marathon (26.2 miles) which I ran with my daughter Jennifer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton OH. 

 

Anyway, back to the baseball game, Daniel's Game Ready 12U team beat the Western Iowa Hurricanes 3-2 so now they play again tomorrow (Sunday) at noon again.  We will be there!

When we got back to the campground Doreen made some more salsa while I worked on a couple more projects and minor repairs.  One of the repairs involved replacing an intermittent CO/propane alarm module.  Mine had been acting weird and I have test equipment to make sure I did not actually have propane leaking of carbon monoxide. Another thing that can cause false alarms is dirt or other contaminants in there so I blew it out and it still falsed.  I had a spare detector, which is hard-wired, so I replaced it today

Later when the rain stopped we headed out on another walk-about.  As it is a holiday weekend the campground appears to be completely full and many others are picnicking, fishing and enjoying the outdoors.  We walked along the spillway and there were quite a few fishing.  The water was really rolling through the spillway. 

This is what 2500 cu ft per second flow rate looks like

On our walk through the campground we discovered another Alliance coach.  The owners farm northern Iowa and own this beautiful 385FL (front living room).  They are going to be here until 5 July also, so we will see them again  before we leave.

    Baseball in Norwalk at noon again tomorrow, then hopefully the championship game!