The Voyage of the RV LaRocca

Detour

When we started on our trek, we expected to be gone about 3-4 months.  It has now been four and a half months since we started on our journey and we're not even past Colorado yet. We've seen some incredible places, met some great people, and visited with friends and family that we haven't been able to see in a long time. 

While we wish the fun could last forever and we could hold the real world at bay just a bit longer, we are running into a few road blocks.  Winter (with its rain, snow and cold) fast approaches and we'd rather not add "losing fingers to frostbite" to our memories of the trip.  Also, there are some medical and other things that we need to take care of in San Francisco that are just impossible to do over the internet (and believe me when I say that we tried!)

So, we have decided to delay our visit to the north-west part of the country until a later date, and take a more direct and less hazardous route back to the Bay Area.   We apologize to our friends fortunate enough to live in the Pacific Northwest that we won't be seeing you this month; we'll have to take a rain check (weather-related pun intended.)

We'll continue to post here as we head towards home, so stay tuned.

Autumn in Colorado

We are lucky enough to be able to be in Colorado as the trees are changing color.  The scenery has been spectacular, like walking through a postcard.

(But first, a link to the one photo of Wyoming we have.  We now return you to our regularly scheduled blog entry.)

We both really like Colorado.  It has many of the features we like in a location: beautiful scenery, dry climate, strong emphasis on community and local businesses.  Unfortunately, it has one thing we don't like: winter.  However, I'm sure we'll visit here often.

Photos from the first leg into Colorado are here.

South Dakota and Wyoming: The Windy States

When we first sketched out our voyage, we hadn't planned on going to South Dakota.  In fact, we had been actively avoiding it.  Partly this was because there wasn't much we wanted to see there (Mount Rushmore wasn't high on our list), and partly for political reasons (they are trying to overturn Roe v. Wade.)

However, when we found ourselves in Minnesota and aiming toward the west, we found there isn't another great way to travel except through South Dakota.  So, we sucked it up, told Lori where to go, and put the pedal to the metal.

Apparently, South Dakota is a windy state.  Not sure why, but there was a relentless wind blowing nearly all of the time.  In addition, much of the landscape is not particularly exciting, and the highway is littered with billboards (90% of them seemingly for Wall Drug).  However, we were able to find a few bright spots.  We took a short break in Sioux Falls.  It had a cute downtown and dramatic waterfalls, and strong support for local artists.

Next, we went through Badlands National Park.  Some of our fondest memories on the way east were the national parks we visited, especially in Utah.  So, it was nice to be back in nature.  The scenery and wildlife were fascinating and beautiful.

A fellow RV'er had told us about Custer State Park and its herd of Bison.  So, we headed there next.  Since Mount Rushmore was on the way, we stopped there.  It was ok.  The story of the sculptor and the technical and geologic challenges he faced is fairly interesting.  Interestingly, the heads appear smaller than you'd expect.  Sure enough, we encountered the Bison when we got to Custer and were not disappointed.

We headed to Colorado next, and since Wyoming was in the way, we passed through it.  Unfortunately, the landscape is fairly bleak in the part of the state we passed through, and the wind continued blowing.  The bright spots were the occasional Pronghorn Antelope and the amusing old man running an RV park in Lusk, Wyoming.

To see what we saw, see the South Dakota photo album.

The Mayo Clinic

We wrapped up our Minnesota visit with an appointment at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.  The Mayo Clinic is famous for its history of medical innovations, openness and collaboration, and patient-centric service.  Here are some photos of the clinic and our team there.

The Mayo Clinic has a fascinating history.  The founding father and sons invited doctors from around the country to observe surgeries.  They would meet at the end of the day to share what they had all learned.

Sweet Success

Well, it was worth it. Although they set my expectations low since they didn't know what to do with me, Mike and Neil were able to fashion a prosthethis for my hip to help me sit up straight. It is not perfect but close enough and I am very happy with it. I am also very grateful for the professionalism that these two guys displayed. They communicated clearly with us. Sounds trivial but when you are working in areas that are unusual and never been done before, communication and collaboration are important.  We were up for the visit and they were up to the challenge. Thanks to all --Prosthetic Laboratories of Rochester, Mike, Neil, Dr. Kosterferson, Mayo clinic, and my patient husband! Bye, Minnesota.

Minnesota

We made a visit to The North Star State to consult with a prosthetist here who has experience with custom prosthetics for certain posterior body parts.  So, we're camped out for a while to see what happens after our appointments with him this week.

In the meantime, we checked out some local sites.  We've been here before and saw downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, so this time we stayed mostly on the outskirts.  We saw a river town called Stillwater, and spent time in Rochester (where the famous Mayo Clinic is located), and Austin.  Austin has perhaps the coolest museum in the world, the SPAM Museum.  It's located in the town where Hormel is located.  It's good to see that they have a healthy sense of humor about their most famous product.  They have always had strong and unique marketing campaigns for their products and this is no exception.

We also visited another Portuguese Water Dog breeder.  There are some photos in the Minnesota album, and also this video showing a few of the dogs frolicking.  Note the "flag" on the tail, a hallmark of the breed.  It was a fun visit, and we learned a lot more about the dogs.

Finally, we found some time for some traditional Minnesota pastimes such as fishing, talking about fishing, shopping for fishing gear, and complaining about the upcoming winter cold weather.

Here is the Minnesota photo album.

Anything-on-a-Stick

When we arrived in Minnesota, we asked around to see what there was to do here on the upcoming Labor Day weekend.  "There's the state fair", said the woman behind the counter.  "You can get anything on a stick.  They even have candy bars fried on a stick."

Uh, thanks but no thanks.  We figured she was exaggerating, but we decided not to take a chance anyway.

That may have been a wise decision.  It's apparently a local joke about being able to get literally anything on a stick at the fair.  There was a newspaper story about two women that planned to eat one of everything available, starting with ice cream for breakfast.  There was a Lake Wobegon radio broadcast live from the fair.  Within a just few minutes of listening, there was a joke about arugalu on a stick and another one about toast on a stick.  There was a news report on the radio letting people know that, although the food at the fair isn't healthy for you, it probably won't kill you.  Today, the last day of the fair, most of the food was half-price (in case you want to stock up for the winter.)

A New Record

We've been watching gas prices since we began the trip back in May.  It's hard not to when your house runs on it, and you're filling up nearly every day.  When we left California, gas there was hovering around $3.30/gallon.  The lowest we saw up until today was in northern Texas at $2.58.  Today we saw $2.54 near Minneapolis, MN.  (It was actually $2.56 when we passed in one direction, and had dropped two cents a couple hours later on the way back.)

To see an interesting map of gas prices around the country, visit gasbuddy.com.

http://www.gasbuddy.com/gb_gastemperaturemap.aspx

Wisconsin

We had to pass through Wisconsin on the way to Minnesota and weren't expecting much.  However, America's Dairyland was quite beautiful.  There are many parks and wildlife refuges breaking up the endless fields of corn and soy.  I expected more cows given the milk and cheese reputation, but I'm sure they're around somewhere.

Photos are here.

Chicago

We had been looking forward to visiting Chicago ever since we started planning this trip.  It's one of the few places that we both wanted to visit, but neither of us had been to yet.  Many people told us we would like it.

We weren't disappointed.  One of the things we look for when visiting a new place is whether the people who live there seem happy.  (Admittedly, this is not a perfect measure of a city.)   In some cities, we got a really bad vibe.  In Chicago, everyone we met was friendly, helpful, happy and really liked living in the area.  Probably that midwestern hospitality.   In addition to the people, the city is filled with great art, theater, architecture, unique neighborhoods, beaches, etc.

We were also lucky to get really nice mild weather. We hear it can get a bit dicey in the winter...

Photos are here.