Stubers ... Simplified

The drive to the Badlands was our longest single-day drive, yet. I always fill up the truck the day before a travel day so we don't have to fuel up with the camper attached. However, anytime we go over 300 miles in a day, we'll more than likely have to refuel along the way and today was no different. The trick is to keep our eyes open for an easy-in easy-out fueling opportunity as soon as we've gone about 100-150 miles. There are apps to help with this, but so far we've had pretty good luck. Today was no different. We found a great truck stop about 150 miles into the day that made fueling a breeze and we were off again. South Dakota is beautiful and so varied in topography, more so than I re

Leaving Duluth, we headed to Itasca State Park, known as the Headwaters of the Mississippi as the river begins it's long run to the Gulf after flowing out of Lake Itasca. The drive there was pleasant and quick and included a lunch stop at an odd diner, "The Great American Roadhouse" in Swan River, MN. Food was OK, but every table had a mini-jukebox on it that only had Elvis Presley songs. Got to the park to find the narrow park roads a little disconcerting with our large truck and camper, but we trusted the reviews of the campground that called the campground big-rig-friendly and sure enough, we had no trouble fitting into our site. Sites had electric, but no water, so we were 'dry camping'

So I'm definitely feeling a little behind on the blog. Hopefully since it looks like we're in for some rainy weather the next couple of weeks, I'll have downtime to get caught up, but here’s the next installment about our time in Duluth Minnesota. The drive to Duluth was uneventful and familiar having made that same ride many times when I lived in Ashland. We had an appointment that same day at the RV service center, so we drove straight there. We felt uneasy just leaving our house at essentially a car dealership but we didn't have much choice since we couldn't find a mobile tech on short notice. After dropping it off, we drove to our RV Park and got checked in and hung out at our site with

So leaving De Pere was more difficult than I thought it would be. It felt more like actually leaving than it did when we first moved into the camper. The drive was hard as it was a rainy dreary day, quite rainy in fact, and I didn’t feel prepared to drive the rig in weather like that. Fortunately there was little traffic, so it was good practice. We made it just fine to the campsite and it turned out to be quite nice! I'd spent some time in Lac du Flambeau many years ago as my ex-wife grew up nearby. I didn't even know there was an RV park there until looking for a place to stop halfway between De Pere and Ashland. The campground is on a peninsula of a nice lake and most of the sites are on,

Our first week ‘on the road’ didn’t feel official. We still owned the house, though we closed that Wednesday. We were still organizing the camper and shuffling loads of things to the storage unit, the thrift store, etc. That and I was still working full time. It was an insanely busy week. Saturday 8/13, we set sail and moved the camper up to the Apple Creek Campground in De Pere. It was an amazingly family friendly campground with a playground, swimming pool, small arcade, etc. This really helped ease the transition for Crayton and it made the move seem more vacation-like for all of us. Monday night was a great distraction as our friends Robin, Adam and Josh came by to see us off. Robin and