August 3 - 14, 2011 "Madison, WI to Omaha, NE"

The drive to Madison was uneventful, thankfully, and we checked into Smokey Hollow Campground. This is the most unique RV Park we have seen, with more rides and attractions for the kids, more like a mini-amusement park than a campground. The “swimmin’ hole” has numerous floating attractions for kids of all ages, even a “dunk tank” for those interested in evening the score with a friendly foe. (Click on any image to enlarge)

The owner is quite the “inventor”, and has several motorized rides, including Cinderella’s Pumpkin, and this oversized shopping cart.

Adjacent to the jumping pillow, there is a volleyball court and a water balloon wars arcade, complete with a fill station for buckets and balloons.

The owner left this as it was “planted”(?)  a few years ago, about 10-11 feet off the ground, in hopes other drivers of RV’s would notice and take extra precaution in preventing it from happening to them. (That ornery Murphy again; he certainly gets around.)

We departed the campground to meet with Duncan Industries at a nearby Hampton Inn for our scheduled window repairs. All the way, we kept our fingers crossed that this time, the third try, they would, as Larry the Cable Guy says, “Git ur dun”. Guess what? Murphy is absent, and we are now with clear, sealed windows. Finally.

Since it was about 7:30 pm when they completed their work, we decided to boondock at Wally World; a first for us. We picked up some fried chicken from the deli for dinner, and hit the rack about 10 pm.

Depart Madison, WI, for Moscow, IA, to the HWH plant where hopefully they can find and repair that pesky little leak we have in our hydraulic leveling/slide-out system. A few miles after we got on I-80 west, we noticed a sign that read, “World’s Largest Truck Stop – Next Exit”………….so we did, cause we can.

We thought about our trucking buddies from Country Sunshine, Cool Whip and Lena, aka, Carl and Kenny. (That’s no typo, I said trucking.) Both were career men with Yellow Freight, and now we were about to step into their world. CC would not be denied, as she climbed up into that big rig.

Back on the road and arrived at HWH about 1 pm. Without an appointment, they said it would most likely be tomorrow before they could work us in. No problem, as they have 9 spots with electric. We were told to just go back into any one available, kick back and take it easy until tomorrow; so we did. We had just finished setting up, when we heard a knock on the door. Murphy, is that you? No, it was Troy with HWH to tell us they were ready for us. OK, tear down and wait for repairs. We’re getting good at this. Shortly before 3:30, Troy reappeared and said we were done; he replaced a bad fitting on one of the hoses. $95 later we were out the door.

After we hooked up the toad, we did the customary light check and walk around. I noticed some oil dripping from the area that was just repaired. So………..back inside I ventured to speak to customer service. It was almost 4 pm, and all the technicians had left for the day, but they paged Bill, one of the supervisors, to come in and discuss my options. Bill said, “Let’s take a look at it”. He proceeded to crawl under the rig, on the gravel parking lot, to diagnose the source of the leak; another bad fitting. Within 30 minutes he replaced the bad part, and we were on our way. Hooray…..all those little nit pikin’ items are now fixed and off our list; Ms. Sol Crucero is as good as new. It felt good to have all that behind us.

It was another night boondocking at Wally World, another first for us; dry camping for 2 days in a row. We are saving some big bucks I tell ya. LOL ;-)

The following morning we were up before the sun, and made an early departure, in route to the Omaha area to visit CC’s friend Dixie, who lives nearby. We checked into the Bluff Run Casino RV Park, and called it a trip. Now, CC has itchy fingers, and will most likely drop a few quarters in one or two video poker machines. Who knows, if her feminine intuitions are right on, and she hits the jackpot, our decision, at least financially, to go ahead and move up to a bigger rig, will be an easy one to make.

From here, we will continue our westerly way to Cheyenne, WY, to visit longtime friends, Tom and Trudy. Until next time, take care and stay well………………………………..