RV Traveling with the Scott Farms Family

Tenn, NC, SC, legg of trip to Virg. Beach April 14-15 2008

2008-04-29T11:02:00.005-05:00

We leave our Grand kids in Tahlequah and head East on hwy 412 through Arkansas into Tenn. First interesting place we stumbled onto was at a little pottery store in the Historical Stamps Store building in Osage, Ar South of Branson or one hour east of Fayette ville. Name of business is Osage Clayworks http://www.osageclayworks.com/ There are signs of 412 for you to show you the exit. This is like stepping back in time and this man does wonderful pottery in this marvelous old store. Only business in Osage.

Virginia Beach April 17-21,2008

2008-04-29T10:10:00.003-05:00

We spend several days in Virginia Beach doing the Spring Craft Show at the beautiful convention center. It is built with the bldgs looking like giant sails. The parking lot lights are made to look like seagulls in flight. Landscaping is natural sea shore plants.
We camped out in the parking lot while we did the show to save on money since it took over $700.00 in diesel to get here from Oklahoma. The last night at Virginia Beach was spent at the Holiday Travel Rv Park. These parks are expensive because of location. They have many wonderful amenities for family camping. It has one of the most amazing Laundromats we have encountered RVing. (This is an important thing in RVing)

Best restaurants we eat at while here are The Surf Rider (Best no fill crab cakes on East Coast) , La Bella Italian (Wonderful food with a great pastry shop, meat market & olive bar). Both of these are on Laskin Ave near the convention center only blocks apart. These are not on the bay or ocean but if you love good food they are the best and where the locals eat. On the inlet alot of people eat at Rudy's on the Inlet for the atmosphere and food. If you are a cylist the trails are numerous at Virgina Beach and they have a very long board walk with many neat scuplters.
This is a neat area but very crowded in the summer and very commercial. We prefer the less commercial areas on the North Carolina coast which are less wallet draining.

Shenandoah National Park- Skyline Drive April 24,2008

2008-04-22T23:06:00.014-05:00

Left comfort of RV Park & explored the Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park see www.nps.gov/shen for more info. We entered the Park at the Rockfish Gap or South Entrance Station of the 105 mile drive built in 1935 by the depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps (ccc) "boys" over 14,000 of them. We were a little early but enjoyed the new shades of green & numerous Dogwoods in bloom. This route is limited to a speed of 35mph and will test your driving skills if you are pulling a RV especially the Northern half. There are over 75 scenic overlooks for you to pull off and enjoy. A must is visit the Byrd Visitor's Center at Big Meadows elv. 3535 ft and enjoy the view & the history of the park. While there make sure you visit the historic Big Meadows Lodge (opens April 25) meals are available with wonderful overviews.

May 10-11 Wildflower Weekend in park

Rv spaces are available at Loft Mountain, Big Meadows, & Lewis Mountain. Price $17.00 no hookups but Shower Houses & Sewage Dumps. First Come, first-served, If making reservations it will cost $2o.00. The views are great and if you are not in a hurry you will end up near Front Royal which is just outside of the Washington DC area. If I was going to DC I would leave the park & Go to Bull Run Regional Park at Centerville, VA, park my RV and ride the (rail line) into DC.

While on this wonderful scenic drive we got off at Thorton Gap & travelled to Luray, Va . This is a wonderful drive into the valleys. The attractions here are Luray Caverns, Luray Singing Tower, Hamburg Country Store, & the beautiful Shenandoah River. We ate at a Victorian Inn called Woodruff which was quiet quaint sort of pricey but enjoyable. http://www.woodruffinns.com/ If you head south from the Rockfish Gap Entrance you would have been on the Blue Ridge Parkway which goes all way to Gatlingburg in the Smokey Mountains approx. 400 miles. We had no time for this because we are headed across the mountains in West Virginia to do the Tulip Festival in Pella Iowa.

Virginia Beach to Waynesboro,Va April 22, 2008

2008-04-22T22:02:00.005-05:00

Back to blogging!!!!! We have been so busy selling our Scott Farms Products & developing new products that I have let the blog take a back seat. Today my wife & I traveled from Virginia Beach,where we just completed our annual spring craft show, to Cozet, Va (exit 107) off Hwy 64 to stay at the Misty Mountain Camp Resort. This is a Good Sam's Park with wonderful faculties and views of the Shenandoah Valley. Full hookups, WiFi, and cable. The cost is a little pricey but no more than the parks at Virginia Beach with much better views. Web site http://www.mistycamp.com/ On the way we stopped at Wakefield, Va to eat some wonderful peanut pie at the Virginia Diner on Hwy 460 between Richmond & Viginia Beach. This diner also features peanut soup on Sat. They have a great Seafood buffet on Fridays . This diner has been featured on "Diners, Drive-ins, & Dives" on the Food Network. It is large, very clean with wonderful food and has been in operation since the 1920's.

Little Falls Minnesota, Sept. 10

2007-09-11T00:09:00.000-05:00

We prepare for our trip back to Oklahoma. Tell all our good friends in the park good by. For 6 years we have been seeing the same great Minnesota natives in the Lindbergh State Park. They buy soup & seasonings from us & we have a great time visiting. We always trade Scott Farms Potato Soup to our good Friend the retired Veterinarian who now is a wood carver. This time we traded for a wood duck & mallard decoy. In the past we have traded for carved fish or bears. We had a good show at the Little Falls Art & Craft Festival , with perfect weather & good attendance. Traveled to Hutchinson, Mn for the night & stayed at our favorite park. Masonic Regional Park for $15.00 a nite with full hook ups.

Little Falls Minnesota, Sept. 8-9

2007-09-08T22:06:00.000-05:00

Two hard days of selling our Scott Farms products. Weather was good in that the temperature was in the 60's, good soup weather. We have a good base of customers since we have been doing this show for over 6 years. Only drawback is this is an outside show depending on weather conditions which can change sales dramatically. We love the good people of Minnesota & their loyalty.

Little Falls Minnesota, Sept. 6-7th

2007-09-07T16:38:00.000-05:00

Little Falls Arts & Crafts Show http://www.littlefallsmnchamber.com/
We arrived at the Lindbergh State Park the evening of Sep 5th. This is a beautiful small state park on the Mississippi river where we always stay when doing this show. It adjoins the historic Charles A Lindbergh House State Site, the boyhood home of Charles which is also a musuem of his life. Down the road is the Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Museum The Weyerhaeuser lumber industry was the driving force of this quaint Mississippi river town of 9,000 people. I paid a quick visit to one of my favorite museums the Minnesota Fishing Museum which highlights the state of over 10,000 lakes. It has over 8,000 artifacts & for fisherman it is one great place. To check out go to http://www.mnfishingmuseum.com/ and plan a trip. While setting up in front of the NAPA parts store we make our yearly visit to a great Bakery. Pete & Joy"s Bakery

July 12-13 2007 Okc trip thru Corn & Weatherford, Ok

2007-08-24T12:14:00.000-05:00

My brother, Mac & I took a trip to Okc to deliver the Scott Farms show trailer to be used at the Tulsa Affair of the Heart show. We took the back roads so I could show him the neat town of Corn, Ok. From Altus we took hwy 283 to hwy 44 & took a diversion to Quartz Mountain State Park to watch the water coming over the flood gates (over 5 were open). It has been many years since we have seen our local lake this full. It is used in the summer to irrigate many acres of cotton around Altus, Ok. This is the heart of our agriculture economy. We then head up to Lone Wolf & intercept hwy 9 & follow it to Gotebo where we intersect hwy 54 & travel north thru Cloud Chief (note all the Indian names in the town names in Okla) until we intersect hwy 152 & head east a few miles until we reach hwy 54 north to Weatherford. After traveling a few mile north one runs into hwy 54a. We then turn & go west to Corn.
Corn, Ok is a very small Mennonite community. It is known for it's German Quilt festival & great German food at the late fall event. It also has a private Corn Bible Academy. We were there for two reasons, visit one of the most interesting general store, barber shop, filling station, soda fountain etc. We could only observe through the windows since this unique collection of history is only opened during the festival unless your are lucky enough to find the owner working on one of the best collection of old memorabilia I have ever seen. Outside you will see a Model "T" truck sitting in front of the early century pump up gas pumps. If this was not in the middle of nowhere allot of people would clamor to all this. The second great find is Tena's Cafe.
This cafe (the only one in Corn) is known for it's German pastry Vrneika which they only make a few dozen a day & we had to suffer the plight of "all gone". A customer had purchased all they had for a special event this very day. So Mac & I settled for a good down home meal with homemade pie. Starting in August, the last Sat. of every month from 5:30 to 8:00pm, they will be serving a German buffet with items like Kabase, Swayboch, Onion creame gravy & other fine German food. On Wed evenings they have" breakfast madness" Friday all you can eat shrimp. Call 580-343-2565 an ask for Sharon Yacobelli to get times the cafe is open. For a town of few hundred people a nice little jewel on the plains. It even has a weekly paper in town called the Enterprise serving this wonderful German community. After enjoying a wonderful lunch we head north on hwy 54 toward Weatherford as you enter town from the south you will enjoy the remarkable view of the windmill farms using our great resource of unlimited wind. These giant slow turning turbines are a sight to see. We are known for oil & gas but our wind energy is becoming almost as important. Weatherford sits on I-4o & old Route 66. There is a Route 66 Museum that gives one allot of history of the 'Mother Road" or Route 66. Our favorite Oklahoma Mexican restaurant is located here. It is called Alfedo's (more Italian sounding than Mexican). It has some excellent authentic dishes & one more location at Yukon, Ok. Approximately 1 mile west of town just off I-40 sitting on Route 66 is Lucille's Road House restaurant, It is a large replica of the original about 6 miles further east on old Route 66 (on National Historic Register). Lucille & her husband served the motoring public on the "Mother Road" for over 50 years through the dust bowl days until there passing in the 1990's. There is a 50's diner as well as a steak house at the Road House. The food portions are large enough to share and very tasty. It is well worth the stop plus it has a small museum on the upper level. The staff is very friendly and the owner usually greets you.
We travel on to Piedmont, Ok to deliver our products to my son. If you ever travel through Piedmont they have one Mexican restaurant which is very good. I can't think of the name but everyone in Piedmont eats here so just ask for directions. We meet my son & his wife and eat here for our evening meal. We had back without the trailer & reach home after Midnight. Note: The restaurants at Corn & Weatherford are closed on Sundays.

June 28 through July 11, 2007 Altus, Ok

2007-08-24T11:56:00.001-05:00

Home looks good we are usually dry this time of year but the rain & lower than normal temperatures have made this summer a great change from the previous year. We raise cotton under a center pivot irrigation system. Last year we spent almost as much money on diesel fuel to pump the water as we made. This year our fuel costs will be 1/3 the cost of previous years. (a good sign)Our time at home Altus,Ok will be used to get new products ready & prepare for two big shows. The shows are Cheyenne Frontier Days at Cheyenne,Wy & Tulsa Affair of Heart at Tulsa, Ok.We are looking forward to my brother from Mississippi coming up to spend time with us. He is bringing some Popular wood from the Hurricane Katrina (damaged trees that were cut down & then milled by Mac & his friends) to be used in finishing the inside of our building in Cheyenne. The color of this wood is unbelievable & it was a very used wood in making wagons in the 1800's. After Mac arrives we will make a short trip to Okc. to deliver a trailer of our products to be used by my children to do the Tulsa show.

June 27, 2007

2007-07-07T23:43:00.000-05:00

We travel hwy 81 through Pond Creek, Oklahoma in huge down pours of rain. Then through Enid & Hennessey where later the hwys were shut down due to flooding. We make it to our favorite RV Park near my sons place. Cedar Valley RV Park. This Park is about 6 miles west of Guthrie, OK on hwy 33. It is not in the valley but on a hill and surrounded by a par 3 golf course (18) which you can play for $7.00 a game or 2 people for same price on Tuesday. It is quiet with full hookups, wireless Internet & nice laundry room. We disconnect the trailer & drive over to Piedmont, OK to pickup Mexican food at the only Mexican restaurant in town. Of course the town is not very large. (Great food) We took the take out to my son & daughter-in-law’s new house. It was great seeing them after being gone so long. Tomorrow we will be home to Altus & the real world. We will update you some as to what we are doing at work but not every day. Next trip will be to Cheyenne, WY.

June 26, 2007

2007-07-07T23:41:00.000-05:00

We worked on proofs that my son emailed us for our rubs & marinades. We are putting them in a larger size pouch. Darran did the artwork for us. Went to see the famous Corn Palace. This is well worth your trip to see once. (Pics) Amazing palace with corn & native plants decorate inside & out & has to be redone every year for costs exceeding $100,000 Local artist do different themes & designs .The first Corn Palace was built in 1892. Over 500,00 people visit it each year. The website for information & pictures is http://www.cornpalace.com/. We head out south on hwy 34 toward Nebraska. We take one of our favorite rural roads we notice a busy café in Parkston, SD. We stop & see 95 % very senior citizens eating and our waitress ask us if we are there for the senior meal. This makes you think we are getting much older. Of course we said no & ordered BLT’s with salads & it was very good. The name of the café is Pony Creek Steakhouse. We ate for under $9.00.
Traveled down hwy 37 to hwy 50 then East on 50 to Yankton, SD Got diesel at Yankton since prices are much higher in Nebraska due to road taxes. We crossed over Missouri river on hwy 81bridge into Nebraska. Interesting bridge, under-over bridge under goes south while over goes north built along time ago. Talk to son & he told us about all the rain & flooding in Oklahoma. We are usually fairly dry this time of year and yet we had not much rain on this trip. If you like rolling hills, soybeans, & corn you will love this area. We noticed a nice RV park in Norfolk, NE called Ta-Ha-Kouka City Park. It was too early to stop. Drove across Nebraska only stopping for a sandwich.
Next state is Kansas on hwy 81 lucked out & found a city park just across from the Super Center in Concordia, KS called Airport Park. This has only about 12 spots with electricity & water. There is an honest john box with you deciding what it was worth to stay there. It also has concrete pads & a dump station and is next to the airport. Tomorrow we will be in the flood area of Oklahoma.

June 25, 2007

2007-07-07T23:38:00.000-05:00

Time to head south toward Oklahoma with some tribulation since we enjoy being on the road & seeing all the wonderful places that this great nation has to offer. We head down hwy 15 & reach New Ulm about lunch time turn West on Hwy 14 & see this newer looking German restaurant with all kinds of cars around it. We parked on a side street & walked to DJ’s Restaurant which turned out to be a wonderful clean new facility with German & traditional food. It turned out to be our favorite place to eat in New Ulm. (Good prices too) Hwy 14west is known as Laura Ingalls Wilder Hwy. Didn’t have time to stop but passed an 1880 Sod House 1 mile east of junction of 71-14. When you reach Walnut Grove, MN you will find the Laura Ingalls Visitor center. 550 people live here & this is her childhood home area. There is Plum Creek Park where you can park your Rv’es.
As you travel west you will run into Lake Yankton with a beautiful wayside park at Balaton, MN which has a sign calling itself the “One & Only” with a population l650 Next interesting town Tyler, MN on East side of town a large old silo with a steel wheel JD tractor on top. (Rural America) Next town of interest is Lake Benton, MN on Lake Benton. This area is full of Wind Turbines generating that wonderful renewable energy & looking like it is natural part of this beautiful area. There is a nice County Park called Hole in the Mountain County Park with hookups for Rv’s. We are only a few miles from the South Dakota line. We ate a sandwich back at Lake Benton Wayside Park.

We are now in SD & reach hwy 81 & turn south headed for Madison, SD. About 6 miles north of Madison we hear a bang & feel a bump. I knew at once we had to have blown a tire on our RV trailer. If you don’t catch it in time it will rip the wheel well apart causing major damage so you must stop immediately. One thing I carry is a ¾ inch electric impact wrench & a trailer chock that you can drive the good tire up on raising the blown tire off the ground. Also you need at least a 3ton hyd jack (There not that large) to finish lifting the bad tire off the ground. With our generator we ran the impact & had the spare tire on the ground in less than 15 minutes. We belong to Good Sam’s Emergency Service program & could have called them but this was much faster. Since the spare is not new & I don’t like traveling without a spare we found a Coop (F&M) in Madison right at closing time. They were so nice & reasonable on these trailer tires that I bought two plus filled up my diesel truck. This is what is great about traveling in rural America & not being caught on a major Interstate. Next town of interest Howard, SD. It has a city campground with full hookups for $14.00 Honest-John box, concrete pads great deal in Rural America. This is on Hwy 34 several miles west of Madison. Our destination tonight is Mitchell, SD home of the famous “Corn Palace”. Found a wonderful tourist & local eatery called The Depot downtown. This has wonderful food at an historic train depot. The portions are large enough to share & priced reasonably. (Highly recommend) Next stop is Rondee RV Park a Passport America Park. We stayed in this park for half price of $15.00 with full hookups, cable TV, Water Park in bldg., plus wonderful laundry facilities. This is the plus of belonging to Passport in that this is in a tourist town & we still got great rates.

June 24, 2007

2007-07-07T23:37:00.000-05:00

Show starts again at 8AM (To early for customers on Sunday) & closes at 3PM. Show was so slow I walked down to the women’s building to check out attendance & decided this was the place to be if we come back next year. The wonderful volunteers helped us teardown & we hooked up our RV & headed back to Hutchinson, MN to stay at our favorite park & beat the morning rush hour traffic in Minneapolis & much dreaded road construction. We got to Hutch in time to eat at Culvers before closing & got our RV parked right at dark. Parking at nite is a little tricky with trees etc.

June 23, 2007

2007-07-07T23:36:00.000-05:00

We get up earlier & start sampling at 8AM for the early risers. Show was better today in that more women were in building to get out of sun. Bought my brother from Mississippi a couple of signed prints of his Plymouth GTX (67) he use to own while going to school. My other brother owned a Dodge RT both wish they had them now since they are very valuable. Ate our typical lunch meal tuna but found out there is a Dino’s on the grounds so off to eat great Greek food we are getting smarter took our camping lounge chairs & joined the thousands that watched the cars cruise the fairgrounds. I took hundreds of pictures (Glad I have a 1 gig of memory on camera) wish I could show them to you but the MSRA site has many. Well the illegal burnouts started just behind our camper on the Snelling a 4 lane city street. I lasted about 2 hours and some of these kids had more money than sense burning up so many tires and damaging engines. The mustangs & Ford power strokes were the vehicles of choice. You didn’t see the owners of $40,000 and up rods doing this. The bystanders were yelling "light um up" & egging on the owners. Some times smoke was as high as 100’in the air & covering over a block. This not sanctioned by the MSRA & bystanders on the wrong side of the street could get hurt if one of these cars lost control. We turned in for the nite since tomorrow is last day of show & tear down.

June 22, 2007

2007-07-07T23:32:00.000-05:00

Show starts & realize right off we were in the wrong building. Only car related items except for a few booths so women would go to the other buildings that catered to their tastes. Well we decided no matter how sales turned out we would enjoy the car show in the evenings after we closed. We ate our gourmet meal of tuna fish & crackers for lunch plus an apple. After building closed at 6PM we walked the grounds enjoying the cars & entertainment. It is at least 1 mile from one end to the other so we retired early to get ready for the next day. (A sandwich nite)

June 21, 2007

2007-07-07T23:31:00.000-05:00

We got up early around 4AM & left for the Minneapolis Fairgrounds to setup for the show. We left early to beat the morning rush hour. Got in line to park RV hundreds of RVs in line. Finally we got our parking spot, electricity only. By luck this was only 75 yards from the building we were to exhibit in. Minnesota Street Rod Association volunteers helped us unload our truck & were so nice. They were having record heat & humidity for June. They don’t air-condition buildings on the fairgrounds so it was hot. I left the grounds to purchase lunch since none of the concessions stands were open until tomorrow. Found a Greek restaurant that had a lot of cars around it. (A good sign) Purchase two Gyros & one large Greek salad. Great food at Dino’s, highly recommend.

We got to walk around & watch as all these wonderful classic cars as they started arriving. This is a 3day show with over 12,000 cars & rods on the grounds. The Minneapolis Fair grounds are huge & the cars take all spaces. This is a car enthusiast paradise. It is called Back- to the 50’s. It is the largest state show. To check out cars & activities go to http://www.msra.com/. The next year show will be June 20-22 2008 same place. We ate dinner at RV & retired early since show time is tomorrow.

June 20, 2007

2007-07-07T23:29:00.000-05:00

Today was a day of getting ready for show at Minneapolis. JoAnna made dip mixes to sample. I road bike on wonderful bike trails to downtown Hutch to pick up supplies (About 2 miles) Discovered a wonderful restaurant Bavarian House which I made an executive decision we would eat here, we were craving some authentic German Food. After exploring the many parks here in Hutchinson we decided to eat a late lunch or early dinner at the Bavarian House (5-9PM Tue thru Sat.) The proprietor is German and the food is like what we had in Germany. Highly recommend. We were going to leave that evening after the traffic rush was over in Minneapolis but decided not to due to possible weather. Glad we did because a bad hail- storm & windstorm occurred on the hwy we were to travel. (Our guardian angel again)

June 19, 2007

2007-07-07T22:56:00.000-05:00

We head to New Ulm to explore this unique German town. We recommend you go to http://www.newulm.com/ for all the places to see & enjoy. As you drive through this beautiful town the Hermann Monument at Hermann Heights Park towers over the city of New Ulm. It was erected in 1897 and is the symbol of their German heritage. We visited this monument & found out it is second only to the Statue of Liberty in height. We recommend you also visit the"lGlockenspiel’’ at Schonlau Park. Just drive around downtown & visit there many German related shops. We also drove out to the Harkin Store 8 miles NW of New Ulm. It was closed but is open most days during the week except Monday. This is on old 1870 general store that still has original contents & served the river traffic on the Minnesota River. Next we discovered a wonderful oasis in New Ulm (August Schell Brewery) This was one beautiful place & reminded us our time when I was in the service stationed in Germany. It is the 2nd oldest family-owned brewery in the US started in 1860. We were there to late to take the brewery tour. We did walk around the grounds & what gardens they are. (Pics) This brewery is known as the “prettiest brewery in the country.” We ate at a local sort of German restaurant Otto’s Feirhaus but later I will give you better German restaurants in New Ulm as well as Hutchinson. We found out at the restaurant there was a free concert in German Park. During the summer, a series of free music concerts are performed mainly on Monday & Wednesday. Bring your lawn chairs. It was enjoyable & a charity was selling popcorn for 50cents a bag plus soda or pop for 75cents. They have “Picnics in the Park” on Fridays from 11:30-1 during the summer. Different food vendors offer inexpensive meals to park visitors. We head back to Hutchinson to spend the nite at the RV

June 18, 2007

2007-07-07T22:55:00.000-05:00

Caught up on paper work touched base with my son who is designing our new Rub & Marinade labels for use on the new pouches. We did our laundry at the local laundry & explored some of the park systems. We grilled out using our Blackened Seasoning.

June 17, 2007

2007-07-07T22:54:00.000-05:00

Since the car show will not start until the 22nd we decided to make this our base for a while. Price is right & Hutch has so many parks along the river network all connected with bicycle paths. Spent this day resting biking & cooking on grill.

June 16, 2007

2007-07-07T22:52:00.000-05:00

The weather has cleared and on down 14 to Huron to see the world’s largest pheasant. Just on the east side of Huron there stands a giant pheasant in true tribute to this pheasant hunting paradise. (See pic) I told JoAnna that I always wanted to go pheasant hunting but never did because there are no pheasants in our part of Oklahoma. About 12 miles farther east my wish just about came true in awful way. A mother pheasant with 12 very little ones appeared on the hwy out of nowhere. JoAnna screamed don’t hit them. All made it across road except one. I just knew we hit it but by a miracle it came out from under out truck unscathed. Some day it may be someone’s dinner but for now a new beginning.
We approach Brookings, SD the home of the famous art festivals. After a short distance we are in the great state of many lakes, Minnesota. We stopped at Lake Benton & ate a sandwich in the RV. From here we continued to New Ulm a unique German town that we will revisit later. We picked up hwy 15 & headed north to Hutchinson, MN. (Hutch as the locals called it.) We ate at a Culvers custard shop. If you like great custards this is one good franchise. We decided it was late & we would stay in the local Wal-mart Super Center over nite. By chance I asked a local if there was any local city parks & they told me about the local Masonic Park that had RV spots. What a gem it was full hookups for $15.00 a nite. Large shade trees, bicycle paths, lake, volleyball courts (6 of them), play grounds for kids. Only 13 sites so I sort of hate to give this one away. Masonic/West River Park Campground just off Hwy 7 in downtown Hutchinson.

June 15, 2007

2007-07-07T22:41:00.000-05:00

It is time to travel again. We decide to head east on hwy 34, then connect up with hwy 14. We travel through Sturgis, SD on the way to 34. Remember if your vacationing in this area do not the second week in August unless you own a Harley over 500,000 show up this week. We hate leaving Spearfish it is such a nice place to vacation.
We are taking hwy 14 so we can go through the state capital Pierre. It is a very good road with small compared to most states & the city is not that large. We kept traveling east little traffic. We ate a sandwich at a roadside park near Pierre for lunch. The capital is very out of Pierre on 14 & noticed large cloud formations more what we see in Oklahoma.
We decided to stop for an early dinner in the small town of Highmore, SD. This is a very small farming community where the Coop & tractor dealership are the largest industry. Our guardian angel was taken care of us because farther east these storms came severe & did a lot of damage. The food at the D & K Outpost on Hwy 14 was good & the steaks were very reasonable. It was Friday nite & all the locals started coming in to listen to their favorite country band. The dance floor was buzzing when left. We decided to leave the RV parked in their large parking lot due to heavy rains. Spent the nite, got up & ate a great breakfast with them. Just don’t be pressed for time since service is slow due to a lot of customers with very few waitresses. They were very friendly though. (Last nite we were treated to a huge firework display just across the road behind the tractor dealership) This is a great small town.

June 14, 2007

2007-07-07T22:27:00.002-05:00

Got up early & took hwy 385 down thru Deadwood, SD (Will stop on way back) to Crazy Horse Memorial took some pics. We didn’t pay to enter plenty steep I believe around $20.00 each. This is not a government- funded project so I guess they have to charge a lot. Left here and took the drive on into Custer. This 385 drive is scenic & curvy. At Custer we took 16A east to Custer State Park. This is one park that is worth visiting and is on the way to Mt. Rushmore. We enter the park pay the fee well worth it & take off on the drive on the Needles Hwy. (If you are driving or pulling a large RV you can’t do this one due to the tunnels) The first thing you come to is Sheridan Lake. This is one majestic small lake with fingers of granite rock protruding at every angle. (Great for climbing) You can rent boats (non motorized) for pleasure here & it would be worth it.
Next the tunnels carved out of rock my dually is almost too wide to go through of course they are single lane but what views. The last two tunnels will frame Mt.Rushmore as you leave them. WOW!!
We take the switch back bridges down to Mt Rushmore what a view. We park go into monument & enjoy the museum, films and views .You have to do this once in your lifetime. We are now off to dry the Iron mountain road back to 16A & to Custer. This is also a very scenic drive. Wildlife is abundant. We stop at the Coolidge General Store for a sandwich & some souvenirs. We are headed for Deadwood for a quick tour. If you have family there is plenty to do in this area we just hit the highlights. We are more about scenery than tourist traps.
Deadwood is an old gold mining town that had seen better times. It has been turned into a gambling town to restore its wild-west folklore. We take an open sided bus tour of town & the best part a tour of boot hill where Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane, are buried. They give you the complete story of the town & its characters. It is worth the price. Since we don’t gamble we decided to go to the local casino buffet. The mistake was made I have had better school lunches. On the Gulf Coast of Mississippi these are wonderful casino buffets at bargains with great food but not here. This was the only disappointment for the day so I guess this was okay. .

June 13, 2007

2007-07-07T22:27:00.001-05:00

We left Lusk headed for South Dakota destination Spearfish .We stopped at Newcastle, WY for lunch ate at a local rest & tourist stop the Old Mill Inn it had the old west flavor with the décor of being in old mill. It was good food with room to park a RV. Next stop was Spearfish SD. What a jewel we would stumble onto. We knew in the summer there is a big art festival here so we drove down to the park on the river to check out the location. We found one wonderful park with RV spaces called Spearfish City Campground cost $28.00 a nite. It is full hookups, cable TV, & many shade trees, as well as bicycle paths. There is an old fish hatchery here that is across the street from the park it is on the National Registry of Historical Places. It is well worth your time to visit. Three nites a week there is a Passion Play performed in the Canyons. We ate at the RV & did our laundry at a local laundry mat. Tomorrow we will be off to Mt.Rushmore using this as our base.

June 12, 2007

2007-07-07T22:26:00.001-05:00

We left Longmont headed for Minneapolis, MN for the Classic Car & Rod Show where we are to have a booth. What is great about this trip we have some time to get there a week & half. We drove up to Loveland, Co on hwy 287.stopped and ate at Mimi’s Cafe which is in the outlet center on the east side of Loveland near the Interstate. It is easy to get RV’s into this area. This is one our favorite franchise restaurants some in Okc. We usually share dishes since they are so big. Loveland is one beautifully landscaped community & looks like a very nice place to live From here we took I 25 up to Cheyenne, WY only about 2 hours north of Denver area. We stopped here to measure our bldg. in the Wild West Gulch that is our home for 10 days during the Frontier Days at the end of July. We will fill you in on Frontier Days in July what fun!! We left here& traveled up hwy 85 up to Lusk, WY. This is very much a Western town. We stopped at the local truck stop, which was marginal on the food end typical truck stop. We stayed all nite about 1 mile west of town at Prairie View Campground a Passport America Campground. Cost was $10.00 a nite ½ price because we belong to passport America club. About 50.00 dollars a year membership fee is well worth it if you travel a lot. It has full hookups with a view of the prairies. (Watch for

holes in driveway needs some work but okay for over-nite stay) By the way you will see many antelopes on this drive.

June 11, 2007

2007-07-07T22:25:00.001-05:00

We stayed one more day at Longmont to do paper work & I purchased another cargo carrier from a local outdoor adventure store called Dick’s where a wonderful salesman helped me put it on top of my camper shell. It was not a one- man job since I all ready had one mounted on top. (See pic) This gives us more room to carry our Scott Farms citrus bags that we give our customers when they purchase our items. It has our logo, Oklahoma map where we are located as well as our toll fee # & website but it takes up a lot of space. This Dick’s chain is a wonderful store & the people are so helpful & I would recommend shopping there. We ate at Johnny Carinos that nite. I like their marina sauce since it is similar to the one we sell, slightly spicy. This one didn’t live up to our expectations like the ones we have eaten at in the past. Tomorrow is another travel day.

June 10, 2007

2007-07-07T22:24:00.002-05:00

Sunday is always a slow start until church is out. I picked up some western pics, & memorabilia from a local craftsman from Ok to use in our booth at Frontier Days at Cheyenne WY in late July. Also I bought a wonderful combination turning tool & grill cleaner called WiseHooker by Wiesco to use with our rubs in gift packs for our store and at Cheyenne. We may even get a shot at private labeling some our seasonings to go with their turning tool. Typical slower Sunday show but okay. We tear down & go to the local favorite restaurant & pub the Pump House. It is a converted fire station on the north side of downtown Longmont it has it’s own brewery but the food is fantastic. The dishes are large enough to share & not to pricey for Colorado. The locals love this one & we did too.

June 9, 2007

2007-07-07T22:24:00.001-05:00

Saturday is usually our best day at craft shows & this was not the exception. Not great but decent for an early summer show. We usually eat fruit & Tuna lunch packs for lunch at shows since most concession stands are pricey & not that good. Today was no exception. Cooked our own meal at the RV & went to bed early.

June 8, 2007

2007-07-07T22:22:00.001-05:00

Show time sampled a lot of dip & soups. We sold more Enchilada soup and South of Border Dip at this show. We are out West where they enjoy their spices. Also sampled our Barb-Q- Rub made into a sauce & sold a lot of these too. After show we ate at Chilli’s a good place for a franchise. Salads are great and chips & salsa also.

June 7, 2007

2007-07-07T22:21:00.000-05:00

Horrible wind -storm hits the Rockies, some damage, snow in the mountains, 80 mile per hour gusts. Glad we went to the park yesterday. Spent morning sleeping late & playing board games with family while the wind whistled. We ate a late lunch at Sweet Balisco a wonderful Italian local favorite at Estes Park. Have some wonderful specialty pizzas as well as great pasta’s. Highly recommend this one. We had to get back to the fairgrounds to set up our booth for the Country Folk Art Show. We have been doing this show for over 6 years it is not a large show but what a wonderful area. Crashed at RV & ate some sandwiches & prepared for tomorrows work day.

June 6, 2007

2007-07-07T22:07:00.000-05:00

Got up early & went to the grocery store to pick up supplies to take to the kids up at their rented mountain retreat they had leased for 1 week in Estes Park. Our son-in-law had buckwheat pancakes & fresh fruit prepared. He is a wonderful cook & is always cooking wonderful dishes that are healthy of course he uses a lot of our Scott Farms Seasonings in his cooking. Estes Park is about 7500’ where Longmont is around 5500’ so altitude was slowing my wife down some. But when she got her hands around our two lovely grandchildren, Brianna & Caden this all changed. Our daughter & son-in-law are loving parents & believe in a healthy lifestyle of exercise for all. Daughter Michelle is a Registered Dietitian & certified diabetic specialist so she sees the results of bad food & lack of exercise. Dean our son-in-law is a 3rd grade teacher in a small school near Tahlequah, OK and believes in seeing mother nature in action so the last few days they have been hiking in the Great Rocky National park at least 5 miles a day at 8 to 9000 ft with our 4 & 8 year old grandchildren. They don’t complain and love it. Their mountain retreat has 4 bedrooms, large game room, two decks, steam room, large fully equipped kitchen. & TV’s in all rooms some with large screen. Plus a large assortment of games for your enjoyment for a wonderful, off- season price of around $980.00 a week with the capacity to sleep around 10 people. There was a wonderful mountain stream running beside the retreat & you can go to vacation rental website for Estes Park to search for these kind of deals during the off- season. (Next week the price doubles) Needles to say we spent the night with them not as cramped as an RV. We headed out to the Rocky National Park after breakfast.
We stopped at the Visitors Centers before entering the park for the grand kids to complete their Jr. Ranger books where they receive their certificate & badges once completed & verified by the rangers. They were so helpful & informative. We highly recommend you let your younger kids go through this program. It cost around $10.00 for a week pass for a carload of people to enter the park. This is money well spent. We took a, day taking them to our favorite wildlife viewing spots. We saw Elk, Deer, & Bighorn Sheep .We saw all types of birds & maramonts. Pick up a map & visit all the sites you have time for, it will take several days. Make sure you spend 1 day driving the Trail Ridge Road: the tundra, the views, the snow pack, & Grand Lake at the end are so invigorating. Enjoy the setting sun as you leave the park. Rver’s you can camp in the park but you do not have any real amenities but wonderful scenery. The pull into the park is not for inexperienced Rver’s.
My wife told me not to forget to mention before we went to the park, we took the grand kids to Trout Haven. This place is a tourist trap for kids where they catch their own trout out of well stocked ponds. They clean & fillet the fish for you & charge you by the inch for what you catch. It was well worth it for all the fun that the kids had. It is what we ate for supper that night also. This was in Estes Park. We slept well that night in rustic western cedar log bed.

June 5, 2007

2007-07-07T22:06:00.001-05:00

More beautiful Iowa farm country & Nebraska farm & rolling plains to enjoy along 34. We only stop along the way at a Subway to eat. (Healthier, meal heaven knows we need it) Made it to the Colorado line scenery really change with the high plains with very few towns such as Wray, Yuma, Ft Morgan. These towns show the old west cultural but we have no time to explore since we must see the grand kids. Made it to our destination Longmont, Co. late in the night. Staying at the fairgrounds at the Boulder County Fairgrounds Campgrounds cost is $25.00 a nite no senior discount water & electricity only. Dump station & wonderful private shower house. We will stay here for 6 nites. Believe it or not this is cheap for RV space in Co. Good location to see the Rocky Mountain Area.
June 6

June 4, 2007

2007-07-07T22:05:00.001-05:00

We got up early & in heavy rain hooked up RV & headed for our next show, Country Folk Art Show at Longmont, Co. Looking forward to getting to Co as we are going to see our grandchildren, daughter, & son-in-law at Estes Park. We did not take the Interstate system & enjoyed the farm country of Indiana, Illinois, & Iowa. We traveled on hwy 36, 24, & 34. We ate lunch at a rest stop in the RV. We made it to our favorite Mexican restaurant Little Mexico in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. Who would believe in the middle of farm country one would find one of the best Mexican restaurants in the US. Anna the owner started this with help from a church group as she had come here from Guatemala. It is on hwy 34 west side of square in Mt Pleasant Iowa. If you are close this is worth the stop. We left here & drove late to Ottumwa, IA. & parked in a Wal-mart Super Center for the night.

June 3, 2007

2007-07-07T22:03:00.000-05:00

This was the last day of festival It was a better buying crowd & better weather. The show closed at 4PM & it took us about 2 hours to tear down. We enjoyed El Sombrero so much we ate their one more time. Back to the RV for a restful night of sleep as it rained most of the night.

June 2, 2007

2007-07-07T22:01:00.000-05:00

Sat. start of the Strawberry Festival. We started cooking soup samples & putting out dip samples around 8AM. The show opened at 9AM with a small crowd. We were below the levy, which was about 75’ above us. Strawberries & related items were plentiful as well as bratwurst and anything fried. This was not a true craft or art show, more a travel & eat show. I knew right off this was not going to make us much money. It was hot & humid being it was on the river. We depend on women to buy our products to take home to prepare for their families & friends. This was not our crowd. The show was to close for the night at 9PM. At 6PM a freak electric & wind storm hit. Lighting hit a tree less than 75 yards behind us sending a father & his 2 children to the hospital. Wind blew several tents off the levy onto the riverbanks below. Displays in one tent hit a crafter in the head.
The perils of out door shows. We closed our tent & left, lightning is not worth it. Glad our tent was a commercial one so that it didn’t blow away. The festival closed to the public 2 hours early due to lightning. Only good thing was we found as good if not better Mexican restaurant called El Sombrero on hwy 41. We ate our meal wet but the food was great.

June 1, 2007

2007-07-07T22:00:00.000-05:00

We ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel then drove into Troy, Ohio found the local fair grounds & unhooked our travel trailer. We paid around $22.00 for just electricity. Nice quiet place but a little pricey for what we got. Troy is north of Dayton, Ohio just off Interstate 75 on hwy 55. The site for the long running Strawberry Festival is on the levy & below the levy that joins the Great Miami River in a wonderful city park. If you have kids & are passing through Troy stop of & let your clan swim in the city pool. More water slides & water toys than major parks. There are great picnic places all through the park.
We were welcomed to Troy by a colorful downtown fountain jettisoning red water for the festival. There are wonderful Waco airplane statutes around the square designed by local artists. This is where you airplane buffs can go to the Waco museum the hometown where the famous Waco was built. This was what Willey Post & Will Rogers were flying when they crashed. We spent the afternoon setting up our display for selling & sampling in a rented tent, (usually we set up our own.) Ate at a wonderful Mexican restaurant on hwy 55 near downtown that night (La Fiesta).

May 30-31, 2007

2007-07-07T21:55:00.000-05:00

Start of our one- month trip to promote our Scott Farms line. Being that we were pressed for time JoAnna & I decided to take our least favorite route the Interstate system to Troy Ohio. We left Altus Ok in our Dodge dually diesel truck loaded with our products & displays pulling our 31 foot Terry travel trailer. We took Interstate 44 from Lawton Ok to St. Louis Mo with no eventful happenings. If you haven’t driven Interstate 44 make sure you have enough cash for the continuous tolls. (Especially if you are pulling a trailer) Also be ready to fight the heavy 18wheeler traffic. The main advantage driving the Interstate system is Flying J Travel Centers (For Rv’ers join the Reward Club for discounts & the advantage of pumping before paying also prices are usually the cheapest you will find.) Last but not the least is the Cracker Barrel Restaurant Chain. We usually plan our nightly stop at a Cracker Barrel around 8pm. Eat a relaxing & down home meal then go back to the RV fire up our generator put out our slide & spend the night in the RV bus parking spots. We then get up early & go eat one of their wonderful breakfasts. We stayed in the St. Louis area the first night but had hard time getting JoAnna out of the gift shop at Cracker Barrel (always buying something for the grandkids) I guess the money saved by not paying for RV spot makes it okay
.
Thursday morning we made our way through the construction maze to Interstate 70. Expect numerous delays around St. Louis & it takes two to determine what lane to be in & watch for crazy drivers especially if you are an Rv’er. Our goal was to get within 2 hours of Troy, Ohio by nightfall. We ended up just east of Indianapolis, Stopped at a Cracker Barrel for the night.