The World According to Dave-The reefer guy
I know what you're thinking, but Dave isn't THAT kind of reefer guy,
he's the one who can put our fridge back in working order!
Our marathon trip back to Elkhart began in Cody, WY. Our route took us through the town of Emblem, populatin 10, then through the Bighorn mountains, which are beautiful and the Shell River running beside the highway is full of rapids and falls. Granite Pass is over 9,000 ft. and is loaded up with switchbacks, but they are working on straightening it out for all of us. At the base of the mountains the landscape turns to prairie, complete with some oil wells. Blew by Sturgis, SD...only a few groups of motorcyclists could be seen. At the rest stops in SD you can rent cd's for $20 that are full of SD history, then you just mail it back & they refund all but $5. A great deal.
The landscape is quite varied in SD, from the Black Hills to grassland, but unfortunately you can't see too much from I-90. Fifty miles west of Sioux Falls the land changes again, looking suspiciously 'midwest'. At the Minnesota border lots of trees started appearing and their corn is about 6" tall. I personally love the look of midwest family farms, neat & tidy with houses that I'm sure contain honest, hard-working people whose families have lived on the same land for generations. It's really a comforting feeling, despite the struggle it must be to maintain that way of life. We drove past the Hormel Plant in Austin, MN, which is home to the 'Spam Mmmuseum'.
There must be someone who thinks it's tasty. The choices for RV parks just inside Wisconsin were rather slim, but we found one at West Salem, the Neshonoc Lakeside Camping Resort. This place is a mini-city, with pools, spas, store, gamerooms, and I kid you not, they even had a DJ(it was Saturday night). There are 274 sites at this park, as well as cabins and park models, but there is lots of room between sites. Continued on to Elkhart, encountering awful traffic in the Chicago area due primarily to road construction. And the toll roads are interesting to say the least.
Set up at 'Holmes on Wheels' in Elkhart so that we could be available to Dave Holmes, the RV fridge guru. Now Dave is a one-man operation, so it was extremely handy that William was able to assist him. Otherwise we might still be there, as Dave definitely has the gift for gab, therefore slowing the repair process down considerably. Worked until about 9pm to get the fridge back in place, then we sat in the parking lot in lawn chairs discussing all things RV. Dave has a unique perspective on the economic situation in Elkhart. I'm sure you remember 'the O' going to Elkhart to drive home the unemployment problems in that city. Since it is the RV manufacturing capital of the US, it now suffers over a 17% unemployment rate. There are shuttered restaurants, stores, RV dealers, and lots of for sale signs on homes. Dave has been able to weather the storm by stepping back to a one-man operation. It's good to be the only person who is an expert in this particular field. But he worries about his city, his friends, his family. In that respect he's just like all the rest of us; which really drove home the fact that we are all in this economic state together.
The wonderful thing is that he still is optimistic despite what his community is going through. While I was sipping my Cosmo and listening to Dave discuss all manner of things with Wm I caught something out of the corner of my eye. Could it be? Yes, there it was again-I blurted out 'lightening bugs!'. According to Dave they've come a little early this year...like magical little fairies flashing in the tall grasses. I love trying to figure out where they'll flit to next. We could all use a little magic right now, so if it comes in the form of fireflies I'll take that as a good sign...
Signing off from the road,
Cathy & William
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