Our decision to scrap the hitch and platform we had just installed was a good, but expensive decision. Live and learn. We pulled into Overbilt Lifts Thursday afternoon and they installed a lift Friday. Art and Darlene Boice own and operate the business and Art designed the lifts. He also designed and builds trailers for towing toys (cycles, scooters, ATVs) with the trailer serving as a dolly to tow cars or pickups. Art and his crew did an excellent job replacing our hitch, mounting the lift and wiring the lift motor. A twist of a knob lowers the platform so the scooter rolls on easy and another twist of the knob raises the platform and scooter to traveling height.

Hyde Park, NY

Art let us spend four nights in his parking lot so we could tour the Hudson River Valley area. In Hyde Park, NY, on the beautiful Hudson River, Frederick and Louise Vanderbilt built their summer mansion on a 600-acre estate. Frederick was the son of William Henry Vanderbilt and the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt - both the richest men in America in their time. A staff of about 60 maintained the house, grounds and farm while the Vanderbilts spent summers in their other mansions or cruised the world on their yacht. The 50-room Hyde Park mansion was finished in 1898 and was decorated with articles and furnishings from London, Paris, Florence, Rome and Venice. Today the mansion and its contents remain unchanged from the time the Vanderbilts lived there. Plan at least two hours to visit the grounds and tour the house.

Also on the Hudson River in Hyde Park is found Springwood, home of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who was elected to four terms as President of the United States. Actually, the estate was owned by Franklin's father James, and after his death by Franklin's mother Sara, but F.D.R. lived there much of his life and called it home. He was born in the house and when he married Anna Eleanor Roosevelt in 1904 they lived in the house with mother. The President and his wife are buried in the rose garden near the house. Also on the grounds is the FDR Presidential Library. It is unique in that it is the only Presidential Library that was designed by and used by a sitting President. Plan about three hours to tour the house and library. We had an excellent tour of the house led by a well informed Park Ranger.

We wanted to stay longer in New York but we were on a mission to see the Spam Museum (not computer spam, Spam you eat) and the Jolly Green Giant, both located in southern Minnesota. In Pennsylvania we stopped at a rest area off I-80 and Norm was approached by a truck driver. The nice man wanted to know if we wanted an ice cream. He had made a delivery to a supermarket and they refused some of the ice cream because one half-gallon was missing a lid and another box of eight had been dropped. The truck driver said we could have the ice cream since he was required to dump it. We took four half-gallons of delicious Breyers ice cream and thanked him - wish we had taken more.

Crossing Ohio we got off the interstate and drove highway U.S. 30 - the old Lincoln Highway. In VanWert we stopped at the Wal-Mart to overnight and were immediately greeted by a gentleman welcoming us to VanWert. (Nice people in that town.) We walked to a Chinese restaurant and ate a buffet complete with salads, soups, all-you-can-eat Chinese, deserts and hot tea, all for $6.25 each. The food was delicious but the restaurant was nearly empty and we wondered why - then we saw why. In front of the Chinese restaurant were three fast food restaurants - McDonald's, Wendy's and Dairy Queen. Each restaurant had a line of cars circling their parking lots ending at the drive-through windows. From the end cars we figured there was at least a twenty minute wait to get a flat tasting burger and greasy fries. Those customer could have parked their cars, walked in the Chinese restaurant and been served immediately for the same price of a burger, fries and coke. We must be from a different generation because we will never sit in line especially for a burger.

After seven days of boondocking we decided to stop in a campground and get caught up on laundry. We have enough clothes, underwear, socks and towels to boondock fourteen days, but it is nice to do laundry weekly and we gave our Sears washer and dryer workouts. We stopped in Joliet, IL and drove the Honda into Chicago to visit Norm's nephew David Martin, his wife Christy and Norm's nephew Eric Martin. We had a nice visit and were treated to Chicago style deep dish pizza.

SPAM Museum

Austin Minnesota - SPAMTOWN USA had been near the top of our list of things to see in the USA and we finally got there. George A. Hormel founded the Geo. A. Hormel & Co. in 1891 and today it is known as Hormel Foods Corporation. A processor of pork, the company started producing SPAM canned luncheon meat in 1937 and they furnished their product to soldiers in World War II. A new 16,500 square-foot SPAM Museum opened in 2001 and gives the histories of the Hormel company and of course SPAM. The tour began with a 15-minute movie about SPAM and continues with sophisticated exhibits and displays throughout the museum. It may surprise you but SPAM is produced from the best cuts of pork. In the gift shop visitors can choose from an unbelievable selection of SPAM items. Plan about one and a half hours to tour the museum which is located just south of exit 178B on I-90.

The Storm

Those of you who have followed our travels the last few months may be tired of our complaining about bad weather. Other than six weeks in south Florida we have had cold, wet and windy weather since last September. (That is eight months.) But we have one more story to tell. After traveling from NY to southern Minnesota we wanted to have weather nice enough to play a few rounds of golf and ride the new scooter. The weather the entire trip was terrible.

After visiting the SPAM Museum we went to Big Kmart to boondock for the night. As we arrived about 3:00 p.m. a cold front came through with heavy rain and strong wind. It continued that way until we went to bed about midnight. The wind was so strong the motorhome rocked even with the leveling jacks down and we didn't pay much attention to that but then it started jumping up and down. That is frightening.

The downpour and high winds continued all day the next day. Our windows have vent or drain holes in the bottoms and wind was blowing water through the holes and into the motorhome. It was so windy water was spitting about six inches out of the holes and on the sofa, carpet and bed. Norm braced himself and held the door with both hands and tried to open it. The wind jerked the door open and also jerked him outside bruising his hip.

Then the patio awning unfurled several inches. It was rolled up tight and the arms were still intact, but the wind was so strong the awning was unfurling. We tied it down and came back in the motorhome. Linda could not pull the door closed so she sat on the steps, braced herself and pulled hard as she could on the door. The wind pulled her forward and the door slammed on her big toe. She got her toe out and finally got the door closed. Her toe was not broken, just cut bad and bruised. We never boondock in a parking lot more than one night but we broke the rule this time as there was no way we would drive in winds like that.

Family in Minnesota

Before leaving southern Minnesota we visited Gerald and Margaret Melcher, parents of daughter-in-law Sandy Melcher Payne. And of course we had to see the Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth.

Before going to St. Cloud, Minnesota to visit Norm's oldest son's family, we called St. Cloud Campground and RV Park to make reservations because they are only a few miles away. The campground told us they had a big rally coming in for the weekend so they could not accept our discount membership. The campground gets free advertising through Coast to Coast but they do not allow campers to use the discount in their campground. Since 2000, every time we have called the campground (Spring, Summer, Fall) we get the same canned speech about a big rally. This time we drove to the campground on their "supposed" big rally weekend and found the campground to be less than half full. We will ask the Coast to Coast membership park system to remove this park from their membership list because they do not honor discounts.

In Sartell, Minnesota (near St. Cloud) we visited Norm's son Troy, his wife Sandy and their two beautiful, smart, intelligent, witty and sweet sons Luke and Logan. Yes, we love to brag about them. Logan, age 4, watched Norm replace a dirty water filter in the motorhome and connect a hose to the house to fill the motorhome with water. Logan studied the proceedings and then said, "You are adding water so you can take a bath, wash dishes and flush the commode. You had to change the filter because it got dirty and when you add more water the new filter will get dirty again. If we listen we can tell when the tank is full and turn it off before it overflows." Now, this was a four years old talking and he was not familiar with motorhomes. He just figured it all out. Luke, age 6, was busy studying how the grass got wet in the morning even though it did not rain. Soon he discovered how temperature and humidity play their roles in the process. Hey, I told you they are smart kids.

Troy is a neurologist and he took off a four day weekend to spend time with us. We parked our home in front of their home so the boys could walk to our "truck house" as they call it. Both boys spent two nights with us and we had a great time playing games and making crafts. Luke had spent his first night away from home three years ago in our "truck house" and this time Logan spent his first night away from home with us. We hated to leave as we only get to see them twice a year and the visits are never long enough. When the boys get older we'll take them with us to tour some national parks.

May Wrap Up

Leaving Minnesota we drove highway US 52 south through the beautiful farms in eastern Iowa along the Mississippi River. After visiting most of the states we think that part of Iowa has the most beautiful farms in the country. Rolling hills are shaded different hues of green from various crops while immaculate farm houses, barns and silos are placed every few hundred acres. Often we drove through the middle of farm complexes. We did not take any pictures for our website because in the summer of 2005 we plan to travel the Great River Road from New Orleans to the headwaters of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota. At that time we will write about the large cities, interesting small towns and the beauty along the River Road.

But there is one item that needs mentioning. We seldom travel interstate highways because we like to leisurely travel back roads through small towns and often stop to eat with the locals. In Garnavillo, Iowa (population 754), we stopped on the main street in front of the library and walked back one block to Thoma Dairy Bar Cafe for breakfast. We both ordered two eggs, toast with jelly and unlimited coffee. The cost for both meals and drinks was $4.00. That is an all time low for eating in a restaurant but we'll keep stopping in small towns and we bet we can break that record.

There is one more week in May and we are scheduled to attend the Spartan Rally in Charlotte, Michigan, but we will write about it next month. We will attend two major rallies in June so we plan to report on all three rallies together.

After leaving Louisville the last day of April we encountered rain, cold weather and wind 14 of the first 15 days. We had planned to use our new scooter for sightseeing but the average daily high temperature was 58 degrees and the nightly lows averaged 38 degrees. With so much rain and terrible weather we seldom used the scooter.

Flying J supports RVers by offering needed services at their Travel Plazas. As we have done many times before, we stopped at the Flying J in LaSalle, IL and filled the motorhome with diesel fuel, LP gas and fresh water, then we dumped our holding tanks. We pulled the motorhome forward and filled the fuel tank in the Honda CR-V, then went inside and ate lunch. If needed we could have used their phone line to do email or surf the net. Flying J gives RVers a 1 cent a gallon discount on fuel and a 5 cent per gallon discount on propane.

By the end of May we will have boondocked 23 days and used campgrounds 8 days. That not only saved campground fees but allowed us to travel and stop at a leisurely pace. This fulltiming lifestyle is great.