The Best Laid Plans…

We arrived at our first appointed destination, Winnebago in Forest City, Iowa, parked the RV on Sunday night and checked into the hotel in Forest City that allows pets. Winnebago has a great policy of pulling your RV into the service bay each morning and then pulling it out each evening so you can sleep aboard, but we did not take advantage of it. We felt that putting a cat into a carrier for 8 hours a day, 3 or 4 days in a row, would drive us, Nora, and all those around us crazy in no time. So the Super 8 it was for 4 planned days.

Shortly after we got to the room, I asked Patti if she knew where Nora was. We couldn’t find her. In a hotel room. A small hotel room. After a not insignificant search we located her in one of the box springs. She had crawled up into it through a rip in the liner. She eventually came out bearing a face full of dust. Good times.

We dropped Sybil on Monday morning with our long list of fixes. And we were now on our own in the thriving metropolis that is Forest City. Then we got a phone call that sort of changed our plans. Patti had a family emergency in Baltimore. Tuesday we decided that she should fly out there and we made the arrangements. (Side note: we had previously discussed this contingency and what we would do, so we had already done some planning in our minds. The fact that we were only two hours from a major airport helped, but we discovered the joys of buying a last minute ticket. Now there’s an unexpected expense for ya). Wednesday I drove Patti to the airport in the Twin Cities and then it was just me and Nora. In a hotel room. More good times.

Thursday I picked up the coach, which had actually been ready Wednesday but Winnebago graciously allowed me to leave it with them (plugged in, no less!) while I did the airport run. The plan was to hunker down at a Forest City Park right next to the Winnebago River until Patti returned, but a flash flood warning killed that idea. It worked out for the best, however, since I found a gorgeous site at Pilot Knob State Park just outside of town. I moved the RV, retrieved Nora from the hotel, and spent 4 nights there. It rained much less than forecast so I was able to take several nice walks. I also drove a few miles and checked out the Buddy Holly Crash Site where the plane containing him, the Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens crashed on “The Night The Music Died”. Youngsters: ask your parents. It was a nice walk and kind of interesting. These weird, off the beaten path things are our bread and butter.

Sunday rolled around and I repeated the round trip run to Minneapolis-St. Paul to retrieve Patti. The next morning we rose early, did our travel day preps, and hit the road for the long but easy drive to the middle of nowhere South Dakota.

Yeah, that didn’t happen as planned.