Stu & Tippy's Travels: 08/17/2008

Devils Lake, ND to Nebraska City, NE

We have spent the past few days working our way south from North Dakota. We really enjoyed North Dakota and found it to be a beautiful state. If anyone tells you to avoid North Dakota because it is just a wasteland tell them to forget it, it is just beautiful!

We did an overnight just west of Fargo in the town of Casselton, ND where my Grand Father was born. We then drove to Sioux Falls, SD where we spent two days relaxing and enjoying the wonderful weather. Today, Wednesday, August 20th, we drove to Nebraska City, NE. We followed I-29 south from Sioux Falls, SD into Iowa and followed the Misouri River for a bit which is the border between Nebraska and Iowa. Our RV Park is in Nebraska but is only a couple of miles from Iowa.

Tomorrow we will drive to Columbia, MO which will leave only a short jaunt into St. Charles, MO on Friday. No pictures with this report but we will make up for it when we see Florence and her folks. Be safe.

Minot and Devils Lake, ND

We had a great time in Minot, ND, a wonderful drive to Devil’s Lake, ND, and another great time in Devils Lake. We have heard so many negative stories about North Dakota that we were a little afraid to make the effort to get here. Well let me tell you that we have been very impressed with North Dakota! The countryside is very pleasant with gentle rolling hills and large tracts of hay bales and wheat fields and even a few corn fields.

I played golf three days in a row if you can imagine. Hawktree in Bismarck was a good course and Souris Valley G.C. and the Minot C.C. in Minot were both great courses. I had the good fortune of playing with my friend Wes Plummer while in Minot and he and his wife Jane were nice enough to take us out to dinner, give us a tour of the city, and then to their home for dessert before they took us back to our coach.

We had a pleasant drive of about 125 miles from Minot to Devils Lake, ND. Our site at the Spirit lake Resort is the best we have had on the trip and the price was right at $22 per night. We have a partial view of the lake, trees for shade, and enough space between the trees to receive satellite TV. Yesterday, Friday, I hired a fishing guide and fished for Walleyes on Devils Lake. I met him at the resort marina at 7:30 and we were on the water a short time later. We trolled deep for the Walleye and were very fortunate to get our limit, five each, and also caught numerous White Bass and two nice Northern Pike. We probably caught and released 40 small Walleye which speaks well for the future of this fishery. We got back to the marina and cleaned the fish and I got back to the coach before 2:00. Friday evening we grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and enjoyed a wonderful evening. Tonight, Saturday, we will have fish and get ready to drive to Fargo, ND tomorrow.

On Saturday we drove to Sully’s Hill National Game Preserve which is a drive through Animal Park and is part of the U.S. Forest Service Refuge program. We went to the Visitors Center to get our free passport, Golden Age Card, and a map of the park. We took the Devils Lake Loop which provided a wonderful view of the lake but we saw no animals. We then drove the Sully Hill loop with no luck there either. We then drove into the Prairie Dog Town and guess what, we saw Prairie Dogs! We got a couple of pictures and headed back to the coach.

Couldn’t send this from Devils Lake as they have no wireless and we have no Sprint service so I will send this from Fargo on Sunday afternoon, sorry for the delay. More from Fargo, enjoy the pics and be safe.