Holland, Michigan and Home

We left Council Bluffs and headed back on I80 across Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and finally to Holland Michigan. We had filled up with gas at a Sam's Club in Omaha, NE at $3.749 a gallon. As we got into Indiana, I needed fuel again and suffered sticker shock....$4.159 a gallon. I put in enough to get us to Holland hoping it might be cheaper there......NOT! I was forced to fill up at $4.299 a gallon, a $280 fill-up!

Holland was nice, though the tulips were not quite yet in full bloom. We did tour Windmill Island which features a genuine windmill disassembled in the Netherlands and reassembled in Holland Michigan. It is a working windmill and the tour was very informative. We also checked out Dutch Village and got a demonstration on how wooden shoes are made, as well as a candle making/decorating demo and some insight into how the Dutch lived. Very interesting.

We packed up about 5:00 pm and made our way toward Frankenmuth Michigan, about 150 miles east on the other side of Michigan. We pulled into Pine Ridge campground around 9:30 and settled in for the night. It was quite chilly with temps around 40 and windy.

Tuesday morning Barb did some laundry while I did some maintenance on the RV. We left the campground around 11:00 and went to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, the world's largest Christmas store, so they say. It IS huge! We (Barb) shopped till about 12:30 and drove aroung Frankenmuth for awhile before going to Zehnders Restaurant for a great chicken dinner served country style. It was delicious and quite filling.

After dinner (lunch?) we went back to Bronner's, where we had left the motorhome, hooked up and were on the road by 2:45, this time pointed for Pennsylvania. The weather was cloudy and cool with occassional light rain. We stopped at a Flying J just across the border in PA and got enough fuel to get home. The price was $3.999 a gallon. We spent the night in Walmart in Clarion PA, and a chilly night it became.

Somewhere during the night, we ran out of propane, so it was a bit chilly when we got up Wednesday morning. A quick breakfast at Perkin's nearby and we took off on the last leg of the trip. We got home about 1:30. It was good to be home, except for all the work looking at us. Oh well, that's the price you pay if you want to play.

NEBRASKA!!!

WE MADE IT! Yesterday morning we crossed the Missouri River into Nebraska at 9:45 am. The weather was cloudy and cool, but the sun soon came out and it was a beautiful day, though a bit windy. We spent about four hours at the Omaha Zoo before heading towards Lincoln and the Strategic Air & Space Museum.

The zoo was nice and had some unique attractions like the Desert Dome, a geodesic glass dome with many desert displays. Also the aquarium was pretty neat with a 'tunnel' through the water.

The Air & Space Museum was neat with two hangars of old planes and a NASA display of Mercury and Apollo test capsules. It was very small compared to the museum in Dayton Ohio, but interesting just the same.

We had dinner at a Cracker Barrel outside Omaha before going back to Council Bluffs and the same Walmart parking lot we spent the night in on Friday. The Walmart near Omaha was just too busy and small to spend the night.

We're packed and ready to hit the road again, pointing the motorhome back East toward Holland, Michigan. It's about 580 miles and we will try to make it in one day. Should be doable, since we will be on I80 all the way. So, have a fine Sunday and talk to you soon.

Love, Pap & Gram