This is our friday sightseeing trip. We went west to the worlds largest wind farm with over 250 +. According to the book, they will generate electricity for over 70,00 households. That is serious electricital generation. Makes our 740 amp battery storage really small. We are going to live off of these batteries for the next 4 days atleast. There is a city dump for us and we find water here at the super center. We will dump our tanks tomorrow and get water probably Sunday.
We carry 70 gallons of water and we have a grey tank of 58 gallons and a black tank of 42 gallons. If we put enough water into the black tank, we will not fill the grey tank. We are able to go 4 days now, if we get a bit more conservative, we can go 5 days. After 5 days, its to water tight for me.
The blades are 80 ft long. The towers are over 150 ft. Something to see, so we took pics for all

Here is "Tom Cat" watching for the birds outside of his new front yard.
These were taken Thursday evening after dinner. it was startingto get dark and the wind has finally subsided. He is watching the birds fly over the rv. He is slowely adapting to traveling. He is still quite shy, or afraid, of things outside of the rv.

Here is the lake that the city is built around. The lake is a 3300 acre natural lake. We arrived late in the day and went on to the super center for the night.

Here is "Tom Cat" checking out the birds in his new front yard.
We left the campground around 9:30 am and headed up IA 4 to US 71 and Lake View for a stop at their city park. Once we got there, we dropped the car and Shirley drove and took a peek at what was there, etc. She came back and said the park was a full RV campground around the lake. It was $11.50 for tent site, as everything else was reserved. For a full hookupit was $17.00. We drove the RV up there to see and passed on the campground. It was pretty as the campground was built around the city lake. but, as Tioga George would say, "people pay for this". Much to crowded. Soon we went to the next stop.
The town of Early has a park listed for camping. We found the park but there were not any sites for RV parking. There is a roadside park just south of town but no overnight parking allowed. There is a nearby rvpark there. We ahd lunch here as it was now past 1pm.
On to Storm Lake we went. Now this is a pretty town. More to come with pics.

Today is travel day. We left the campground around 9:30 am. We first stopped Lake View and dropped the car to check out their city park. There is a listing for camping. The city has converted this into a full blown rv park with hookups, and a nice sized lake view. Their rates are $11.50 for a tent site, $17.00 for full hook ups. A very nice typical "packed together" park. As Tioga George would say, "people pay for this"?
We traveled to Early and stopped for lunch and thought about staying the night. We got there about noon and looked for a place at the city park. There was no place set aside for parking and camping. Somewhere in the bookmarks is a camping listing. No such thing exists.
We went on to our planned stayover thru the 4th at Storm Lake, Ia. This is the prettiest place we have seen so far in our travels. They have a 3300 acre natural lake wich the city is built around. The city set aside land for numerous parks which one can drive and park and get a view of the lake. See here for the city web page. More and pics tomorrow.

Todays day trip was to the town of Menlo which is west of us about 5 miles, 10.5 from our park. They have a campground there in town and it comes with elec. Water is available if you park close enough or have a loooong hose. I only saw one water outlet. The elec is 20 amp only. Cute little park for $5.00 a day. Can probably handle 10 rv's with back-in parking and some pull thru if its not crowded. There was only one 5th wheel there today.
There is no dump available. nearest dump is our location or .....?
This is the methodist church in town. built something like a fort. We thought it was rather unusual building.

If it will stop raining so we can get out , and get a signal, we will find something for all you readers to see and read!
IT STOPPED RAINING!!! About 11 am it quite and we went for a drive. We went to Dexter which is 5 mi from Stuart, 11.5 mi from the park. Not a lot to say about Dexter. It is another small town which is dying from the lack of business. Our mobile society has been he demise of many a town.
On the trip over and back, we saw some very pretty country side. This part of Iowa is the hill country. Lots and lots of hills, cows and corn. They have another crop growing but I have no idea what it is.
And we say a well landscaped home with lots of small pines and a well cut yard. the road frontage had to be 300 ft and it was just pretty. Sorry, we could not get a picture.
We went to the local restaurant for lunch. The place is on the south bound side of I80 at the Stuart . The menu must have been 8 pages and they served everything. The food was very good. If anyone is passing this way, stop and have breakfast, lunch or dinner. Dont buy the gas there, it was 2.15 per gallon today. It is 7 cents cheaper in town.
We will be here one more day and then it is off to MN somewhere. We are looking at the map and avalable places to stay, such as parks, fair grounds and state parks. We have to go into some of the places in the car to be sure there is a turn around and no low limbs. We have turned down some places because of the above.

We came here to see the wildlife as well as the scenery. But, there has been no wildlife here untill late in the day.
I took this pic for ya. Shirley is "po" as there "aint no animals!"

And this is the town of stuart, IA with its renouned police station. Th caption is over the front door. We found the wind generator south of tpwn by I80. It is a cute little town of "1600 good eggs and a few stinky ones". This motto is on the town found on the city limits listing the population.

We are going for a day trip. We are 5 miles from I80 and the town of Stuart. Going to see the town today and make it to the store.
I put gas in the tank, $97.27 and 46.254 gallons. We last gassed up in Mexico, MO on 6/14. Our mileage is 69330 at the station and 69440 at the park. We are making every attempt to keep our fuel, parking and eat out budget under control. Our fuel is $154.58, parking is 213.26 thru the last stop (this stop is $10.00 a day) and $97.44 to eat out. We have budgeted $300 for rv gas, $160 for parking and $40 to eat out. This month should be a normal month as we do not have to wait somewhere for parts for the rv. It was batteries in Jackson and we stayed free for days waiting on the batteries. The batteries were for the solar system which is all good except its too hot (90's) to not use ac.

And it was a nice camp site that we really liked. Even thou it was a back end, it worked for us. We dropped the dolly and backed it in. Our furry traveling companion was content with the site too. He took a nap and I took his picture.

We went for a drive to the Guthrie County Conservation Center, Nations Bridge Park, about 15 miles west of our current location. It was listed in the Iowa Travel Guide for Gutherie County. It is a pretty park with lots of RV parking and tent sites among the trees. All this along a stretch of the Raccoon River which is swollen from the rains of the last few days. The camp host told us they got 2" of rain last night. As you can tell, we did find a nice place to park, above the high water mark.