On to Fairfield…

Last time, I was complaining about the Tree Town Festival, and I’m done with that but I will mention one thing that happened as I was preparing to leave the following Monday. Most of the RVs had pulled out so there were only a few of us scattered here and there on the big grassy field. While I was in no hurry, I did notice that there was a honey truck roaming around and emptying holding tanks for RV’ers. So when the truck got to hooking up to the RV next to me, I went out and asked them how much they were charging, because ‘convenient’. Had to laugh when the guy told me they were asking $125. Literally, I laughed at the guy. He wasn’t surprised at that reaction however, had a bit of a crooked smile. Why was that funny? Because he and I both knew that less then 1/2 mile away were 4 dump stations that were free provided by Winnebago since we are on their property. And then 2 miles away in the town are free dump sites, at least 6 of them all in a row, all easy to get to, all free. So, yeah, wow, $125. Going to the dump sites might have cost some delay time due to lines, but from what I saw, not long at all. Well, it was only money. I really didn’t need mine dumped for that amount so I waited.

And then I had to decide whether I wanted to stay in town and gripe at Winnebago service for screwing up and charging me all that money ($1700 or so) and only sort of fixing my problems. I was pissed. But on the other hand, I’d only seen the rear slide pooch out once so far, maybe it’ll get better? I didn’t realize they didn’t fix the dash heat at this point. Too hot to need it anyway. Plus the heat pump A/C was working sooooo good, very quiet, smooth air flow, that I felt I might give them a little slack. Judgement call.

It’s the afternoon the day after the Festival, and I decided to stay in town and stay at the town’s RV park, spent the night just to check it out. Stayed two nights while I roamed the countryside and took pictures, all the while repeatedly checking on the bedroom slide. Which behaved.

Here’s a shot of the small town of Lake Mills, IA. Another small town in the mid-west that’s gotten to be over the top nationalistic. There’s nothing to indicate this is anything other than a flag display. I did tour around and there isn’t much here. There is another Winnebago factory but that’s about it. I had planned on visiting a cafe that had been recommended but didn’t find it.

After that short visit, headed back south along the highway towards Forest City and stopped at this public park along the road. It’s how you find most of the mid-west. Lots of water here and there. It’s amazing there’s soooo much water in this area. And I mean for hundreds of miles everywhere you look there’s more water. Which explains why it’s so green everywhere. Every few miles you see a pond or creek or river. This little park a few miles north of Forest City was very nice, great for kids…but lots of insects. There’s a big sign about how they are reclaiming this former farm land and making it a watershed and wildlife refuge again like it had been a couple hundred years ago. Good for them. Happening on both sides of the road. I believe this is the Winnebago River if I’m not mistaken. Upstream to the north. Downstream to the south.A big holding pond of the former farm. Man made but does serve a purpose to hold flood waters. These wetlands are very important to the ecology of the area, both for wildlife and for plant life and this swamp is part of the restoration they’re trying to do here. Not to mention helping provide clean water to the locals. I’ll have to imaging how bad it looked before they let it go back to natural wetlands. I spent two nights at the Forest City campgrounds, pretty nice little park. Can’t remember, but I think 50 amp? Water, but no sewer just nearby dump sites. Simple matter of stopping when I leave to dump my tanks…for free. And my BR slide still was behaving. But NO WIFI. I just went ahead and lived without it for those two days.

So, OK, I’ll continue on my trip over to Fairfield where I’d planned on heading and helping a friend work on her bus-to-RV conversion. I would still be in Iowa, I knew I had at least 60 days on the warranty for the rework but I sort of planned on heading up to Vermont to visit another friend I have up there, but even then I still felt I could make it back to Forest City within the 60 days if I felt like it. I also kind of felt the BR slide would sort itself out since new parts were installed. Decisions, decisions.

The check mark in the window is the mark they put on at the music festival and I repeatedly forgot to wash it off. Here’s a look at the Iowa countryside while heading east.

And then the GPS had me way out here in nowhere. The address my friend Cat had given me took me to right here. The address is just on the left in that grove of trees. But there’s no house there. Had to drive miles of dusty graveled roads like this one trying to find the place and finally giving up and heading back to the town of Fairfield which at this point was 6 miles away. But, got back to town, parked at the Burger King right on the highway, ordered food for dinner, called Cat and she met me at BK for dinner. Then guided me to her place.  And here I’m all snuggled in at Cat’s fathers business building. It’s just storage now. But Cat’s recently divorced so she’s living here in the offices. The bus we’ll be working on is there on the right.  The next day, she gave me a tour of the older nifty houses that are in this old town. This is the best one. It’s being restored as a historical museum but it wasn’t open while I was in town. This is the carriage house! Yes, this is where the horses had their stalls and where the carriages were kept. We were able to drive back behind it for a look. Gorgeous isn’t it? There’s a bunch of these neat older homes here in Fairview but few of them look as good as this one.

And back at Cat’s place I worked at getting those weeds knocked down and also added a 50 amp outlet so I could run the A/C. The satellite found a signal OK, but the phone wouldn’t pick up any of the local cell providers out here. We’re like 3 miles from downtown here.

I got a chuckle every time I passed this. ‘Suck up’! I guessed that brothers were involved and one brother was allowed to pick the business name. Hah!  And here’s her conversion project. Lots of work. Big leak on the engine. Seats are gone but nothing else has been done to the interior. She got it for $2000. And there’s $9000 in work needed. Not sure if she’s going to be able to handle it what with her physical limitations. I’ll try to help her out with it but I’m no expert at remodeling a bus-to-RV. Couple days later, we discovered an antique car show at the fairgrounds. So stopped in for a looksee. This is a big farm area so you’ll see mostly old trucks. Four wheel drives are very popular around here so you see lots of old jeeps from WWII. Some of these were really nice looking. Lots of work restoring these. Here’s an odd ball rig. Turned out the owner is from the ‘big city’ not from ’round here. These vehicles were famous for tipping onto their noses if you emergency braked for anything and didn’t have any weight in the truck bed. Ducks crossing the street? Boom, on it’s nose. HAH! Really in nice shape. Pretty! Here’s Cat giving me the ‘eye’. Maybe she’s a witch? Dunno.  So that was fun. Enjoyed that. Could have done without the humidity though. And the next day we’re working on water proofing the roof of the bus. I can’t get up there because my BP medicine makes me dizzy if I climb sometimes, and this work day was one of those times. But I helped Cat as much as I could from down below. First it gets a nice washing.

All the vinyl nomenclature had to be scraped off. Next day we’re back at it. This time she’s painting on the first coat of waterproof stuff. You only see pics of her, but I was working too. Notice it’s gotten darker and darker? That’s Iowa for you. A huge storm rolled in and we just got enough done and it dried enough that all that work wasn’t washed away.  And an hour later the rains came. Monsoon style rain. Buckets and buckets. But my RV seemed to weather it fine. No leaks. I opened my RV’s door and took this picture. Note that the door frame is in focus, but the rest is all due to the rain and how madly it was coming down. It’s not a focus issue, it’s just heavy heavy rain. That’s Iowa for you. After a couple hours it started to let up a little and you could see some light. Next day it looked like this, and time to finish up unfinished areas and for another coat on those already done. She’s saluting me! Ain’t that nice? And after 10 days at Cat’s house, it was time to dump my tanks and fill up with water. There’s a nice RV park just outside of town where I’d go. The spaces are pretty nice. All back in, but there’s lots of trees and grass. No Wifi though. Here I am at the free dump station where I’d fill my water tank too.And a turtle digging a nest! That’s pretty cool.  I was there about 4 weeks helping as best I could. Left near the end of June. The job is huge though and I know she wasn’t able to meet her ‘ready to move into and live in before winter’ schedule as I write this in October. I don’t think she realized what a monumental task it was/is. Not only is there much to do to make it livable and drive-able, but being one lone woman with physical difficulties also has it’s disadvantages. I wish her luck, but I couldn’t stay there for months.

Next time, we travel from Iowa back to Idaho. A fun trip in fair weather trying to get a bit north and out of the humidity. Why Idaho? Well, because I’ve never visited the Snake River for more than a few minutes. That’s why. So join me next time!

Thanks for reading.