Klinger Musings: September 21-23, 2020 The Winnebago Experience

Sept 21, Monday

We were up at 6:00 AM to get ourselves ready to take the RV to the Winnebago Service Center. Everyone is supposed to be there by 7:00 AM. We have an appointment - so we will definitely be seen. But other people arrive without appointments and are on a first come, first serve basis. We got there and a lady gave a little speech about how they would handle the COVID -19. They have not had any problems because they are following careful procedures. We are to enter and they will take our temp we can sanitize our hands, then a tech will talk with us. And we get a wristband that indicates we have been checked. Next they take the RV to the shop and spray it (with sanitizer). When we pick up the RV it will have been sprayed again. OK, sounds good. We leave the RV in their capable hands and head out in the pickup with the dogs. We drove to Thorpe Conservation park, which had a few camping spots, a little pond and a cabin that could be rented.

Sunrise from the Winnebago Courtesy Camping spot
You won't see many of these from me!

Pond at Thorpe Conservation Park

Cabin to Rent

Contact for cabin rental

Next we drove to Crystal Lake. This is a really nice little spot. There is a nice campground there with a lake and boat ramp. We walked around by the lake and explored the campground. The dogs loved it there because there was lots of lush grass and squirrels! They also have disc golf here - if you are interested in that.

After that we decided to drive to Clear Lake, IA. This is the Buddy Holly crash site. We found the memorial. There is a path through the cornfield and you can walk to it. The dogs really enjoyed all our exploring. It was starting to warm up and getting close to lunch, so the next stop was Wendy’s to get a lunch salad and a frosty. Yum!

We've seen a lot of this grass! I think it's really pretty.

Windmill we saw on our driv

If you look closely - you see a little shed/cabin by th pond

Pumpkins for sale!

By then, it was about time to return to Forest City and check back on the RV at Winnebago. The tech talked to us about the jacks and what he did to adjust them. He didn’t seem to think they were much of a problem. But the Slide Ram was another deal. First of all, since our RV is older, the part will have to be made and it will be about 4 weeks before that is done. So he explained all that and encouraged us to think it over and let them know in the morning what we want to do. We returned the RV to the Winnebago parking area (with electric site) and had a snack and a nap. Later we picked up supper at A & W and then watched football.

Sept 22, Tuesday

Today we got up a little later, about 8:00 AM. Then after breakfast and walking the dogs, we returned to the Winnebago service center. We talked to the tech again and he said to hang around town and they will find out about the cost of the part and other details. So we went and got some cash, washed the pickup and stopped at the grocery store. We also took the dogs on a walk in the town park - Pammel park.

Bridge at Pammel Park

Weird animal

We saw a weird animal in a tree and I have no idea what it was. It was not a squirrel! We were back for lunch at the RV. Steve did some computer research about the RV part we needed. Then about 3:00 PM we went back to Winnebago and paid a down payment for the part and returned to the RV for supper. The part is supposed to cost about $1000 and then approximately $1000 for installation. OK, well that is cheaper than a different RV. We finished the evening with a walk and some TV.

Sept 23, Wednesday

After our usual morning routine we hook up the pickup and headed south on I-35. Left Winnebago (Forest City, IA) about 10 AM. It was a pretty nice drive. We stopped for the night at Liberty, MO (outside Kansas City, MO) for the night at a very crowded RV Park. We did a little walk and pretty much stayed inside. We did watch some TV. There wasn’t a good place to walk the dogs and this place kind of creeped me out. There are lots of people living here full time and I am not sure that all of them are behaving themselves. LOL The name of the place is Millers Kampark Campground. The people in the office were nice, but the sites were very tight. We will pick another place next time.