10th Anniversary On The Road (Sturgis, SD)

In May 2009, we sold our house with most of our belongings in it and started traveling in our motorhome.  Hard to believe that we have been full-timing for 10 years!  Let's see if we can do another 10 years before we retire from the road.

Leaving Albuquerque May 2009

This seems to be the year for record-breaking weather throughout the US.  We have managed to be in a couple of the areas with higher than normal heat indexes during fall/winter in Florida and the cold, not to mention, very soggy spring in South Dakota.  We have been very lucky during our 10 years of traveling when it comes to weather.  No complaints about what we have experienced over the years.  

Just a couple of weeks ago, we woke to 5 inches of snow in Piedmont.  Not too bad considering the other areas in the Black Hills received over 10 inches.  Welcome Spring?

Dusty, of course, had to be convinced several times during the day that the snow was not gone by opening the door for him.  He would stand on the steps, look around, and stomp back in with his back twitching.  He looked very depressed at times.  Then he figured out he did not have to walk in snow if he jumped from the bottom step to the underside of the coach.  What a smarty cat! 😸

We moved to Sturgis a week ago.  The weather is starting to improve and the Sturgis RV Park is a little more sheltered from the wind, but we are still exposed to hail from severe thunderstorms.

This storm came down fast and furious with nickel-size hail.  It was deafening to have it hit directly on our roof and yes, we did end up with some damage to two of our vent covers and a side signal light.  I'm just glad we were not driving and the hail did not get bigger!

We have been getting flood alerts to stay away from the creeks during the storms.  A couple of days ago, the downpour developed several runoffs on the hill behind us. 

We are not in any danger of our coach being in high water, but it was amazing to see how fast the campground turned into one big muddy pond.

On a brighter note, we spent one sunny day driving through Spearfish Canyon.  A good time to visit some of the waterfalls in the area.  Our first stop was at the Roughlock Falls Nature Area with easy paved walking trails and plenty of viewing decks.

Roughlock Falls

There is some green vegetation, but the trees haven't quite filled out yet.  I bet the Fall colors are spectacular in the Canyon.

Roughlock Falls

 I loved the view looking in the other direction from the falls.  Look at those canyon walls and imagine trying to travel through here with a wagon and horses.

I had to have some photos of the wildlife.  We did not see a lot of activity.  Just a few deer near the road.  

Baltimore Oriole

No luck with sighting a Mountain Goat, but I did get a good kink in my neck.  Saw a mouse, sort of.  I did know that I had company in the bathroom until the field mouse ran to the door.   By the time I turned around, he was halfway under the door.  All I saw was a furry grey behind, a tail, and two back feet scrambling fast to squeeze under the door.

Dan spotted this feathered guy eating a berry in the tree.  I was hoping he would clean his beak for his photo op.  Oh well, the berry did match his feathers.

He did pose and did not look alarmed to see me walking closer to him.

Yes!  I am a pretty boy!  Did you get my good side?

The chipmunk wasn't skittish either.  He ran down the sidewalk in front of us.  I tried to get a photo of him running with his tail straight up, but he was too fast for me.

We played peek-a-boo in the grass until he decided sitting on a rock would be better to keep an eye on me while he munched some food.

We stopped at Spearfish Falls but decided not to walk down to the lower end of the falls.  The last stop was at the Bridal Veil Falls.  This one can be seen from the highway as you drive by, but it still makes for a nice stop.

Bridal Veil Falls

My fingers are crossed that the warm weather will hold out so we can enjoy more of the area.

On The Cutting Board
I had my own record-breaking moment this year.  I haven't worked on a single quilt project since we left Florida in February.  Well, I have been embroidering on quilt blocks, but no sewing, cutting, or quilting.  No New Projects!  That is the longest I have gone without quilting in over 20 years.  I'm trying to finish projects that I have started before starting others, but it doesn't seem to be working out too well.

I was stuck big time with the quilt blocks below.  The pinwheel blocks were driving me crazy, so I just put them aside where I could see them every morning and growl at them.  I could not get the points together or get the blocks sewed to the correct size which is 4.5 inches.  Talk about some wonky looking blocks!  I thought about sewing them by hand and just could not find enough energy to make and mark new pieces to sew together.  Finally, I decided to paper piece the block.  I made my own pattern in EQ7 since they did not have a pinwheel-on-point block.  It took me a couple of tries to figure out why the seams were not laying right.  Once I got the sequence correct, the blocks ironed flat.

Soooo much better!  I turned our snow day in Piedmont into my quilt day and set up 4 stations and managed to finish 20 of the 35 blocks needed for the quilt.  Plus, I got a few steps in walking from the bedroom to the living area.

I'm still working on my A to Zzz Snowman quilt.  Here is R for Reindeer....

and my favorite block - Q for Quilts.  I did not realize until I started working on this one that the word 'Quilt' was not included in the block's pattern.  

I'm tempted to add it in using letters from the other blocks.  I'll have to think about that one.

In the meantime, we better get the cats outdoors.  They know it is nice outside and are gathering at the door.

Happy Quilting!