Winter Camping Adventures in Minnesota (part 1)

Because I’m almost positive there will be a part 2!img_2400

We left our friend Brandi’s house in Sparta, Kentucky last Friday. (After fighting with a frozen camper and a dead slide motor…) And things have not gotten any easier! We stopped at the Iowa 80 Truck Stop for the night. We love that place! We snuck into our secret spot again where we can open the slides and not block any truck parking spots. Then we hit the road first thing Saturday morning and headed up to Saint Paul, Minnesota. Continue reading

DIY Heated Water Hose

Making your own heated water hose is easiest when you don’t NEED it! When you have to make one in 20 degree, windy, snow, it’s no fun at all! (We’ve done that twice…) But this time we got smart about it! Continue reading

On The Road Again

This is where I belong… On the road again.   

Charlie is SO over the snow!

  We pulled out of Hillsboro a few minutes ago, headed south on I-29, the direction we SHOULD be going for sure! It was actually hovering around 32 this morning and not too windy, so it almost felt like spring!  

 We are going to have to get our bedroom slide checked out soon. We are pretty sure the motor must be bad on it. Since we left San Francisco it’s been really slow coming in and out. We have to usually try it a few times with Allen pushing on the outside to help it. But this time it’s still out about a 1/2″ too far. Good enough to drive as long as we don’t hit a downpour. But, good thing it’s still under warranty with Grand Design!

 Anyhow, we are headed for Council Bluffs, Iowa tonight. There’s a Horseshoe Casino with an RV park, and a bar with live music, so it should be fun! Tomorrow we are stopping in Oklahoma City at Abe’s RV Park to see our friends Karen and Bob – yay! Apparently a tower had some ice damage there so I’m hoping we can stay a few days… But either way, after that it’s on to the Dallas area to take down the tower at Fair Park that Allen worked on back in June.  

Allen’s view from the tower

  

My view from the ground

 
I think Allen won the photo contest…

Camping in 7 degree weather…

Who camps in 7 degree weather?! 

Well, we do. The real question is: Who’s brilliant idea was it to work on a 2000′ tower in late November in North Dakota?? … Hmmm… 

 Allen is working all weekend since they were off almost all week due to crazy winds. We’ve been leaving the bathroom faucet trickling 24/7 so our water doesn’t freeze. He forgot to leave it running when he left this morning for work. I got up 2 hours later and caught it just in time! Crazy! 

We even put a pillow over the spigot to kind of insulate it…  Our ghettoness is showing. 

 I’m just glad we have this camper (2015 Grand Design Momentum), our old one (2009 Forest River Wildwood) would be so much harder to keep thawed out! I thought Oklahoma City was bad last year… That was nothing compared to this!

More snow is on the way for Thanksgiving. Yippee! 

I forgot to take my tape measure to the grocery with me today. I need a maximum 7″ high turkey to fit in our convection oven…. 

I wish we were in the Florida Keys…. !!! 🌴

In need of Hot Toddies!

North Dakota! Oh how I love you and hate your weather! We have a light blanket of white this Thursday morning. Allen’s home, scheduled to replace a guy wire starting tomorrow (good luck honey). No matter how or what we try, our water is frozen!!! Hello giant, huge, all season camper: you didn’t think to help our HEATED, INSULATED water hose out there in the elements! We currently have our faucets open. The water pump works like a charm (and our fresh water is full-thank you Allen!) so we’ve determined it must be outdoors grrrr….. 

 On the plus side, this is a great town and I love the people who live here. (Even if the weather is making us drink more than usual…..) Shout out to Steve-o-reno and Audra for making our time a little more enjoyable! 

PS… I made a Monopoly game yesterday… Call me a dork, but what else is there to do when there’s 60mph winds and snow outside?! 

 

Sunday Funday doesn’t exist in North Dakota

Allen had to work today. And last Sunday. That kinda puts a damper on the so-called weekend! He works on broadcast towers, you can read more about that jazz here… But they are trying to hurry and finish this job so we can get the heck outta here… I don’t really want to be around when they close the highways! They already closed parts of I-80 that we took to get here. Seems like we left San Francisco just in time to get through the mountains with no snow…

So it’s just me and Charles hanging out today watching football. Luckily the Bengals play tomorrow night so Allen will get to see the game regardless!

I forgot to show off our new home decor I picked up while we were in South Dakota

   They are those wall decals that just peel and stick. You can remove them and move them with no damage. I think they are perfect for our camper. I try not to put holes in the wall if I don’t have to, part of the reason I love Command hooks also! “Home Sweet Home” is above the front door and the other is in the bathroom behind the toilet (I didn’t know where else to put it!)

Anyhow, the other night for dinner I made this Spicy Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork and we made tacos with it. Yum! And super simple!Screen Shot 2015-11-15 at 12.32.18 PM

Here’s the recipe:

Layer the following in the slow cooker, in this order…

  • 1 large onion, quartered, and separated
  • a pork butt or shoulder roast (mine was about 3lbs), make sure you salt and pepper this guy very generously
  • a can of chipotle peppers in adobo
  • a can of Dr. Pepper at room temp (use two cans if you have a giant roast-one was enough for me)

Stick the lid on. Turn it on low.

About 4 hours in, flip the roast over. Flip it again in an hour or two. If it is falling apart, take it out and shred the meat. If not, give it another hour and check again. Once you get the meat out, try and skim some or most of the fat off the top without getting rid of too much juice. Shred it and put it back in the pot for another hour, making sure all the meat is soaking up all that juicy goodness.

I served this on warm flour tortillas (I just heated them in a dry pan over medium heat for about a minute on each side). I topped it with some homemade pico (my version follows), a few sprigs of cilantro, and some pepper jack cheese. Delicious! And we have plenty left over for dinner tomorrow…. I think you should try this tonight! (P.S. I’ve been loving The Pioneer Woman‘s recipes, that’s where I found this one! She made hers in the oven, but since I have a camper oven, I prefer my handy dandy slow cooker.)

Pico de Gallo

  • 4 roma tomatoes, diced
  • 1/2 red onion, diced
  • 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and diced
  • a good squirt of lime juice
  • a palmful of chopped cilantro

I hope you are all having a better Sunday than my super hard-working, loving boyfriend!

Oh, and by the way, Allen said the Potato Bread I made this week beats out all the others for best yet! And I’ve kind of decided that If I keep it in a ziplock baggie vs. the bread baggies I bought, it stays softer and fresher longer…

North Dakota… 

Oh my goodness, it’s COLD here!  

 If it were summer time I think this place would be a lot more enjoyable. As it is, there’s not much to do in town. We are staying at the Hillsboro Campground in Hillsboro, North Dakota. Hillsboro is 1 square mile, right off I-29 and almost exactly halfway between Fargo and Grand Forks. There’s a grocery store, a hardware store, and a sports bar.  

 There’s also a city park where they have a pen full of mule deer. We went to see them yesterday and feed them carrots. I dressed Charlie in her reindeer outfit thinking she would blend in. But she did not care for the deer and the deer did not like her. The park is pretty. The Goose River goes through it. There’s a swimming pool also.  

   
Joyce runs the campground. She also runs the motel. And the senior assisted living center. And the Chicken Shack (at the campground, which is closed now, I’m guessing for the winter). And she runs the Hillsboro Laundry, which is also at the campground. She is one busy lady. There is wifi but it only shows up on the computer, not on our phones.  

 Joyce will be shutting the water off to most of the park for the winter, leaving only about 8 spaces with water, ours being one of those. We had to go buy the noodle insulation and the heat cord (for water pipes) to make a longer heated water hose so it doesn’t freeze. We had a 20′ one but it wasn’t long enough. The water spicket and electric is pretty far away. They are either right behind the sites or off the side. The spaces are long enough but soft-ish gravel. I wouldn’t want to park a heavy class A here for sure.  

 Charlie is just shivering non stop, poor pup. We have compromised to keeping the heat at 64 degrees. We have to pay electric for everything over 525kwh so we turn our electric space heater and the fireplace off at night and when we leave. We are also going through some propane. Luckily there’s somewhere in town to refill our tanks. (All 5 of them). Most of the time we are keeping the garage door closed. We left the bike in there and Allen’s toolbox. So it’s definitely being used as a mudroom now!  

 I even went and bought some “utility” boots for this hard winter we are about to face! Although Walmart didn’t have hardly any winter stuff out and I’ve seen a lady in flip flops and a girl in a summer dress with just a little cardigan over it. Meanwhile, we are wearing thermals and hats and gloves!  

 We are heading into Grand Forks today to watch the Bengals play. It’s the closest place I think we will find NFL Sunday Ticket. (I definitely want to have a tailgater by next football season-it would save us a ton of money just not having to go to the bar and watch!) And since we are about 40 minutes from anything we are being very responsible and designating a sober driver. I got the unlucky straw this week so Allen will get to act like a drunk toddler by himself! 

We were also responsible enough to get our flu shots the other day when we went into town to go to Walmart. #adulting ! I never thought I could miss Walmart so much! But they still didn’t have our Scott RV toilet paper so I’m stuck with Campa-Chem. At least it’s 2-ply! *sigh*

Cheers to football Sunday! Who Dey!