We couldn’t have asked for better weather in Prior Lake, Minnesota. Yesterday was mostly sunny with the temperature around 80 degrees. The dew point was in the 50s which means the relative humidity was low. Today will be more of the same, maybe a little warmer. It’s sunny and 55 degrees as I write this at 7:30am.

Donna missed the beautiful weather as she left for New York City. Her driver arrived right on time and took her to the airport at 9am. She will return tonight around 9pm. So, I’m posting today without my editor! I’ll do my best to proofread before posting but a second set of eyes always helps.

I mapped a route to Eden Prairie to go to the Best Buy store. I needed to go there to pick up a new laptop for Donna. The route I chose worked out great. From the Dakotah Meadows RV park I went through Shakopee north to Chanhassen then directly east to Eden Prairie. This was an easy route to memorize and a nice ride on the scooter. The main routes in the area are wide, fast roads. Speed limits vary from 40mph to 55mph.

On the way back I saw a restaurant sign proclaiming “Chinese Cuisine”. That sounded good. I dropped off Donna’s laptop in the motorhome and went to the restaurant for lunch. Once seated there I looked over the menu. I had a sinking feeling when I saw another sign in the window that said “Chinese – American Food.” One of my restaurant rules is to avoid eating at a place that advertises “Chinese – American Food.”

I ordered the Kung Pao Chicken. It was quite good and came with fried rice and a spring roll. My only disappointment was the lack of soup. If they had served a cup of Hot and Sour Soup with it I would rate it 3.5 on a scale of 5.

While I was out, I stopped at an O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store. When I was checking tire pressures I lost one of the valve stem caps. I dropped the cap into the opening on the wheel and couldn’t retrieve it. I’m sure it bounced out of there once we drove away. So, I bought a set of steel valve stem caps with rubber seals. I like these because they can prevent the loss of air from the tire through a leaky Schrader valve. You never know, the valve may not seat properly and that can create a slow leak. Using a cap with a rubber seal is a second line of defense – a belt and suspenders approach.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty lazy. I sat outside and read a book. I went for a long walk and took a few pictures. I don’t know why I have a camera bag full of gear in the coach. I’ve been taking all of my pictures with my Samsung Galaxy G4 phone. They call it a smart phone but I rarely use it as a phone. I play games on it, I e-mail with it, I check Facebook on it and I take pictures with it.

View towards our site from across the pond

Last evening, I took another stroll through the park. I saw bats flying over the road behind our coach. Donna and I used to enjoy watching bats from our deck when we lived in Rochester Hills. There are more than 45 species of bats in the US. They can be found throughout the USA – and the world for that matter. They exist everywhere except for the Arctic, Antarctic and a few islands. About 70% of the bat species are insectivores. The rest are mostly fruit eaters. I like insectivores – anything that feeds on mosquitoes is okay, right?

Photo from Wikipedia

Today I’ll check and adjust the tire pressure. Now that I’ve weighed the coach I know I should increase the rear tire pressure from 90PSI to 95PSI. I have a small compressor that provides up to 150PSI. I plug it into the outlet in one of our basement compartments to fill the tires.

I also plan to re-arrange some of the items in the trailer. I want to move some of the heavier items rearward to increase the axle weight and decrease the tongue weight. I think I’ll also disconnect the hitch to inspect and grease the ball. The trailer hasn’t been disconnected for more than 2,200 miles. That’s how many miles we’ve covered since we left three weeks ago.

By the end of the day, I’ll have most of the stuff packed and ready for tomorrow’s travel. We’ll head to South Dakota tomorrow. Our original plan was to stay a few days near Madison – we have business to attend to there. Then we would move to Mitchell where we have an appointment next week. I’ve booked a week at Camp America Campground in Salem, South Dakota. We couldn’t get into the campground at Madison for more than one night. They’re completely booked for the weekend. As always, plans have a way of changing.

Salem is between Madison and Mitchell – roughly 30 miles southwest of Madison and 30 miles east of Mitchell. We’ll scooter to our appointments. I hope the beautiful weather holds up! The campground is in a rural area, it’s about a mile and a half north of I-90.

I don’t know how the internet access will be in that area. So far we’ve had 4G coverage with our Verizon Jetpack everywhere we’ve stopped. Here in Dakotah Meadows I’m using their wifi – we have a good connection and it’s fast most of the time.

Before we head out of here tomorrow, I want to use the RV wash. The coach and trailer have 2,200 miles of road grime. I’ll also gas up here. The Gas Buddy app shows this to be the cheapest gas in the area. In fact, it’ll be the cheapest we’ve seen at $3.33/gallon.

That’s about it. I don’t think I’ll post tomorrow morning before we leave.

RV wash and gas pumps

Inside the RV wash – catwalk to reach the upper areas of the RV