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Now vaccinated we hope we are putting CoVID-19 in the rearview mirror and we head out on our summer travels. In 2020 we had planned to head West, but we stayed close to our home base in Wisconsin so Jason could be on-site to work.
This summer we head out first South and then up to the Pacific Northwest to explore new territory that has not yet been explored by us. We hope to check off some more states from our visited map.
Night 1 at Amana Colonies
We left from Bunker Hills Regional Campground in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, at around Noon on Saturday after the granddaughter’s 2-year birthday party. From there we headed south to the Amana Colonies, Iowa, area for an overnighter that night.
Sunday we were fortunate to meet up with some of Barb’s family for breakfast. The Amana Colonies is a historical and cultural area in Iowa, German immigrants settled in a communal style of living developing a self-sufficient community. Now those buildings and cultures are recreated as tourist destinations hosting festivals and summer activities.
We stayed at the Amana RV Park and Event Center on the outskirts of town, a perfect way to access the downtown. While further than a comfortable walk, it does serve as one of the best (if not only) options for RVing. We were given the option to be closer to or away from the polka fest being held at the campground!
We filled up at the “Kwik Star” outside of Amana Colonies, south of Cedar Rapids. Using our TSD Logistics Fuel card we were able to get diesel at a price lower than auto gas! This is a welcome sight when you are putting in 75 gallons each day of travel. Unfortunately, this will be the lowest price per gallon of fuel we will see for a while.
Night 2 at Louisburg, Kansas
We utilized the Harvest Host membership and enjoyed a quiet night out in Kansas at the Louisberg Cider Mill. They have a great setup and are well prepared for receiving guests. It must be a very busy place on the weekends given the amount of parking they have adjacent to their shop.
The shop is your regular old orchard farm shop with its own products and other products being sold. We picked up some of their cider and some of their amazing cider donuts. The adjacent highway was a little busy that evening, but we really didn’t hear much once the sun went down. Hot here, had to button up the shades and run the generator so we could have the air conditioning on.
Copan, Oklahoma
From Louisberg, Kansas, we tried to stay along the two-lane roads and away from I-35 to experience the countryside at a slower speed. We were honestly surprised by Oklahoma’s topography and green nature, especially at our destination which had wooded lake sites. We spent the week in Copan, Oklahoma, to visit some of Barb’s relatives that are close to the Washington Cove Army Corp of Engineers campground.
We had some amazing views of Copan Lake from our site at good ole number 13. Most of the sites have electrical service, but only at 30-amp. With the temperatures in the upper 90’s and lower 100’s, it was very oppressive and 30-amp meant only one air conditioner at a time. We stayed from Sunday through Thursday nights here, the campground was pretty empty during the week. We could see the boat dock from our site and that was pretty busy every evening.
In the evenings we could host the family out at the campground and had a great time catching up. We checked out the wild horses west of Copan and the number of flood control dams in the area. The local truck stop in Copan is excellent, with some greasy spoons and some other great stuff such as large as your head cinnamon rolls!
The heat and humidity kept us from exploring too widely, but we did explore a little in Bartlesville. We learned that Phillips 66 is based out of there! That would explain all of the 66 stations we were seeing. We will have to check out the Phillips Petroleum Company Musem on our next visit. Since we laid low because of the heat, Jason worked some half days.
