Forest City, IA

Thursday, January 28

On the road again! If there’s one thing we know about living in the northern part of the USA, it’s that we’ve got to beat the winter time blues before they beat us. To be honest, winter has been really mild in Wisconsin this year so we’ve hardly minded being there, but Andi and I also know how quickly that can change. Time to find sunny 70-degree weather in the southern part of the USA.

This is Andi and I’s first time RVing in the winter, so we’re not completely sure how it’ll go. Two years ago, we traveled by RV through the southeastern part of the USA in March and April. We’ve traveled through the northwestern states during the months of September and October, but never in the true heart of winter when temperatures frequently dip into single digits overnight. We need to keep the inner workings of our RV winterized until it’s above freezing temperatures outside, so our plan is to bee-line it down south as quickly as possible to reach warmer temperatures. We left on Tuesday, January 26 for our first stop in Forest City, Iowa.

A visit to the Winnebago dealership in Forest City, IA seems to book-end most of our RV trips. Inevitably, something needs fixing after our “house” bounces down the road for 5,000+ miles going 65 mph. This time, a window hinge broke toward the end of our last trip in October, so Andi made an appointment to have it fixed before we hit the road again. There’s electric hook-ups for RVs in the parking lot of the dealership, so we spent the first night of the trip camped there. Since we had time on our side, we ran a few errands in Minneapolis on our way to Iowa and also did school in the RV that afternoon.

Santa brought Aden a Nintendo Switch gaming system for Christmas, so the four of us spent the evening playing against one another in Yoshi and Sonic Olympics. Andi cooked chicken nuggets for the kids and re-heated meatballs and Brussels sprouts for us for dinner. The outside temperature got down to 6 degrees during our first night camping, but we stayed plenty warm with our propane heater plus an electric heater running.

Wednesday morning, we were first in line at the dealership to have our window repaired. The dealership loaned us a courtesy car so we could get breakfast in town at Sally’s. This is the first time our family has eaten in a restaurant since the pandemic began in March of 2020. Aden and Tory were so excited — “Thank you for taking us here, Mom and Dad,” they kept repeating over and over. Funny how low the standard becomes after a few months of deprivation! Sally’s was a typical small town diner with breakfast, fresh bakery items and friendly service.

After breakfast, Andi dropped the kids and I off at the RV dealership to do school in the lobby while he ran to pick up a few groceries. If there’s anything homeschooling has taught me over the years it is that you don’t need four walls of a classroom to learn. Tory was particularly enamored with the swivel desktop attached to the chairs.

Service finished with our RV around 1:00pm, then we hit the road again. Next stop: Kansas City, Missouri. Andi and I were most concerned about the stretch of roads between northern Iowa and Kansas City as southern Iowa and Nebraska got walloped with 15 inches of snow earlier in the week. Fortunately, we didn’t have any issues. Interstate 35 heading south through Iowa and into Missouri was clear the whole way.

We’d planned to camp at Watkins Mill State Park just north of Kansas City for the night, but the ranger informed me that the park was closed due to snowfall and ice when I called to confirm availability. Change of plans — Andi and I decided to push through Kansas City that evening to avoid going through the city during rush-hour Thursday morning. Andi found a private campsite in Nevada, Missouri about 90-minutes south of Kansas City and made a reservation for the night. We arrived around 8:00pm.

Fortunately, we didn’t see much snow on the ground south of Kansas City, so roadways should be clear from here on out. We’re staying in the small town of Nevada tonight, then making our way into Arkansas tomorrow. Let the adventure begin!