We were very surprised that everything on our list for Fleetwood was completed by Friday afternoon.  It was down to the wire on getting the last things checked off the list or we would have had to stay through the weekend.  We decided to stayone more night, in what is “affectionately” called “camp Decatur”.  It is a parking lot with electrical hooks up and you have to ride down the road to fill and empty your holding tanks.  We were glad to be out as construction starts on Monday.  They will be upgrading the spots for guests and will have full hook up sites by next spring.  That is good to know in case we need to make a return trip on a later date.

We headed out by 10:30 am on Saturday morning.  We had no idea how far we would go for the day and we ended up making it to Newton, IA.  The trip for the day topped off around 470 miles.  I think we pushed it a bit too long for Gizmo.  He started getting pretty antsy around 400 miles.  The last 70 miles was like entertaining a cranky toddler.  I think he’s telling us he needs a few days away from parking lots and getting out into nature.  I think we might be feeling the same way.  The night in Newton, IA was spent in another really nice Walmart parking lot.  We have been very fortunate so far in our choice of Walmarts.  This was definitely the place to camp in Newton.  There were 5 other campers and a half dozen 18-wheelers parked for the night.

We got up early in the morning (easy to do with the time change) and wanted to get an early start.  The morning didn’t go quite as planned.  We hooked up the car and did our safety check of turn signals and brakes.  The left turn signal and left brake was not lighting on the car.  The connection had been a bit finicky the day before but we were able to adjust the cord and get both the left and right to work.  Today we were not, but we decided you could still see the directionals and brakes on the motorhome past the car.  So, probably not legal, but still adequately safe to get on our way.  We headed down the road to the gas station and the “check engine” light came on in the motorhome.  So back to Walmart we went.  We called Fleetwood emergency roadside assistance and technical support and found out it was because John had probably not let the coils heat up long enough before starting the engine.  We waited a bit as they recommended and the light came off and stayed off.  So, an hour later we were finally on our way.

The ride across Iowa and into Nebraska was nice.  The states are hillier than I had expected.  These two states have been much prettier to drive through than Indiana.  We had made a pact that we would stop at every other rest stop to give Gizmo a chance to stretch his legs.  This worked well for us today.  The last rest stop was about an hour from where we are camping.  We pulled in and all of the RV and truck spots were full.  John pulled into the car area and took up multiple spots.  All was fine until the state trooper arrived.  We were just getting ready to pull out when I saw him coming and I was out of the vehicle to make sure John could maneuver out safely.  I went back to speak to the officer who wanted to make sure we were leaving soon.  I told him that was why I was out of the vehicle to make sure John could get out OK.  He was very friendly and offered to stay back and make sure we got out OK.  I assured him this was not necessary.  I was thinking I did not want him behind the RV as we pulled out, had to brake and had to put on the left turn signal.  I noticed his last name was Allen so I decided to break the ice and told him we had the same last name and that John was a retired law enforcement officer.  He was even friendly and insisted on following us out.  He then proceeded to follow us for the next 10 miles.  John did not brake once during this time.  We both sighed relief when he took and exit.

First thing tomorrow morning we will be calling Camping World to try to get an appointment when we get near Cheyenne.  The tow system was something that had been installed by Camping World on the car separate from the purchase of the motor home.  Of course we had only towed the car once before this trip, no enough to identify an issues.  A side trip from Cheyenne to the Fort Collins area may be great for hiking…

Tonight we are at Sunny Meadows Campground in the middle of Nebraska (no where). The temperature is a blistering 92 degrees and we have both AC’s running full blast.  We don’t care that the camp ground is not fancy.  We are just thankful for full hook ups, wifi and a chance to do laundry for a whopping campground fee of $15.