We finally got around to making the trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to get our drivers’ licenses. We used frequent flyer miles, or it would have cost us nearly $1400.00 each to fly there from Seattle. We could have driven, but it would have been a long trip, and we needed to come right back to Seattle anyways, so we decided to fly. We got up around 4:30 am and drove to the airport. The flight went through Salt Lake City, where we had about a three hour layover. Then into Sioux Falls. We tried to rent a car when we got to the airport, but there were none available. I guess if one flies into a small airport it is wise to reserve a rental car ahead of time. So not knowing where we needed to be in the morning, we just picked a motel from the wall in the airport. The advertisement said free airport shuttle, and free breakfast with waffles. Did we get a free airport shuttle? No. We took a cab. The Super 8 motel was very close to the airport, but it is also in a bit of an industrial area, so it was noisy all night long. We left the heater fan on all night so we didn’t hear so much outside noise. Plus it was FREEZING!! The temperature was in the teens overnight. Snow was expected, but we didn’t see any. It was just very cold and windy. The next morning, Kevin got up to go down and see what the breakfast looked like. Were there waffles? No. Just some white bread, some muffins, some cold cereal, a juice dispenser, and a coffee pot. He brought juice and coffee back to the room, but was scared to try anything else. I went back to sleep, so we weren’t ready to leave until just before check out time. We got a cab to the driver licensing department, handed in our Washington licenses, and had new South Dakota licenses within just a few minutes. Now what. Our flight doesn’t leave until 6 pm.
Across the street from the licensing department, there was a Target and a mall. We ran across the street, and were practically frozen by the time we got into Target. The wind was blowing, and it was around 19 degrees. Brrrr. We had muffins and coffee at the Target cafe, then looked around a bit. Then we froze again walking over to the mall. It was a pretty good sized mall that looked as if it had been enlarged several times. We wandered around a bit, and Kevin tried on some shoes. We ate lunch at Culver’s a burger and “frozen custard” place. The food was good, and there was a lot of it.
After that, we called a cab and headed back to the airport. There is not much to do at the Sioux Falls airport. It is old and quite small. We waited for our flight, which again went through Salt Lake City. We got back into Seattle around 11 pm, and headed home. A very long trip for a ten minute errand, but it needed to be done.
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We have not posted much this month since not much has been going on. I spent a week with my family in Portland. Kevin has been playing with his new remote control helicopter. We have been waiting for the house to sell so we can go somewhere warm.
My Mom usually spends the winter in Arizona, but she had to delay her trip this year, so I decided to take the Amtrak down to visit, since I probably would not see the family for the holidays. I had not taken the train anywhere since I was in high school, so it was kind of a nice change from driving, plus I was able to stay away longer since Kevin had use of the car while I was gone. I stayed at my Mom’s condo, but my Dad and my Grandmother live very close to her, so I got to spend plenty of time with all three of them. We(of course) did some shopping and went out to eat a few times, but I was happy just to spend some time with them.
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We went on a bit of a shopping spree yesterday. First we went to the Franz bread outlet and bought some rolls. Then we had lunch at the Jack-in-the-Box. Then we headed to Wal-Mart, where we did the majority of our shopping. We needed new windshield wiper blades for the CR-V, and they had what we needed so we got them. Then I got a photo album for the postcards, brochures, and misc. items we will pick up along our trip. I got one with the sticky pages so I can fit a variety of items on each page. The item of the day was a tabletop photo studio (see pictures above). It diffuses the light into the cube, which eliminates the need for a camera flash, and takes a more professional-looking photo. I have a larger version of this, but it did not come with the lights so it had to be used in bright sunlight outside to be effective. This smaller, complete kit was $50.00 at Wal-Mart, but it came with the lights and even a tiny tripod for my camera. It will come in handy for all online selling we do.
Then we were looking for a popcorn popper. We have been popping corn on the stovetop in a saucepan. This worked OK, but was not the best. Wal-Mart had a microwave version of a popper, but it required the purchase of refill heat pads to work properly. We decided against that, because we had no idea how easy it would be to find them all over the country. Then we went to Target. They had a floor model of the popper we wanted, but they were out of stock. There is a Kohl’s right next to Target, so we tried there next. They had several units, although they were a few dollars more than Target. We went ahead and bought one, and since we had had such a big lunch, Kevin fixed popcorn for his dinner. It took awhile for the first kernel to pop, but the lid is clear, so it was kind of neat to watch it, and it made really great popcorn–not greasy, not chewy.
So we aren’t buying anything else this month. That is it:)
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I haven’t had much to talk about recently, so I thought I would show some things inside the coach. We first found this Day Clock in a camping world catalog. Their slogan is “Where the day is more important than the hour”–our thoughts exactly. It just has one hand which moves around the clock face in a week (168 hours) instead of in twelve hours like a regular clock. It does tell time, but it is a bit less exact than a regular clock… The plaque below the Day Clock is a temperature and humidity sensor. It has a little smiley face when conditions are favorable, and a little sad face when they are not.
The other picture is our coat hanging area. I have been trying to figure out where to hang coats from day one. They usually just landed on the back of one of the seats. Even if we could squeeze them into the wardrobe in the bedroom, that would be really inconvenient and they would rarely make it back there anyways. We finally decided to put up some of these Command Adhesive Hooks. We lined up four of the medium-sized metal hooks on the empty wall behind the driver’s seat. Each hook holds two coats, so all of our coats fit, and they are out of the way. They cannot hang there when the slideout is in, but that is fine.
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