18 Aug - Breakfast with Cousin Dean and Donna Cooper, Tasks Around the RV, New Mattress on it's Way

18 Aug
This morning we had breakfast with my cousin Dean Cooper and his wife Donna.  They recently moved here from Tennessee.  We had some items shipped ahead to their apartment here knowing we would be arriving on the 17th.  So we met at a local restaurant and had breakfast with them.  I am sorry I did not get any pictures, but we will see them again at least once or twice before we leave here and will get pictures then.  Dean and Donna traveled to Des Moines in 2015 and attended my military retirement ceremony.

After leaving the restaurant Dean and Donna headed south to the Denver area to visit their daughter and we headed back to the campground.  I installed the new antenna and took care of some other tasks in and on the RV and Doreen work on some other projects.

The replacement (warranty) antenna ready to be installed.

BEFORE:  Plastic parts inside my flag pole.  Notice how the "nubs" are worn.

AFTER:  Nubs drilled and #4 screws installed, per the company.  Fixed!

After lunch we watched the Cubs-Bluejays baseball game and then headed into town to mail two boxes and drop off the bad (warrantied) antenna at the UPS store.  Just around the corner was a mattress shop and we have been looking into replacing the mattress in our RV.  The problem is Rv mattresses are a weird size and not available at standard mattress stores.  For instance, a standard king size mattress is 76" wide x 80" long.  Our RV mattress is a king, but it is 72" wide x 80" long.  Because of the way the RV is built, a standard king size mattress won't fit without modifications.  We found a mattress we wanted at Slumberland and it is a name brand, so I have a little work to do before they deliver it tomorrow.

 We also placed the South Dakota sticker on our RV map.  We will travel through North Dakota and catch that one while we head to Minnesota.  We will also camp in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota but we have been there before, so the stickers are already there for those states.

Doreen placing South Dakota.

Only one of the upper US remaining and we will catch North Dakota soon.

Here are a few pictures from our campground since we did not get these taken or posted yesterday:

Entrance to Ellsworth Air Force Base

Rushmore Heights FamCamp

Wide roads for maneuvering RV's in the campground

Fairly wide spaced sites

Our large "yard"

Looking out our door, barbecue grill and picnic table to the left

Tomorrow our new mattress arrives at about 1000 hrs then we take Liberty to Petsmart for a hair cut.  While she is there we will travel to Sturgis and Deadwood SD and then on the way back, pick her up and return to the campground.

Tonight at 2300 hrs the entire base will be without AC power until 0300 hrs tomorrow for some sort of maintenance.  Hopefully we will be sleeping through that!.