Road Trip 3rd Leg - South Dakota to Michigan

Last leg of our trip (click here for first to see the eclipse and second to Mt. Rushmore and Devils Tower) took us on I90 thru South Dakota - I planned to stop at Wall Drugs which is highlighted on the things to do in South Dakota list but when we got there and drove in front of it I changed my mind. There were SO MANY people trying to park and enter that I decided driving by counted as seeing it. Google it to see for yourself - it's got a cool interesting history (in a nutshell the family who owned this little store came up with a genius way to get travelers to stop by and it's now a huge added-onto store full of everything. Everything.). I didn't even take a picture I wanted to get out of there so bad.

Next place I planned to visit was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Then as we were getting close we start seeing all these signs about the "Corn Festival" being held - you guessed it - the date we were there. They shut down the streets all around the arena (really, the Corn Palace is an arena/convention center - not a palace!) and hold concerts, etc. all weekend. So we aborted that plan and kept on going...maybe next time.

Spent the night in Sioux Falls - after getting home I heard there is a new list put out of the "happiest places to live" and the top 10 are towns in California, except number 5 is Sioux Falls! I had no idea, the people did seem very friendly hahaha...

I took no pictures this day of driving - it's very pretty country tho! My favorite thing about the day is meeting a woman camping nearby that also has a mini RV like ours (it's a Travato if you're interested), she mentioned there is a Facebook group only about Travato's and I should check out what other people have done to customized theirs...Dave just looked at me with an "uh oh, here she goes" look. I immediately joined the site and was blown away by some of the changes others have done! As soon as I got home I got busy - here are a few of the things we did: (some I borrowed from other people, some I came up with myself once the creative juices started flowing!)

we added a wire shelf over the side sliding door. D will have to learn to duck and not hit
his head (!) but we picked up a ton of un-used space. I got a 6' x 1' wire shelf at Home Depot, which fits perfectly.

 Rolled up there now is all of the window shades that we used to jam into the overhead space over the cab, freeing up that area to store bedding which I fought with every morning and night before! I also have room now to store a very lightweight stick vacuum dust buster thing (I found at Walmart for $20!)  to help with keeping things clean - it's one of the few I could find that still have a cord, everything's cordless now, but I didn't want to have to leave it plugged in all the time to charge. The space is small enough that I can reach everything while the cord is plugged in. 

one end of the shelf is resting in the overhead space over the cab (we anchored it down with a piece of wood and some screws to keep it stable) and the other end is being held up with 2 command hooks. In the middle we supported it with a piece of wire wrapped around the shelf and hooked to one of the ceiling screws - just to give it a little more support so it hopefully won't sag.
Hanging on one hook is the dreamcatcher I posted here.

 

this change we made a while ago when we decided that the "wardrobe" closet wasn't really needed for clothes (it came  empty with a rod across the top) and had Mark install some shelves instead. It now holds tons of stuff like bags, pet food and supplies, nesting pans, cleaning and extra paper supplies, games, and it's the "liquor cabinet" as well! On the door I hung a mirror and plastic basket using Command strips, I can sit on the edge of the bed and fix myself up so I'm not fighting Dave for the tiny bathroom space. 

this one might not work if things bang around and rattle too much, but for now I've hung up a couple plastic coffee mugs and stacked the dishes in a lid organizer standing on a small wire shelf. Under the shelf are serving bowls and plastic containers. In a plastic basket stuck to the back wall (you can barely see it) I have disposable plastic glasses, can cozies, dish soap, etc. 

hung up a paper towel holder on the side wall over the kitchen area, decorated the space with battery powered mini lights, put up the orange magnetic board on the left (it's holding my new cork flower vase I posted here), and stuck 3 small photos in lightweight plastic frames on the wall using Command strips. 

We don't shower in our tiny bathroom so hung this wire shelf up to hold towels and a wire basket filled with things like sunscreen, first aid kit, eyedrops, etc. I stuck a small towel bar underneath it to hang small wet things like my bath scrubby and washcloths. 

This is the back wall of the Travato when you open the back doors (the bed is to the left behind one closed door).  It now holds quite a few things like a broom, flyswatter, umbrella, etc. and I mounted part of a hanging shoe holder up to corral a bunch of small things that were stuffed in a junk drawer before - bug spray, flashlight, small tools, duct tape, bungie cords, etc. 

Oh wait, I just remembered I took one picture in Blue Earth, Minnesota - home of the (ho ho ho) Jolly Green Giant! If you look closely you can see Dave posing with the giant :)

The last leg of the trip took us thru the Wisconsin Dells, we didn't see much because it was just a stop to sleep on our way home but my impression is there are a lot of kids there. A lot. Really, a lot. Maybe we'll revisit when it's off-season to get a better look at everything!

That's it for this road trip journal - 10 days saw us do a big loop from Michigan thru Nebraska to see the eclipse, northwest to South Dakota and Wyoming, thru Minnesota and Wisconsin back to MI. Good to be home but we had a great time and I'd do it again in a heartbeat! Thanks for reading about our latest adventure!


one year ago today: Pina Colada Cupcakes

Making Dreamcatchers

Looking thru photos recently reminded me how much fun Brooke and I had making dreamcatchers last summer before I started this blog - they turned out so cute I thought I'd make another one to show you guys. The hardest part is weaving the actual "dreamcatcher" part, this time I followed the directions I found here but there are lots of tutorials online if you search. For this one I used a small 3" metal ring (craft store in the yarn/crochet area, they have lots of different sizes), last summer we made bigger ones - all depends where you are going to hang it. It'll probably turn into some kind of driving hazard but I think it would be cute to hang a little one from the rear view mirror in my car.

Wrap the circle with material, ribbon, whatever you want. I ripped about an 1" wide piece of material from some scrap cloth I have leftover from making tote bags last winter, ripping the fabric gave me a rough raggedy edge with strings coming off that I like.

 I did the weaving and knotting the dreamcatcher using about 4' of cream colored embroidery floss, you can use a number of different things like thin hemp or cord - I used what I have on hand. I added one bead to the floss, you can add as many as you like or none at all.

wrap the material around the ring, secure
 with a little glue

tie on approx 4' of floss to weave the dreamcatcher

weaving the dreamcatcher, I added one bead

I tied a long piece of twine to the top for hanging, then hung it on a knob above my craft table to make it easier to add the long pieces to the bottom. I cut a few pieces of ribbon and twine approx 22" or 24" inches long, fold them in half (one at a time) and then put the fold thru the dreamcatcher and pull the ends thru the folded part to hang them off the bottom - I also added some feathers to a couple of the ribbons by winding some twine around the ends of the feathers and then around the ribbon to hold (I put a little drop of glue on the end so it wouldn't unwind). Lastly I glued a shell to one of the ribbons, and tied a couple knots in the loose ends of the twine.

to make one like this - wind twine around the feathers to
attach to a ribbon, and glue on a shell to another

For the other dreamcatcher I made (below), I wrapped the circle with ribbon so it's smoother. While weaving the actual dreamcatcher I added a few shells and small beads in the netting. I did the same thing as above with flowers, beads, shells, etc. and this one is hanging in our tiny RV - I love it!

August 2015 making dreamcatchers with Brooke and then doing duck face selfies with them for some reason...notice Brooke did not care about following instructions for the weaving part and just wound the floss around the ring however she liked and glued it! Looks good to me!