Days on the road

We traveled to our home town of Wilmington (OH) Monday late afternoon, and stayed through Wednesday morning.  Visited with Connie's dad (forgot to take pictures!!!) and also stopped by an old friend from HS that opened a new shop, the Wooden Moose.

Wednesday and Thursday were total travel days. 

Wednesday, we boondocked in a WalMart parking lot in Normal, IL  There was a Pizza Hut across the street for dinner, and (bonus) a bakery inside the WM for fresh donuts!

Thursday, we boondocked at the Isle Casino in Waterloo, IA.  They had a nice restaurant (one of four), The Brew Brothers, inside that had local craft beers, and some pub grub. 

I had some loaded fries (pulled pork, BBQ and cheese sauce) that were fantastic.  Couldn't finish it, but they were so good.  Not sure why else people go to casinos if not for the food and drinks?



Friday we rolled into Sioux Falls, SD and the Sioux Falls KOA.  Had an appointment at 5p to renew our driver's license that we just barely made due to some construction.  Our Google GPS taking us to a closed exit (thinking it was open) then having to follow a detour back to an open exit (that was what Google thought was closed).  Let me tell you, we zipped in and out of the DMV in 32 minutes.  They were the nicest DMV workers I've ever encountered.  What a pleasant experience.

After the licenses, we went downtown to a "First Friday" event put on by Downtown Sioux Falls and met our new BDM (business development manager) for Sandals (Adults Only All Inclusive Resorts) and Beaches (Caribbean All inclusive resorts for families), Monica Huether.  Great weather and company.  Talked a lot about our business, our backgrounds, ways Sandals and Beaches is growing and thoughts for expanding our niches.

Really enjoyed the small town feel of the event.  Also got introduced to Monica's friend, Julio Espino.  Great story.  Came to Sioux Falls as an engineer, noticed there wasn't an authentic Mexican restaurant in town, so he started it.  The restaurant did well, but people started wanting his salsa.  So, he started marketing his Inca salsa and sold the restaurant to his sister.  He's getting outlets at Hy-Vee, Wal Marts and working on expanding elsewhere (including H-E-B in Texas).  Fascinating conversation on the ins and outs of his business.  Was nice enough to give us some samples, looking forward to trying them.

Need a day of rest, and what better way than to watch College Football.  Weather is supposed to get crappy, so that will make it even easier to hang in the rig.