Two's Company......is Three a Crowd?

It seems that summer, or a reasonable facsimile thereof, has arrived in South Dakota.  It has not rained for 4 consecutive days in Sioux Falls, and the Wednesday forecast is for no rain, and partly cloudy.

Left to right: 2002 Newell (Tom McCloud), 1984 Newell (Todd Flickema), and 1982 Newell (moi)

Tuesday our very good friends, the McCloud's arrived from Mesa, AZ via several midwest stops, in Sioux Falls, SD at the Fairgrounds.  We now have on site 3 Newells......is that a crowd?  Not by any means....in just a few days we will be in Spearfish, SD attending a Newell mini rally where at least 24 Newell coaches of all ages will be present for a week.

Much of Tuesday TLE and I spent making a sun screen for the middle coach's awning like we have in the picture above (coach on the right). Most of the initial work involved cutting and hemming the fabric, which is TLE's specialty.  We set her sewing machine up in the shade, and while she worked I took care of a few repair projects on the middle coach.  

Once she finished that very important work we began attaching snaps to which will be used to attach it to the awning, and then grommets along the bottom to secure it to the ground, as you see in the upper right corner of this picture.  That took a couple of hours, or more, but then it was time to attach it to the awning of the 1984 Newell.  When we went to secure it to the ground via bungees we found that the grommets slipped as this sun screen material was not as thick as what we used for ours, so Wednesday TLE will reinforce the 8 points where the grommets will be reattached, and should do the trick.

By the time we finished with that it was going on 2:30, and we knew our friends would be arriving very soon, so it was time to "freshen" up.....it was very humid Tueday, although not too hot.

Around 3:30 Tom and Darlene called saying they were about a mile from the Fairgrounds so I drove out to the entrance to direct them in.  We haven't seen Tom and Darlene since Ferbruary of 2012 when we spent 12 days at their home at the beginning our our journey.

Around 6 Todd and Dawn arrived to pick us up for a dinner date at Parker's Bistro in downtown Sioux Falls.  What a great place.  The food was excellent.....I would max it out at 5 stars, and would add a 6th if it was possible.  We sat talking, joking and just generally enjoying the time spent together.  Todd and Tom regaled us with stories of travel abroad.

If you are ever fortunate enough to visit Sioux Falls be sure to have dinner here.  You will not be sorry.

After dinner the Flickema's ferried us back to the Fairgrounds where we said our "until next times" as the mosquitoes chased us inside.  Seems like they come out in force each night around 9 pm, and they are ferocious.  

Wednesday will see us, along with Tom and Darlene doing some more work for Todd on his coach.

Thanks for stopping by!