Our next stop was one we’d been waiting oh-so-not-patiently for… for at least a year… maybe two!
Clocking in at just over two feet tall (sitting, that is), Austin is just a few feet shorter than the corn stalks surrounding the Yogi Bear’s Jellystone RV Park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Butt, it wasn’t the Yogi Bear RV Park that had been on our wish list for several years…
Frankie wanted to get out and meet Yogi Bear.We tucked Tink into a nice quiet pad at the campground.Yogi tried to entice us to get lost in the corn maze at night. Instead, we simply enjoyed a beautiful night under the stars in a cornfield in South Dakota.
We needed our beauty sleep for the long, exciting week ahead.
Our big adventure began when we hit the town of Orange City, Iowa.
If you’ve been reading our blog for any length of time, you know we’ve been dealing with air conditioning issues with Tinkerbell for a few years.
Finally. Finally. We found an air conditioning master mechanic who is renowned throughout the country. There isn’t an air conditioner on any RV that he can’t fix. He lives in Tennessee. Butt… he travels the country teaching his craft to RV repair professionals.
They soak up his knowledge like young Luke Skywalker soaked up the wisdom of Yoda.
The A/C Yoda agreed to meet us at Zomer RV, which is a well-run, trusted repair shop amongst the corn fields in Iowa. When we arrived, the guys were finishing up an A/C repair on another RV.
Tinkerbell was the first Prevost on which Zomer’s RV technicians (we’ll call them Zomerians) had ever worked. They enjoyed a quick tour before Yoda Steve Shelburne from Tennessee began his lessons.
Yoda dazzled his students with his in-depth knowledge. Look at Jay’s face: he was awestruck. Lesson Number One: There is No Try.The driver’s side A/C seemed to be working okay so Jay asked the guys to take a quick look butt then concentrate on the passenger side, which was blowing air warm enough make pizza dough rise.
The A/C Yoda immediately knew Tinkerbell’s air conditioning challenges would make for great TV. He pulled out his camera and began filming.
Who wouldn’t salivate over watching the A/C Yoda fix two basement airs on a hotrod Prevost named Tinkerbell?
Tomorrow, it will be playing in a theater near you. Probably rated “R” for some racy bay nudity.
Once the sad-sack-of-passenger side A/C was out, EVERYONE knew the compressor was problem. Well, everyone except me since I don’t know a compressor from a ham sandwich.The crew installed a new compressor, and Yoda took the compressor through increasingly difficult tests. There would be no failure on this Yoda’s watch.Oooooh. Now you can see what a naked basement bay looks like. Please be mindful and don’t share this with underage viewers.The new compressor chugged through tests of increasing difficulty.And pass with flying colors the new compressor did! Yoda was pleased.Two strong Zomerians hoisted the perfectly working air conditioner back into Tinkerbell’s passenger bay.Yoda inspected the work, ran some final tests, and released his pupils for the evening. “Rest,” he said. “Not easy is next challenge. Rest. You must. And ice cream eat.”We brought Tink to her new campground (also in the land of Zomer) so she could get herself mentally prepared for the whatever surprises her driver’s side A/C had in store for Yoda and his students.
We took advantage of the next day (while the Zomerians worked on another A/C case) to explore the beautiful city of Orange City, Iowa.
There is a nice bicycle path from the Land of Zomer into Orange City. Jay, the Minnesota Boy, was so happy to ride amongst the fields of corn.
Orange City, Iowa, is the closest some of us will ever come to visiting the Netherlands. The city was founded by Dutch settlers in 1870. They named their city after the Royal House of Orange.
Each year in May, more than 100,000 visitors from around the world descend on the small town to partake in the annual Tulip Festival. The Festival is a big event with music, dancing, authentic Dutch attire and food, parades, musical theaters, and thousands of tulips. We’re thinking next May might be a good time to escape the heat of Tucson and see some tulips!This is the Orange City County Courthouse. Jay likes the architecture.Northwestern College is in Orange City. We were impressed with the architecture of the school, the friendliness of the students, the cleanliness of the town, the politeness of the people, and the sense of community that permeates Orange City.
Later, we learned Orange City is one of the cleanest towns in America.
There are windmill replicas throughout the village in recognition of the city’s Dutch heritage.
Orange City has a population of about 6,200 butt it felt so much more vibrant than many towns we’ve been to with populations of double or triple that size.
We found out Orange City is Iowa’s Happiest City and is also the safest city in Iowa. It made our antiseptic sojourns to well-heeled Coronado Island look like crime-infested ghetto romps (not really, butt, Orange City is really quite the town!)
The locals advised us to visit the best meat market in the world, which just happens to be in Orange City: Woudstra. We think we might use their slogan in a future blog, “De Weeny Winkel.”Not only did Woudstra have fresh cuts of every kind of meat you could want, Woudstra also had a dude named Jude. Jude works behind the counter. Naturally, Jay sang, “Hey Jude,” to him and Jude was polite enough to smile and admit his parents named him after the famous Beatles song.Woudstra also hosted a lunch bratfest, which we couldn’t pass up.Yes, the brats were delicious!
One of the ways Orange City aims to encourage a strong Dutch community is to require all new construction and remodeling in commercial districts to look like Old World Dutch Architecture.
It is the first time we have seen a Chinese restaurant in Old World Dutch architecture.The first few years of living in the cold Iowa prairie lands were rough on the hearty Dutch settlers. They even survived multiple plagues of locusts. Locusts have nothing to do with cows, as far as I know.That evening, Orange City invited everyone (us too!) to explore the downtown and enjoy a free dinner of brats and root beer floats. Naturally, Jay hopped on his bike and headed into town, which is where he found this traveling musical puppet show.He also discovered a wooden clog-making shop.After he finished his root beer float, Jay pedaled back to the campground where Ziggy and Frankie were disappointed he didn’t bring them a root beer float or even a brat.
The next day, Tinkerbell drove herself with a sense of dread into Zomer RV. She opened her kimono to show Yoda and the eager Zomerians her driver side A/C. She had no idea what surprises they would find.
Yoda Steve had his camera ready to capture the action. He was ready for whatever Tink had in store for him and his students.It turns out Tink’s driver’s side A/C was in worse shape than her passenger side. Shield your eyes… another shot of a naked A/C bay. This one is on Tink’s driver’s side. Not only was the A/C leaking oil due to the capacitor being shot, butt now the entire fan motor was as dead as a doornail. Through the miracles of quantum physics (and FedEx), Yoda flew a new motor into the Land of Zomer.And just like Humpty Dumpty, the Zomerians put Tink’s driver’s side A/C back together again. Better than new!Putting the A/C back into the tighter-than-tight space on the driver’s side, however, was the biggest challenge of all. Especially since Frankie the Task Master kept meowing orders at the Zomerians to be gentle with his Tinkerbell Castle. Finally. Five Days. And Fifty Million Light Years of Yoda Knowledge later, Tinkerbell was as cool as the meat locker at Woudstra.He didn’t want to brag, butt, Ziggy knew he was the only living being who truly comprehended, could replicate, and perhaps outmatch the knowledge of the A/C Yoda. In fact, he knew someday Yoda would telepathically request his help with an impossibly complicated A/C repair challenge (hopefully on a beach in Hawaii). And answer the Yoda call he would.
Next, we’ll be visiting the only state to which we’d never been!!!
[…] the only motor in all of her air conditioning units that had not been replaced by the Iowian Yodas, decided it was time to go to the great a/c motor cloud in the […]
You know, Orange City isn’t all that far from Fargo. Maybe you & JK could meet up with us and Kari (and John) for next year’s Tulip Festival! We’ll only venture out AFTER all the crowds have dissipated since JK, Kari, and I aren’t too fond of crowds 😉
Tinkerbell's Travels 
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