South Dakota (6/11-6/28) Part 1

A one night stop in Lyman, South Dakota which halfway between East and West Nowhere on I-90 in 100 degree heat was expected to be a quick in and out on our way to Custer South Dakota.  When we arrived, our surge protector generated an error when we plugged in, not good when you want to run your air conditioners at full speed.  The camp staff was somewhat accommodating after two tries and we leveled and settled into our site. 

There were strong storms threatening the whole I-90 corridor that day and Mike drove in 20 mph winds most of the day.  We were hot and exhausted and hoped to eat dinner at Hutch's Cafe and Lounge for a down home cooked meal, Mike had researched this place.  Upon inquiring about places to eat in the area, we were informed that Hutch's was already closed for the day but Jet Lanes bar was open and it was "wing" night.  Who could resist "wing" night?  We ventured to downtown Lyman, about 5 buildings total.  Jet Lanes had a hoppin' bar and restaurant with 5 darkened bowling alley lanes. 

 

We had wings and a killer burger and quite enjoyed the atmosphere of this small town bar/bowling alley/casino in the middle of nowhere.  There were some violent thunderstorms most of the night, so we did not get much rest in Lyman.

Lack of sleep be damned, we departed early and I drove the Jeep separately for about 2 1/2 hours as we planned to stop at the famous Wall Drug on our way into Custer.  The story of Wall Drug is folklore and the billboards along I-90 suck you right in to their little tourist trap in the middle of nowhere.  

We found the RV parking with some help from some locals and spent about an hour wandering around and sampling Wall Drug donuts.  We were told by folks in Sioux City that the donuts weren't to be missed, they were right. 

Mandatory silly pic with a Jackelope.

The donuts were definitely worth the stop.

After another fuel stop, we began to really see and feel the rolling hills as we entered Rapid City, SD on our way to Custer.  After one particularly sweeping set of curves, our freezer drawer on the bottom of our refrigerator decided to come open.  As Mike was driving, I tried to go back and shut it, something had caused it to stick open.  We would have to wait to get to the campsite to fix it in about 20 minutes, not ideal. 

Arriving at Fort Welikit, Mike nestled Ruth among the Black Pines and we set up for a nice long stay in Custer.   The campground is rustic, but close to town and on the road to Custer State Park.   Right away we had to address the freezer drawer.  Mike was able to fix it rather quickly and we were able to start enjoying our time in Custer. 

Fort Welikit in the Black Hills of South Dakota

Our first week in Custer Mike's sister and brother-in-law pulled their 5th wheel and side-by-side from Albuquerque to join us.  They were parked in the site next to us, so we had a nice area between where we could cook and sit by the firepit at night.  

Triple towing the 5th wheel and side-by-side.

There was so much to see and do and we got right to it.   We explored Custer National Park, the Needles Highway, downtown Custer, Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore monuments and ended each day  marveling at the sights we'd seen by the campfire.  

With the right permits Custer allows side-by-sides to be driven just about everywhere.  The weather was cooperative enough for us to take the side-by-side around the 18 mile wildlife loop within Custer Park.  We were treated to several sightings of prairie dogs, buffalo, the begging burros and even a big horn sheep.  

There was also a couple of off-road adventures, at one point Mike had to drive over a very narrow cattle bridge on one of the trails.  Good thing Keith is a calm guy.  Mike's sister on the other hand was out of the vehicle directing and taking pictures, I assume for the insurance claim.😅

Following the trails using an app, technology is great

Lynn out directing Mike over the cattle bridge

There is so much beauty in this area that no matter what activity you choose, you will be rewarded with beautiful, unspoiled scenery.  My amateur photography cannot do it justice.  A hike to Cathedral Spires and around Sylvan Lake provided some much needed exercise without wheels. 

We sampled the fare at a few local restaurants, and we shared good food, fun and laughs cooking at the campground too. 

Steak night at campground

Patty melt at Sugar Shack, Deadwood, SD

It was a terrific week and great to catch up with family during our trip.  We will be on our own in Custer until 6/28. 

    

RV Life - Does this bolt go to something?

One sunny morning in Akron, Iowa we took the Jeep to a car wash to clean her up a bit.  Upon returning to our campsite at the Lazy H, we saw a bolt laying on the cement where the car had been parked in front of Ruth.  After further inspection, Mike assessed that the bolt had sheared off and looked suspiciously like one of the bolts that secured our towing equipment to the Jeep. Mike quickly identified that this was the case and possibly one other bolt was missing or had also broken off. Yikes!

We had many more miles to go in our travels and need the Jeep to follow us up and down mountains in the next part of our journey.  We had 3 full days left in Iowa to get this fixed or I would be driving the Jeep separately until it was repaired. 

We started working the problem right away.  If not for the support and help of our friends Bruce and Kris, Fed Ex, the Lazy H staff, a chance meeting of a mobile RV repair guy at the food truck, the Blue Ox machine shop in Pender, NE, Fremont RV in South Sioux City, IA and Scenic Park RV Campground we wouldn't have been able to Git-R-Done.  

As we were pondering our predicament on Sunday afternoon, we saw a RV mobile tech truck parked at another camper near the food truck where we were waiting for our order.  I suggested to Mike that he might have a recommendation for us on where we could have the repair completed.  While he was waiting for his order, we bent his ear about our problem.  Right away he recommended calling Fremont RV first thing Monday morning as they do hitch installs regularly there and do a great job.  This saved us a lot of time calling around to auto repair shops hoping they could help us with an RV. 

Mike spoke with Fremont RV first thing Monday morning and took the Jeep there (30 miles from Lazy H) for them to assess what was needed.  They said they would work on it Wednesday if we could source all the parts required as they did not have them. Our planned departure date from Iowa was Thursday morning. We were "on the clock".

The next domino that had to fall into place were our friends Bruce and Kris, who dropped everything and overnighted some spare parts they had fortuitously kept in their garage in Florida from the original installation before we left Florida.  We scoured the web and those particular parts were not being manufactured at this time so they were critical to the repair.  The whole effort would not have worked without these parts.  Love you guys!

We then had to source some bolts and other accessory items to provide for the re-installation.  Everywhere we looked online these items were on backorder until July.  AAAUUUGGHHH!  Somehow in my memory when we were looking at the Blue Ox website for parts (towing equipment manufacturer) I remembered that their address was in Nebraska.  Just so happened that we were only an hour away from the manufacturer of these items we needed. Mike called them first thing Monday morning and while they did not have all the accessories we needed that day, they offered to machine them that night and have them ready by 3pm the next day.  When does that kind of service ever happen?  We drove to Penders, NE and back to pick them up on Tuesday, it went off without a hitch. (pun intended)  We were thrilled with our luck so far in making all this happen.  We commented on our just might work.

Tuesday afternoon Mike called to confirm with Fremont RV that we had sourced all the parts needed for the repair.  There was a long silence on the other end of the phone...one of the repair guys had put a screwdriver through his hand and was headed to the hospital.  They would call us back and let us know if they could still do the repairs.  We were crushed at this turn of events both for the repair guy and ourselves.  

Necessary to calm the nerves on Tuesday night

Now we had the parts, but we were 30 miles away from the repair place and they would have to keep our car for at least a day and maybe more given the new circumstances of being down one repair guy.  We made the decision to leave the Lazy H campground a day early in order to camp near Fremont RV.  Luckily we found a first come, first served pull through spot available at Scenic Campground and RV Park which is located right in Sioux City on the Missouri River and only a couple miles from Fremont RV.  We told them of our situation and they let us come in at 9am which is unusual for a campground,, they were super helpful. 

We got the call that they could work on our Jeep on Wednesday as planned but probably would need to keep it through sometime Thursday to finish the repairs.  That was not ideal as we had planned to leave first thing Thursday morning to our next stop.  However, given everything that had gone into it at this point we were just happy it would be repaired. 

We spent a hot day in South Sioux City, mostly inside the RV as we did not have a car.  They called us at 5:30pm Wednesday and said we could pick up the Jeep, it was done in the same day!  Fremont RV went above and beyond for us to get us back on the road. 

We could not have accomplished any of it without the kindness, support and flexibility of friends, strangers and professionals along the way.   We were able to survive this stressful episode without killing each other and we left Sioux City as planned on Thursday morning to continue our journey to South Dakota.  

Westward Ho! (6/1-6/10)

Departed St. Louis with a lot of miles to cover to get to our next significant destination of Custer, South Dakota.  When we planned our stops several months ago, we followed the general RV rule of 300 miles or 3:00pm...no more than 300 miles of driving in a day and/or arrive to your next campground no later than 3:00pm.  This has worked out pretty well so far, but sometimes you are staying overnight in a place that may not be on the "tourist stop" radar.

We also did not desire to have many one night stops on our travels, but distance required a couple of those on our trek out west.  After St. Louis we made it to Maysville, MO to the Pony Express RV Park and Campground.  It was off the highway a bit and nestled in the Missouri countryside.  It was a rustic campground with a small farm animal pen at the entry and a large office/cafe on the property.  We had hoped to just pull in and leave our Jeep attached since we were just sleeping and leaving early the next morning.  However, the gravel site was very unlevel so we had to unhook and use blocks to level for the night.  We are getting better at leveling.

We had read reviews that the little restaurant had good pizza.  We were not near much else in the area so we decided to give it a try.  The reviews were spot on, the pizza was delicious. We enjoyed feeding the farm animals a couple of times on our walk around the park.  It was pleasant little stopover. 

We were on the road early the next morning headed toward Lazy H Campground in Akron, IA.  This is a burgeoning RV "resort" located about 30 min north of Sioux City, IA. While the location is a bit remote, it is very well designed for large rigs and provides the wide open spaces that you expect in Iowa. We had the place to ourselves during the week and the weekend was completely full.

Our vary spacious site for the week

The view from our front window

An evening sky in Iowa

The property is still under development so there was just a small check-in office, bathrooms and shower houses.  No large pavilions or office/clubhouse amenities, but they are planned. The grounds were immaculately landscaped and the lakeview spot we had was lovely.

We found a welcoming group of pickleball peeps right away.  The local television station came one morning and was doing a story about the upcoming local pickleball tournament.  They also interviewed Mike and I about traveling around and playing pickleball.  We did not see the finished spot, but it was kind of a funny thing. While the town of Akron, IA is only about 1,500, there was a grocery, a Mexican restaurant and a hardware store, the basics of what's required. 

This was a much needed "down time" spot as we worked our way west.  It was hotter and windier in Iowa than we had hoped but we had a few days to do some much needed cleaning, sink repair and maintenance on Ruth. 

Mike giving Ruth a good cleaning

I mentioned in my last post that one of our bathrooms sinks had come loose during transit.  With the help of the local Hardware Hank owner, whose store has been in this town since 1911, Toolman Mike got it fixed with my limited assistance and it was back in working order.

Good thing we have a robust toolbox

This is not a good situation

We ventured into Sioux City a couple of times, but did not find a lot to do there. The temperatures were in the 90's and super windy so after early morning pickleball, we mostly walked or rode our bikes around the campground and the lake after it cooled off in the evenings.  It was just too hot to do much else during the day. 

The campground had a food truck on-site for the weekend and we sampled their fare a couple of times.  It was very good BBQ and ended up being fortuitous for us as we ran into a mobile RV repair guy getting lunch that provided us with an invaluable tip, more on that in the next post. 

I am not sure we would pass this way again specifically for the Lazy H, but if it was on our path for some reason, we definitely would. 

Meet me in St. Louis (5/25-6/1)

Our stopover in St. Louis was planned to also meet up with friends.  There were not too many camping options close to the city for a week's stay so we opted to stay a little further outside the city in an area called St. Peters, MO. 

The campground 370 St. Peters Lakeside Park, a bit of an odd name, was quite obviously fairly new and spread out on a large piece of land near Hwy 370, hence it's name I suppose.  Folklore from the area indicated this area was flooded several years ago and has since been developed into this family friendly park.  Probably due to the flooding, there were not many of trees on the campsite loops themselves, but it still had a rustic, outdoorsy feel as it is situation right on a small lake. 

We had a lovely lakeview spot.  The place bustled with transient campers and others taking advantage of the large pavilions on the property for dance recitals and even a wedding.  There was also a very long paved bike trail around the entire lake that was busy with bicycles, walkers and joggers. 

Ruth's home by the lake

Our lakeside view

While the campground was very nice, we actually spent very little time there.  

Our first morning after arrival we played a little pickleball at an indoor tennis center about 30 minutes away from our park.  After some "administrative' tasks in the afternoon it was time to meet up with our friends to see their new home and attend a cooking class at Kitchen Conservatory.  

The team at work

The cooking class was well attended by 10-12 folks in this "are you vaccinated" or "are you not" period.  The four of us worked together and the other people were paired up based on their tribe as well I guess.  

Honey Grilled Chicken salad with Citrus Arugula Orzo Salad

The menu for the evening was technique heavy including risotto, crepes and much chopping.  Our group was assigned a dish with a lot of steps, but not that difficult.  Even so, we tackled the tasks with gusto and nailed our Honey Grilled Chicken salad with Citrus Arugula Orzo Salad.  The star of the night in all our opinions was the Grilled Peach "Schnapps"Cobbler. It was a fun night. 

The next morning started with rather angry skies and severe storm warnings all around. Even so, we headed out into it as no trip to St. Louis is complete without a visit to the Arch.  The museum was very informative and interactive.  There was much to learn about how St. Louis became the "Gateway to the West". 

We made the trip up to the top of the arch in our little pod of 4. For some reason there was only 1 other group at the same time as ours so it was a semi-private visit to the top.  It was a terrific view and we could see the very dark clouds rolling in towards us.  I am glad we were down on the ground before the storm came through.   Rain would not dampen our fun though so we got a quick lunch at Mission Taco.  We also had a lovely Italian dinner that evening on "The Hill" at Lorenzo's.  One "corked" bottle of wine later we had a tremendous meal and evening. 

Our friends were gracious enough to host us at their home for a couple of nights so we didn't have to drive back and forth to the campground. It was all the more magnanimous by the fact that they had just moved in less than one month ago.  It was a lovely little break from Ruth to wake up in a "bed and breakfast" and not on wheels. 

The weather continued to surprise as a cold front moved in to St. Louis.  Instead of a planned bike ride, we strolled Forest Park.  It's beauty is really indescribable.  The zoo is located there, miles and miles of trails and gardens, museums, a tennis center (which just happened to be hosting a 700 person pickleball tournament)  If you are in this area, make it a point to visit.  It was a great night to stay in for pizza and games.  The pizza was delicious and the ladies dominated at Codenames.  The men vowed revenge on the next game night. 

Our lovely hosts

That next evening our friends treated us with homemade morel pasta, caprese salad, a special bottle of wine and ooey, gooey butter cake. (A St. Louis tradition responsible for many Weight Watcher sign ups)  It was all divine. I am sure that the gentlemen will blame the wine and food coma they were in for their Canasta losses that evening.  Just sayin'...

Pappardelle with Morel and Prosciutto

Roasted tomato caprese

We ate, we drank, we laughed, we walked and talked and had just a lovely visit.   We even got to play a little more pickleball to work off all that we consumed. It was time to saddle up Ruth again and begin our trek toward the west.  We have a one night stopover near St. Joe, Missouri and then a one-week stretch in Akron, Iowa. 

Prior to departure, we noticed that my sink was loose and had moved in the main bathroom vanity, more on that later. 😃

 

Charlestown State Park and Churchill Downs (5/21-5/25)

This stop was shortened a bit so that we could add a few days near Frankfort, so it was a shorter stay than originally planned.  It was a rather short drive from Frankfort, KY to Charlestown.  We did drive through Louisville on the way and cross the Ohio river at New Albany, IN in order to avoid the toll bridge but the traffic was pretty light. 

We planned this stop to meet up with my aunt and uncle who live near Indianapolis, IN.  My aunt Barbara is my mom's youngest sister and only a few years older than me.  We have always been very close and always have a lot of fun together.  Either we were going to drive up to see them at their home or they were going to drive down and see us.  They really wanted to see the RV so they drove the two hours down to Charlestown State Park to meet up with us and stayed in a nearby hotel. 

The park itself was huge and mostly empty when we arrived on that Friday afternoon.  The park is 5,100 acres bordered by the Ohio river.  It was once part of the Indiana Army Ammunition Plant and was donated to the state to become the park.  The campsites are wooded and had a fair amount of space in between. We were in site 156 which was barely long enough for Ruth plus the Jeep to park out front, but we made it work. 

We settled into our campsite and took our bikes for a ride around the park.  The camping loops alone were a nice ride, but their were several other roads to picnic areas and boat ramps too.  The weather was warm and sunny for our ride.  I made dinner at home and we sat by the fire and enjoyed natural setting. The park was mostly empty when we checked in, but the weekend crowd came rolling in and made it a bustling place for two days.  Then, as quick as they came, they all rolled out again on Sunday afternoon and the place was quiet again. 

Saturday morning the park offered a guided tour of a place called Rose Island Amusement Park.   It required a hike down a very significant switchback road (Trail 3) to meet the park ranger for the tour.  What goes down must come up...There were several individuals and families at the meet up point for the tour.  The park did a great job of marking the historical buildings and artifacts of the site.  The history was quite fascinating and indicated a man with great vision, ingenuity and marketing skills.  Unfortunately the great flood of 1937 took it all away.  It was cool and creepy all at the same time.  The hike back from Rose Island was either back up that long hill we took down or a longer route back through the woods.  We opted for the longer, less steep route and enjoyed our trip back without needing oxygen. 

Original Walk of Roses entry to park

Iron bridge added recently to provide access to Rose Island

Original park bench

We also hiked trails 5 and 6 inside the park the next day.  I don't know why their trails are just numbered, not very imaginative, but they were lovely wooded paths through the woods with some gradual elevation and views of the Ohio river valley.  There were roots, rocks, bridges, riverbeds and a canopy of shady trees, everything to make a hike enjoyable. 

We had a lovely visit at the campsite with my aunt and uncle. It was great to see them doing well post Covid and to laugh and catch up on everyone's busy lives.  We enjoyed a very yummy dinner at a local gastropub in Jeffersonville, IN called Harbor and Hops.  The fried pickles were addictive and the homemade root beer BBQ sauce was a hit.  We retired for the evening as we had reservations to tour Churchill Downs the next morning. 

Churchill Downs is very nearly in downtown Louisville.  I have to say that I was surprised by that.  We had about a 30 minute tour of the facility and track.  The guide gave us a history of the track, its winners and losers.  We saw one horse working out on the track while we were there.  You can actually feel the history as you stand there.  You can picture the ladies and gents in their finest awaiting the call to post on Derby Day.  After thoroughly exploring the extensive museum it was time to depart.  

We said our goodbyes to my aunt and uncle and they headed back to Indy, it was a short but awesome visit.  On our way back to the RV, we found a delicious BBQ restaurant called The Feast for lunch and it was. 

This felt like a very short stop even though we packed in a lot in the 4 days here.  We liked the park, but did not get to see much of Louisville during our visit, maybe we will roam this area again at some point.