Going Up the Country – Part 1

Hello and thank you for coming along with us on this journey! It’s a a beautiful, hot summer day in Western South Dakota and I look forward to spending the rest of this awesome afternoon reliving the past three days.

I won’t count the days riding from Michigan as it was pretty uneventful. As we do every year, we looked at the radar at every stop and determined if we keep going or wait out the rain. We lucked out and only had a few sprinkles by the time we reached our halfway point at the Super 8 in Walnut, Iowa.

When we made our reservations earlier in the year, we were told that the pool area was destroyed by an electrical fire. I was glad to hear they safely evacuated the entire hotel and that no rooms were damaged either.

From the second floor, we had a good view of the damage. 🙁

The hallway carpet reminded me of the shining, especially with the funeral home era couch at the end of the hall.

But we like this place just fine. They recently remodeled their rooms and they’re pretty nice. Sunday morning we packed up and headed out for the second leg of the trip. I didn’t have my point and shoot out, but there was nothing really interesting to capture until we reached the Mississippi River.

From here the landscape changes from mainly farms to prairie. This stretch is always long, hot and windy, as I’ve shared before in other posts. I-29 is over 300 miles from our destination at exit 14, so the next several hours, watch the mile markers slowly click by. Storms in the western end of the state forced us to take cover in Wall, and we stopped for dinner and waited for the rain to pass.

I had the most awesome Indian Taco!

The temperature dropped immensely and I was glad I brought my face mask. Bundled up, we made the last 100 miles to Chris Camp and set up just before the sun set.

Freezing! OMG we could see our breath as we talked with our friends who arrived earlier. I almost did not bring extra blankets and was SO glad I did. The low got down to about 49. I was totally jelly of all the RVs in the park and missed my trailer!

In the morning we walked down the office for the complimentary coffee and stopped at the petting farm. This year they had two calves, lambs and goats each. Precious!

Breakfast was at the Spearfish Perkins, our favorite haunt. We’ve gotten to know the staff and it’s like a reunion every year! Today we’d head out to our property in Buffalo and plug in for the first time, as we just had a power pole installed on our land. There were a few muddy spots and Bill ferried my bike across for me.

Because my bike is lighter and easier to handle, Bill rode my bike back to the trailer and I followed, watching for snakes and other critters. He arrived, and our neighbors cattle rushed over to say hello (OK, they were probably expecting food).

It was so nice to see the poles going back to the trailer and a brand new box with 20, 30 and 50 amp outlets. The last pole was a bit farther away than we wanted it, but we’ll get an extension cord or move the trailer closer. We plugged in and celebrated being on the grid by firing up the air conditioner on this blazing hot day.

We didn’t stay the night but we plan to while we’re here. I’m praying that I get to see the Northern Lights again!