Road Trip Sunday: Buffalo, SD

Hello and thanks for joining me as I button up our week in South Dakota in memories and photos! I love the fact that I can relive this all over again as I string it together. When we met for coffee, we were just starting out on our trip and had spent the night Avoca, Iowa. Sunday morning we were back on the road, finishing out the last stretch of I-80 and began our trek up I-29 and along the Nebraska border.

I was so happy to meet up with friends of ours, Andrea and Shawn, who are full time RVers!  They were in Sioux Falls, SD for the weekend and we would be were passing through!  The timing worked and we met for lunch at Sickie’s Garage.  Great food and great conversation!

Back on the road, we still had to get on I-90 and start the last windy leg of the trip. We soon came upon the Missouri River that divides what they call East River and West River. Once across, the landscape changes dramatically, from fields and farms to rolling prairie. This is the view from Chamberlain as I-90 winds around and the river comes into view.

The day was uneventful but that would soon change!  We had stopped in Spearfish at our beloved Perkins for dinner and, walking back to the truck and trailer, noticed we lost about 8 screws off one side. The aluminum had cracked and broken apart around one of the screws, and somewhere along our 1300 mile trip, the 7 screws above that one popped off, probably one by one, with the flapping of the aluminum panels along the windy ride. I sincerely hope they all bounced into the grass on the side of the road and didn’t cause someone else any flat tire trouble!

So. That delayed our arrival as Bill got out the drill and some extra hardware and patched it together. Then another hour north to our land. Pitch dark, I mean, you cannot see your hand in front of your face dark. We got to the trailer and were delighted to see it was critter free and smelled of the dryer sheets we packed it with last August. Just a few annoying moths that had gotten in when we turned on the lights. We fell asleep, exhausted, to the dead silence of the dark prairie, not even the cackle a coyote off in the distance, which I kind of missed.

I woke to sounds of faint moo-ing, something I typically do not wake to on a Monday morning!  It was glorious. I peeked out the blinds to see that our neighbors cows had made their way over to us, munching grass as they went. They hung out for a while before they migrated back home. I couldn’t get a picture in time, but one of the calves had our electric fence wire in his mouth!  We knew we had turned the fence on before turning in the for the night, so Bill suspected the battery was no longer holding a charge.  He headed outside and behind the trailer, two calves were inside the fenced off perimeter and a bull was looking slightly annoyed as the wire was across his back. Bill shooed them out of our “yard” and we got up and moving.

Bill fixed some wiring on his truck that remains out on our land and took it for a test drive. He met up with more of our neighbors at our gate, curiously peering at him from their cattle guard.

I’ll never forget the first time they approached us, when we rode out on the bikes, many years ago. We were parked on the road and they just came walking up to us, nosing around. I’d never in my life been surrounded by horses, it was like something out of a movie.

Later in the day we went into Buffalo for water and gas for the bikes, which we got from the roadside park, just south of town.  It’s a nice little park with a picnic area, restrooms, water and a dump station. Behind me is the town directory, which lists all the Buffalo businesses and their locations.

In town we found one of Kristi Noem’s campaign signs!  Our governor visited Buffalo not long ago, and we saw on Facebook all the photos as she visited with the townsfolk.

Our grocery store is the H&L Super Valu, a sweet, old fashioned store complete with old, creaky wood floors.  I went to get groceries while Bill was down the street at Buffalo Hardware. As I was checking out at the register, I could hear this faint, squealing noise, like the sound of old metal swings at an ancient playground. When I stepped outside with my bags I found it was the sign in the below pic, swaying in the breeze on this hot summer day. Talk about the putting the finishing touch on that moment!

Our last stop was for gas, for the dirt bikes and mowers. I was looking forward to mowing a path to define our driveway and even a dirt bike track of sorts, but we would end up not mowing at all, as the days were too hot and dry. Hitting a rock with a mower blade and creating a spark could mean a disastrous wildfire, so mowing needs to wait until there is bit more moisture.  But we still got to ride!  Hehehe.

Back at the ranch with the water, our first task was de-winterizing the trailer. Bill filled the freshwater tank with the water from our cistern, I flipped the pump on…..and we heard the sound of rushing water. Yep. Split water line under the kitchen sink. Back to town for hoses and connectors from the hardware store. I still cannot believe how Bill was able to fold himself into the tiny cabinet under the kitchen sink and replace the section of water line but he did it. I’d have gotten a picture, but he wasn’t exactly feeling it.

Okay.. Several rolls of paper towel later to mop up the water, I set a fan in the open cabinet to dry things out and we went for our first ride.

We first rode to the gate and back several times, trying to beat a path into the dry grass and establish a driveway of sorts. This was the section I was hoping to mow. After a while, we attempted riding a path along side the western border, across to our northeast marker (an orange plastic stick used for an electric fence that we rode around like we were barrel racing) then across the creek bed several times.

I took lots of GoPro video, which I still need to edit and post to my YouTube channel.. I’ll share the links when I do!  From the video, I grabbed a still of Bill doing a wheelie across the prairie.

I cannot even put into words how much fun this was. We had ALL. THIS. SPACE to ride.

I stopped several times across the prairie to grab pics of several flowers. I’ve Googled and from what I can see, this appears to be an Eastern Prickly Pear cactus. Funny, there was a bar/restaurant in Ann Arbor called the Prickly Pear that I went to with a co-worker about 10 years ago, which has unfortunately since closed. The name has stuck with me and little did I know I’d acquire land where this cacti grows wild!

The other flower I saw several times during our explorations was a pretty pink flower with an orange center, which I’ve learned is the Prairie Wild Rose! Even more interesting, according to Prairie Moon Nursery, this flower was one species that survived the 1930s droughts of the American “Dust Bowl”!

I was tickled to see the amount of water in our seasonal creek. Much of it is a dry riverbed that snakes it’s way across our parcel. This particular section made me long for my kayak, though it’s really not paddle-able at all.  We carefully made our way to the edge, keeping our eyes open for snakes.

If we had water all the way across and it was deep enough to paddle, it would be about a quarter mile stretch.

Much of it, however, is just a winding path of rich, green grass.

We returned from our ride and relaxed as the sun set. We did bring a propane fire pit, which we used for just a very short time to try it out. This was the first time we fired it up but didn’t bring anything to set it on and it obviously gets hot underneath. On our next trip we plan to have, at the least, several square cement tiles to set it on, so it’s not touching any grass. Again, sparks! No wood fires..

Later in the week, we met up with more friends in Spearfish! We met Doug and Debbie one year during the Sturgis Rally, and they are now living my dream along with Andrea and Shawn! I’m so happy to have friends here. While in town, we picked up a new battery for the electric fence and we were again back in business.

The week flew and we were soon packing up. I made an inventory of everything we left in the trailer so I know what we don’t need to bring. Next trip will be a bit different when we leave, as we’ll need to winterize and take much of our stuff with us back home.

On our way back, we spent the night in Adair, Iowa, not far down the highway from our Motel 6.  No vacancies there as there was some kind of huge antique show going on. I was lucky to get a room in Adair. We started to see lightning and would drive right along the most incredible storm I’d ever seen without getting drenched. I couldn’t get a pic to describe this in any way, so I typed out a description once we got to our room.

So that’s our trip, my friends!  Thank you for reading, if you’re still with me. We are counting the days until we return.