Go West Old Man – Onward To Rapid City, SD Again – 2012

Of our two RV problems, I was able to fix one myself early the next morning then by using the coach batteries to make up for the alternator not charging the chassis batteries, we were able to get to Rapid City a day late.

We got into the Lake Park Campground and Cottages before noon and began arranging for repairs.  Like most of the campgrounds we’ve seen out here, the roads are gravel as was our site here, but it has some huge cottonwood trees for good shade and we were next to the laundry and bathhouse which was very convenient.

We really like the campground as the staff is friendly and helpful, it's small, but with the on-site cabins, large enough to have good amenities, and the bathhouse and laundry are kept immaculately clean.

It is next to Canyon Lake and Park with a very good place to walk the dogs - here they are anxiously awaiting their walk.

They enjoyed it once they got going.

There were quite a few mallards and geese - don't know if this is a stop-over or they live here year round.

The next day Bev encountered either a herd of turkeys or turkey vultures at the lake.

If you're into knotty pine, extensive use is made of the Ponderosa Pine around this area including at the campground.

After driving along I-90 and around the Black Hills, I have to say that South Dakota has the best roads I’ve been on – maybe it’s because there aren’t as many of them to maintain.  And after using straight-from-the-well water in campgrounds they also have some of the worst water I’ve seen – very hard and with a strong hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg) smell.  I think I may have smelled worse after my shower than before :-).   The silver lining is that it's real easy to get dry here. 

Thanks to some communication issues, the repairs couldn’t happen the day after we got there, but did get done on Thursday to the tune of $1100 - they have a $135/ hr labor rate so it adds up fast.  Since we seem to continue to have issues, I'm afraid to go any farther west, so we decided to stay in Rapid City three extra days and cancel the Montana/Yellowstone leg of our trip. We'll just head south into Colorado instead (we have to go south at some point), with a stop in Cheyenne, WY and hopefully fulfill the Denver part of the trip.  Since I must visit Glacier National Park, hopefully we can find a way to get back out there next year - maybe Scotty can beam us there.

I haven't been doing the one and two year ago items as we're just too busy having fun - nice problem to have.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

9/4-9/6/12 event date