Western RV Trip Day 16-17 – Bike rides, Hill City, Hot Springs

During these two days the bike riders rode the final two 20+ mile legs of the Mickelson Trail and here are a couple of trail shots.

Western RV Trip Day 15 - Custer State Park & Keystone, SD

Monday was a full day for us and we intended to hit the big highlights of Custer State park beginning with Sylvan Lake and the Needles Hwy (pics from a previous visit).  It is so called because of the needle like spires of rock along the drive – it also has a couple of one lane tunnels and a formation that looks like a needles eye.

Western RV Trip Days 13-14 Custer & Broken Arrow

We awoke to a cool 44F Sat morning with the high predicted to be 55F which is 38 degrees cooler than Thursday.  A cold front came through and provided some desperately needed rain to the area and hopefully helped with the Montana wild fires.

We are staying at Broken Arrow Horse Camp and RV and it seems we are the only campers without a horse trailer although there are some motorcyclist staying in the cabins.  Our site is long and level enough with decent room between sites.

Western RV Trip Days 11-12

On Thursday, we cancelled the planned trip over to Rapid City as my girls wanted to spend more time in Deadwood – Pat and Steve went to RC to get a part for his RV.  Since I’d ran my northern Black Hills bucket list, including Deadwood, I spent the day catching up on blogs, watching the dogs, stowing the outside items as rain was predicted for our departure time the next day.

Bev & Pat decided to visit Tatanka (Lakota Sioux for bison), a specialty museum, honoring the Native American’s relationship with the bison.  The museum is a dream of Kevin Costner and he is the founder/owner.  They have a lot of life sized bronze sculptures and her are a few of Bev’s shots.

When the girls got home we had a supper of grilled white brats (The Wurst Kitchen) with sautéed pepper and onions.  One of the disappointments of having to leave late for this trip was not getting to stop by The Wurst Kitchen for a reload on their delicious sausages.  I just grilled the sausages slowly on our Weber Jumbo Joe and sauteed some onions and peppers then they were served with or without a bun and mustard for me.  It’s not as great a shot with the mustard hidden, but the build for me was bun, mustard, sausage, mustard, veggies.

As always they were delicious and if I lived next to them, I’d have Wurst Kitchen sausages at least once a week.

Friday was moving day and with much needed rain predicted for our departure, we stowed as much as we could the previous evening.  Since we were only going 60 miles, we were in no great rush and departed Elkhorn Ridge about 10:30am and headed for Broken Arrow Campground located about four miles south of Custer, SD

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

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

Larry

9/14 - 9/15/17 Event Date

Western RV Trip Days 10 – Spearfish Canyon, Lead, and Deadwood

On Wednesday, we drove up Spearfish Canyon and while it could be impressive, the lack of water in the creek and the smoky haze made it less so – the smoke moved back in after our first two days.  Angel Falls was just a trickle but there were a few dammed areas providing fishing holes.

Western RV Trip Day 9 Devil’s Tower & Steak

We started Tuesday off the with a BLT plus egg using Benton’s bacon and, as always, the sandwich was delicious – I was too busy eating to take a picture but since we fried up three pounds of bacon, I may get another chance.

After breakfast we headed out on our day trip starting with a drive though Bell Fourche (bel foosh) – not much there for us tourists.  We headed west across MT-34/WY-24 to Devil’s Tower National Monument.  These shots are from the east side as we approached - the group shot is to send into the back home newspaper for a series they are doing..

Western RV Trip Days 7- 8 Bike Rides, Deadwood, & Sturgis

Our neighbors from home are bike riders and brought theirs on this trip so they could ride the 109 mile long Mickelson Trail which is the old roadbed for the Burlington Northern railroad that ran from Edgemont to Deadwood, SD.  After talking with a local, they decided to begin at the Dumont trail head and ride to Deadwood, which is mostly downhill.  Here they are ready to mount up for this 16 mile leg.

Let’s Head West Again – RV Trip Days 4-6

After our rest day in Platte City, MO (I can only drive two days in a row without getting tired and ornery) we headed further north and a little west to Salem, SD on day four.  It was another 375 mile drive mostly north on I-29 from Platte City, MO to Sioux Falls, SD then about 35 miles west on I-90 to our campground near Salem, SD.  I-29 in MO was okay but IA had some new concrete sections and some really bad sections, especially just north of Council Bluffs.  As always the SD roads were good.

We spent the night at Camp America Campground and after setting up realized we had been there before (in 2013), but I did not remember it when I was planning this trip – likely because we were having some new coach issues the last time.  It is a nice little place and obviously set up for overnight travelers as it is in the middle of nowhere.

Let’s Head West Again – RV Trip Days 1- 3

After a 10 day delay due to a tow car issue, we finally got all loaded up and began our Western trip.  The house sitter is all settled in to look after things and we think we have everything we need for a successful trip.

We were planning to make a leisurely 15 day drive through WI, MN, & ND to arrive at our primary location in the South Dakota Black Hills but with reservations already made there and plans to meet up with another couple, we had to take the more direct route and make the trip in 5 days (four driving and one rest).

For our first day, we drove 375 miles from home to Cape Girardeau, IL where we stayed at Cape Camping & RV Park located a little northwest of downtown and near I-55.