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.
Day
five was a nice uneventful drive across SD on I-90 which is still in good shape
and being replaced with new concrete in a couple of places. We pulled into Elkhorn Ridge Resort mid-afternoon
and got set up in our end site number 99.
This
is a legitimate resort with 186 nice RV sites, 36 cabins, an 18 hole golf
course plus tennis, Frisbee disc golf, basketball, volleyball, and
playground. They also have a decent
store. The resort is located on Fawley
Ranch and per Wikipedia –Wikipedia
“The Frawley Ranch is an historic ranch in Lawrence County, South Dakota, near
Spearfish, South Dakota. Henry Frawley developed what became the largest and
most successful cattle ranch in western South Dakota by purchasing lands that
had failed as smaller homesteading parcels. The property was declared a
National Historic Landmark in 1977.”
While
we were in eastern SD, we experience cool temps but when we got here it was in
the high 80’s with lots of wind – rocked the coach a little but fortunately not
blowing in the forest fire smoke for now.
I
had not mentioned it before but our neighbors, Pat & Steve, are making part
of the trip with us and they were set up in the park when we got here but off
on a motorcycle ride. They have a class
C Born Free coach on which they haul their motorcycle and we brought their
bicycles on the back of our car.
As
is usually the case, after a couple of driving days, especially these longer
ones, I’m ready for a down day so while the others went off to Spearfish to hit
the farmers market, do some grocery shopping and go to lunch, I dog sat and
watched college football. It was nice to
have both cable and satellite as we got the network cannels as well as Direct
TV.
Please
tune back in as we experience the South Dakota Black Hills for the next couple
of weeks.
Photos
can be enlarged by clicking on them.
Have
a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.
Larry
9/7 – 9/9/17 Event Dates
Looks like a nice place to relax for a bit after those long travel days.
ReplyDeleteGlad the smoke was staying away. The Black Hills are a beautiful place to explore.
ReplyDeleteLooks like you located some nice CGs to stay. Hope the fire smoke stays away.
ReplyDeleteSafe travels.............what happened to ole Blue.....??HRB......
ReplyDeleteLong days of driving can be hard but it looks like you've been staying in some nice places.
ReplyDelete