We have arrived in Custer, SD

We left Sturgis at around 9:30 this morning, headed for Custer. We arrived at 11:30. We have to move the 5er after today to another campsite due to reservations here at the Broken Arrow Campground so we have just left everything hooked to the truck until we move tomorrow.

It is very cool (weather) here right now due to thunderstorms that are moving through the area. In the high 60’s and we have the windows raised to get some fresh air. It is so nice!! So sorry that all of our family and a lot of our friends are sweltering back in SC. We would have you all over if we could!! It actually has not gotten above 72 today.

We will not be able to start any of our touring until probably Thursday. We have to change campsites tomorrow and make a grocery run and these will take about half the day. Then Wednesday the Safelite people are coming to put our new windshield in the truck. Told us they would be here between 8 and 12. So we should probably rule Wednesday out too unless we can find something very close that we can do. We will be checking on that.

We are also going to try to get by to meet Mike and Pat McFall. They live just down the road from where we are.

Stay tuned. We should have some great pictures from the Custer State Park, the 1880 Train ride, and maybe the Wild Horse Sanctuary (although the entry fee may be a little steep for us). Charley also wants to visit the Red Ass Winery near Hill City where they make rhubarb wine. And I am sure that we will do just some driving around and looking at the scenery since it is so gorgeous.

Update from Sturgis

We went on a short tour of Deadwood and Lead South Dakota on Thursday. We had been there before but wanted to see it again. We also drove through Bare Butte State Park but there isn’t much that we found that was interesting other than a couple of scenic pictures and, of course, the buffalo with babies.

We took Friday off and hung around the campground and joined the campground owner for dinner (steak night). While on the subject of the campground, the owner is a very nice gentleman who just purchased the campground in February. We sort of got to know him pretty well because we had a situation with the windshield on our truck. When we got in the truck on Thursday for our day trip the windshield was cracked. It was not cracked when we arrived on Wednesday and the truck was not driven until Thursday. The campground was being mowed on Wednesday afternoon. We reported this to the office/owner and explained what we thought happened. He contacted his insurance company and we will be reimbursed for the repairs. He indicated that he wanted to “make it right”. We could not have asked for this to be handled any more nicely than it was. If anyone is planning to visit the Sturgis area you should consider the Rush No More RV Park as a camping option. We recommend it!!

Today, we went to see Debbie, Duane, Bo and Laska (finally got to meet Bo and Laska). We took Cheyenne and Sadie too since they had not met Sadie. Had a very nice visit at their campsite, watched the dogs at play, managed to keep up with all four of them and then headed to a Mexican restaurant for lunch (very good). Did not make note of the name of the restaurant. Went back to their campsite to pick up our fur babies, after Duane and Debbie kindly invited them to stay in their camper, and then headed for home. We were planning to visit the Historical Fish Hatchery while we were there today but decided to try to get together again before we leave the area and visit it then. Duane and Debbie are great people and just loads of fun to talk to. We have been full timing about the same length of time so we have lots of stories to tell each other and I don’t think they have all been told yet!!

We are planning to stay at the campground tomorrow and do a little cleaning up inside the 5er (much needed) before we head for Custer on Monday.

Stay tuned, there will be lots of pictures when we go back to Custer State Park for our third visit. We love that place!! It is beautiful and has so much to offer.

 Downtown Deadwood

Blooming Cactus

Bare Butte

 Buffalo at Bare Butte State Park

 Our site at Rush No More RV Park

Bo with Sadie

Laska

Debbie and Duane

Sturgis, SD

One note on Chef Louie’s last night. It was delicious!! Just like last year!

We left the campground in Mitchell at 7:00AM Central this morning and arrived in Sturgis before noon Mountain time. We are at the Rush No More campground about 7 miles from Sturgis. It is very quiet and peaceful here. We had planned to stay here two weeks but we changed our minds today and will just be staying until Monday morning. We then plan to move to Custer, to the Broken Arrow campground where we stayed last year.

Our two fur babies, Cheyenne and Sadie, seem to be the hit of this campground!! They are getting everyone’s attention already. We love it.

We have set up everything, for the most part anyway, and will finish up the little things tomorrow.

Not sure yet what our touring plans are. We also need to get in touch with Debbie and Duane Rowe to see when we can get together with them while we are here in Sturgis.

More later!

Our Last Day in Mitchell SD

We relaxed most of the day today after going to visit the Corn Palace and having breakfast while we were out. Pictures are included of this fascinating place.

We are going out to Chef Louie’s for a steak for dinner and then coming back to get some things prepped for our departure tomorrow. We ate here the last time we were in Mitchell and it was excellent! Hope the same will be true today.

 You can see that they were working on one section of the palace today

 The theme for this year is American Pride – it is over the front entrance

Another of the murals on the outside

All inside shots

And this was taken in the gift shop!!!

We have arrived in South Dakota!!

After three fairly heavy travel days we arrived in Mitchell, SD at around 3:30, after departing at 7:00AM. We traveled from Nashville to Villa Ridge, MO on Thursday, then on to St Joseph, MO on Friday and then to Mitchell today. Boy, Charley is beat after all that driving. I offered to help with the driving but I don’t think he is confident that I can handle it with the 5er behind us. And he may be right!!

We intend to take it easy tomorrow before we begin checking out Mitchell again. We will definitely be returning to the Corn Palace to see what the theme is this year. That is really a very interesting place and we are anxious to see it again. There is a steak restaurant, Chef Louie’s, that we intend to revisit. We had a great meal there last year. Then just more sightseeing around Mitchell and relaxing for a couple of days before we move on to Sturgis, where we will be staying for two weeks.

We did take some pictures on the way here but none were very noteworthy so we will wait for the Corn Palace!! We did take some pictures of the flooding in Missouri and Iowa but hard to tell what you are seeing in a picture. This was something that we had not seen before. We actually had to detour off of I-29 two times due to flooding on the interstate. Made our day a little longer than planned today!!

Stay tuned!!

Day at the Campground

We did not get to the distilleries as planned today. Charley woke up with a very bad headache so we just hung around the campground so that he could take care of that. He did, after feeling a little better, get the truck in for the needed fuel filter change. The technicians also took care of the recall notice that required a computer reset that is supposed to increase the horse power.

We will just have to catch the distilleries on a later trip through this area.

Tomorrow Sadie goes to a local vet recommended by the campground for her next round of shots. Then we will be working on getting prepped to hit the road again Thursday morning for our whirlwind trip to get us to South Dakota. Won’t be much sight seeing for the three days it will take us to get there.

Stay tuned!!

Touring Nashville

We went to the Hermitage (home of President Andrew Jackson) today and looked around. We did not go on the walking tour because we had the fur babies with us and they could not go. It was way too hot to leave them in the truck.

We also ventured into downtown Nashville and experienced their one way streets while trying to see how much has changed since we were last here. The main street with all the shops, recording studios and eating establishments is pretty much the same (amazing to me!!). We also saw the Ryman Auditorium and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Again, these were not places where we could take Cheyenne and Sadie inside for a tour but that was okay. We were mainly interested in just seeing what had changed. Took as many pictures as we could get but some are not that good.

We are planning to go to the Jack Daniels Distillery and George Dickle Distillery tomorrow after Charley takes the truck in for a new fuel filter at the local Ford Dealership. Then Wednesday Sadie gets her next round of puppy shots and we will be packing up for our three day trip north to South Dakota (two overnight stops).

Stay tuned. Hope you like the pictures.

 

 The Hermitage

 Downtown Nashville – in the midst of the high rises

 Country Music Hall of Fame Museum

Ryman Auditorium

Click on the picture below to see all of our photos from today.