Maintenance Day in Mitchell, SD

We have been working on some cleanup and minor repairs today. Planning to rest this afternoon and go out to what appears to be a great steak place for dinner tonight, Chef Louie's Steakhouse and Lounge. This place got rave reviews from the public and we cannot wait to see if we agree.

We will be leaving in the morning for Wall, SD and will be staying two nights there. Plan to go to Wall Drugs and tour the Badlands before moving on to western South Dakota for a stay of a week or more.

Mitchell, South Dakota

Our first day here was very nice. The temperature right now is 72 with a forecast of 55 for the low tonight. What a welcome change from the steamy temperatures we left behind!! And from what Charley checked in the Yellowstone area, we are going to be glad we brought along some cold weather clothing on this trip!! They are forecasting a low of 41 at Yellowstone tonight. Can you believe the difference??

After grocery shopping early this morning, we went into Mitchell and visited the Mitchell Corn Palace. What a fascinating place!! There are murals both inside and outside the building that are done strictly with various colors of ears of corn along with the corn plant, used in a number of ways. You can see examples of this in the pictures I am attaching.

And there could not possibly be a more appropriate part of the country for this palace to be located, based on all the corn fields we saw on our drive here!! Another unusual thing is that you can tour this facility FREE. Can you imagine? How many places do you know of that are absolutely free? And they provide guided tours and videos as well. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were more places like this? Guess they depend on their food/snack and gift shop sales. All of the areas that are done using corn are redone every year and finished in early July. The video we watched said that there are 100 acres of land designated to support a corn crop for this update each year.

We also (Charley just had to see it) visited Cabela’s. This is a store that is a lot like the Bass Pro Shop. They sell hunting, fishing and boating supplies primarily. Charley concluded that he likes Bass Pro Shops better.

We spent the rest of the day just relaxing until time to fix dinner. Had barbequed pork chops, rice, salad and Texas Toast. We really enjoyed this home cooked meal – been a few days since we have had one…

Planning to do some maintenance (cleaning) on the 5er and F450 tomorrow and get ready to move farther west on Monday. Not planning to spend the entire day on this, must have time for a nap!!

We also have to finalize the campground we want to stay in for a week or more in western South Dakota. We have it narrowed down to two that have been recommended to Charley through his research. We will get that decision made tomorrow and check on reservations.

These are pictures of some of the farmland that we saw on our trip from Mulberry Grove to Mitchell. Miles and miles and miles of corn and soybean fields and farms.

The Mitchell Corn Palace - These are just a few of the pictures we took and they really do not do justice to the fascinating workmanship/artistry of this place.

 

And last, but not least…….Charley and Cheyenne out for a walk...

Cooler Weather, Finally!!

We left Platte City, Missouri this morning about 8:30 and arrived in Mitchell, South Dakota at about 5:30. Another long travel day but we did not have many campgrounds to choose from between those two places. We took our time and made quite a few stops so we were not too, too tired when we arrived. And, guess what?? The temperature was only 83 when we got here!! Hurray for small miracles!! It is suppose to get down to around 62 tonight. Now we can slow down a little!! :-) Quite an improvement over 100, don’t you think?

The drive here was somewhat boring. Miles and miles and miles of corn fields, soybean fields and farms. All beautiful scenery but too much of a good thing….

Planning to stay in Mitchell for three nights, leaving Monday morning for western South Dakota. Planning to tour the badlands, go by Wall Drug Store and may spend the night in Wall, SD. We have not decided for sure yet. There is a lot to see in the western part of South Dakota so we will probably be spending at least one week there, if not longer.

Pictures will be posted starting tomorrow.

Another Hot Day!!

Our two night stop was the right thing to do. We were much more rested for our trip today and didn’t get testy with each other (which is a good thing!) :-)

We are just north of Kansas City, at the Basswood Resort in Platte City, Missouri. It is still extremely hot and we are now waiting for the 5er to finish cooling down from the trip. We got here about 3:30 today. It was really strange traveling down the interstate through Kansas City. A storm cloud could be seen from the interstate but only a drop or two of rain fell. However, the temperature dropped 10 degrees (to 89) for just a few minutes…. Wish that it had stuck there!! We could see that it was raining off in the distance and were wishing it would fall on us!!

This campground is very nice. In the country, very quiet except for an occasional plane taking off and landing at the Kansas City airport. That will not bother us at all. We are just planning to chill out (bad choice of words) until the morning.

We made a reservation at the R & R Campground in Mitchell, South Dakota for tomorrow through Sunday night. Not going to travel over the weekend except maybe on some day trips. The Sturgis (town in western portion of South Dakota) Motorcycle rally is going on through Sunday, 8/15. We decided that we would be taking a chance on trying to find a place to stay while this was going on so we will wait until the beginning of next week to move on.  From what I checked on the internet, it looks like Mitchell may be a pretty nice place to stay and there are plenty of what look like good eating establishments we can choose from if we are interested. It is hard to do that when you are out in the country like we have been the last couple of days!!

Still no pictures that are really worth sharing yet but I am sure there will be some once we get into South Dakota!! Stay tuned!!

It is HOT!!

Jim Ross, Charley told me you were ready for our daily updates again. So, this one is for you and I will try my best to get back on a daily routine!! Thank you so much for following us in our travels!!

Our first two days back on the road again were pretty uneventful. Since one of our primary goals, other than getting out to Yellowstone, is to get to a cooler climate, we are travelling pretty hard and not stopping for long stretches.

On Monday we made it to right outside Knoxville, Tennessee and stayed at the Escapees campground at Raccoon Valley. This is a very basic campground whose main goal seems to be just providing their members with a place to stop along the way. Nothing very special that we could see in our one night there. Saw a lot of beautiful mountain scenery along the way but didn’t stop for any pictures. We will wait and do that when we actually go into the Smokies for a REAL visit.

Yesterday we travelled, including all of our fuel, puppy and bathroom stops, about 11 hours. WAY TOO LONG, won’t do that again. We were both getting a little testy before we finally stopped at the Timber Lakes Campground in Mulberry Grove, Illinois. We covered Tennessee, Indiana and Illinois in one day!! Still no pictures to really speak of but I will check them later today to see if any are worth posting and add them with our next update. We will be staying one more night here in Mulberry Grove  to get rested from yesterday before we head out again. Planning to double back a little and go through St. Louis, Missouri so we can at least see the Arch on our way. That, again, will be visited more later in cooler temps. Checked the weather in South Dakota and looks like the temps are down into the 50’s at night (that is cooler don’t you think?)

More later today or tomorrow…….

On the Road Again!!!!

We left Blythewood, SC at 8:15AM this morning (8/9) and are on our way out west!! Hurray!!

Plans are to travel as many hours as possible each day until we reach South Dakota. Then we will slow our pace and spend some time seeing the sights.

It has taken a while to get to this point but things are pretty settled now. It was hard leaving the grandchildren this morning but we will be visiting them often via Skype. We will miss our kids too!! :-)

I will be updating our blog regularly now and would like to thank everyone who has patiently waited for this momentous occasion to occur!! Stick with us, hopefully we will have some exciting information and pictures to share along the way.

Almost Ready to Hit the Road Again!!

We are planning to leave for Yellowstone next week, Monday or Tuesday is the plan at this point in time.

All repairs to the 5er have been completed and all new tires/wheels are installed with sensors on the camper. Charley will be installing sensors on the truck also before we leave. Repairs to the 5er look good and we now feel whole again.

Cleanup chores have started and will be continuing throughout the rest of this week in preparation for our departure. In the meantime we are staying with our son and his family.

Charley’s Dad is with his sisters this week and enjoying his stay in his hometown. He made the comment to Charley that his older son had taken his truck and left him barefoot (too funny!!) but his sister is taking him wherever he needs to go. My father-in-law is something else!!

Once we get back on the road my plan is to get back on our blog daily to provide updates and pictures. Thank you to everyone who has stayed tuned, been patient, and kept checking on us. Just a few more days to go!!