May 12: We left one ranch (Rafter J Bar) and headed to the Lazy R. Not a ranch! I knew it was not a ranch and it was just an overnight but it was downtown off main st and despite that it had two cement drive on pieces and was a pull through (no backing up the trailer always a plus) and was right off the highway and on our route to Yellowstone. Took me a bit to find sewer hookup with Jo’s expert sleuthing but we got hooked up. To stretch our legs we walked down the street to the Family Dollar/Dollar tree combo store. Needed ice cream (me – they had Klondike minis!!!) and a few cooking ware needs we discovered were missing. They had literally everything there! Who knew that they were married but it’s a great union as far as I can see. Jo did have one issue when she was caught wandering around the campground looking for a laundry we both knew we had seen on one email or map but didn’t exist. A nice lady told her none existed. We had an easy decamping and left for Yellowstone. Did I mention it was raining again. More on that next blog.

May 10: Today’s trip was only 106 miles or should I say was supposed to only be 106 miles. Well we needed some groceries and rapid City on our way sort of had a Super Walmart. Why go out of our way to get groceries well it was because there was a Cannabis dispensary there called Puffy’s. Lots of marketing went into that. Well we got close to the outskirts of Rapid City and I knew if we got stuck in traffic My AM coffee would be an issue in continence. So I pulled off a few miles from Puffy’s address to use the bathroom in preparation for city driving pulling an Airstream trailer. Jo looked up and next to the random gas station was a giant sign for Puffy’s. Turns out there was so much demand for Cannabis that had stores on both sides of Rapid City and we just happened to find the one we weren’t even going to. A Miracle. Oh you may be wondering if one of us needs Cannabis fortunately we don’t. That said our greyhound is on CBD oil and we were running low. Plan….Jo you go get the CBD….check….I will use the bathroom…check. Oh if it only was that simple. I came back to the truck mission accomplished. Jo comes back to the truck sans CBD oil. After speaking through bulletproof grass they said they couldn’t give her CBD because they only dispensed Cannabis and only to people with a card. But they were very nice and called another store, they had CBD and off we went. As we got closer my spider sense went off with detour signs and closed road warnings. But there was the “Grass Roots” CBD store and across the street another Walmart. After a roadblock my GPS declined to recognize…turn around…make a u turn..but we made it out of Rapid City unscathed, got the CBD oil and grocery bags full.

After climbing and climbing and climbing toward our campsite we arrived to a very nice level spot (I may do a less wordy post on leveling someday lets just say my trailer leveling doesn’t always stay level more later maybe).

This campground was a stagecoach stop on the way to Deadwood in the 1800s. The barn and building are still standing. Pretty amazing.

The campground was nice and was close to a cute town with wineries and restaurants etc. It was also just a few miles from Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Needles highway. We set up camp, made dinner and headed to Rushmore.

Rushmore was how I imagined it, impressive. It was amazing the amount of stone removed with crude equipment, no predictable power (they had problems with the power the same day every week. Turns out almost all the women in town used their electric dryers and washers the same day. They fixed it by getting a supplemental generator lol). And to top of the day we had two very generous scoops of ice cream at the shop there.

The next day we went to see the Crazy Horse memorial. It frankly was amazing not just for the size (crazy horses head once finished will be the size of all the four Rushmore presidents put together) Once finished the monument will be the height of the entire mountain with Crazy Horse seated on his horse. The work was started by one man who refused government money to ensure it would be finished one day and not subject to the whims of politicians. When he started he climbed over 700 rungs of a ladder by himself. He often would get part way up carrying over a 100# of equipment only to have his compressor die and have to down again. The third generation of his family are still working there. Just an amazing story and man too long to go into her but you should read about it if you have any interest.

We went from Crazy Horse to Needles highway. That road on the North end was amazing for the weirdest shaped humongous rock formations. There were two tunnels one so narrow Jo and I had to pull our side mirrors in and still held our breath. On the way there we drove the wildlife loop at Custer state park. The high point of that trip was when Jo got to pat wild burros. First prairie dogs now we need to get a burro. Kidding but she can’t pass up a chance to pay a four legged equine type critter. Arriving back at the campsite it started raining. I thought there might be a pause and I would hook up the trailer the night before leaving to save time in the AM. No pause and it rained all night and I ended up hooking up the trailer and breaking down camp in pouring rain. Thankfully we have great rain gear but it still put a “damp”er on our departure! But the weather had been spectacular forever so no biggie. On to more adventure!!

Almost forgot. While on our wildlife tour in Custer State Park we had a buffalo taunt us by go back and forth across the road every time wet tied to drive around after waiting forever. Hilarious buffalo “my road not yours moment!

May 8: We left our Dakota Sunsets site with still no rain since leaving. Setting up and taking down camp in the raid was almost all I knew when poor Jo-Ann was with me. Not this trip so far. This leg of our journey was a relatively short drive only 268 miles. Took us about 6 hours with stops for pictures etc. Arrived around 2 in the afternoon (still felt like Eastern Time 3) early enough to setup and relax. This was a 2 day stay to see the Badlands. As we got closer to the Badlands we saw some amazing flat to rolling hills and rivers to flat. Jo remarked and I have to agree that we cant imagine living so far away from EVERYTHING. We imagined what going to the grocery store for things you couldn’t raise or make on these MASSIVE farms with houses surrounded by miles of fields before another house. And as lush as the fields already were this early in the season, you could tell how tenuous making a living farming is by the size and condition of the homes. Having to buy thousands of dollars of seeds and fertilizer, thousand and tens of thousands to buy John Deere’s that were as big as a house and then hope the weather, bugs, blight etc didn’t ruin you crop investment. We wondered how kids met significant others, how long even with the big equipment they would have to spend tilling and planting the fields and then harvesting them. You just cant believe how much land each farm had in use. It just looked hard, lonely and scary but driving by it was beautiful and BIG. Just BIG!

As we approached the Badlands I took pictures of what was I thought were really different and beautiful eroded stone spikes rising out of fields. We turned off our exit and had to drive through the Badlands National Park to get to our campground. We approached the gates for the park where you pay an entrance fee or show a national park pass (if you are senior like me you can get a lifetime pass for free National Park entry for around $80 which I had, being the frugal OCD guy prepping for this trip). The far left lane was for local traffic and said just stop and be acknowledged and no pay. I was going to a campground not the park and the lanes are really skinny so I picked the local wide lane, stopped, waved and drove on. Well I realized later that lane was for true “locals” not me. No one came after me and I travelled on starting to think of where we would go to see the Badlands sights once we set up camp. I didn’t realize we would be driving right through some of the most beautiful scenery Jo or I have ever seen. So different and like the Grand Canyon literally took my breath away and made me feel stomach flutters. Weird description but all I could come up with. Some of you have seen our pictures already but like the Grand Canyon, the pictures don’t even come close. Not even sort of close for the grandeur and beauty of rocks! Who knew. I wasn’t prepared for that dose of wow but we went on and set up our camp at a very nice campground four miles from the park. We arrived and because we were a full hookup site we were in the outer ring and backed up on an area where they were working to expand the campground. A little off putting with the noise and diesel fumes (I dont of course mind them when its my equipment) but they didnt work all day or everyday so tolerable and site was very nice even without all the beautiful big trees leafed out yet.

I’ve mentioned weather before. The bane or joy of camping. Still no rain setting up and record temps in the 80’s days and cool nights. Perfect. We did have rain one night but didn’t mess up our days. It looked like they had done some digging at our sites before the expansion work and it left yellow orange clay and dirt in places they hadn’t covered with stone yet. That rain softened it up. I mention this because Jo had that awful feeling of step, squish and slide in the early AM before it was really light and in the low light assumed someone had not picked up after their dog. Luckily it was a false alarm but not before the mud seemed to have gotten every where. Sun came out and dried up all the rain and the mud dried up again. One other thing….did I mention brown spiky balls we didn’t like? This site had little leafy seeds that were sticky like they had super glue on them and stuck everywhere. I mean everywhere. I am hoping I dont accidentally bring any back to Maine. All in all though a great site otherwise.

Day 2 we went to the visitors center and learned about the Badlands, the dinosaurs and scary really big non Dinosaurs that swam in the inland sea that was over where the Badlands are today. This makes the area a rich fossil site discovering many creatures never seen any where else. We also learned about the Native Americans that lived where the Badlands are today hunting all sorts of more traditional animals. They also had a fossilized bone from a Mastodon that showed a cut caused by a man made cleaver of sorts. Cant imagine taking down a Mastodon but they took down two based on the fossils found in one spot with human artifacts like arrow and spearheads.

We also went to the Minuteman missile museum. Tried to see and actual silo but they were booked out 90 days in advance. Watched a film the described two near Armageddon events. One a US tech loaded a training tape into the main frame that simulated a Russian nuclear attack. Everyone scrambled and got ready for launch until fortunately someone figured out the mistake. that was in 1979! The next one they described was when the Russians had a similar early warning system glitch that said we were attacking. The man in charge didnt believe it and didn’t call his superiors and worked to find the mistake. When the crisis was over he told his superiors and lost his position as a result. Punished for preventing Nuclear war, That was in 1982. Neither way back in the day but in my adult years!!! Jo felt very depressed reliving the Cuban Missile Crisis and the drills we did in school getting under our desks as if they would protect us from a Nuclear attack lol. Duck and Cover to make everyone feel they had some control even in the nuclear age. I also felt that angst remembering that period but the nerd in me was just fascinated by the fact that these missiles were scattered (and still are) all over the fields we were driving by.

As a “pick us up” we decided to stop at the “Ranch Store” we had passed by and saw billboards for. Why you ask (or don’t lol) because Jo wanted to feed the prairie dogs. The store sold perhaps 20 unsalted in the shell peanuts for a dollar. I tried to not do the math on the profit margin lol. We threw (I threw while Jo took pictures and spoke to the prairie dogs) peanuts to the many prairie dogs in a colony near the store. The prairie dogs must all be on insulin from overeating and were just huge. Imagine Jaba the Hut as a prairie dog. And most, except for one who appeared to be pregnant or a new mom, were tired of people chucking peanuts at them. I accidentally bounced a peanut off one of them and it ignored me. Three more aimed at his head didn’t phase him….kidding I didn’t do that. Unbelievably cute. Jo wants one as a pet and found out they are actually trainable and very affectionate and legal to have at least in SD. My answer is a firm no unless I am looking at the cute videos when a moment of well maybe creeps in lol. No more pets til we are done traveling please. Don’t bring prairie dogs up when you see her as I think I have talked her down. At a separate historical Prairie homestead site we stopped at they had rare white prairie dogs. One of them was so excited we might have food he actually was running toward Jo who screamed and ran back to the truck with me laughing as it continued to follow her at a surprisingly high speed. I never learn. We took a side trip to Wall Drug. Kind of like South Of the Border in SC with Billboards every few miles for hundreds of miles. Lots of stuff none of which tempted us beyond a postcard.

Without any issues or crisis we broke camp and headed for the Rafter J ranch in Hill City, SD.

May 7. After another picture perfect weather morning we headed off to South Dakota. The trip was accompanied by my first fast food stop at McDonalds for a burger and frozen Coke. I know its not healthy but it kept me going. Lots and lots of farm land and open spaces. At one point on this day or the next Jo looked at me and said the horizon suddenly was huge. I knew I was feeling that things were getting different and she was right. We could see horizon across the fields in our entire field of view but also turning right and left. The horizon was at ground level 360 degrees. Amazingly different.

If I havent mentioned it before I hate cement roads. It baffles me how repairs of sections on these can not be level,. It’s liquid guys why are there waves in it. Coming out of Kansas and in Kentucky I was sure every cabinet and the refrigerator would be open the way the trailer and truck were jumping up and down. Or maybe torn off the walls, Other than a cutting board that sits on top of our sink for more counter space nothing was on the floor that wasnt supposed to be. And the last 20 miles or so they were redoing the cement road completely tearing it up and rebuilding it. That meant however we shared the two eastbound lanes with oncoming east bound traffic in verrrrry narrow lanes. A little white knuckling but when we got back onto newly built road it’s going to be worth it. Smooth cement.

It was great to get off the wavy rough cement and park when we got to our campground. Checking in with the very nice owner I learned they also lived in Florida in the winter. They left for their home in South Dakota in April and had several feet of snow on the ground when they got to SD. When we were there it was in the 80’s, fruit trees were in blossom at our campsite and no bugs. Oh and she gave me two chocolate cookies as a welcome gift. My favorite. Oh and the title above refers to the name of the campground, Dakota “Sunsets” RV Park and Campground. Great overnight spot.

May 6: Well after the relief of only weighing close to 7 tons we took over for another almost 7 hour day on the road. As many of you know we wanted to visit our friends in Montana, leave late enough to hopefully avoid snow on the road but be home with our kids and grandkids before the two weeks of summer in Maine were over. This means not dallying so we had many long days and one day stays to get out west ASAP. This was one of them. The trip went well and we arrived at the Worlds of Fun campground next door to the WOF rollercoasters. Really nice place to stay overnight and fun to hear the endless screams not only on the big drop but even at the end of the ride with little bumps. I think those laughs were laughs of relief they had survived. Not our favorite stop for views but different enough to be a nice overnight, Oh and no brown spikey balls and full hookup so longer showers not an issue!

May 6: After a nice 2 day stay we packed up and left Illinois. Ever since leaving home I had been concerned that we might be overloaded. Lugging around two adults and two dogs and all their stuff, two 40 gallon propane tanks, all the camping gear (gazebo, chairs, grilll, propane firepit, electric cords, outdoor carpets, two lithium batteries, Satellite dish and stands) along with the dry weight of my four door Tundra and a 5700# unloaded Airstream need I go on. If you have ever joined a group for a hobby like camping, RVing etc you know there are hot button topics that gets online experts wound up, For travel trailers it is the size of the TV (tow vehicle slang). The Airstream vitriol usually centers around a 1/2 ton like my Tundra or a Ford F-150 etc versus a 3/4 or one ton dually and then there is the gas versus diesel and engine brakes debate. If this is making your eyes glaze over I get it. Buuuuutttt there is some truth to concerns about overloading a TV resulting in failure of the truck beside the road in the middle of nowhere or inability to stop in time or jackknifing or having a rollover as the too big trailer takes over and pushes the too small TV into trouble. And we were planning to go up annnnnd down some big mountains out west. So with my heart in my mouth not only about the weigh, would I have to leave the dogs beside the road along with all their stuff? The other anxiety was me entering into the domain of tractor trailer drivers who need the scales to be legal for their job versus me who might be in their way weighing my vacation mobile. Well with Jo’s help navigating around all the vehicles and one way exits I weighed the truck and got out of there before any complaints by truckers. And the weight of my truck was 7420# and the trailer 6100 # for a total weight of 13,520#. My max tow combined weight is 16,500#. The experts recommend to be safe you only tow at 90% max which is 14,850#. Good to go! Dogs are still with us.

May 4: Well with a heavy heart but excited to see new places we left River life Resort and the Tennessee River on Day 5 of our trip. We managed to climb out of the campsite without difficulty and headed out to Illinois. The trip to the Wayne Fitzgerell Recreation Area was uneventful but long travel day of about 7 hours including breaks, This site was next to the lake with water views. Beautiful site but the infamous brown spiked balls returned and this time were harder and more uncomfortable for the dogs, We determined that these were coming from sweet gum trees found in the south and as far north as you guessed it, Illinois. This site had electricity but no water or sewer. It became clear very quickly that we liked to use water. I had filled our fresh water take with 25 gallons when we left home and didnt want to fill to the 50 gallons our tank will hold because each gallon weighs 8 pounds. That’s 200 pounds more to lug around. Sooooo we had to go to Walmart to pick up a 6 gallon fresh water can to lug back and forth to the fresh water tap in the campground. Now in case and of you want to stay in Illinois please know that this campground does have bathrooms and showers but they arent heated so we took quick showers in the Airstream. I am also working remotely while on this trip and actually was covering as acting Chief Medical Officer rather than my part part time usual job. This means I needed to have fast internet for video meetings. If you look at the picture of our site you can see a orange traffic cone near my Starlink dish. Well even with that I wasnt getting consistent enough speeds to do a video call. Sooo as a former Boy Scout and MacGyver wanna be I drove my truck to a clearing by the lake, put the dish on top of my truck and using a plug in 12V to 110 AC inverter for my laptop and a portable 300 W battery supply for my dish and voila I ran the meeting in my truck. I thought I was retired.

This was another one day stay to get moving on and after stopping at the dump station (so appropriately named) to empty our grey and black water tanks we left for Kansas City, MO.

May 2: Day 3 we head toward Chattanooga TN four first three day two night stay. My planning app said 220 miles 3 hours 33 minutes. What the app doesn’t do is account for bio breaks and the inability to safely drive the speed limit in traffic pulling 6500# of Airstream plus 7000# loaded Tundra. Stopping is so important. So I planned on four hours and we were right on track until my GPS suddenly blinked changed directions and sent me past Chattanooga saying it added an hour to our trip. Thankfully I had the number of the campground owner and she got us turned around about the same time a different GPS app sent me the same way she said. Pheww only a twenty minute detour. That said the rest of her directions involved several lefts somewhere after Walmart onto Suck Creek (not a typo and I didn’t the creek looked all that bad) and then a left at a canoe that if we missed it would result in us having to turn around at the top of a big mountain. Did I mention I was driving a long pickup followed closely by an even longer Airstream? Well Jo’s eagle eye saw the canoe and we were able to swing left into a road that met the road at an uphill angle without us running over any curbs or small pets. And then we really saw the road to the campground. Barely wide enough for two cars and rock ledge right up to the road. Jo sucking in breaths while mentioning how close I was to those rocks coupled with the oncoming locals who had been drivers for the Dukes of Hazzard movie driving 60 mph plus got me just a bit sweaty. Well we made it to the campground driveway and as his wife promised on the phone her husband was waiting by the entrance on his four wheeler. Delon (“it’s a D with the thing you mow at your house” according to Delon who lived here his whole life) said getting our trailer parked would be a little tricky. I could head down a short way and attempt to swing into an adjacent small cliff plateau or choice #2 if I had four wheel drive I could drive down to the river and turn in a bigger area then come back up to our perched site and drive past and back in. When I saw choice one, and the small area with a 20 ft drop if I got it wrong, I decided to drive down to the river. When I told Delon he breathed a sigh of relief and said good choice. Understand I hadn’t seen the choice #2 four wheel drive hill yet. The reason I hadn’t seen the hill was that it was so steep I couldn’t see it over the hood of my truck until I was a truck length down the hill and committed to my choice. The hill ended with a two truck wide landing and then a BIG river. ( Tennessee River). Well with Jo’s help we stayed dry, got back up the hill and backed in. Sewer was very far from my trailer but Delon offered us a third 15 foot hose connection and we were set. Once set up we realized just how beautiful or site was overlooking what I imagined Huck Finn’s River looked like with a pristine mountain across the river sans houses. Our hosts were great bringing us free firewood and giving us some gems for dining and tourist sites/sights. We saw a waterfall 260 feet down an elevator followed by a long walk to a waterfall coming out of the roof of the cavern 1100 feet below the top of the mountain. Ruby Falls is a love story with drama around the depression and the loss of the waterfall attraction. We stopped at a little store up the road to see if they had postcards (who knew people don’t send postcards anymore). We were on our quest to send a postcard to the grandkids from every state which turns out to be a difficult quest. Jo went in only to come back out gesturing for me to go in. Turns out the store is owned by the granddaughter of the discoverer of the mine and had a display big clothing and the original head lamp used in the 17 hour crawl that resulted in the falls discovery. The rest of our stay was great and relaxing with time spent watching otters and fish jumping along with the occasional barge and tugboat. River Life RV Resort should be on your list if you’re ever RVing through Chattanooga.

May 1: After a successful day one we were off to our next stop to High Falls State Park in Jackson, GA. This would be Jo-Ann’s first experience without sewer hookup. That means rationing how much water goes into our holding tanks. Forty gallons capacity fills quickly washing dishes and showering etc. Oh and you need to stop on the way out and empty those tanks (my job). We also experienced gum tree flowers on the ground. These aren’t pretty cute flowers but brown hard spikes golf ball sized dog tripping hard to walk balls. And not one or two but thousands. Spoiler alert this won’t be the last time you hear about these nuisance balls. All said and done Jo was a trooper and we had some nice walks and decide it was great we brought paper plates to save water down the drain. I should stop here and explain my state of mind with these nuisances and why they are important. Jo is from Brooklyn and camping growing up was spent in a real bed with a roof and walls around her at the Cedar Lake cabins her family owned. Jo has made it very clear this was a trip she knew was on my bucket list and wanted to do before I died and wasn’t her dream but nightmare. Travel cross country living in a 215 sqft Airstream with me and two dogs made her let’s just say anxious. My hope was that my bucket list before I died didn’t result in my premature death. And I wanted my girl to have fun. Weather, spiky brown golf balls that seemed to multiply like tributes, water rationing and long travel days and Jo was still hanging in there. Next on to Chattanooga. Please have full hookups and no spiky balls. Onward toward Montana.

April 30: Day one started by not starting. I woke early (very early) and checked weather to be sure Diesel didn’t end up like Toto in Oz. Tornado warnings and major thunderstorms were bearing down on us. After checking radar we left at 9:30 3 1/2 hours late and ducked the storms though not the wind. Day one was already supposed to be a long day to get to the Georgia border and the delay and windy driving made us sleep well at our first stop in Jennings, Florida. As many of you know Jo and I have a reputation of setting up or taking down camp in the rain (or both lol) but the weather couldn’t have been nicer. Fairly empty campground and easy pull through site. Oh and I had read reviews that the Chicken wings and pizza st the campsite we’re great and delivered!! And they were correct. Day one a success.