Ellsworth AFB, SD

We awoke to a wind warning for the area starting this afternoon and going into the evening. So, to stay or to go on to Ellsworth AFB was the question. We had to determine the seriousness of the hydraulic leak first. I opened the access hatch at the steps leading into the coach to allow me to observe the hydraulic pump and switching solenoids while Barbara brought in the slides. We did manage to get all the slides in for travel, but as each slide came in there was a substantial spray of fluid which I caught in a beach blanket to keep from making any more of a mess of the camping site than we already had.

When we had slide trouble in Durango, CO the mobile tech that was helping us out made some slide locks for us out of his wife’s old crutches. Those of you that have followed our travels may remember that event. Well, we put those to good use again this morning to hold the curbside slide in and blasted off for Ellsworth AFB FamCamp in Rapid City, SD. We are going to try to salvage as much of this trip as possible. We managed to get there before the winds got too strong, and got laundry out of the way.

The jeep continues to have a problem with the shift linkage, and in fact, it is getting pretty bad. I tried to find a source of wire to make a temporary fix, but had no luck. I did manage to get a zip tie on the shaft to hold the cable end in place and hope that it works for a day and a half, because I bit the bullet and made an appointment at the local jeep dealer to replace the shift cable.

Back at the campsite things were getting interesting as the sun began to set. We could not put our slides out because of the hydraulic problem we had, but we would have kept them in anyway due to the forecast winds. Some of our neighbors did finally get the clue and brought theirs in. Unfortunately not in time for the coach on our right, and the cloth awning that covers slides was blown out to the point that the spring retractor was overcome. He pulled the slide in, but what we call the topper was not retracting as it should. Actually, it did not retract at all. As it puffed up in the wind it stood the chance of further damage. I went over with a length of rope to lead over the fabric and tie around the slide structure to minimize the amount of billowing. He will need to get someone to get the fabric wound back up as in needs to be, but this should allow him to save the fabric.

Barbara took Nia for a walk and had to fight the wind, which according to Weather Bug is gusting to 42 MPH. Nia was distracted by all of the bags and other debris flying by.

Back inside they found that the wind chime I brought inside when the wind picked up was now chiming away from the rocking of the coach in the wind. Can you imagine a 27,000-pound wind chime?

Tomorrow we are off into the Black Hills and all they offer.

Badlands National Park, SD

We slept in and then did a few motorhome chores, then headed back to Badlands National Park. For the most part we spent the day off the paved roads. It was nothing in the way of serious off-roading, but still off the beaten path in some cases. We were rewarded with terrific views and more wildlife.

We added buffalo and a coyote to our list of sighted critters while here. 

Oh, and more sunflowers! They are everywhere, and this time we could get close.

We also ran into three European families that were touring the states in European RVs that they had shipped over for the purpose. The European’s camp a little less lavishly than Barbara and I do. These RVs were expedition vehicles with four-wheel drive and high road clearances. There was a large Mercedes, a slightly smaller Land Rover, and a Ford that appeared to be based on an American full size van.

On the road to Sheep Mountain Table

Sheep Mountain Table

Sheep Mountain Table

Sheep Mountain Table

We stopped by a couple of campgrounds in case we come back this way. The one in the park was pretty basic with no hookups. You would be off the grid completely, including no water. Another was a KOA a few miles south of Interior, SD population 100. It was in a nice location along the White River, but the sites were a little small. The third was in downtown Interior. While not anything special the sites were good sized and would likely be where we would go if we were to come back.

This national park is worth a visit if you are up this way. It is not large, but it has monstrous views. You can see everything in a day and since it is about an hour east of Rapid City you need not stay here to enjoy the sights. There are certainly more amenities in Rapid City, and from there you can also visit the Black Hills an their attractions.

We are going to try to head that way ourselves tomorrow, but there is a hitch. I have noticed a large puddle of hydraulic fluid under the front of the coach. That means there are slide or jack problems, or both. It is quite possible that our modified plans to spend next week in the Back Hills will be modified yet again. This is the second major trip we have had to cut short because of mechanical problems. It is real disappointing to travel half way across the country to start the enjoyable part of our trip only to have it cut short.

Tune in tomorrow to see how the adventure progresses.

Wall, SD

It rained most of the night. Not a stormy kind of rain, but a moderate, constant rain. By the time the coffee maker woke us up at 7:30 the skies had cleared, but by then the damage was done. Not literally, but we found the leak had not been fixed after all and there was water coming in to the bedroom. Not much, but enough to eventually ruin the interior structure of the coach. Of course, it is Saturday, and we are another 300 miles into our journey and far from the Winnebago factory. It will not be until Monday that we can call the service center and work out a plan of action. What is obvious is that Yellowstone and Colorado, the two major goals of this trip, are now off the table. To salvage this trip we will extend out stay in South Dakota through this coming week. Then, based on the schedule at Winnebago, we will return to Forest City to have this slide problem addressed. It is simply not something that we can let go, and it is complex enough that we came to Winnebago to get it right.

We had a great drive over to Wall, SD this morning and got set up here at the Sleepy Hollow campground. The drive was uneventful. There were miles more sunflowers, but they began to yield to other crops and cattle.

 

Wall is a town of 818 people that exists to support Wall Drug. Early on when people were beginning to travel across county by car, oases cropped up at certain intervals to provide food, fuel and accommodations. Many have disappeared, but a few have thrived and grown to be full-fledged wallet vacs.  Think South of the Border in South Carolina on I-95, and Little America on I-80 in Wyoming. Families stop to break up the boredom on the long drive west, and over the generations it has taken on a life of its own. It is the gateway to the Badlands National Park, though, and that is what drew us here.

We plan to explore it thoroughly tomorrow, but this afternoon we took a quick recon. It is amazing; you drive through miles of prairie and all of a sudden the terrain drops away into a weathered and eroded landscape. 

How would you like to mow this yard?

The wildlife is great fun to watch. We have seen Prong Horn Antelope and Bighorn Sheep.

Prairie Dog towns are all over, and we stopped at one particularly large colony for Barbara to take pictures. When she was done I went to put the jeep in gear and … no dice… it was in Park and that is where it was going to stay.

“Hello, Triple A? We are in the middle of Badlands National Park 25 miles from the nearest town (of 818 people). Can you send help”? “Sure, I will hold”. “You say no one answers in South Dakota”?

That is how it went, so I got out and tried to find the problem. It was obviously a problem with the linkage. I had a similar occurrence last spring. I would have been surprised if it was the same problem because I had a very robust fix for that problem. I crawled under the jeep and confirmed that the linkage at the transmission was intact. Barbara tried shifting while I looked under the jeep. Everything looked proper, so I started at the other end of the linkage. I managed to lift the dust cover mechanism at the shift lever and was able to see that the linkage cable had become disconnected. Luckily I was able to put it back in place and we were able to continue. I have to be careful though because there must be a clip missing or something that allows the fitting to come apart. I will start looking for a Chrysler dealer as we move towards Rapid City.

Stay tuned to see what goes wrong tomorrow as we drive into the back roads of Badlands NP.

Presho, SD

Well we have finally made it to a state that we have not camped in, and can now add South Dakota to our states visit map.

We were finally able to settle up with the Winnebago Service Center late in the afternoon Thursday. Everything that we needed done was done and done well. It was also done at a reasonable price, so we are happy campers, as they say. That is not to say we don’t still have some glitches with the coach, just did not have time to keep going over every little thing. The big items that we did not want to trust to just any shop (like fixing the leak in the bedroom slide) are now done.

The item that kept us the extra day was the broken Corian countertop in the bath. This was a one and a half inch by three quarter inch chip out of the edge of the sink and it was very noticeable. The previous owner broke it, and the two pieces glued back in place in a noticeable fashion. On one of our trips the rough highways bounced the medicine cabinet open and a can of shaving cream fell on the repaired area and broke it again. That is quite possibly the same thing that happened to the first guy. I could not find anyone in Orlando that was interested in repairing Corian. I guess everyone is doing granite now.  Winnebago fixed it so that you cannot tell it was ever broken. Bravo Winnebago!

We were off as scheduled this morning, and were heading west at nine. We had some rain along the way and some pretty strong winds most of the way across southern Minnesota. Those winds abated around Sioux Falls, but the temperature has dropped twenty degrees. We are still at the point where we welcome the cooler temperatures after Florida’s summer heat. One point of interest on the way was the miles of sunflowers! I mean miles! Now you know where all those seeds come from.

We pulled in to the New Frontier Camp ground in Presho, SD around 4:30 and got set up for the night.  It took a little longer than normal because of a particularly chatty neighbor. Nice fella, but lots to say.

View from campsite. Lots of farmland, not many people.

We will take this opportunity for a quiet night's sleep before departing for Wall, SD and the Badlands National Park tomorrow. Hopefully we will come up with some more interesting pictures.

Forest City, IA Day Three

It is our third day in Forest City and we hoped to have the coach completed today, so we stayed close. As we have for the last two mornings we dropped the coach off at the service center and went to Sally’s for breakfast. Sally’s is a typical small town family owned restaurant that does breakfast and lunch only. Nice little place, and the food is pretty good. One of the fun things about being on the road is finding places like this.

We returned to the Winnebago facility and found a quiet spot to try to plan out the next leg of our trip. The visitor center had a nice comfortable area, but the WiFi was spotty and made our research more difficult. We have a rough idea, though.

We returned to Sally’s to investigate the rumor that Sally has terrific pies. Turned out to be true, and afterward we visited an area called Heritage Park. This is an interesting attraction in that it is an assortment of museums of early farming and industrial machinery combined with a large collection of historic buildings that have been moved to this site from their original locations. It is not fully available for visitors everyday, but opened only for special events. It is, however, open to drive and walk  through. This would be a great area to return to on a future visit. The community should be proud of these attempts to save the past.

Three o’clock rolled around and it was time to pick up the coach. Turns out it is not quite complete. We are awaiting material to fix the sink in the bathroom. I rushed the coach back up to the parking area to watch the final America’s Cup race. The race had already started and New Zealand was out front. We have to watch it on the internet and the WiFi was acting up. Through the starts and stops of the service we saw Oracle pass the New Zealand boat and continue to gradually build their lead all the way to the finish line. What an exciting comeback from being eight down by wining nine straight. Unheard of.

Good news! Since they are not expecting the material we need first thing tomorrow we get to sleep in!

Forest City, IA Day Two

Knowing the coach would be in the shop all day we left right after an early breakfast (again, the coach goes in at 7:00 each morning) and drove to Staceyville, IA to visit our friend Elly Anderson. She is home caring for her dad over the summer, while her husband Curt remains at home in Orlando. We had a nice time with Elly and her dad, and then we went over to brother Dale’s farm to check out the vines that are coming due for harvest in about a week. Dale and his son operate a well-run farm operation that is quite diversified. They are heavily invested in corn and soybeans, but also have cattle and hogs. For the last eight years they have been developing a vineyard. The grapes are being grown for a specific award-winning vintner.

When we returned to Forest City the coach was not complete, but they were done for the day. We brought the coach back to the parking area and dove right into the coverage of the America’s Cup. We had missed the first of the two races, but picked up the coverage half way to the second mark with New Zealand in the lead. Rounding the second mark Oracle Team USA took the lead and pulled away from there on. They won both of the races today to tie the score after being down 8 to 1. The race tomorrow will decide who keeps the cup.

OMG!

What a beautiful sunset! Look at that moon!






















Oh, wait! That's a SUNRISE! Yuck!

Our day started with me in line at the service  center at 6:30. Not much to report today, but we did get a nice breakfast in town, and got laundry done as we waited for the day's work to be done. We met nice folks that were also waiting, and how about Oracle Team USA! Five unanswered wins in the America's Cup. They need only three more wins and we keep the cup (oldest continuous athletic event for those that don't know).  The problem is that New Zealand needs only one win to take the cup. They have been excellant.