AUG 22

We got an early start as there would be 314 miles to cover today.  At least we would be off the wide expanse of rolling interstate.  What we found was that Wyoming Highways are pretty wide and rolling in their own way.  We took a break at the only "rest stop" on our route at Independence Rock.  This was about the half way point for pioneers headed west and they usually arrived here about the 4th of July.  They tell us there are a lot of names carved in that rock, but we were really more interested in seeing our camp grounds for the night and watching all the people climbing up the rock just made us hot and tired.  It is 130ft tall and 1900 ft long and it really was impressive sitting out on a flat plain.  Danny said it looked like Ayers Rock in Australia, maybe a little.  But that was our last stop in Wyoming.

 We crossed the continental divide about 4 times today, and each one had a different elevation, guess the road sort of zigged and zagged across the divide.
















Finally, we have arrived in South Dakota,  CaptDan was dozing a lot today and I suggested that he watch for the state border sign for me....He saw it and hit the button on his phone and took a burst of 9 pictures, this was as clear as he got....Then he went back to sleep.  It was a long drive and I was really glad to see Hot Springs South Dakota.  We got checked in at the local KOA and this is a really nice park, quiet, not real level, and we did need Todd to come down and prune a few branches so we could pull out the slides, but it is cooler then we have had for awhile and no road noise.




Aug 23

A peaceful night and the park has a grill serving pancakes and eggs for breakfast, yeah!  no cooking and we take off for Wind Cave.  CaptDan has never been in a cave before and I love them, so hopefully he will like this and we can explore many more on this road trip to anywhere.  Wind cave is really big!  but the tour we take is just over a mile and it feels really nice and cool under ground.  The most common formation in Wind Cave is the box formation, and this was the first time I had seen that, not surprising as 94% of the box formation in caves is in Wind Cave.  This is a really different cave for me and I find all caves to be a special treat.

Boxwork is made of thin blades of calcite that project from cave walls and ceilings, forming a honeycomb pattern. The fins intersect one another at various angles, forming "boxes" on all cave surfaces.  It is believed that the calcite formed around fissures in the gypsum crystals and then when the softer gypsum weathered away, the calcite box work was left to stand alone.  

I believe CaptDan is loving caves as much as I do, yippee!

Aug 24

We have a busy day planned today.  Jewel Cave is first and as the weather has clouded over and cooled down Butter goes along for the ride today.  We make the 10:30 tour at Jewel Cave and CaptDan sees how very different each cave can be. Jewel cave is much wetter and so there are some small stalactites and the corresponding stalagmites and flowstone.  These are formations I have seen in many caves.  The big difference in this cave is the Calcite Crystals.  Its like the walls of the cave were totally encrusted with the calcite crystals and everywhere the layer has broken off you see the crystal formation.  Then you start to look at the walls differently.

Calcite Crystals (the broken piece is about 2ft across)

Fun in the dark!

After Jewel Cave we head north and find a place for lunch, caving is hard work.  The Cowboy Buffet sounds like hardy fare.  Well this is a surprise, it is a buffet, but it has an Asian table, a Mexican table and an Italian table, and I think the cowboy table is the meatloaf, meatballs and mash potatoes and gravy....well it is good food and very filling.

We are ready for the next stop, The Crazy Horse Memorial.  I was here 19 years ago and am trying to figure out how much progress has been made.  When we get closer I realize they have blasted away a whole lot more around the base, and the museum is much bigger.  We watch the film about the memorial and then just sit and listen to a member of the Lakota tribe talk about their belief system and do a demonstration of the hoop dance.  What we really like is the chanting he has playing so we will be looking for that as we peruse Amazon.

Next stop, Mount Rushmore, but enroute we see a Mountain Goat.  There is a bit of a traffic jam and a ranger trying to keep all the tourists back so we just slowly drive on by and pull into the parking lot for Mt. Rushmore.  What is there to be said.  Again I was confused at the changes, but eventually I found the old viewing platform and it looked like I remember.  It was time for an afternoon treat and they had ice cream, so we took a rest and some refreshment before the last leg of todays planned trip.  So the goal today was a big loop with the last leg going around Custer State park to look for buffalo...  Now we had seen 1 buffalo the day before and heard about the herd that stopped traffic last night in the park, so we figured we had a good chance if the light held.  First we found a prong horn antelope and while the Capt was trying to get his phone set to camera I was watching a beautiful big buck slowing walk across the hilltop.  We say one guy stopped taking pictures of a lone buffalo and with his car pulled over we really couldn't see much so we moved on with a firm belief we would find our buffalo.  

WE DID, we turned off on a dirt road and up a hill there was a small group grazing.  Finding the right place to turn this dually around is always a challenge so I didn't proceed further then the first pull out.  We watched for a brief time and got turned around before the cars behind us caught up and we headed back to the main road as it got closer to dusk.  We still had a ways to go to be able to exit the park so we come around a corner and there they are, crossing the road, on the road, all around us, we just sit there and watch, and even Butter seems to know better then to set up a fuss.

Take a look at Buffalo Roam

August 25 is our last full day in Hot Springs and there are 2 things on the must do, first we are off to the Mammoth Site.  I had been here 19 yrs ago and really wanted CaptDan to see this place.  We spent about 4 hrs, taking the tour, watching a movie and just wandering the site.  It is all enclosed in a building and work is going on to expose and examine the remains of, at this time, 62 Columbian  mammoths 2 wholly mammoths and 2 giant short faced bears, along with numerous other floral and fauna which fell into the giant sink hole and couldn't climb out.  

After that excursion we went back to a local brew pub to try the deep fried deviled eggs and have a couple of beers.  Perfect before heading home and picking up our swimsuits for a dip in the Evans Plunge.  The springs that the town is named after.  They are really not too hot springs and the pool is a very comfortable 87 degrees.  It felt wonderful and was just the perfect activity to prepare us for the next day and our trip to Rapid City to get the grey tank repaired.  We think, We hope.

buffalo roam

Back on the road, finally.   We are in Nevada.

Lahontan reservoir

I make reservations in Fernley NV for the 12th and 13th.  We had planned to go visit Uncle Richard and Aunt Rita in Dayton, but during our delay they went south for a few weeks in Arizona so we will catch up with them another time.  Fernley is a pretty little place just east of Reno and we take a breath to appreciate the fact that we are on the road.  We wanted to find a place to let Butter get in some water so we head down to Lahontan Reservoir and she played in the Carson River.

Fernley Turtle

While driving through town we saw a coin op car wash and decided to clean the dust off the truck.  Well we should know by now, these new fangled things will get us in trouble.  CaptDan took control of the power washer and it pushed him all over the bay, not to mention this is not a good activity for a man with a bed back.   Then there were some interesting public art on display and when we took the time to drive up to it we saw it was a turtle.

scenery in eastern Nevada

On the 14th we packed it in and headed to Elko, NV for 2 days and just rest!  Captan's back is feeling better some days and worse others, he has a very hard time not lifting ANYTHING! I am doing about half of the driving as that is hard on the back.












The 16th finds us saying goodbye to Nevada and crossing into Utah.

Lunch break at the Salt Flats in Western Utah 

nearing the Great Salt Lake

I do drive

 We planned for 4 days at the Golden Spike RV Park in Brigham City and it is a very nice place...Nice level sites on rocks, with grassy strips between rigs.... and we have a few places we really want to go see.  But first someone has a bad back night and takes a muscle relaxant....While eating breakfast he just starts to fad on me, there isn't much better description.  So I grab my phone, ask for the nearest urgent care center and head to FarrWest, about 15 miles away.....Great staff, no waiting.  diagnosis, bad reaction to the meds, do not take them again and a scrip for a different muscle relaxant.  We chatted with the Dr about Dans allergy to bee stings and get a script for an Epi-pen to have on hand from now on.  So another day of rest and I think we might get out to the Golden Spike National Park tomorrow.

We make it to the park and it was a great day.  This was on my bucket list from before I knew what a bucket list was.  I wrote a term paper in high school about this very thing and how the Central Pacific went about getting there.  Now I have seen it, and one great thing is that in the 1980 they had exact replica steam engines built and they run them up and down a short piece of track.

Then we head home and I grill that Tri-tip we talked about having.  This is part of CaptDan taking every chance to rest and I am capable of running the Traeger, really I am.  A long day.

We are keeping Friday pretty loose and talk about going out to the Willard Bay State Park, or maybe down to Ogden to the Museum, but first I take Butter for a walk and when I get far enough away from the rig I notice the undercarriage looks all wrong.  When we get down underneath, the plastic that is attached to protect all the tanks and wiring down there has come loose and water is everywhere, soaked fiberglass, just a real mess.  So remember CaptDan is on orders to REST, but that isn't going to happen, and he gets busy assessing the damage and trying to figure out what is happening.  I get on the phone to insurance and get very frustrated.  He gets all the Stuff pulled down, the fiberglass is a soggy mess, the aluminum sheet is just wet and a little torn, and the heavy plastic panel is ripped in a few places but other wise salvageable.  The next question is what can we do and what can't we do and where did the water come from!  There is no water inside the rig, no wet around the pipes and no water actively leaking anywhere!  I talked to a RV service in Rapid City SD as that is where we are heading in a week.  They can't see us for 6 weeks but they will have a technician call us to advise what we can do to get on the road.  So meanwhile we decide the only way to figure out what is causing the water to be where it doesn't belong is to empty the tanks and start filling them one at a time.   As all the tanks are currently reading 2/3 full we have to start somewhere, and as there is no active sewer smell it must be the grey water or fresh water that is the problem.  So I turn on the facet in the bathroom and after a nice long wait I hear whistling from the Capt who is on his back on a packing quilt under the rig.   We have water.   Yes we do, pouring down on him from the edge of the grey tank.    Turn off the water.  between 1/3 and 2/3 full the number 1 grey tank just pours out the side and we can see a big crack along the top.  Well the mystery is solved.  What next.  CaptDan makes his shopping list and we are off to the local Ace Hardware for self tapping screws, insulation, and the aluminum insulation sheets......I had already made a quick trip to Walmart for the Gorilla tape so he could get all the wiring taped up out of the way.  When we return home the phone call from the technician comes in and we explain our problem.  He at least says we aren't the first, the tanks do fail but the big thing is what do we have to do and what can we do to get on the road.  He tells us we are doing all the right things.  We don't have to put insulation back up in there so if more water pours out we will have wet, heavy, insulation.  He recommends we try our best to salvage the black plastic piece and don't cut holes in it, if we need to let water out cut a flap, open to the rear so it can be taped up when we are made whole again.  He thinks he can squeeze us in on Friday in a week......which means we can at least get an assessment for the insurance people.  I talked to a service center in Davenport Iowa, another stop along our route and they told me they would need to see it and assess it and if a new tank is needed then it is a 3-6 week wait on the parts...Wow.

So CaptDan asks me to stay out of the way while he goes out and plots the attack of this project, he'll call when ready for my help.  Now is when the surface we are parked on comes into play.  Big rough rocky surface.  He is trying to figure out how to hold the plastic up so we can re-attach it.  I hear loud banging on the side of our rig and run outside to find him holding his head and leaning on the steps dripping blood.  So grab a towel to pressure the cut, take a quick look and decide this needs more then a butterfly bandage, grab  the purse, get him in the truck. and just then one of the folks from the park walks by with his dog, I ask for the nearest urgent care and he tells me there is one at the end of the street, turn left and left into the parking lot.....REALLY?  It is a brand new facility and didn't appear when I searched 2 days ago.  But the staff is great! and 7 staples later we are on our way back home and we still have this project to do.

No concussion and we both get down on our backs, wiggle under the rig and start reattaching the plastic.  3/4 of the way around and we run out of washers and daylight.   Next day we planned on headed out so we are up early, run back to Ace, get the last of the screws put in and by 11 am we are on our way with 304 miles ahead. whew!

I take the wheel today and drive all the way, the Capt is back in lala land with a muscle relaxant.  It's a beautiful drive out of Ogden on I84, connect to I80 and head for Wyoming.  He opens his eyes occasionally to admire the scenery and then doses off again.

We take a nice lunch break at a rest stop 40 miles into Wyoming check the repair job, and then get back on the road.  Arrival at RV World in Rawlins Wyoming occurs about 5 pm.  We take it slow and steady setting her up and check the repair job again, still looks okay.  Now we get our shower kits together and head over for a nice long hot shower that won't fill the grey tank.  Then its time for dinner, and Rose, one of the owners of the park recommended a great Thai place, she was right, it was a nice relaxing dinner. By 9 I am ready for bed and with a hot pack around my shoulders we call it a day.

We have one free day here in Rawlins and decide after sleeping late, and having breakfast at 10 that maybe the Wyoming Frontier Prison tour would be just right.  We found the old Penitentiary building and wandered the museum waiting 30 mins for the next tour.  This building was used as the state penitentiary from 1901 to 1981.  Really amazing how little prisons had changed in 80 years.  We saw how they used to hang people and how they used a gas chamber,  gruesome.  This place has a very sad feeling hanging over it and while it was interesting it wasn't a fun and uplifting day.

So we came on home and took a break.  I am catching up on the blog and am determined to get this posted before the day is over.  A quick trip to Walmart and gased up the truck when we saw diesel at $2.12.  We are calling it another early night and tomorrow will be on our way to South Dakota.

Wondering where we went?   Well this is the abbreviated story.

Back on June 21 we dropped the Lake House off at Best RV to take care of some repairs from an accident when the hitch was released prior to setting the jacks.  As everyone is told and knows you never do that, but we all slip up once in a while.  So the nose landed on the truck, thankfully! and we discovered a crack under the bedroom slide about 200 miles and 5 days later.  So our warranty appointment has become a repair appointment. and we get an estiment of 1 week for all the work.  We are having toppers put on the slides, and a receiver hitch welded to the back for bikes, and a pull out slide installed in the pass thru storage, also having a black water flush installed.  I already told you we are going to be staying at my daughters place in Stockton while we wait this out.

While staying at Tina's house waiting for the repairs and enhancements to get done on our home, the travel gremlins visited us.  The repairs and enhancements were suppose to take 3 weeks.  On July 7 we took a drive to Best RV to check on the progress of the Lake House and were told 2 more weeks.  So we found a service center in Sacramento to get the truck looked at and have the gearVendor serviced.   They took care of that and told us something was leaking and they couldn't get us in for a week.  So we headed home, got the under carriage power washed and the following week got the leak taken care of.  Seems the last service had failed to torque properly and we were lucky to get everything taken care of before we head out.  So On July 26, 5 days beyond the "2 more weeks" we were told the Rig would be ready in the afternoon.  We drove to Turlock, and the service department called us and said, sorry we had to pull your rig so priority work could be done first.   Well that was enough, we drove over and told them to button it up we were taking it away,  the only thing remaining was to finish the new slide tray in the pass through and CaptDan said he would finish it up himself.  So there is no way after our delay that we would recommend this service center for anything!  and we weren't done yet.  We hitched her up and took her back to Flag City in Lodi, 50 miles north.  Upon arrival, we looked at the repair job and it had failed!  the fiberglass cracked and budged out.   Talked to our insurance and basically we were stuck taking it back and making the original repair place make it right.  So back on the phone and they could get us back in on July 29 when their fiberglass guy was available.  So we had 3 days to clean and get it ready to go back.  On July 29th we returned to Turlock....And on August 8th ( 11 days!) we finally got to go pick her up again..  Did I say I would never recommend this place?  I will go further and say I will warn anybody from doing any business with this place.  Best RV in Turlock is the Worst business I have ever had to deal with.

But now we have spent 7 weeks sitting in Stockton, CA.  hot and tired of waiting, but we take another 4 days in Flag City to prep for our new life.  Clean everything.  Sort the storage and try to find containers that will fit in and around the new slide.

Other excitement during this stay in Stockton included:
1: I had a dental implant fail and was very fortunate to find a dentist who could get me in, order a new screw, and reseat the crown, overall not too bad.
2: Tina, took her NCLEX (Registered Nurse exam) worst test ever! she said.
3: She got the results about 5 days later, SHE PASSED, now she is officially an RN.
4: CaptDan woke up one morning unable to stand upright, so we are off to the Urgent Care Center and he gets to meet Dr. Birlew, (this is the same Dr who treated all my family for years) and seems he has strained his back, a shot to relieve the pain and a few scrips for pain meds and muscle relaxants.  24 hrs later he is feeling just as bad and is worried there is something else going on, so back to Dr. B and a referral to the hospital ER for a CAT scan.  This takes about 6 hrs and after tests to confirm it is a bad strain, more shots, an IV to help with dehydration, and instructions to take it easy! no lifting, no bending, no nothing for a week, and then ease into it.  So CaptDan moves into the "office" at Tinas which is equipped with an adjustable bed and gets about 5 days of good rest and is walking upright again.
5: Tina has her first job interview, at a hospital she really wants to work at, with the 'we'll call you next week", means she has to just wait.

We get moved into the Lake House and clean out a few more boxes that we have decided aren't going to travel with us and fortunately Tina had storage room for them.  We get our new bike rack out and transport the bikes from Tina's using the truck hitch....When we arrive back at the Lake House, ready to move the rack from truck to rig, hummm something is wrong here.   Now this is the frame hitch we had installed at Best (Worst) RV.  The pin won't go through the receiver, now we just took this rack off the truck so we know it is fine.  Then we examine our new receiver. The freaky thing was welded on with the holes going vertical!  Then new holes were drilled horizontal and they hadn't been aligned with a hitch post, so they aren't square to the hitch.

How much more will we find??  Fortunately there is an RV place right next to Flag City so we go over and have a chat with the folks at Discover RV.  They can fix our problem if we want to bring her in, I ask about the "mobile service" and she tells me that'll be $89 just to come out, that sounds really good to us, talk to the technician, he thinks 30 mins as that is the minimum service call. So $170 and he will come out tomorrow.  When he arrives it takes longer to unload the big drill then it takes to correct the problem.  What a blessing, not to mention the very idea of going back to Worst RV in Turlock is very unpleasant.

It looks like we are ready  Friday August 12th we pull out.