Lost in America
Tuesday - 6/24
Day two out and we are getting in the swing of RV’ing.
Still a bit of a slow start to the day. We did not get on the road until 11 AM.
We do not use the shower in the RV. It only has a 10 gallon tank, and Charlotte is prone to taking 20 minute showers. The small amount of hot water and the time it would take to cycle all 5 of us through would mean that we would not pull out of the RV park until mid-afternoon.
We also only use the toilet for “liquids”. This was a suggestion from the person we borrowed it from. The thought of what is coming down the hose when dumping, and just the smell made this a good suggestion.
So, each morning it is off to the showers. Kids with bags and towel in hand. The restrooms at the KOA’s have been kept updated and are very clean so far.
We started out the day with a stop at the visitor center at the Badlands. I talked to the Ranger about the various hike options. The kids loved climbing and hiking around the Notch Hike area. We did not start at the trail head, so missed the actual hike, and decided to give this one a try.
It was listed as moderately strenuous and 1.5 miles round trip. There was a ladder that you had to climb to get to the upper portion. There were also some areas where you climbed along an edge. A step to the left and you would slip a couple hundred feet to the rocks below.
Once we got to the top of the ladder, Wendy and I sat to catch our breath, and all 3 kids started running off to explore. I tried to catch up with them, but got stuck on a path that I chose and had to back track a couple hundred feet. We called them back, and sat them down for a family meeting to discuss staying with us. It would be very easy for any one of the 3 to get of track and slip. Hopefully, this message was received loud and clear. We will have to remind them before each hike of this nature.
It was very hot and a couple of the kids ran out of water. I had the only pack, and was carrying all the water bottles. We figured out quickly that this was not going to work, so we will have to find some backpacks for the kids.
When we got back, we were all pretty hot and worn out.
We moved on to the Saddle Pass Trail, but the kids opted to skip this one. It was very similar scenery to the one we had just done, but listed as easy and only a half mile round trip.
We moved on to the Fossil Exhibit Trail, and decided to have lunch before walking this one. It was a very short loop, on a boardwalk with some castings of fossil specimens under glass along the way. Charlotte thought we were going to be digging for fossils, so I had to explain the importance of not taking things from the National Parks, but leaving them for others to see.
The park tried to display real fossil specimens when the constructed the trail in the early 60’s, but the plastic domes were smashed and the specimens were stolen by thiefs. Even these cast replicas are broken into from time to time, but the park still repairs and replaces them as they feel it is important to tell the story about the fossils that exhist beneath the layers of earth here.
As we headed on to the Roberts Prairie Dog Town, we came upon some cars stopped along the side of the road. At first, I thought they were looking at some horses that were a few hundred yards off in the distance. Then I noticed some prairie dogs popping their heads out of their holes. We pulled over, donned the binoculors and sat and watched them popping in and out of their holes and doing dances and chirping. Saved the $7.50 admission and saw them “in the wild”.
A good lesson to keep our eyes open along the way. The kids kept their eyes out the windows and we talked about the various formations we saw on the rest of the loop drive out of the park.
Back on I90, we headed off to the next KOA. When we got to Rapid City, we decided to stop at a Super Walmart to pick up a few things that we had found we were missing. 2 shopping carts and $325 later, we hope we are now set. I don’t think we can fit anything else in the RV anyway. The kids each got a backpack that has a water bladder for hiking. It has a small pocket that can hold a camera or other small items.
Jackson expressed and interest in my camp knife that I used the night before. We spent 5 minutes looking at the various Buck knives (my first knife when I was about his age), but he wanted one that had all the tools Dad’s has. I will spend some time around the campfire teaching him proper knife safety, how to whittle and how to sharpen the blade.
I reset the GPS to our destination and we headed into the Black Hills. It told us to turn left, but I missed the turn as I saw nothing but a dirt road, and no big KOA sign that I was expecting. I had gotten the lat/long from a listing on the KOA site, so figured it must be right, and we did a U-Turn and headed back down the road it told us was the right way.
A mile or so in, and it connected back with a pavement road. I figured that it must have been the detour that we took to Walmart and the second detour due to a bridge that was out that led us down this path, so we kept pushing on. When it screamed “You have arrived at your destination”, we looked around to see a very small dirt road named Palmer Gulch. Now that is the name of our KOA, but only an off road vehicle could have made it up the road.
We drove a mile or so further until I could find a safe (and large enough) spot to pull over. I pulled out the address, and punched it into the GPS. It now said that we had 7 miles to our destination. So much for the lat/longs on the website.
I was waiting to get an earful from Wendy and the kids, but they were not screaming. In fact, the kids had started a game of “Who can spot the most deer”.
By the time we got to the campground, they were each over 25. Again, amazing what you can see if you keep your eyes out the window.
This KOA is incredible. It had been recommended by 4 or 5 people that I had talked to, and looks to be everything and more that they had said. Movies at night, live stage shows, shuttles to the lighting of Rushmore, water slides, horse trail rides, a full ice cream shop and much, much more. Now this is roughing it!
The girl at the desk told me that they had a great spot for me. Since I had reserved early they put us in a spot that was centrally located and close to the restroom. As we pulled in, Wendy said, “Yeah, great spot. We have a great view of the restroom doors as we sit by the fire!”.
Jack and I did the first dump of the RV. We donned the disposable plastic gloves and hooked ‘er up. Dumped the black water first and then the grey. All seemed to go well. Only a few drops spilled, but when I got back in, the black water was still registering ¾ full. I turned on the water in the kitchen sink for a while to refill the grey, pulled out all the hoses and we tried again. When I opened the black to dump, I heard nothing. I went back in and flushed the toilet a couple times. I could hear it hitting bottom, so it was empty. It must have been a stuck sensor. I flushed a few more times and then went out to dump. There was now a gush as it emptied. Did the grey again and checked the levels on the gauge. It is now saying empty.
Time to cook some dinner (another late one for the kids) and hit the sack.
I have figured out that adding photos to this blog is going to be tough to do as I am writing them before we get the pictures off the camera. I will add a couple pictures to the previous days’ posts as we go along.
I had also hoped to upload all the pictures to Flickr, but again, way to much to upload at the bandwidths here at the campsite. May have to selectively pick a few to load for everyone to see…
Day two out and we are getting in the swing of RV’ing.
Still a bit of a slow start to the day. We did not get on the road until 11 AM.
We do not use the shower in the RV. It only has a 10 gallon tank, and Charlotte is prone to taking 20 minute showers. The small amount of hot water and the time it would take to cycle all 5 of us through would mean that we would not pull out of the RV park until mid-afternoon.
We also only use the toilet for “liquids”. This was a suggestion from the person we borrowed it from. The thought of what is coming down the hose when dumping, and just the smell made this a good suggestion.
So, each morning it is off to the showers. Kids with bags and towel in hand. The restrooms at the KOA’s have been kept updated and are very clean so far.
We started out the day with a stop at the visitor center at the Badlands. I talked to the Ranger about the various hike options. The kids loved climbing and hiking around the Notch Hike area. We did not start at the trail head, so missed the actual hike, and decided to give this one a try.
It was listed as moderately strenuous and 1.5 miles round trip. There was a ladder that you had to climb to get to the upper portion. There were also some areas where you climbed along an edge. A step to the left and you would slip a couple hundred feet to the rocks below.
Once we got to the top of the ladder, Wendy and I sat to catch our breath, and all 3 kids started running off to explore. I tried to catch up with them, but got stuck on a path that I chose and had to back track a couple hundred feet. We called them back, and sat them down for a family meeting to discuss staying with us. It would be very easy for any one of the 3 to get of track and slip. Hopefully, this message was received loud and clear. We will have to remind them before each hike of this nature.
It was very hot and a couple of the kids ran out of water. I had the only pack, and was carrying all the water bottles. We figured out quickly that this was not going to work, so we will have to find some backpacks for the kids.
When we got back, we were all pretty hot and worn out.
We moved on to the Saddle Pass Trail, but the kids opted to skip this one. It was very similar scenery to the one we had just done, but listed as easy and only a half mile round trip.
We moved on to the Fossil Exhibit Trail, and decided to have lunch before walking this one. It was a very short loop, on a boardwalk with some castings of fossil specimens under glass along the way. Charlotte thought we were going to be digging for fossils, so I had to explain the importance of not taking things from the National Parks, but leaving them for others to see.
The park tried to display real fossil specimens when the constructed the trail in the early 60’s, but the plastic domes were smashed and the specimens were stolen by thiefs. Even these cast replicas are broken into from time to time, but the park still repairs and replaces them as they feel it is important to tell the story about the fossils that exhist beneath the layers of earth here.
As we headed on to the Roberts Prairie Dog Town, we came upon some cars stopped along the side of the road. At first, I thought they were looking at some horses that were a few hundred yards off in the distance. Then I noticed some prairie dogs popping their heads out of their holes. We pulled over, donned the binoculors and sat and watched them popping in and out of their holes and doing dances and chirping. Saved the $7.50 admission and saw them “in the wild”.
A good lesson to keep our eyes open along the way. The kids kept their eyes out the windows and we talked about the various formations we saw on the rest of the loop drive out of the park.
Back on I90, we headed off to the next KOA. When we got to Rapid City, we decided to stop at a Super Walmart to pick up a few things that we had found we were missing. 2 shopping carts and $325 later, we hope we are now set. I don’t think we can fit anything else in the RV anyway. The kids each got a backpack that has a water bladder for hiking. It has a small pocket that can hold a camera or other small items.
Jackson expressed and interest in my camp knife that I used the night before. We spent 5 minutes looking at the various Buck knives (my first knife when I was about his age), but he wanted one that had all the tools Dad’s has. I will spend some time around the campfire teaching him proper knife safety, how to whittle and how to sharpen the blade.
I reset the GPS to our destination and we headed into the Black Hills. It told us to turn left, but I missed the turn as I saw nothing but a dirt road, and no big KOA sign that I was expecting. I had gotten the lat/long from a listing on the KOA site, so figured it must be right, and we did a U-Turn and headed back down the road it told us was the right way.
A mile or so in, and it connected back with a pavement road. I figured that it must have been the detour that we took to Walmart and the second detour due to a bridge that was out that led us down this path, so we kept pushing on. When it screamed “You have arrived at your destination”, we looked around to see a very small dirt road named Palmer Gulch. Now that is the name of our KOA, but only an off road vehicle could have made it up the road.
We drove a mile or so further until I could find a safe (and large enough) spot to pull over. I pulled out the address, and punched it into the GPS. It now said that we had 7 miles to our destination. So much for the lat/longs on the website.
I was waiting to get an earful from Wendy and the kids, but they were not screaming. In fact, the kids had started a game of “Who can spot the most deer”.
By the time we got to the campground, they were each over 25. Again, amazing what you can see if you keep your eyes out the window.
This KOA is incredible. It had been recommended by 4 or 5 people that I had talked to, and looks to be everything and more that they had said. Movies at night, live stage shows, shuttles to the lighting of Rushmore, water slides, horse trail rides, a full ice cream shop and much, much more. Now this is roughing it!
The girl at the desk told me that they had a great spot for me. Since I had reserved early they put us in a spot that was centrally located and close to the restroom. As we pulled in, Wendy said, “Yeah, great spot. We have a great view of the restroom doors as we sit by the fire!”.
Jack and I did the first dump of the RV. We donned the disposable plastic gloves and hooked ‘er up. Dumped the black water first and then the grey. All seemed to go well. Only a few drops spilled, but when I got back in, the black water was still registering ¾ full. I turned on the water in the kitchen sink for a while to refill the grey, pulled out all the hoses and we tried again. When I opened the black to dump, I heard nothing. I went back in and flushed the toilet a couple times. I could hear it hitting bottom, so it was empty. It must have been a stuck sensor. I flushed a few more times and then went out to dump. There was now a gush as it emptied. Did the grey again and checked the levels on the gauge. It is now saying empty.
Time to cook some dinner (another late one for the kids) and hit the sack.
I have figured out that adding photos to this blog is going to be tough to do as I am writing them before we get the pictures off the camera. I will add a couple pictures to the previous days’ posts as we go along.
I had also hoped to upload all the pictures to Flickr, but again, way to much to upload at the bandwidths here at the campsite. May have to selectively pick a few to load for everyone to see…