Travel Day from Rapid City to Arlington SD

 

Sunday June 10, 2012                                                                                                                                           Lorraine’s report

Chuck touched on the most important part of the stuff we did, so I will just add a few thoughts on this past week.  Like the thunder and lightening storm we had last night.  It was quite impressive and I got really frightened when the storm radio we have came on and said that we had a tornado in the area.  Well, if there was a tornado, it was a ways away from us, but in the dark, you couldn’t  tell where it was.  Also, the radio , it was coming on every few minutes with its loud beeps to get our attention, then their ominous warnings. When  the hail hit, it sounded like gun shots everywhere on the top of the rig.  I think that was the first thunder storm of that intensity I had been through and I hope the last.

On Tuesday we were out and about, and I got one of the worst migraines I have had for many years.  Chuck brought me home and took care of me; thanks Chuck.

The day Chuck had the engine checked, I went and had my hair colored.  I gave the gal my formula, she followed it, except for the time, she kept it in for 45 minutes, which resulted in my hair turning way dark.  It’s going to take another week before it lightens.    Oh well, thank goodness it grows so fast.

One comment on the cancer walk. Chuck has been with me through all my treatments, my recovery and now through all the different places we have traveled so I can participate in The Race for the Cure. This year the temperature was 89 degrees when the survivors walked the first lap, definitely way too hot for us.  I thank him from the bottom of my heart for being there for me.  Last year, Richard and Sandy came out to try and find me, and they came bearing gifts.  That was the first time anyone has come out for me besides so Chuck.  I also thank them for being so loving and kind. It meant the world to me, thank you Richard and Sandy. I appreciate you both.

And to get the wills, etc finally out of the way was a bonus, thank goodness it didn’t take too long.

I want to wish our niece’s daughter, Rose, Happy Graduation.  Have fun Rose.

That’s it for me.  Until next time…..

Lorraine

 

6/9/12                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Chuck’s Report

Yep, an unusual travel day on Sunday, so much so that I’m writing this on Saturday night. We had planned to leave here on Saturday but the State Park where we are heading towards didn’t have any open spots until Sunday, maybe should have tried to make the arrangements earlier but that’s just not our style.

We’re stilling in the motor home watching a thunderstorm pass over, lots of lightening, some strong winds and rain.  In fact, this is the third storm we’ve had this week, not used to this back in Washington that’s for sure.  We have a weather radio and it keeps going off, telling us about thunderstorm warnings and just now there was a tornado warning for an area about 50 miles from us.  This is a huge storm, covers lots of the state it looks like. 

Let’s see, this week we got our driver’s licenses renewed, actually I had to get a new one as mine had expired and I had gotten one from Washington while I was working there.  Since 9-11 the rules to get or even to renew a driver’s license have changed.  You have to have a passport or birth certificate, social security card and a receipt from a campground showing we’ve actually spent some time here in the state.  I was surprised that it was harder to get one in South Dakota than it was in Washington.  We made three trips to the County Court House to do it but we have the new plates ordered, they will be sent to us.  So for now, we are just driving on temporary permits taped to the windshield.  And I had memorized the old plate numbers too, shoot.  It is getting harder to learn new things and I think it’s almost as hard to un-learn (forget) the old stuff but I’ll get used to the new numbers when we get the new plates. 

We also were driving in town and Lorraine noticed a Lawyer’s Office that advertised they do Wills, Estate Planning and such.  So we stopped and asked if we could talk to them, they had time so we we able to get the basic info started.  After a couple of emails back and forth, they were ready for us to come back in two days.  We stopped by their office and about two hours later we walked out with our Wills, Power Of Attorney, Living Wills and End of Life forms all complete and legal for South Dakota.  This is something we’ve talked about doing for years but just never took the time to do it, glad to finally have it done. 

Wednesday we made a trip to Mount Rushmore, I think we’ve been there 5 or 6 times now and it still is awe inspiring to me.  Two years ago we were in Washington DC and saw all the Monuments there and I still think this one is the best I’ve seen. 

While we were there I got a call from the mechanic I had talked to the day before about checking out the oil leak on the coach and he asked if we could be in his shop by 2 pm.  Here we were, about 25 miles from the coach and it was still set up for living, not traveling.  We got back, put stuff away and got there a few minutes early.  Unfortunately, the mechanic was still out to lunch so Lorraine took the car and I stayed with the coach.  Once the mechanic and I talked, he had a couple of ideas and I told him what I had learned via the internet.  He got under the motor and started checking things out, still looked like the filter might be the problem, at least that was were the oil appeared to be originating. 

I told him I had heard of the oil dipstick tube melting on some motor homes so he was able to look it over while he was under there.  Sure enough, the plastic dipstick tube, about 3’ long, ran alongside the engine, close enough that the plastic was alligatored, or damaged from the heat.  We checked all around town and no one carries them, special order only.  Seeing as we were leaving on Saturday I thought, I called our friend Dave in Minneapolis and got some phone numbers of places there.  We will be there on Tuesday so I had one of them order a dipstick tube and I’ll pick it up when we get there.  Meanwhile, the mechanic put a hose clamp on the connection, hoping it might help.  Plus, we shouldn’t be hitting too many mountains from here to Minnesota so that should help too.  Here’s hoping we make it with no more leaks!

The campground we are at will allow us to wash the rig so Thursday morning I got started.  I washing the roof, it’s been awhile and it was pretty dirty and chalky.  Then Lorraine and I washed the sides, section by section.  She would wet it down and spray it off after I washed it then we both would dry it, a big job to be sure.  But we were done about 1 or so, tired but pleased the rig was clean once again.  I told Lorraine I sort of wished it would rain to remove any water spots we couldn’t get to, maybe I shouldn’t have wished for that as we had the second of our big thunderstorms that afternoon.  We were in the Lawyer's Office in downtown Rapid City so we didn’t see the worst of it.  We did see about 1” of sleet alongside the road on our way back to the coach, however.  Glad we haven’t had any hail though.  But I was right, the rain did wash the hard water spots off and the coach looked pretty good. 

We been having problems with our Verizon air card, some times it would just shut itself off for no reason.  I tried unplugging it, pulled the battery and reset it and still we would sometime have problems.  This time I unplugged it from the box itself rather than from the wall and found the problem, the plug-in connection was broken and loose.  So we took it to the store in town, they ordered us a new one and it will be delivered to us in Minneapolis at the campground there.  Hope this one lasts until then.

I got a call from our friend Tim Powell from back home on Friday.  He had been talking about driving his motor home back to Iowa this summer and he was on his way.  He happened to be in a campground in Sturgis, about 30 miles away.  After we got our air card business taken care of, we drove over to see him for awhile.  After a short visit, we had to come back to take Misty out for a walk. 

As most of you know, Lorraine is a breast cancer survivor, 12 years ago she found the lump and it started from there.  Anyway, she is now cancer free and tries to attend the Cancer Society Relay of Life each year.  Depending on where we are, she checks the local area and tries to go wherever we happen to be.  This time it was while we were here in Rapid City, on Friday night.  So after walking Misty, we put the address in the trusty GPS and headed out to find the park where they were holding the walk.  The GPS led us right to it, no problems. 

Lorraine got registered, got her Tee-shirt and signed up for the walk.  This is the fourth or fifth state she has done this walk and this is the first time where they have read off the names of all the survivors, a nice touch I thought.  So Lorraine had her name read, got her survivor medal and got in line to do the survivor’s first lap.  All the survivors walk the first lap and everyone else stands along the track and cheers them on.  There are lots of smiles, laughter and tears, from both sides.  I was once again so proud of Lorraine, 12 years and still fighting.  I’m glad she is cancer free and that is behind us but it has been a huge part of our lives. 

This morning we drove to Deadwood City, where Bill Hickok was shot and killed back in 1876.  Of course, the town is now mostly tourist traps and casinos but what the heck.  We made arrangements to meet with Tim at a casino for lunch while we were there.  Tim was there, waiting for us when we got there but we couldn’t find a restaurant that was opened for lunch so we just had a snack and called it good.  Lorraine checked out some of the shops, we walked through a couple of the casinos (only played in one of them and that was because the had a free snack bar set up for players) and just played tourist for awhile.  I guess it is worth the trip, really nice scenery along the way too. 

We have friends who live in the area, Peter and Elaine Pi but we didn’t contact them this trip as we didn’t know when we would be going to Deadwood.  Peter is a cop in Sturgis and he sure has some stories to tell about biker week.  Sorry Peter and Elaine, next time we’re in town we’ll contact you and try to get together. 

Our plans for the upcoming week are pretty simple, we will head to Arlington, SD for two days to meet up with Jim/Annie, friends who really helped us out when Lorraine was having liver problems when we were in San Diego.  Then we will head on to Minneapolis for a week to meet with friends Dave and Sandy.  So with the personal stuff behind us, it’s time to meet with some friends. 

That was our week,not very exciting stuff but just like everyone else, the personal stuff has to be completed.  And now I’ll add a few pictures and get this posted. 

Entrance to Hart Ranch

 

Our site here at Hart Ranch

 

Downtown Rapid City has statues of all the US Presidents on the street corners.  Lorraine managed to get pictures of some of them.

  

 

 

Mount Rushmore

 

We’ve seen lots of antelope but this is one of the few deer we’ve seen.

Lorraine at the Cancer Walk Relay for Life

  

 

 

Deadwood

 

 

 

 

 

An afternoon storm brewing to the West. 

  

Shoot, it just started hailing, big pieces too.  Must be about 1/2” or so, sounds like popcorn on the roof.  Sure hope there isn’t any damage!

Ok, stopped writing for the night and now it’s Sunday morning.  The storm has died out, the sun is shining, no apparent damage except for a couple of small limbs down.  That was the second worst thunderstorm we’ve been in since getting on the road.  We set in the coach with the screens up, watching the lightening and rain. 

We will be putting stuff away and getting ready to travel, get back on the road soon. 

Thanks   Chuck

We’re “Home” in Rapid City

 

Sunday, June 03, 2012                                                                                                                                           Lorraine’s report

We arrived in Rapid City, SD, our home of record, yesterday afternoon, after what seemed to me like a really long time on the road. Nevada roads are pretty nice roads to drive on; they are in a lot better condition than the roads in California. But I have to say I haven’t ever seen so many sage and tumbleweeds plants as what we saw on the way here. Nevada has acres and acres of sage and tumbleweed; miles after mile.

So last Sunday, Chuck and I took a drive up to Virginia City, having never been there before. We headed out on a lazy, sunny day, temps in the mid 60’s, billowing clouds in a bright blue sky. The area was warming up from the snow on Friday. The climb into the mountains to get there was steep, and I was grateful we didn’t take the rig because some of the switch backs were daunting.

Virginia City was packed full on tourists; Chuck drove all the way through to the other end of town, turned the car around and headed back, finding one spot to park about mid town. VC was the heart of the silver rush, dating back to the mid to late 1890’s and is now a big tourist trap; full of tiny shops and restaurants. Of course we had to check it them out, but the good news was, I didn’t find a thing I needed or wanted. I just took lots of pictures of the town.

We got home from Virginia City and rested. Chuck then took me to Boomtown’s all you can eat Lobster Buffet. Chuck didn’t eat at the buffet; he cleaned the lobster out of the shell for me. All I have to say is Boomtown didn’t make much money on me. I was wishing Rick, our son and our friends, Rick and Joy, and Rob and Norma and Barb and Dennis were with us to enjoy the feast.

Monday, Chuck took me to Reno’s Dillard’s Department Store, where I scored some items I had been looking for. We then went to the Silver Legacy for a short time of gaming and a free dinner on SL, then back to the rig to pack up.

Tuesday found us back out on the road, heading east. Chuck had wanted to drive “The Loneliest Road in America,” highway 50 a short way east of Reno, so we did just that. It was very long, lonely road, and we passed very few travelers headed either way. That road is where we thought Forrest Gump decided to stop his running from the movie of the same name, but alas it wasn’t. The vistas from horizon to horizon were awesome. We stopped and stayed at the KOA in Ely, NV

Tuesday we crossed into Utah and at the first rest stop, we called our friends, Katie and Joe who live outside Salt Lake City in a town called Tooele. Katie was very surprised and excited to hear from us, and that we wanted to stop and see her and Joe, and her boys, Jared and Lance. She hadn’t read our blog for several weeks and didn’t know that we were back on the road.

I couldn’t contact the RV Park we stayed at last year, so Katie went down to the park and secured a site for us for the night. The Homestead RV Park right in the middle of Tooele had just completed a new section and we took one space for $20.00 for 50 amp, sewer and water. We set up and went over to meet Katie, Joe and the boys at their home and to go to dinner. Pizza Hut was the place we all decided on and was an excellent choice for all of us. We walked up a block for ice cream, which the boys really enjoyed. Thank you Katie, Joe, Jared and Lance for a great visit, and we will see you again.

The following morning we stopped at Speedco, on the way out of Tooele, to have the oil checked again, since Chuck found some oil on the car and the back of the rig. We had the oil changed at a Speedco in Portland, Oregon a couple of weeks ago. Pulling all those big mountains with the rig, we thought we had sprung a leak. Turns out, the workers at Speedco put the wrong oil filter on and that was what was leaking. We were there a couple of hours while they worked on the rig, figuring out how to charge the warranty, etc. We spent that night in Rock Springs, WY at the KOA.

Next day was uneventful, just miles and miles of changing vegetation and scenery with long steep vistas. We crossed the Continental Divide four times, but I could never get a picture of the sign. We were up above 7200 feet there for most of the day, and both Chuck and I could feel the altitude, as we both had trouble breathing in such “Thin” air.

We stopped for the night in Douglas, WY at another KOA for the night. Chuck washed the wind shield as he does every day after driving and I cooked fried chicken and made homemade potato salad for dinner. Chuck had to fix the drawer underneath the dish washer; it came crashing out while he was driving. You just never know what is going to break or wear out while you are driving your home down the road.

Saturday we crossed into South Dakota for the first time in a very long time. There was lots of traffic coming into Rapid City, and one area on Interstate 16 was quite intense for me, with no safety rails or anything. The steep drop offs made me hang on for dear life and pray a lot. We saw Chief Crazy Horse Monument from the road, and Chuck made the comment that it looked like it hadn’t changed at all since the last time we were here.

We are now at Hart Ranch and took Sunday off, although I have done six loads of laundry since we have been here. We have lots of business to take care of while we are here; like drive’s license, new license plates, etc.

I want to go next Friday night to the “Race for the Cure” walk; it will be my twelfth year I have walked in the survivor’s lap. Hurray for me!!! I thank God every day He gives me, and I’m grateful for all He has given to Chuck and me, I try not to take anything for granted. Life is good!

Until next time,

Lorraine

 

6/3/12                                                                                                                                                                        Chuck’s Report

Last Sunday, after we posted our blog, we decided to do some tourist stuff so we drove down to Virginia City.  Although we didn’t see any of the Cartwright clan, we did see lots of tourist trap shops.  The drive over was through the mountains, boy did they have a tough live getting around back then.  We drove past lots of old mines, at least there was a bunch of mine tailings.  I forgot how much silver and gold they got out but there were lots of millionaires made during the heyday. 

Afterwards, we stopped by Boomtown for their Lobster Buffett, at least Lorraine did, I don’t eat the stuff.  But I did try to make myself useful, I went through the line to get her more lobster when she was ready and even cleaned a couple for her.  I think she got her fill, even though we had steak and lobster the night before.

Monday Lorraine wanted to do some shopping then we stopped off at the Silver Legacy for a couple hours on the slots.  We knew we would be stopping at Ely and probably hitting a casino there on Tuesday so didn’t feel the need to hit it too hard, ha.  After we got back to the coach, we started the process of getting travel ready for the next morning. 

Tuesday we got on the road around our normal time, stopped for fuel just down the road then headed East on Highway 50, the Lonest Highway in America.  Boy does it live up to that name, miles and miles of nothing but tumble weed, sage and sand.  I know Lorraine took lots of pictures, I’ll add some of them to show the drive.  The road was fine, in fact, we found all the roads in Nevada to be good, maybe it was because we had just experienced California roads which need some work. 

We stopped for the night in Ely, not sure what to expect but figured it might be like Elko, we stopped there last year.  But Ely is much smaller and “older”.  There wasn’t much to experience there, we drove the town, stopped at a restaurant where they wouldn’t even wait on us so we went to a casino to eat instead.  Both Lorraine and I left there with some of their money, the slots were good to us.  

We had a choice to make after leaving Ely, continue on I-50 to Denver or head North to Salt Lake City.  After checking the map and computer we decided not to drive to Denver, the passes were too high, heck we were having trouble with the air at 5000’ and Eisenhower Tunnel is at 1100’ if memory serves.  And besides, if we went to SLC city we could see our friends Joe/Katie and their kids.  We stopped by to see them last year and had a good visit so that helped make our decision easier too.

So on to SLC, still not too many folks, towns or much of anything along the way.  The scenery was nice, a bit different from I-50 as there were more hills and passes plus it wasn’t as barren and desert like.  A couple of places we had some steep grades to climb/descend but mostly it was a nice drive.  We do drive with the house air conditioner on and it seem to be running most of the time due the bright, sunny day. 

We couldn’t find a phone number for the place we stayed at last year when we were visiting Joe/Katie so Lorraine called Katie to see if she could find it for us.  She volunteered to run over there to talk to them, thanks for that.  Anyway, they had a spot saved for us when we got there and  helped us get settled in.  Later we drove over to Joe/Katie’s place then headed out for dinner at a pizza place just down the way from their house.  We had a good visit, too bad it was just for the evening but guess we’ll take what we can. 

I had noticed the front of our car had oil on it, it must have come from the motorhome.  We had the oil changed in Oregon at Speedco and there happened to be a Speedco on the way to the highway after leaving Tooele so we stopped by to have them check out our oil leak.  At Speedco, they allow the customer to go into the “pit” when they are working on their rigs so I was able to check out the oil leak too.  The oil appeared to be coming from the filter area and they checked their books and found that we didn’t have the correct oil filter installed in Oregon.  They covered the new filter under their warrantee and sent us on our way.  I was once again satisfied with our dealing with Speedco.

We were too far away from Rapid City to make it in two days, at least the way we travel so we stopped over in Douglas and Rock Springs, WY one night each.  Normally we avoid KOA camp grounds but here this was the fourth straight KOA we stopped at, Reno, Ely, Douglas and now Rock Springs.  We even thought about joining KOA but had only stopped at them twice in five years until this stretch and it would take about 10 nights to get a payback.  I will say they are a bit more expensive than the normal parks we stay but also they were clean and well kept up. 

Saturday we continued on to our planned stop here at Hart Ranch just outside Rapid City.  We decided to take a short cut, knowing it would take us over a couple of passes once again.  It was a very scenic drive this time, in fact we were in trees again for the first time in awhile.  Two of the grades were 7% and a couple more were 6% so we worked the engine and jake brake pretty good once again. 

We drove by Crazy Horse Monument, didn’t stop but did see it off the road.  We stopped there about three years ago and liked their museum and displays but couldn’t see where there had been much work on the monument since the old man died a few years earlier.  Most of their efforts appeared to be in the buildings and displays and advertisements to draw in the tourists. 

We pulled into Hart Ranch, one of our favorite camp grounds we’ve been too.  It accepts our RPI membership, only $10/day but this time they charged an extra $5.50/day for services.  They told us that everyone, even the members, have to pay the extra service charge.  Still a nice place to stay however, large back in sites with cement parking and lots of grass.  The place is kept up very nice, they have security driving by all the time too.  Just across the fence from us is the outside storage area, must be a couple hundred rigs stored there and we’ve seen lots coming out in the last two days, must be the warm weather and I think school is out here also. 

Only problem is the oil leak returned, bummer.  The coach and car were both oil leak free from Ely to Rock Springs but there weren’t too many hard passes.  But from Rock Springs to here was hard work so I still need to check this out.  I’ll look into checking into a Cummins Engine Repair place while we are here, should be something in a town this size I would think.  I’ve heard some folks have developed oil leaks when the only problem was they had overfilled the engine, hope that’s our problem.  Another thing I’m going to look at is the “slobber tube” or vent pipe from the engine, I’ve heard of problems with it too. 

By the way, our dog Misty is almost back to normal after her stroke.  The major difference is she doesn’t attempt to jump up on or down from the couch, won’t climb the steps into the coach and is somewhat unstable when we go for a walk.  But if you didn’t know she had a stroke, you probably wouldn’t notice these small changes.  

The weather has been just short of fantastic, in the 80s with lots of sun.  We have had lots of wind however, especially in the desert in the afternoons.  But we try to get off the road and into our site between 3 and 4 so the wind wasn’t too bad while we were driving.  Saturday night, here at Hart Ranch, we had storm pass by in the evening, thunder, lightening, wind and rain.  Guess it isn’t too unusual to see hail with these summer storms but we didn’t have any this time.  The forecast is for more of the same, 80s with possible afternoon storms.

We normally try to post our blog on Sunday morning but decided to just take it easy on Sunday morning.  We both were sort of dizzy, still rocking I guess.  We had traveled for the last five days, don’t remember the last time we did that.  But at least we are seeing some new country and the fuel prices are falling the further East we get, yea.  Notice I didn’t say the prices are cheap, the last time we paid $3.85/gallon, much better than the $4.25 we paid in Washington when we left there almost a month ago.  Here’s hoping the price drop continues and we get to “cheap” prices, somewhere in the $2 range would be good, ha.

Ok, enough of that, I’ll add a few pictures and get this posted. 

Virginia City, Nevada

 

 

Some of the scenery along I-50, the road goes on forever. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Katie, Joe, Jared and Lance at their house.  That’s SLC in the distance. 

  

Different scenery through Utah and Wyoming.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, and now to get this posted. 

 

Thanks   Chuck