2024 Estelline Trip

[JEBar]

this thread has been started to give us a place to organize, revise, an most likely revise several more times before we head west

2024 Trip Plan

May 29, 2024 Soaring Eagle Campground https://www.campatsoaringeagle.com/] at 3152 Buttermilk Rd W Lenoir City, TN .... Exit 360.... 399 miles / 6 hr 16 min .... booked

May 30, 2024 Duck Creek RV Park https://duckcreekrvparkky.com/ at 2540 John L. Puryear Dr. in Paducah, KY .... 313 miles / 4 hr 39 min....

May31, 2024 ​Cottonwood RV Park https://cottonwoodsrvpark.com/ at 5170 N. Oakland Gravel Rd in Columbia, MO .... 300 miles / 4 hr 25 min .... booked

June 1, 2024 ​Victorian Acres RV Park https://victorianacresrvpark.com/ at 6591 Highway 2 in Nebraska City, NE .... 272 miles / 4 hr 8 min .... booked .

June 2, 2024​ arrive Estelline South Dakota .... 304 miles / 4 hr 25 min .... booked Dec 31, 2023

[JEBar]

hopefully what will proved to be the most costly thing we need to take care of prior to pulling out for South Dakota has been taken care of .... that being servicing our Sportchassis .... doing so takes

7 gallons of heavy duty diesel motor oil ($100+)
fuel, oil, and cabin filters along with fuel/water separator filter, cabin air filter and wiper blades ($200+)
lube, fluids check, pre trip inspection, labor ($200)

add in campgrounds, 3,000+ miles of diesel fuel and whatever other expenses come along .... expensive yes but more than worth it to us .... our time away from home will cover something over 3 months .... we still spend a fraction of the amount that we would on traveling and staying that many nights in a motel

[Hatchdog]

Thanks Jim, this is a sure sign of spring!

[JEBar]

today was a beautiful one indeed 75 with a gentle breeze .... per the long range forecast, the highs for the next couple of weeks will be in the low 50's

[JEBar]

as can be seen in post 1, all campground reservations for our trip to Estelline have been made

[JEBar]

the weather in Estelline, SD right now is usually different than it is as the same time than it is at home in central NC .... right now here we are having a beautiful day .... 67 degrees under a cloudless sky with no wind .... our backdoor is open, the glass in the storm door is lowered several inches .... in Estelline it is 22 degrees with a 7 mph wind under a mostly cloudy sky .... the pictures below were taken earlier today

[rickhem]

This sounds like quite the trip. A real adventure, and I envy you.

[JEBar]

good wishes appreciated .... for over 10 years we've hauled our camper from NC to my wife's home in South Dakota for the summer .... its a beautiful area and we thoroughly enjoy being out there

[JEBar]

well, the not so fun preparations for this year's Estelline trip have begun .... after hauling trash this morning I dug into unpacking, cleaning and then repacking our camper's basement (front storage area) .... unpacking and cleaning about 1/3 of the area has been taken care of .... that third is the easiest area to get into and stuff out of .... for me this is going to be a multi day project so when rain started falling after about 4 hours it wasn't a big deal .... hopefully I will be able to resume sometime tomorrow

[JEBar]

UPDATE .....

as this is being typed we are camped just off of I-95 NC Exit 90 .... we arrived shortly after noon Friday April 12th and are booked to head back on on Monday April 15 .... one of our objectives for this outing is to test our camper's various systems in preparation to leaving home and traveling to South Dakota near the end of May .... the weather has cooperated in that the temp lat night dropped into the upper 40's so we had occasion to run both our camper's propane furnace and electric fireplace .... in the area of interior lighting we only have two eight inch florescent bulbs to replace .... our daughter's home washing machine is on the blink so we had her bring a bunch of laundry which has now been run through the camper's washer and dryer .... auto and manual leveling systems seems fine .... satellite television system working as it should .... stove, frig, electric coolers all working well .....camper and truck tires all holding pressure over the winter .... one tire pressure sensor not working, its been reported to the manufacture and they are sending replacement batteries for all 10 sensors .... all in all, realizing things can change in a flicker, all's good