2020 Trip To South Dakota

Post by **JEBar** » Wed May 27, 2020 10:55 am

2 weeks from today we are scheduled to be somewhere between Lenoir City, TN and Paducah, KY on our second day's drive .... with each passing day, the reality of getting back on the road grows stronger .... as normal, we are really looking forward to heading west while at the same time our pretrip jitters are setting in ..

.. don't know of any major issues we need to address but the reality is, that's subject to instantaneous change ....

Post by **JEBar** » Fri May 29, 2020 10:21 am

since Tuesday morning we have been helping with caring for 4 year old (soon to be) Grandson following surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids .... thankfully, post op reports from his surgeon were very positive .... as I have come to expect from surgery, the day of ain't tooooo bad because of pain killers .... the day after ain't nowhere near as good ... the second day after is the worst .... the third day after brings a marked positive change .... that has been the case with him .... our Daughter has fostered him for the last 3 years ... with her being a single parent, we are trying to help out as much as is possible .... he's doing much better this morning, hopefully we will now be able to resume our pretrip preparations

Post by **JEBar** » Sat May 30, 2020 8:56 am

with 10 days left before we are due to pull out for South, we have to kick our preparations up a notch ... thankfully the major items we know of have already been taken care of .... I do plan to take our truck on a 50 or so mile drive early next week .... she's pretty much been parked since we got home from Texas and I want to make sure all its systems are go .... hopefully that will be the case .... if not, we should have time to make repairs

Post by **JEBar** » Sat May 30, 2020 10:14 pm

yep, I sure wish we were in South Dakota today instead of our scheduled arrival out there two weeks from today .... Maureen's brother and a couple of others I fish with out there had a good day .... limited out in walleye and hooked some large crappie .... preparations for a family fish fry are under way ...

Post by **JEBar** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 8:49 am

after so many days of thinking about it, its actually hard to believe that one week from right now we should be headed west on our first day's drive .... later today I hope to put some miles on our truck; as well as, to top off her fuel tanks .... she's been mostly parked since our return from Texas .... I have no reason to believe she's not ready but want to do all I can to make sure ....

Post by **JEBar** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 7:13 pm

as those who travel know, pre-trip preparations include more than just those related to our truck and camper .... thankfully out test drive did go well .... on the home front we've had a very large brush pile out the the field next to our home for most of a year .... this afternoon our oldest son came over and burned it .... the initial blaze really put on a show for the neighborhood ..

.. talk about a hot fire, one certainly had to stand way back .... about 5 hours later, I've watered it down .... eventually we will pile up the remains and burn them

Post by **brm4450** » Tue Jun 02, 2020 7:17 pm

As Kenny Mayne would say “Simply en fuego”

Post by **JEBar** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 8:46 am

the good news is, after today we won't have any more medical appointments before we are scheduled to leave home .... the not so good news is, a new concern has arisen .... that being Tropical Storm Cristobal ===> https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/ne ... ast-threat ..... Cristobal is supposed to come ashore Monday morning somewhere along the Gulf Coast and head inland .... we are scheduled to leave home Tuesday morning and head west on I-40 .... at some point it appears to be highly likely our paths will cross

Post by **JEBar** » Wed Jun 03, 2020 10:28 am

day 2 of the brush pile burn is underway .... with it simmering overnight, it was no problem to rake the remaining wood into a pile that quickly flamed up .... hopefully, within a few hours there should be nothing else left to burn

Post by **JEBar** » Thu Jun 04, 2020 9:18 am

the good news is, if the long range forecast is anywhere close to correct, we shouldn't have to drive through or camp in the remnants Tropical Storm Cristobal .... we sure hope that proves to be the case .... we've reached the packing and repacking stage .... the repacking comes from the fact that several of the things we need while winter camped in Texas aren't needed when summer camping in South Dakota .... taking them out of camper and replacing them with things we know we will need is always an interesting process .... one that often requires fitting round pegs in square holes ....