2020 Trip To South Dakota

[JEBar]

with all that's going on across the country, we've decided to call the campgrounds where we have reservations to confirm that all's still good to go .... so far, so good .... the latest update on Tropical Storm Cristobal looks like we may cross its path sometime on Wednesday .... most likely around Paducah .... by then, it should be mostly a rain event without any heavy wind .... sure hope so .... we've decided on our first two fuel stops and have updated our itinerary shown in post 1 in this thread

[JEBar]

very busy day involving trip related things on tap .... with 90 degree temps for the last couple of days, a much cooler day on tap, and 90's due to return tomorrow, we plan to spend most of the day moving stuff from the house and packing it in the camper .... it never ceases to amaze us at the amount of cleaning needed after our camper has not been in use for a few months .... working out there today will also allow us to exercise both AC's that haven't been run in about a month

[JEBar]

I decided today would be a good time to do some multitasking .... it seems to be a good idea while toting stuff out to the camper, why not have the computer upgrading the maps in our Garmin DEZL 760 .. .. per a note on the screen doing so will take about an hour and a half .... can't help but wonder if we will travel any roads that are different than last year ..

[JEBar]

all shooting, cleaning, reloading equipment and supplies loaded

all Childress Vineyards family gifts loaded

all Traveler Pellets, pans, and power cord loaded

hitch and hitch pin greased/serviced

tomorrow's high forecasted to be in the 90's, need to resume loading rather early

[JEBar]

3 days from right now we should be moving last minute items into our camper and buttoning up our home .... inevitably there will be some last minute unanticipated thing pop up that will have to be dealt with ..... a good example happened in January on the day we were due to head for Texas .... we most certainly didn't anticipate our truck getting stuck in our back yard .... having to get a wrecker to pull it out resulted in us leaving a day later .... that forced us to reschedule all reservations .... as I've noted many times, our absolute and final plans are subject to change at any second ..

[JEBar]

busy day .... all but our food and last minute packing has pretty well been completed .... that includes our Traveler smoker, grill .... while it could happen at any of our stops along the way, I don't anticipate it coming our of storage until after we are setup in South Dakota .... the forecasted path of Tropical Storm Cristobal shouldn't present us with any major problems .... sure hope they are right

[JEBar]

with the majority of our packing complete, today is anticipated to be much more relaxed .... with the ongoing meat (mostly beef) shortages in area around Sioux Falls, we been trying to figure out how much, if any, we should take with us .... this is one of those times we wish our camper had a much larger freezer .... having one would offer us many more options .... the decision needs to be made today so, if needed, we can act on it the first thing in the morning

[JEBar]

busy day on tap .... on that just got even busier with the realization I haven't refilled the camper's propane tanks .. .. one is empty and one has been well used .... filling them has moved way up on today's list .... other things on our list for them morning is hauling off trash, trip related grocery shopping, and continued packing .... last item on our list for today is to hookup

[JEBar]

I just got back from the place we buy propane .... ended up only needing to fill one of our 40 pounders (9.3 gallons) ..... we prefer to fill at places that charge by the gallon .... here they charge $2.34 a gallon .... right now we are taking a bit of a break, really looking forward to getting out of the high humidity in our area .... we've vacuum sealed over 20 lbs of nice 93% lean hamburger that's now in the camper's frig .... in a short time, packing will continue

[JEBar]

we didn't get as many things completed today as we would have liked but we are still on track to pull out tomorrow morning .... the good news is, what's left amounts to less than we normally face on a travel morning .... last year flooding required us to drastically change our route west .... so far Cristobal has followed its forecasted path and hopefully it will continue to do so .... our path should take it through some areas that Cristobal's rains will have thoroughly drenched .... our hope is the drenching won't cause flooding

[JEBar]

on the road again .....

[CT_Shooter]

on the road again .....

Have a safe trip, Jim. Here's wishing you have a wonderful summer on the road.

[Hatchdog]

Safe travels. Heading that way (but from the west) ourselves in Sept. Originally had our trip scheduled for May for postponed due to the virus closing some of the attractions we want to see. I will be looking forward to your reports.

[BigAl52]

Have a safe trip.

[brm4450]

Over night at Lake Poinsett several vehicles and RV’s caught on fire and burned. Nobody hurt just the vehicles burned.

[JEBar]

that must have been a rough fire ===> https://www.keloland.com/news/local-new ... ampground/

[JEBar]

Day 1 is in the books .... 421 miles covered in 7 hrs 35 min with 2 stops .... one for fuel and one just to move around a little .... we are currently set up in Soaring Eagle Campground .... got soaked while setting up and have little desire to get back out this evening .... will try to take some pictures before we pull out in the morning .... this is our first stop in this campground, a separate thread will be started about it .... it misted on us almost all the way .... wipers set to longest duration intermittent wipe .... 400 miles of road grime sure has a way of making a rig look pretty dang grubby .... the drive itself went well .... heavy traffic that moved along well pretty much all the way ....

[JEBar]

our destination for today is Duck Creek RV Park in Paducah, KY .... details in post 1 in this thread .... yesterday we road in the heaviest traffic we've seen in many months .... where we are parked right now, we are very close to I-40 .... from the traffic noise we have no reason to believe today will be any different .... on my way out to take our trash to the dumpster and take a few campground pictures

[JEBar]

after 295.7 miles covered in 5 hrs 9 min, we are once again settled into Duck Creek RV Park in Paducah, KY .... thankfully it was an uneventful day's drive but at the same time, it wasn't an easy one .... we lost most of an half hour idling along a clogged I-24 just northwest of Nashville .... the clog was caused by a wrecked big rig, sure hope the driver is OK .... the worst of it was driving almost all the way into a strong headwind .... no clue as to our truck's mileage today but it can't be much .... as a result, we decided to go out after setting up and take on 20 gallons of fuel .... we probably could have made it the 100+ miles we need to cover tomorrow to get to our next scheduled fuel stop but when it comes to having enough fuel, probably ain't gonna cut it .... rather, having more than enough to get to where we want to go is the way we travel .... as far as our drive from home to Estelline, we are about half way there

[JEBar]

thankfully we have a morning where you don't break into a sweat when you go outside the camper's door .... hopefully breaking camp and hooking up will not be a two shirt event .... no real hurry, we have a 300 mile day on tap that should take 5 hrs or so .... one planned fuel stop about 100 miles after getting on the road .... another walk around stop is certainly possible