2020 Trip To South Dakota

[JEBar]

another minor project taken care of ... we use a blank female 7-Way Trailer Wiring Harness Connector https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E ... UTF8&psc=1 to hold our camper's 7-way cord when its not in use, connected to our truck .... its an item I find I'm prone to break, this is the second one I've had to install since February .. .. oh well, they are cheap and I do carry a spare ..

[JEBar]

called and confirmed that Estelline's City Park Campground is open for business .... construction crews working in the area have been there for a good while have moved on .... with Estelline's June Rodeo cancelled it will be interesting to see how many neighbors we have during the just under 3 months we are slated to be there ....

[JEBar]

today's project is one I've wanted to take care of for over 10 years and simply never got around to it .... that being to move fishing lures I need for fishing out west out of my Bass fishing tackle box and into my Walleye tackle box .. .. yep, I've literally spent years fishing in South Dakota while wishing I'd moved my favorite plugs .... this year I hope to be able to put them to use ....

[brm4450]

Where do you fish at in SD

[JEBar]

Where do you fish at in SD

Lake Poinsett, Lake Albert, and other lakes in that general area

[brm4450]

Very cool, Great fun

[JEBar]

tomorrow morning we scheduled to pull out for a weekend campout with our club .... this outing should provide us with an opportunity to test all of our camper's systems .... it will be our first since returning home from Texas in March and our only one prior to pulling out for South Dakota on June 9th .... if all goes well, one month from today we should be settled into our camper on our first full day of our summer trip to South Dakota ..

[JEBar]

with a successful weekend of testing all of our camper and truck systems, we are now down to 3 weeks and 2 days between now and when we are scheduled to head west .... the good news is, we don't know of anything major that needs to be resolved prior to June 9th when we are due to hit the road .... this puts us into a slow but steady pace to take care of the multitudes of minor things that have to be taken care of

[JEBar]

for us, it is a necessity to sandwich medical appointments into the times we are home .... yesterday, I was cleared by my Cardiologist .... today my wife was cleared and released by her surgeon following having a cataract removed last week .... next week, on to our Dermatologist .... we've decided to replace all 8 of the LED taillights on our Sportchassis .... all of them have elements that have burned out and one backup light has gone out .... when I first started looking for replacements, I suffered a bit of sticker shock .... those suckers are expensive .. .. accordingly, we aren't going back with OEM's .... Amazon is slated to deliver the replacements tomorrow

[JEBar]

I've just come in from spending several hours replacing all 8 of the tail lights on our Sportchassis .... in thinking about, I became certain that the method of replacement couldn't simply be a pop and old one out and a new one in .... at the factory they fastened the imitation chrome trim rings to the rubber grommet with half inch screws .... the grommet is actually what holds the light in place .... those rubber grommets are well over 10 years old .... I decided to drill the 32 pilot holes necessary to screw 1" stainless screws into the truck's sheet aluminum body .... replacing the four lower lights went smoothly .... not so the upper 4 .... at some point a mouse made a nest behind the passenger's side upper lights .... at some point along the way he chewed the insulation off of the wires going to both of the upper driver's side tail lights .... the pictures below pretty well tell the story .... 80 degrees with high humidity didn't help and proved to be a strong reminder that I ain't as young as I used to be ....

[JEBar]

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 ....

[JEBar]

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

[JEBar]

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

[JEBar]

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 ...

[JEBar]

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 ....

[JEBar]

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

[brm4450]

As Kenny Mayne would say “Simply en fuego”

[JEBar]

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

[JEBar]

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

[JEBar]

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 ....