2019 Summer Trip To South Dakota

[JEBar]

headed out .... no rain at our home but its all around us

[JEBar]

260.8 miles / 5 hr 17 min with a single fuel stop after leaving home we are setup in the East Asheville KOA ===> https://koa.com/campgrounds/asheville-east/ .... at times we drove through heavy rain, at times light misting rain, at times over dry roads .... came upon one bad wreck (thankfully on the other side of a divided highway) between a semi and work van .... if the driver of the van walked away, he/she is a very lucky person .... more thunderstorms are predicted from now until well after we are supposed to be back on the road Monday morning

[JEBar]

we are camped just east of Asheville in the NC mountains ....bands of rain moved through last nigh, its pretty soggy this morning with heavy cloud cover on the "high tops" .... so far, rain only, no thunder .... on tap today is a visit with my Mom in her retirement home .... in addition we are scheduled to meet a cousin and his wife for lunch .... a quick trip to a local grocery for ice and a few things that we've discovered we didn't get packed .... we will also be storing items because once we pull out Monday morning we will be driving most of the next 4 days

[JEBar]

day 2 of this trip is winding down and we are settled in for the evening .... tomorrow morning we hope to be on the road around 9 for what is slated to be a 317 mile, 4 hr 46 mile drive to Elkhorn Campground in Frankfort, Kentucky (link in post 1 in this thread) .... the drive will take us will take us through the gorge on I-40 over to Knoxville where we will take I-75 north toward Lexington .... its not a difficult drive but its far from easy .... 75 traverses the spine of the Blue Ridge Mountains .... for our part of the country the drive up Jellico Mountain is long and steep .... we have scheduled one fuel stop for just before we cross out of Tennessee

[JEBar]

5 hr 55 min / 341.9 miles after leaving East Asheville KOA, we are setup in Elkhorn Family Campground ===> http://www.elkhorncampground.com/index.html <=== in Frankfort, KY, first picture .... this is our first visit to this CG, we have a nice site, don't often get one with a really nice wooden deck .... just before crossing into KY we took on fuel so as to take advantage of TN fuel prices ..... 430 miles since filling our tanks, over which we averaged 9.5 mpg .... that ain't too bad since that drive took us across the Smokies and then up their spine once we turned north at Knoxville .... in and out of rain all day, second picture was taken as we pulled out this morning .... thankfully it appears that the front which has been soaking our part of the country has moved on to the north and east ..... the forecast says 0% chance of rain tomorrow, sure hope they are right about it ....

[JEBar]

321.3 miles / 6 hr 3 min after leaving Elkhorn, we a set up at D&W Lake Campground in Champaigh, IL, link can be found in post 1 in this thread .... this is another first time campground for us, a few pictures showing our current site ..... all in all, today's drive went pretty well .... a couple of delays in work zones and one for some mysterious happening which literally stopped interstate traffic but we didn't see anything that could have been the cause .... in a deviation of one of our norms, we topped off the truck's tanks twice today .... the first time was to take advantage of the price of fuel in Kentucky where we were able to purchase pure #2 Diesel .... the second time was in Illinois where I filled the tanks as quickly as possible after reaching the point where we now have sufficient fuel onboard to get us to South Dakota .... all of the fuel between here and there had a Bio additive, in many places up to 20% .... by topping off the tanks at that point, we will have a the most good diesel to dilute the Bio component .... tomorrow's drive to Waterloo, IA and most of the next day's drive over to Sioux City will take us through a part of the country that we have never visited .... we are most certainly l looking forward that .... today we did see some flooded farm fields but nothing which came close to a highway

[markiver54]

Glad you're topped off and ready to enjoy some previously unknown territory. As always, wishing safe/enjoyable travelling!!
Look forward to future posts, and of course the " gathering " when it happens. Be sure to get a group photo!!...

[JEBar]

over the years our summers spent in South Dakota have evolved to moving from one event to another .... some minor, some pretty involved .... example, a week after we get there the town will stage Estelline Rodeo Days 2019 ===> http://estellinerodeo.com/.html .... it has become a major event for the entire area .... last year both of our sons brought their families from NC to attend the rodeo and a host of family and other functions .... we are due to arrive Thursday afternoon and then drive 70 some miles to pick up our daughter and her foster son at 11PM the following night .... as note, its become a major event

[JEBar]

338.1 miles / 5 hrs 39 min D & W we are setup in Waterloo KOA ====> https://koa.com/campgrounds/waterloo/?u ... m=referral .... this is our first visit to this park and it is a most pleasant surprise .... bottom line, we have camped in KOA's from coast to coast, including the original one in Billings, Montana .... the Waterloo KOA is without a doubt the nicest of them all .... the weather conditions during today's drive literally changed every few minutes .... bands of heavy rain and wind separated by beautiful blue sky .... thankfully, while there has been thunder in the distance, its been sunny since we arrived .... our site can be seen below .... the site is terraced so that the sewer connection is as high or higher than where the waste leaves the camper .... that can complicate the setup .... if all goes well, this time tomorrow we should be setup in Estelline

[JEBar]

well, following a long (for us) days drive we are setup in Estelline were we will be for about 2 months .... visits with family and friends have already started .... we haven't completed our full setup, hopefully we can do so in the morning .... our drive took us over roads we have never traveled and through country we have never seen .... the weather was beautiful, couldn't have asked for anything better .... Iowa HWY 20 turned out to be a good, 4 lane divided highway with a 65 mph speed limit .... I'd take it again without any hesitation .... I'll try to get the numbers for today's drive as well as for the trip to date in the morning

[JEBar]

we've been busy .... last night we drove to Sioux Falls airport (150 mile round trip) to pick up our daughter and her foster son whose flight arrived shortly after midnight .... they will be our here with us for a 10 day visit .... earlier this morning we drove to Brookings (50 mile round trip) to take care of some shopping and to fill the truck .... 8.9 mpg over the last 800 miles ..... this afternoon, one heck of a rain storm blew through, no clue how much rain came down .... a twister is reported to have touched down east of town, no clue how much if any damage .... preparations for next weekend's rodeo have begun

[JEBar]

its been a really good day in the neighborhood .... one of my brothers-in-law and his son-in-law spent most of the day fishing .... the parking/launch areas on the first three lakes we tried were filled .... one of the advantages of fishing with folks who really know the area was their ability to come up with a Plan B, C, D, etc .... we ended up at a lake that isn't easy to get to, 4-wheen drive is a necessity .... two of the walleye are over 20" and one white crappie exceeds the state's Proud Angler standards

[JEBar]

family fish fry slated for Thursday night ..

[JEBar]

just got around to working up the numbers on our last day's drive from Waterloo, IA to Estelline, SD .... the drive covered 401.6 miles, that's about a hundred miles further than our preferred 300 mile day .... covering that distance took us 6 hrs 42 min .... that's not a problem with us having 2 months to recover before we head back home .. .. as a side note, our drive from home to Estelline covered 1,728.3 miles

[JEBar]

another beautiful day in the neighborhood .... unfortunately, it looks like rain will be moving in on Thursday .... this morning we drove to Runnings in Brookings ====> https://www.runnings.com/ .... it is one of my favorite stores in this part of the country .... they have a well stocked hunting and fishing department ..... while there I picked up a rod tip replacement kit to fix a rod for my brother-in-law ..... I also picked up a couple of spools of fishing line .... when we got back to the camper I spent a few hours outside replacing the line on the two rods I keep in the camper, replacing the rod tip, and reworking my walleye tackle box .... must admit that yesterday's fishing trip left me really looking forward to the text

[JEBar]

the morning got off to a cool, wet start but after lunch the sky cleared and we had a beautiful afternoon .... the event of the day was a family fish fry .... hush puppies and breaded walleye shown below .... 80% chance of rain tomorrow which cam most certainly be a downer for the first night of this year's rodeo

[JEBar]

8:20AM and we already put in a pretty long day .... in order to get our daughter 75 miles south of where we are camped for a 5AM check in at Sioux Falls Airport we had to be on the road at 3:45 AM .... we are now back at our camper, her flight is less than 20 minutes out of Atlanta and I'm on my first cup of coffee .... forecasted high today of 76 with only a 20% chance of rain

[JEBar]

our daughter's flight is on the ground at RDU .... we can now settle in and get busy relaxing ..

[JEBar]

today's weather has been so nice that we hate to see it winding down .... for us its been one of taking care of some housekeeping and other minor projects while working in periods of relaxation between them .... housekeeping includes recharging a water softener tank, dumping/cleaning a black tank, and changing the central vac bag outside the camper .... laundry, floor cleaning, and baking cookies inside the camper ..... under the heading of other minor projects, I removed several hundred yards of old fishing line from a reel and installing new replacement line .... with all of that, its easy to understand why we needed to work in periods of relaxation

[markiver54]

Great to hear Jim, sounds like Ya'll are enjoying...