North Dakota Badlands and More

Yesterday and today we've been in Hibbing, MN, near the center of the Iron Range in MN. (More about that in a minute.) We're heading towards Grand Marais, MN tomorrow to meet our kids and grandkids for the 4th of July weekend.

From Gillette, WY, we headed north to Montana and then east to North Dakota. Since we were in the South Dakota Badlands, it was only fitting that we went through the North Dakota Badlands in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We decided to brave the South Loop Scenic Road with the RV (and the car behind it). There were a few narrow spots, but none that got us hung up.

North Dakota's Badlands are completely different than SD's. They seem a lot more like the Grand Canyon. And, we were struck by how much greener things are in ND. Again, I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The one buffalo we saw in the park. 

Our route took us along I-94 in North Dakota. Like I-90 in South Dakota, much of the drive is boring. But, we were able to see the world's largest sandhill crane in ND. (Andy was looking forward to seeing a big operating crane so was a bit disappointed to see this.) 

After spending a couple of days in Fargo (my old stomping grounds) and seeing my best friend Mary, we headed towards Hibbing. After seeing coal mines in Wyoming, Andy's interest was piqued with the mines of the Iron Range. After we parked at Walmart, we headed to the Hull Rust Mahoning Mine. Described as the "Grand Canyon of the North" it is the world's largest open pit iron ore mine. 

The mine is operated 24 hours a day (12 hour shifts). The mine will be moving in two years so they are filling places right now. 

One of the fun things about our travels is that we run into things we never knew were there. On the way to the Hull Rust Mine there is a Greyhound Bus Museum. Who knew that Hibbing, MN was the birthplace of the business that would become Greyhound Bus Lines? We had fun touring it today and looking at the old buses. 

This is a mannequin, not a real agent!

1950's Bus Drivers Uniform

The Hupmobile, which ferried miners back and forth from Hibbing to Alice, MN 

a 1956 Greyhound Bus

More adventures to come! After Grand Marais, we will be in MI to get some things fixed in the RV. Seems that taking a house on the road wrecks havoc on all sorts of things!

Last Day of Tiffin Rally

Wow! The week has gone fast. Tonight is the farewell dinner for the 300+ attendees (number of motorhomes) here for the rally. We've met lots of people, shared lots of stories, and attended seminars and even learned a few new things! Also, we successfully had our mail forwarded here, and I did an online order which also arrived on time.

Rows and Rows of Tiffin Motorhomes

Our friends Barb & Roger 

Stage in ballroom at Tiffin Rally 

We're onto ND and MN next with meeting up with the kids for the 4th of July.  Hoping for more mild temperatures! (We had a record of 103 in Gillette this week.)

Day One of the Tiffin Rally

We were up early to move from the Walmart parking lot to the Camplex Arena for the rally. Apparently we weren't the only ones as cars were lined up as early as 6:30 a.m. (ahead of the 8 am time). Parking the RV was easy with the help of the volunteers. We got settled and hooked up and then went to register.

For a quiet day, we had a lot going on. We were able to schedule maintenance on our Aqua Hot, and factory personnel for our air conditioners were checking on everyone's RV. We learned a little more about how they should operate and that we need to regularly clean our filters. (They were very dirty!) We also scheduled maintenance on our tow bar equipment. That is one of the advantages to going to a rally as these vendors regularly travel the "rally circuit" to provide  maintenance for people like us.

We had a welcome ceremony and dinner tonight. There was also a tribute to veterans. Entertainment tonight was drawings for prizes - none of our raffle tickets won, and Bingo, which none of us won either. There's always tomorrow!

New States Added

Today we traveled from Rushmore Shadows Resort (outside of Rapid City, SD) to Gillette, WY. We chose to travel on Hwy. 16 instead of I-90. It was more scenic, especially on our way out of SD. Wyoming is our second new state that we've added to our list since leaving MN. 

We stopped for lunch at Remy's Diner in Upton, WY. It's always a crap shot when we pick a place out of the blue (truth be told, there weren't a whole lot of places to choose from) but we lucked out and had a nice lunch. 

Yesterday in Deadwood we stopped in at one of the casinos. I was up $30 in just 5 minutes so I decided to call it good for the day. That doesn't happen very often!

Tomorrow we hook up with our friends Barb & Roger and on Monday we head over to the Camplex Arena for the Tiffin Rally. 

Kudos to Andy for helping me figure out to combine the blog with our Google photo account. It wasn't easy but it should make it a lot easier for me going forward to share our pictures and videos in the blog. 

Here's a selfie of us in the Badlands....

For the grandchildren....

We found Nemo!

South Dakota Tourist Attractions

Well, we've seen a lot since we've been in South Dakota. Tuesday we traveled to Rapid City and the Black Hills area of South Dakota. Since arriving, we've gone to Mt. Rushmore (even though we've both been there before), the towns of Keystone, Custer and Hill City, and have driven past the Crazy Horse monument. Tomorrow we're headed to Lead and Deadwood for the day.

I convinced Andy to stay for the night time program and lighting of the monument at Mt. Rushmore. We were glad we did. At the end, the park ranger asked veterans or family members of veterans to come on the stage to retire the flag and be recognized for their service. There had to be at least 75 people who went up, including many children representing their parents or grandparents. It was a moving finish to the evening. Thank you, veterans for your service!

Sunset picture of Mt. Rushmore 

Selfie with the President's 

A little blurry but you get the idea of the monument lit at night 

Back tracking a bit...

I'm trying to keep these posts in order. However, I was having trouble with uploading photos and took a break for a while. Needless to say, I missed posting about our first guests in the RV- our granddaughters Emily, Mira and Kirsten. They visited us while we were in Sioux Falls.

All went well until about 4 am. Mira woke up because there was "rain" coming from the ceiling of the RV.  The rain was actually condensation from our air conditioner that leaked on to the hide a bed and Mira. Well, that woke everyone up! We did get a repairman out to check out the air conditioners and we've ordered the parts we need. (We'll have techs fix it when we're at the Tiffin rally in Gillette, WY.) 

Glaser girls on the hide a bed. 

When in doubt, err on the safe side

After a week of hot and humid weather in Sioux Falls, we were looking forward to nice, but a little less hot, than we had (80 degrees vs. almost 100).  However, we were a bit unprepared for severe storms. Monday night as I was preparing dinner we got reports of sever weather headed towards us. There was a severe thunderstorm warning that said we could have winds up to 100 mph and ping pong size hail. Other wording in the warning said you should not be in a mobile home. So, we pulled in the slides, and decided to wait out the storm in the car. (The campground did have a shelter in the bathrooms that had cement walls.)

While we got the rain and some wind (not 100 mph!) there was no hail. So we may have over reacted but again, did not want to be in the RV if something bad really happened. We came back, ate dinner, and hunkered down for the night. The bad part is it is still raining and much cooler than it was but we can't open windows because of the rain.

South Dakota Badlands

We left Sioux Falls on Sunday after being there a week. We're heading west towards Rapid City for a few days before we head to Gillette, WY, for the Tiffin Rally.  We decide to stay at the Circle 10 Campground which is just 3 miles north of the entrance to the park. It is a good place to be parked as we can drive the car into the park.

Here's a big shout out to our National Park system, which is enjoying its 100th birthday this summer. When we were in Acadia National Park in Maine, I got a senior pass for $10. That has to be one of the best bargains there is (many RV'ers will relate)! This is the second time we've used the pass for entrance to a park.

We were stunned by the beauty of the Badlands. That changes with the amount of sunlight, clouds, rain and other weather conditions. There was a ranger program on Sunday night so we went and learned about the park, animals in it, types of birds here, and many more facts. There were also telescopes with a resident "astronomer" to show us the moon (we could see the craters) and the moons around Jupiter.

Monday morning we got up early to walk the Cliff Shelf Trail and after that to go on the Geology Walk with Ranger Pam.  I'm going to let a few pictures here do the talking....

This is one sign I do not like to see! Fortunately, we didn't see any rattlesnakes.

Andy on the Cliff Shelf Trail stairway.

This was the end of the trail on the Geology walk. Ranger said to obey the sign and there is a big drop off after it. 

One word - Beautiful! 

Remember that scene from (the movie) RV?

If any of you have seen the movie "RV" with Robin Williams, you'll remember the scene when he attempts to drain the tanks and has a blowout. We had a similar experience yesterday morning although not as bad as in the movie. (Thank God!)

After breakfast, I went to use the facilities and upon pressing the foot pedal to flush, I had a spout of liquid (containing God knows what) shoot up from the toilet onto me, the sink, walls and floor. (That might have been the loudest scream yet coming from the confines of the RV.)

Our best guess is that our holding tanks were full- although our gauges showed 66%. Maybe gauge failure, maybe not level, who knows? Andy went out to dump the tanks and the problem was solved. We'll have to switch to tea leaves to more accurately judge how full the tanks are. :)

On our way...Part Two

One thing about RV'ing is that it's never dull, or as we say, there is always a Plan B. Let me go back a couple of days. We had called to confirm our reservation in Sioux Falls. In the process of doing that they called us back, said they had overbooked and could we come on Saturday instead of Friday? We said sure, that was fine. We figured that we would boondock (dry camp, no hookups) in a Walmart parking parking lot. So while on our way, we called ahead to Walmart to see if they allow overnight parking for RV's. (If you've been reading this blog, you know that this is not a sure bet.)

The answer we got was yes. While I was waiting to be transferred to customer service, the call got dropped. We arrived and parked at the far end of the lot. After we got caught in the rain (and hail) we thought we would just hunker down for the night. After a while, I heard a knock at our door. Two managers had walked out to the motorhome to tell us that it's against city ordinances for us to park overnight, and that if the cops came by and spotted us, we would definitely get a ticket. I told them that we had called and been told it was OK. They were very apologetic, said they would look into it, and helped us find a place where we could park overnight. These people went above and beyond - they certainly didn't have to do it! This Wal-Mart has definitely earned all of our grocery business while we are in Sioux Falls. Things happen, and we realize that. Their attitude in helping us out made the situation much more bearable. Thanks, Kristi and Jeff!

On Our Way...

Today we're leaving the Treasure Island Campground and heading to Sioux Falls for a week. Now it's starting to feel like we've really started our great adventure. We've turned in Andy's car, and are leaving with all of our possessions (other than those in our POD) in the motorhome and a few in the car.

Storms are forecast for today so we're trying to avoid as much of that as we can. However, there is no way to avoid them. When we arrive in Sioux Falls, the sun is shining again. We decide to go to Dakota Post to pick up our mail. After doing that, we decide the car needs a bath. (Getting towed behind a motorhome seriously gets your car filthy when it rains.) When we get done with that, we stop to eat. As we come out of the restaurant the sky is looking very ominous again. Sure enough, we get caught in a downpour on our way back to the motorhome. Unfortunately, I had opened the windows and the vents in the bathroom to get air circulating. Well, that meant that we had two wet bathrooms and also wet bedding because the window on Andy's side was also open. LESSON LEARNED, the hard way. The good thing about these lessons is you only have to do something dumb ONCE in order not to repeat it again.