Been a week in Rapid City

Now been a week since I took Spencer s Ride into the transmission shop. We are currently waiting parts so who knows how long this will take. Started to come back to the shop at night to sleep in the rv, two main reasons for this. I can not afford to stay at a hotel each night, and my battery for my  refrigerator needs to be recharged every 8 hours or so. I have already lost some food trying to save what is left.

  Did make a new sign for Spencers ride that looks better then the last.

Spencer's Ride is sick......

Made it to Rapid City South Dakota only to find my RV is leaking Transmission fluid. We are hear to change our state of residency so left my RV at the Flying J and went to the place that is helping us.  When I told them about my RV the owner called around and found a place that would take a look at it. It is now in the garage parking lot waiting its turn to be looked at and fixed.

 Did as much of the paperwork as possible to change over the registration, but have to wait until I can get the RV out of the shop and weighed before the plates can be done. So went down and change my drivers lic. to SD and now in wait mode for the RV to be fixed.

Friday morning woke up with a tooth ache and decided to see if I could get into a dentist, as luck would have it the third one I called had an opening at 3:45pm. Not having my RV I then called around for a car rental, this was also solved on the third call, three must have been my lucky number that day. Buy 2pm I was in so much pain I drove to the dentist early.  Getting in early only helped to get the paperwork done early, still had to wait until 3:45 to see the dentist. Once in everything went fast, got Xrays,  Mouth was shot up with a local... ( oh the relief ) and the bad tooth was extracted without any pain. The pain however came back that night after the shots wore off. I did not get to sleep until some time after midnight.

Saturday I felt good enough to eat a bit of food and go to see the Museum of Geology.  It is a very interesting place to visit if you are at all interested in rocks or fossils. Problem with it is that it is very hard to find, it is in a building on the campus of the School of mining and geology.

Today Sunday the 19th I feel almost normal, ( whatever that is ) so on a whim took off to see "Custer State Park " This was decided on as we were doing our laundry in town.  The drive at first was not great due to it raining, but once it stopped things just came together. The drive had more beauty then I can describe, I did get a few good shots but some of the best was when I could not stop or pull over, but this will give you an idea.

Once we reached Custer State Park it was amazing... We had not gone half a mile inside the park before we spotted the first of many Buffalo. At one point we had to stop to allow one to cross the street right in fount of us.  I have no clue how many we spotted in all but it far exceeded anything I was thinking. We also spotted other animals along the road as you can see from the photos.

After Custer State Park we drove over to the Wind Cave National Park and took a tour of the cave. This is said to be the 5th longest cave known in the world. For  more ( and better ) information about it go online and look it up. Only got a few photos before my battery went dead so that is how the day comes to an end. 

This small whole is the first entrance to the cave. It was the only way in until a mine tunnel was made .

So dark that this is the best picture I could get of Kay.

Black Hills National Forest SD

Today we made it to South Dakota, was going to drive all the way to Rapid City for the night. However we noticed The Black Hills National Forest was on the way and decided to check it out. Had to go to the Ranger station for a map that shows what roads allow RV camping before we could even start. Once we picked out a road next challenge was finding it... The sign was small and facing the wrong way, the road it was off had a speed limit of 65MPH and we drove past the road the first time and had to turn around and go back.

Main road on right, driving at 45-55MPH looking for road 305.

This is road 305 can you see the sign? How about at 45-55MPH as you go buy.

 Once on the road it was just a matter of time and luck to find a spot off the road that we could pull into, as luck would have it we found a spot large enough for both of us.

First thing we did was walk the dogs and check out the area. Love the fact that we have the place to ourself's .. Not another camper within site, only other camper is at least 1/2 mile walk from us. This is the first time I can recall having a place without others around. We can even walk the dogs without a leash.

Kay and Shelby walking down the road

Creek along side of the road

Blast from the past...

Highs and low of Rv road time.

Left Sugarite Canyon two days ago, already miss New Mexico State Parks. We are headed to Rapid City SD, along the way we stopped at a Campers World to get a few toys for the Rv. Then went up the road to Castle Rock Co. Exit 184 on I-25, and spent the night at a Walmart. This Walmart is located in the same place as many other stores like Pet-mart, Radio Shack, Target, to name a few. Also had a nice park just across the street to walk in.

   The following day we drove into Wyoming and stopped at a Flying J ( ex 7, I 25 ) had lunch and because of the amount of work being done to the station decided to move on down the road. Found a State Park not to far so drove about 25 miles the wrong way to check it out.  Now I know about the state parks in Wy, I do not think I will stay at one again.  Out of state pays $17 for a site that is not level, no water, no sewer, no elect. Park itself is nice ( about like NM ) but not worth the price.

First thing we did after leaving Curt Gowry park was to find a place to have breakfast. We got lucky and found a place called "Luxury Diner" it looks like a converted train car turned into a diner. At first the parking lot looks to small for an RV but if you drive all the way back it has a large dirt section that works for one or two RV's.  The food is good and place is friendly.

The inside of the Diner that looks like it may have once been a Train car.

Second view of diner

Kay Julia Arnold

Me

Today we made it to Lusk Wy before calling it a day, staying at Prairie View Campground. Price for the night $13.25 for full hookup and a site that is a lot closer to being level then last night. The camp itself is not that great but the price is right... I can play on the computer, watch TV, or read if I wish...