Out of Wyoming.....

7:05 am - Thursday - July 16th - Harlowton, MT - 49° F, 74% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the southeast.....clear, cold, blue skies today with a forecast high of 88° F.  On this day in 2015 we walked over to Classic Cue for street tacos, and a pitcher of beer.....↴

Overnighting in a Walmart parking lot can be a crapshoot.....sometimes you get a lot of semi trucks parking near you who run their engines all night, most of the time it is quiet, but Tuesday night was not one of those nights.  Most of this summer we have been in remote areas where you can hear a pin drop, which only makes those times when you park in a Walmart, or Cabela's parking lot a little jarring to the senses, but as with most things you adapt, and get over it.....it's only one night.

We were up early, and back on I-90 westbound by 8 am.  Normally, and you know this if you have been reading our blog for a while, we keep our daily mileage between 100-150 miles....that's our comfort zone.  Wednesday we had an ambitious goal.....258 miles....all the way to Harlowton, MT.......within 40 minutes we crossed back into Montana......

......it was a beautiful day as we continued our westward jaunt on.......

....our first leg of the drive had us arriving in Billings, MT at the local COSTCO around 12 pm....there are always a few items we prefer to buy at COSTCO, so we never pass up an opportunity to visit one when it is handy.....

......it's been a little over 3 weeks since we last 'paid the rent', so we met Claude and Gail at the local Travel Center of America in Laurel, where we last took on diesel on our way east on I-90.  We took on 129 gallons of fuel at a discounted price of $1.98/gallon, and were back on I-90 westbound by 1:15 pm with our final destination of Harlowton, MT just 113 miles away. We left I-90 in Big Timber heading north on US-191.....one of the most beautiful drives we have ever done.  We first drove this highway back in June of 2013 on our way to Great Falls, MT......

....so why Harlowton, MT?  In researching a place to stay for a couple of days I came across this place called Chief Joseph Campground just outside Harlowtown which has long pull throughs with 50 amp electric for $20/night in the 'Days End Directory' (Escapees).  By the time we arrived Claude and Gail had been there for about 20 minutes.  We quickly picked a site (#3 for us, and #2 for Claude and Gail), set up and began to enjoy the beautiful afternoon...

.....what a find this place is!  This is part of the magic of this lifestyle....finding cool places to stay at low cost.  We came here thinking to stay just overnight, but now we are talking about staying 3-4 days....who knows?  For the first time since Henry's Lake we were able to have a fire.....no wind, no rain, and no heat....we sat outside by the fire until after 10:30 pm.....

Me and my brother by another mother.....Claude

....well, that's it for Wednesday's nomadic adventures......we have successfully changed our view once again without going through escrow.

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Out of South Dakota.....

6:42 am - Wednesday - July 15th - Sheridan, WY - 45° F, 68% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south.....clear, cold, blue skies today with a forecast here in Sheridan of 86° F, but we are rolling our wheels in less than an hour ever westward...the view this morning......↴

 Sheridan, WY Walmart

Our Jello goal was to be out of site P-6 at Spearfish Campground and on our way west by 9 am....it was 9:07 am as we exited the park after inserting the VW into the trailer in front of the campground office.  The drive west on I-90 Tuesday was just spectacular.....that is all I really have to say.  I set the cruise control at 60 mph and just hung onto the steering wheel enjoying the giant vistas as they unfolded before us.....

....within minutes we had crossed once again into Wyoming after almost three weeks in South Dakota.......

 Snow fences

A short video for you viewing, and listening pleasure

 Just missing a rain storm to the south of us

 The hay is cut, and rolled

.....we took time to stop twice in 'Parking Areas'....no bathrooms, or trash, but a place just off the Interstate in Wyoming where you can take a break, stretch your legs, and check the temps of your tires if you so desire.....I so desired.

We exited I-90 just before 1 pm in Sheridan, Wyoming, and were set up in the local Super Walmart parking lot a few minutes thereafter.  We were here a few weeks ago doing a small shopping before heading to our destination for the day at Lake de Smet (I wrote about that here) when we were still heading east.  We parked in this exact same place because it is so level.   It's been a long, long time since we did a BIG shopping, and this was the day for another.  We spent over an hour in Walmart filling our shopping cart.....the final tab?  $262....yup, that's a 'BIG shopping'......

....when we left Spearfish, SD it was threatening rain, but as we continued westward the heavy cloud cover eventually gave way to mostly sunny conditions, but the temps only got into the high 60's for the day.....perfect.....

.....by the time TLE had put away all the groceries from our 'BIG shopping' it was almost 4 pm, and time for a nap.  Around 5 pm we walked back into Walmart to their Deli section and bought some 'Orange Chicken Wings'.....one of our favorites....to which TLE added rice she had prepared just for this occasion.....we love Walmart's Deli section....you can get the same thing anywhere in the U.S., and the food is so consistently good.

We read for the rest of the afternoon, and evening hitting the sack (me) around 10 pm....TLE followed a little later....we roll our wheels in about 30 minutes....life is good.

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That's just splendid......

6:47 am - Tuesday - July 14th - Spearfish, SD - 52° F, 94% humidity, wind - CALM....heavy cloud cover today (rained all night) with a forecast high of 68° F.....the view this morning.......↴

There is certainly no apparent drought here in our corner of South Dakota....'no siree Bob'....it rains three out of five days....sometimes more frequently.  It did not rain during the day Monday, but it did begin raining once again around 10 pm, and continued on through the night into the early morning....it just finished raining as I write.

We opted for two nights here at Spearfish Campground for one main reason.....we wanted to break in the new Splendide, and to make sure there are/were no leaks, or any other issues after our hasty installation Sunday morning.  Around mid morning I hooked up all three lengths of sewer hose I have to reach the sewer connection located at the very, very back of our site....just on this side of the fence that separates us from the bike path.  Once that was done I opened up the gray tank dump valve and we were in business.  I went outside to turn on the water for the washing machine and immediately heard TLE exclaim....."UH OH!", and I then retorted....."What do you mean by 'UH OH!'?" to which she replied "I can hear water dripping behind the washer".....UH OH!  I immediately turned off both water valves, and thus we began to unload everything from the pantry once again so I could see behind the washer, and hopefully what was leaking.  Within seconds it became obvious that the hot water connection on the back of the washer was leaking so I tightened that connection and had TLE open the hot water valve once again......success....no more leak....this was the first of several issues.....all self induced....with which we dealt over the next 5 hours......yes 5 hours!

The online instruction manual (more on that later) said to run the machine empty for the first run through, so we did.  All worked well, except TLE could heard loud rattling coming from inside the washer, so she turned it off and opened the door.  What did she find?  Well the instruction manual I had been asking her about a few minutes earlier, as well as two water supply hoses.....I had just purchased new, stainless steel braided hoses about 2 years ago so I didn't even think about where the hoses were that might have come with this new unit.  We retrieved the hoses and slightly damp instruction manual (TLE put it outside on a table in the sun to dry out) from the washer drum, and then turned it on again......this time all went well for the entire wash cycle.  

OK.....time for the real deal now.....TLE put in a modest load and turned on the machine to run through the entire wash/rinse/spin cycle again and all went well until the spin cycle started.  We were both reading at the time, and once again enjoying the sounds of our Splendid Splendide doing its job when suddenly the whole coach began to shake....the Splendide was going nuts.....we quickly turned it off and went back to the manual....what had we missed?  We had missed this large sign on the back of the washer telling us to remove the 'TRANSIT SCREWS/GROMMETS/TUBES....DOH!  These things keep the washer drum from bouncing around while it is being shipped anywhere, and protects it from being damaged.  So, once again we are emptying out the pantry, and removing the doors to said pantry so I can move the Splendide to the front of the cabinet and reach the 'TRANSIT SCREWS', etc........

....fortunately I was able to reach all four and remove them without completely removing the Splendide from the cabinet........

......of course, now that Mr. Jello has jiggled, Murphy's Law has been invoked, and the 'Hockwald Way' has now completely engaged you know that is not the end of the story, right?  Right.....while I was removing the 'TRANSIT SCREWS' I inadvertently knocked two of the brackets which hold the shelving in place out of their holes, and they were now on the floor underneath the washer.....the washer we had just pushed back into place.  I have one of those telescoping magnets people use to retrieve metal objects from tight, inaccessible places, but these brackets are not magnetic, so we had to completely remove the washer from the cabinet once again to retrieve them.  We found one immediately, but the second one was being illusive.....it was no where in sight....that's impossible....it has to be there on the floor near where it fell, right?  After ruling out every other conceivable scenario we finally decided it must have fallen behind a large metal plate affixed to the back wall in the pantry under which we could not see.....using a clothes hanger I fished around under that bracket and finally found it.....once the second bracket was retrieved we began to put everything back together.  As I put the last shelf back in place we both began to giggle, and then laugh out loud....five hours had passed, and we were still trying to do the first load of wash in our new Splendide Combo Washer/Dryer.....LOL!

We had no idea it would take us the better part of our day to wash one small load of clothes, but now we are really glad we booked to nights here at Spearfish Campground. That my friends was our wacky Monday....not what we had in mind at all.

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Spearing fish......

8:38 am - Monday - July 13th - Spearfish, SD - 66° F, 46% humidity, wind 10 mph out of the west by southwest......cloudy today with a 68% chance of rain with a high of 78° F.

Sunday began with the promise of a hot one, and did it ever deliver....well over 90° F at its peak, but that story will come later.  I started the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 around 8 am, disconnected the shore power, and stowed the cord.  Next up was to do a 3 point turn in order to back up to our trailer in order to drop the tongue on the hitch after 2 weeks disconnected.  We were on our way within 30 minutes heading back north up US-16A for two short miles before merging with US-16 which took us the rest of the way to I-90 in Rapid City.  

I might mention at this point that we did NOT insert the VW into the trailer since we only had 30 miles to drive to Campingworld situated about 9 miles west of Rapid City just off I-90.  Why you might ponder?  Well, we had a date to pick up our new Splendide 2100xc washer/dryer combo.  TLE had one of our walkie talkies in the VW with her so we could communicate instantly should the need arise.  About 10 miles out from Campingworld TLE came on the radio to tell me she had checked the internet to see when the store opened, and had determined that the store was NOT open on Sunday....wait, what?  I acknowledged her transmission, but still determined to push on anyway.  We arrived at Campingworld to a mostly empty parking lot around 9:30 am.  I quickly disembarked the Newell and walked over to the store doors to see what the daily schedule was.....the sign on the door indicated the store hours on Sunday were 10 am to 5 pm, so I breathed a sigh of relief....only 30 minutes until the store opened.  

Our friends Claude and Gail were already at Campingworld by prior arrangement, awaiting our arrival....they had spent the evening before at the local fairgrounds in Rapid City, so only had a 10+ mile drive to Campingworld.  They were down in Kansas the last two weeks allowing Gail to visit with her son, and Claude to fly home to Oregon to attend the 100th birthday party of his mother.....

She doesn't look a day over 80....amazing!

......TLE snapped this picture of our rig west bound on I-90 just before we exited for Campginworld......

....well, contrary to what the internet said (just because it's on the internet does not mean it is true), the store employees began arriving just before 10 am.  Within minutes I had made arrangements to purchase one of the 6 units in stock, and made arrangements for their warehouse guy to use his forklift to extricate the defunct Splendide 2000, and lift the new 2100xc into the Newell door.....

.......from beginning to end it took us just one hour forty-five minutes to make the exchange, and complete the connection of the new Splendide to hot and cold water, drain hose, vent, and power....

......as well as reinstall the pantry doors, and shelving....there she is, our new Splendid Splendide......

....we were back on the road before 12 pm, and by 1 pm we were parking in our reserved sites at Spearfish Campground (city park)....they actually had one back in site that would fit us without dropping the trailer......

.....we are back up against the local bike path with Spearfish Creek just a few feet beyond that......

.....Rich and Marnie recommended this campground, which I never would have found without their local knowledge.  At the time we arrived the heat of the day was reaching its zenith at around 95° F.....by and far the hottest day we have experienced since we left Wittmann 2.5 months ago...by the by the temps in Wittmann have been exceeding 115° F lately.....glad we are where we are!

As soon as we plugged into the 50 amp pedestal we had both A/C's running to cool the Newell interior.  Within a few minutes I was cooling down in our shower.  By 5 pm we were driving over to downtown Spearfish in search of good draft brews, and good food, which we found at RedWater Kitchen, which sits directly next door to Spearfish Brewing Company....Spearfish Brewing does not sell food, which we wanted so we opted for alfresco dining at Red Water Kitchen, who also had numerous local brews on tap, including a few Spearfish Brewing offerings.  Yelp gives them 4 stars on 61 reviews, and we would be right there, too.

TLE ordered a local blonde ale, and I a coffee bean stout....both where exceptional.  For our entrees TLE ordered their Citrus Grilled Shrimp (a rather large appetizer), Claude and I their Shrimp Pasta, and Gail a hamburger.....it was the perfect alfresco setting with great food, adult beverages and even better conversation.  By the time we had paid our bill it was going on 7 pm.....where did the time go?

 The requisite 'usie'....

....and 'footie'.......😉

....it was a great day with a lot accomplished in spite of the heat....and the heat story continues.....we initially turned off the rear A/C around 9 pm, and went to bed around 10:30 pm....by 11:30 pm we tired of the hot, hair dryer like air coming in the bedrooms windows, and turned on the front A/C as it was 90° F in the bedroom.....we left the front A/C running until almost 4 am when it finally began to cool, so we turned off the A/C and opened up all the windows....thankfully it will be only 78° F Monday.....whew! Got to get further north ASAP!

Thanks for stopping by!

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Until next time.....

6:47 am - Sunday - July 12th - Keystone, SD - 52° F, 80% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the north by northeast......cloud cover this morning with a forecast high today of 87° F.....the view this morning......↴

....the past 2+ weeks have flown!  Here we are at July 12th and it is time to roll our wheels once again.  We will be, and have been saying our 'until next times' the past couple of days, and within 2 hours Keystone will begin to fade in our rear view camera as we head back north to the I-90 corridor.

Saturday was our last full day in Keystone as we finalized the putting away of our stuff, organizing the interior of the Newell for travel, and the trailer as well.  Around 11:30 am we walked south on US-16A to meet Rich and Marnie at Halleys West (Yelp gives them 4.5 stars on 16 reviews....we'd be around 4) for our last lunch.....

 Last lunch.....Halleys West

......you can get a Buffalo Burger with fry's for $8....pretty good deal....TLE and I split one of those, as well as a 'side salad'.  The conversation, as always, was wide ranging with just a tad bit of bitter sweetness thrown in for good measure.  We spent 9 months working for Rich and Marnie at RORVR, and became good friends.  Being able to spend these past two weeks with them has been a real tonic, and we are so grateful to have had the full hookups in exchange for a few hours of work.  Rich had to be at work by 1 pm, so around 12:45 pm we began to walk back north on US-16A.....we took our last 'footie' next to a bronze statue in front of one of the hotels......

Last 'footie'....

......by 8 pm (after the sun had passed behind Mt. Rushmore) we stowed all the awnings, and I disconnected our sewer and water.....all that keeps us connected to site #3 is our electrical umbilical cord......

 Our site for two weeks will soon be vacant once again

.....we have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know this little community over the past two weeks, and look forward to returning again sometime down the road....who knows where that "long and winding  road" will lead us?

As we slowly edge toward 1.5 million views of our blog we thank you for stopping by each day for the last 8.5 years!

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"Hitch Itch....."

8:10 am - Saturday - July 11th - Keystone, SD - 54° F, 69% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the west.......clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 80° F.  On this day in 2017 we were taking a soak at Chico Hot Springs, MT.......↴

Instead of working a few hours Friday night in the convenience store I was asked by our manager, Beth, to help Rich and Marnie Friday morning for a few hours while they received, and restocked 'groceries'....groceries consisting of anything from milk, to chips, snacks, refrigerated lunch items, etc.....there was even some motor oil and coolant for good measure.  I've done this before when we were at the Grand Canyon during the winter of 2017-2018, so it was not an unfamiliar task....it is, however, labor intensive, and by the time I was finished at 11 am I was ready for a nap.  

I hadn't had any breakfast when I went to work at 8 am, right after I finished my daily blog post, so TLE utilized the newly acquired Cowboy Disc Wok to make me a BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato) sandwich......once again I say the BLAT is proof of love.

Since we are slated to depart Keystone Sunday morning I felt it prudent to begin to put away a few things on the 'lido deck'....the chairs, Sea-B-Que, Cowboy Disc Wok, and the table upon which the Sea-B-Que sits.  Later in the day I dumped our black tank.  On Saturday I'll organize the trailer for our 20+ mile drive north to the Campingworld in Rapid City where we will acquire, and install a new Splendide 2100-xc washer/dryer combo......I was going to attempt to repair our old 2000, but there are a lot of melted wires in there, and I do not know the cause is.  Attempting to repair it could be a vicious circle as I replace what is obvious, then the less obvious.....it could become a money pit.  Better to get a new one and once again have the ability to do our laundry at our convenience without frequenting laundromats and the ever increasing cost of same.....

The Splendide 2100xc

......its been about 6 months since our existing Splendide gave up the ghost, and at one point I thought we might decide to remove it and utilize the extra storage space, but ultimately we have both truly missed the convenience of having our own onboard laundry.  In the last 8+ months we have had to replace our Dometic toilet, satellite dish, our aged out water heater, the Norcold refer, and now our washer/dryer.....it's been an expensive period, but that is the way it is sometimes, whether you live in a sticks and bricks home, or in an RV....you just roll with the punches, and take care of business!

We'll reconnect with Claude and Gail in Rapid City and begin our westward trek along the I-90 corridor.  At this point we don't even have a vague Jello plan, but I am sure after we meet up with Claude and Gail once again one will be formulated in rather short order.

Our stay here in Keystone has been a nice interlude to the almost constant movement over the previous 8 weeks....sitting in one place for a couple of weeks has been oh so pleasant, but but we've got a good case of "hitch itch" again which needs to be scratched........time to begin changing our view on a regular basis once again.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Eating our way through Keystone.....

6:41 am - Friday - July 10th - Keystone, SD - 62° F, 83% humidity, wind - CALM......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 85° F.....rained most of the night until about 90 minutes ago.  On this day in 2016 we were in Carson City, NV having lunch at the In 'N Out Burger.......↴

After enjoying one of the best Mocha Frappuccino's ever at 'Grapes and Grinds' the other day we decided to walk over to this fine establishment again Thursday morning after I finished composing my latest post for coffee and pastries......a scone for TLE and an 'everything' bagel for moi.......

 I never tire of TLE's turn down smile....

.....it was still in the 60's as we commenced our 1/8th mile walk so I wore, for the first time in a long time....a long sleeved T, and a pair of Addidas pants.  The coffee house was jumping at 10 am, and it took a while for us to place our orders, and then receive them, but, as I always say, good food (in this case coffee and pastries) is always worth the wait, and it was.  Because it was overcast most people were consuming their specialty drinks inside, so we had the pick of several umbrella shaded tables, ending up at the same one at which we drank our frappuccinos the other day.

We were home again around 11:30 am watching more previously recorded English Premier League Soccer matches, and reading.  Around 1 pm I received notice that the replacement high mounted brake light for the VW had been delivered so I walked over to the convenience store to retrieve it, and install it.  Rich, who has a 2002 VW Beetle, gave me a brief tutorial on how to get at and remove the old cracked lens (damaged in the first hail storm we experienced here in Keystone)......

The new 'high mounted' brake light installed

....the quite old, original lens was damaged on the left side by hail.  While it took a little longer than planned to replace the lens (another minor hail storm moved through Keystone while I was in the middle of the R&R job) I got the new one (purchased on Amazon for $55) installed.

Since I didn't have to work Thursday evening (I'm going to work Friday morning for a couple of hours instead helping receive the weekly grocery delivery at the convenience store) TLE and I had plans to have dinner at a local fine dinning restaurant called Powder House Lodge (Yelp gives the 4.5 stars on 41 reviews, and it is totally earned).  By all accounts this place is reputed to serve mighty fine food at a decent cost.  They don't take reservations, but said to call about 30 minutes before we were to arrive and they would put us on the 'LIST'.  It's only about 2 miles up the hill on US-16A....we've passed it going and coming from Rapid City numerous times, so we knew it would only take 5 minutes to make the drive.  TLE called around 5:30 pm to get us on the 'LIST'......we were there by 5:55 pm......

.....and seated at our table shortly thereafter.....it pays to be on the 'LIST'......

....we quickly selected a bottle of Norton Reserva Malbec (2018-Argentina) from their wine list to go with our meal.......

.....for our appetizer we ordered their bacon wrapped shrimp....a perfect choice!  For our entrees I ordered their House Special Filet Mignon, and TLE their Cornish Game Hen.....

.....the service was exceptionally good, and very prompt....the food and the wine were first class....everything cooked to perfection!  This is the first formal, expensive dinner out we have had since our 48th anniversary dinner last August 29th....if we were going to still be in town on August 29th we would definitely be celebrating our 49th anniversary it at Powder House Lodge, but who knows where we will be then?  I sure don't.....😊  

We were home by 7:30 and slipping into more comfortable clothing to aid in the digestion of our wonderful meal.  We watched another recorded episode of 'Alone' and I was in bed by 10:30 pm....I'm not sure when TLE joined me, but she was definitely there this morning.

Thanks for stopping by!

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