Hanging Around the Park

Saturday - There was a mid-day test session, and while monitoring the test, I continued to make FT8 contacts. So far, the only DX (outside the U.S.) contacts have been Canada and a couple from the Canary Islands. I think I need to get my antenna a bit higher, maybe on top of the shed. So far, 35 completed contacts.

There was more Meshtastic activity this morning on the open channel long_fast, and there were 146 nodes on the list this morning, but most of them were “sleeping” to conserve battery. I still haven’t figured out a use case for the devices yet. There is a way to integrate Meshtastic with HomeAssistant, but it sounds complicated since Meshtastic only deals with text strings.  Something to look into…

Monday - While waiting for the test session to start, I played around with FT8 a bit on 15m and 10m. I made a couple of contacts on 10m, but nothing on 15m. My contact count is up to 50 now, with 5 countries outside of the U.S. I attempted to get the WSJT-X software running on the Mac, but there are still bugs with their software. I get shared memory errors.

Tuesday - We went into town for an almost-free Whataburger breakfast, followed by Walmart to pick up a few grocery items for Thanksgiving dinner here at the park. While playing on FT8, I made a contact with a DXpedition in Vanuatu, according to the software, it's 6899 miles in the middle of the South Pacific. Furthest contact for me!

Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving! A couple in the park hosted Thanksgiving dinner in the clubhouse. They supplied the ten turkeys, fifty pounds of potatoes, plus related items to get them prepared. We served about a hundred here plus a dozen or so to-go meals. The sides and desserts were provided by everyone else. It was a fantastic dinner. 

Radio Stuff

Tuesday - Another quiet day. I played with FT8 but could only see others on 20m. Nothing at all on 40m.I'm not sure if it is really that quiet or I just couldn't get the antenna tuned. I'm using the ATAS-120 which is a Yaesu screwdriver antenna made for Yaesu radios such as my FT-710. This evening, I made a contact with someone on the Canary Islands. Almost 5k miles. 

Wednesday - Our neighbor asked for help debugging a problem with is RV battery system. He is running an all Victron 24VDC system with four 100AH, 12V BattleBorn LiFePO₄ batteries. A “Cadillac” system. Three of the batteries had, essentially, no charge even after being charged with a Victron Lithium specific charger until they registered a fully charged state. When a load was applied, the voltage dropped almost immediately. He was sent a large document of test procedures to go through for the batteries before they would even talk about warranty. So much for their “legendary” customer support. 

There are advantages to a 24V system but also some drawbacks. This highlights one of the drawbacks. Each battery has its own BMS (Battery Management System) and they don’t communicate with each other. 

We then headed into San Antonio for an appointment. We stopped in Castroville for Bridget’s new glasses and at Costco for her hearing aids. Costco was pretty crowded. 

I ordered a waterproof box to hold the Meshtastic radio and it came with a waterproof gland for the wires. It’s mounted upside down in the box so the antenna and power cables exit from the bottom. The plastic box will still allow the Bluetooth LE communication to the phone. 

Thursday - This morning, I installed another program called GridTracker which ties into WSJT-X, the FT8 program, and shows activity on a map. What shows on the map are the decoded transmissions that receive. 

Dump Run & FT-8

Saturday - This morning was the “dump run”. An opportunity to get some larger, bulkier items hauled to the transfer station. There were quite a few willing to walk along side the trailer and help load. We picked up stuff from 20 sites. After securing the load four of us went to the transfer station to unload the trailer. The total cost was $170 which came out to $8.50/site. Not bad especially since we dumped our old combo washer/dryer. 

The afternoon was spent trying to get the Windows 11 computer to connect to the FT-710 via a USB cable. 

Monday - Success! I gave up on the built-in Windows 11 time synchronization tool and downloaded NetTime, a free, open source program that works. Once the time synced, the data started to be decoded along the left side of the window. I just need to learn how to use the software. This is for an amateur radio digital mode called FT8. It supposedly works with very low signal levels. 

I’m also trying another Meshtastic antenna. This one is a mag mount with supposedly higher gain. I have it stuck to the roof of our shed near the peak. It is tuned fairly well as evidenced by the NanoVNA SWR graph. The range is 902 mHz to 928 mHz which is the frequency range used by the radio in the U.S. The default channel, called long-fast, uses slot 20 which is 906.875 mHz. This, BTW, is not in the amateur frequency band so no license required. 

Later - First QSO on FT8. From San Jose. It took quite a while to figure out how to import the log file into my logbook on QRZ. I had set up the logbook in 2018 with my original call sign before I picked up my current one. It took quite a bit of fiddling to figure it out. But, now it’s done. 

Tasks

Monday - The slide topper over the kitchen slide had started to rip where it attaches to the RV several years ago. I had called the vendor, ShadePro, and they sent a replacement. After carrying it around for quite a while, it finally got installed. Thanks to Richard for helping as it’s almost impossible to do it by yourself. The task got slowed down by a broken screw during the last replacement. After a trip to the hardware store for a center punch and a drill bit, I was able to remove enough of the screw to get the old topper removed. I was guessing that the project should’ve taken about an hour or so. Five hours later, we finished. 

Tuesday - Another slow day. There was a Veterans Day event here at the park followed by coffee and cupcakes. 

I picked up a couple of Meshtastic node “kits” on Amazon. They are based on the ESP32 microprocessor, the same one that I’m using with HomeAssistant. After assembly, they needed to be flashed with the Meshtastic firmware. The Mac driver would never complete the install so I used Windows to install the firmware. There is a learning curve with this but basically, it’s an off-grid communications platform. 

Thursday - I made a loaf of Hawaiian banana bread today for some sort of fund raiser. I must admit that I wasn’t really thrilled making something that I couldn’t even sample. But, it’s done. 

Uvalde Homecoming

Thursday - Yesterday afternoon and evening, I volunteered to help distribute free snow cones in Uvalde during their homecoming festivities. I believe we distributed around 700-800 free snow cones. It got pretty hectic at times. 

There was a bonfire set up. The fire department had several trucks in attendance keeping an eye on the fire. It’s interesting that there is a burn ban in place but I guess they must get some sort of waiver plus all of the fire trucks nearby .

No pictures of the parade as things were getting pretty hectic at that time. But there were quite a few entries in the parade.We were pretty busy from around 5:30 to 7:30. After cleanup, I had dinner at Whataburger with friends before heading back to the RV. IMHO one of the best burgers around is Whataburger. They are as good as In-N-Out. The fries at In-N-Out are better but they don’t offer gravy on the side…

Misc…

Monday - I made a batch of furikake Chex mix for the Monday social hour here at the park. It’s just like the regular Chex mix except for the addition of furikake and soy sauce and deletion of Worcestershire sauce. Other than that, it’s about the same. 

Tuesday - We went to an optometrist in Castroville, and it was great. Nice office, friendly staff. All in all, a wonderful experience. It’s been a slow process finding routine appointments on the road. Since 2020, many locations haven’t been accepting new patients. 

As usual, my prescription changed only slightly, so I opted to not replace my glasses. They work fine, and I currently have sunglasses that attach with magnets to the lenses. Very convenient.

I installed a security light on our shed with LED lights that only draw 12watts. Quite a difference from the non-motion-sensing halogen lights they replaced. I still need to bypass the switch that controls power to the light. Maybe, tomorrow’s project…

Wednesday - It's a very pleasant 68°F mid-morning. I wish it were like this every day...

I bypassed the switch for the security light, and now it is powered whenever the shed is powered. The next "project" was a minor hack on the Victron Lynx Distributer on the class C. There are LED lights that indicate power and an LED for each fuse to indicate a blown fuse. These only work if you opt for the Lynx Shunt, which costs more. To enable the circuit board, I picked up small buck converters that output 5VDC from 12VDC and wired them into the provided cable and, what I believe, an RJ9 plug. I need to pick up some ring connectors for the 24AWG wire to the 8mm screw terminals on the Lynx Distributer. 

Success! The green light indicates no blown fuses. 

I had indicated that I would help serve snow cones in Uvalde this afternoon/evening. 

 

Playing With Solar

Friday - I had to renew my passport as it was expiring in around five months. A couple of weeks ago, I used the online renewal process and the site indicated that I should receive the new passport book by 12/1/2025. I assumed that the current government shutdown could push that date out even more. The replacement showed up in today’s mail. I guess that part of the government is still working and, it’s working well! 

Saturday - This morning, I tilted the solar panels roughly south to see if it makes much of a difference. While up on the roof, I checked the output of each panel. Open circuit voltage on both panels were 22.5V, so good. The short circuit current was not as good. One panel was 7.6amps and the other was 6.3amps. When they are wired in series, the lower current kind of determines the max current of the string. On both the class A and class C, I’ve noticed that the max current rarely goes above about 7amps. 

Sunday - This graph was generated today (with the panels tilted to the south at about the optimal angle. I would’ve expected something closer to 10amps. Though I may need to have the inverter/charger disabled so it would stay in bulk. 

Day to Day Life - SKP

Tuesday - It's a warmer morning today, but at 77°F, it's not too bad. I'm sitting outside for the morning test session, and there is a nice, light breeze. Unfortunately, the wind is supposed to pick up around noon and have gusts up to 33mph. 

After the morning test session, I rode the Ural to the local hardware store to pick up an 8’x2x6. It wouldn’t fit in the Jeep due to the length but it’ll easily fit in the Ural. The guys at the hardware store got a kick out of it. I need the 2x6 to mount to the ceiling of the shed for the hanging bike rack. The ceiling joists are spaced 2’ apart and this gives me a lot of flexibility on the position of the bicycle rack. 

Wednesday - The bicycle rack arrived this evening and I felt obligated to get it installed. The 2x6 is twisted a bit so it wouldn’t fit snug to the ceiling. But it’ll work. I used some bungee cords to prevent the hooks from coming off the seat and handlebars. This was a problem that I had with a similar rack in Fairbanks.

We went into San Antonio today for an appointment. It was north of the airport so quite the slog through city traffic. And, the north wind along Hwy 90 added to the driving stress. 

I also drained the fresh water tank, the water heater, and blew out the water lines on the class C. I still need to pick up some RV antifreeze for the traps. While I had the RV parked in front of our lot, I also removed one (of three) of the solar panels to reinstall on the class A.

Since I had moved the solar charge controller from the class A to the class C last spring, I needed to pick up a replacement. I didn’t repeat my mistake not taking temperature into account. The other charge controller maxed out at 100VDC input from the solar panels. With the four panels wired in series, the voltage could exceed 100VDC when the air temperature drops below about 35°F. The new charge controller has a max input voltage of 150VDC. I’ll start that installation tomorrow. 

Thursday - I reinstalled one panel onto the class A and they are wired in series. Since they were previously installed here, it went pretty quick. 

The next task was installing the new charge controller. It is physically larger than the previous one but the old wiring was just long enough. After powering it on from the batteries, I connected to it using the Victron software, downloaded the latest firmware, and ran through the configuration. I then turned on the switch to the two panels. 

The most challenging part was getting the new controller recognized by HomeAssistant, the home automation/monitor system I’m using. Communication is via Modbus over WiFi from the Raspberry Pi running VenusOS. It turns out that only a slight change was needed in the Modbus YAML file for it to start pulling data. 

Organizing Stuff…

Friday - There is rain in the forecast for this afternoon into tomorrow so I spent a little time cleaning up more of the oil-dri that was on the gravel behind the RV. I figured that it may soak up the water and make even more of a mess. 

Saturday - Last night, we got around 1.5" of rain with loads of lightning and thunder. Like usual, the storm started around midnight and continued until around 3am. So sleep was rather light as there were quite a few times when there was no delay between the lightning and the thunder. The rain was only heavy enough to block StarLink once, around 6:30am for 11 minutes.

Monday - I took advantage of the cooler temperatures this morning to clean up our shed. It had gotten quite disorganized packing and unpacking the class C RV. Setting up hanging space for riding gear was a good start. I want to set up something to hang up my old Trek bike from the ceiling between the doors. 

I had something like this the garage in Fairbanks. It worked fairly well so I ordered one on Amazon. I’ll probably attach it to a 2x6 screwed into the ceiling joists. 

Cleanup on Aisle …

Wednesday - This morning, after morning coffee, I pulled in the two large slides, disconnected from utilities, and moved the motorhome about 35’. This allowed me to sweep up most of the oil-dry from the concrete. I must admit that it did a pretty decent job. The concrete is a still not white but there is just a light discoloration where the hydraulic oil was dripping. 

Thursday - Today, we drove back to Kerrville for another appointment. Very relaxing drive with minimal traffic. Much less than I had expected for 8-9am. After Bridget’s appointment, we went to Harbor Freight to pick up a lower cost pressure washer. 

This small, portable unit did a decent job on the concrete pad. This was just around the Ural without any cleaning chemicals at all. I’ll need to use some kind of cleaner on the oil stains but that’ll wait until I move the RV again. I did a test spray on the stain under the middle of the RV and I’ll check it once the water dries. 

Definitely needs the concrete cleaner.

Morning Excitement

Sunday - This morning, we heard a “bang” and looked out the front windshield of the RVto see a car had run into a neighbors shed. The owners of the shed are out of town. The propane tank was knocked loose and the copper tube was pulled out of it fitting and was venting propane. I turned off the valve on the tank and the tank looked undamaged. Just paint from the car along the side. No one was injured. The front wall of the shed looks seriously damaged beyond the screened in patio. 

Another hot Texas day. I guess I was hoping things would have cooled off by now. The mornings are nice but by mid-morning, it’s into the 80s. 

Tuesday - This morning, we drove into South San Antonio to do some shopping. I went along as the driver since Bridget was on medications. We had lunch at the sushi restaurant where we had previously met Simo and Laila from Michigan. It was as good as we had remembered. 

It took about an hour to get back to the RV and, it was 90°F. Nothing was accomplished during the heat of the day. 

Small Projects

Thursday - I rode the Ural into town today to do a bit of shopping. I was looking for a hanging solution for my riding gear in the shed. It's been lying around on top of things since we arrived. And, no good place for the helmets, gloves, and other gear.

Friday - It seems like a minor thing, but I've been procrastinating on some sort of gear solution since we arrived. I just wanted something simple and out of the way. The Roadcrafter is the only long item. I still want to add some sort of shelf for gloves. I need to straighten out the rest of my mess in the shed. Lots of tools and not many places to store them. Too bad my large tool boxes are still in Fairbanks.

It's about 78°F at 11am, so it isn't too terribly warm to be sitting outside for a test session. And there is a hint of a breeze. Where's the 15mph wind that the weather folks were predicting?

The inner liner of my Nolan helmet has disintegrated. Not the hard foam but the inner liner which makes it comfortable. The product has been discontinued. Does that mean the helmet needs to be tossed? The helmet was purchased in March, 2013, so it really does need to be replaced. What’s the “standard”? Something like five years. Up until 2018, it was used almost daily so I guess I’m shopping for a new helmet…

Saturday - This mornings task was replacing the windshield wipers on the class A. They are long at 32” and use a saddle mount instead of the normal J-hook. The ones I picked up on Amazon were a little bit wider than what was there so the saddles needed to be modified slightly. I have since found that the wiper blades are available in a narrower width but it doesn’t seem worth sending them back. I need some Loc-tite as the hardware they shipped doesn’t appear to include a locknut. 

This afternoon, I volunteered to help cook dinner in the hall. Yesterday, pounded chicken flat and today I get to fry and bake them. We are having chicken parmigiana.

I also needed to renew my passport. I did it online but with the government shut down, who knows how long it’ll take…

Kerrville, TX

Tuesday - We needed to go to Kerrville for an appointment. And, ended up spending most of the afternoon running around town. We had an early dinner at Cracker Barrel before heading back to Hondo.

Wednesday - A sad day today. The cat has been slowly having kidney failure and had finally stopped eating or drinking. This morning, we took her to the vet to be put down. She has been our travel companion for years and had traveled across the country multiple times, including road trips to Alaska. She will be missed. 

Thank you Dom & Martha for their cab cover. We have drapes on the inside but there was still quite a bit of heat through the windshield while parked. This cover should help. The RV is back in storage at least for a while. I have not winterized it yet as short term plans are solidified. In other words, we aren't sure if we are done using it for the season. 

I have all the components working on HomeAssistant with the new hardware. I recompiled the binaries for the seven ESPHome processors. With the Pi3B it took about 18 minutes per processor. Now, with the Pi5, all seven took just under ten minutes. Considerably faster. 

HomeAssistant Upgrade

Monday - I have been running HomeAssistant as the home automation software in the class A RV since the Spring of 2020 (Covid days). I have been using a Raspberry Pi 3B which is a 32bit processor. Last winter, HomeAssistant ended support for the 32bit processor and I was just procrastinating on the hardware upgrade. I received the Raspberry Pi 5 yesterday (overnight shipping!) and I'm in the process of getting it assembled and HomeAssistant installed on the new hardware.

Later - Some changes needed to be made in the ESP32Home config files due to slight changes. Most of my yaml files haven't changed in the last five years so it isn't surprising that changes needed to be made. It’s all up and running again. And, there is a dramatic increase is speed when generating the binary files. Maybe ten times faster. 

Still Getting Set Up

Thursday - We moved the class-A back onto the pad after spreading oil-dry on the oil leaks. I’ll move the rv again in a week to clean the oil-dry and try some of the concrete cleaner I picked up at Tractor Supply. 

Friday - It’s another hot day so most of the morning was spent moving things out of the class C. I moved out all of the food items including the refrigerator and freezer. It all easily fit into the class A refrigerator and freezer. This includes all of the items I had put into the portable refrigerator/freezer. By noon, it was getting too warm. We then went to Walmart to pick up even more food items. 

The park had a “welcome back” meal with make your own hoagies. How can we pass up free dinner!

Saturday - There was a local ham radio club meeting this morning in Castroville. A nice introductory tech session on CW radio-speak for Morse code. And there was an update on the Winlink and FT8 groups. Both are something I wanted to get working on HF. Winlink works using the Mobilink TNC with the Anytone HT but it doesn’t have enough power to reach the closest node in Castroville. 

Picking up the RV

Wednesday - The shop called me this morning while I was in Hondo on the Ural. The RV was done. Bridget already had a lunch scheduled at the Chinese restaurant in Bandara so we decided to head to the shop after lunch. They had a veggie mapo tofu on the menu. It was fabulous or maybe because I hadn’t had this item in over five years. It had that tongue numbing spice from the Sichuan peppercorns. The other times I’ve had this dish it had ground pork. I’m not sure which was better. 

I wonder where we’ll end up next?

We picked up the RV after paying the horrendous bill but it’s all done. They even got the shocks changed. There were several air leaks fixed and the suspension no longer deflates shortly after stopping. It’s done that for as long as we’ve had it. And, no more oil leaks in the engine area. 

The hydraulic leak in the middle is from the kitchen slide. The Freightliner shop doesn’t repair RVs. 

The traffic was rush hour bad through San Antonio though I did stop at a Love’s truck stop to top off the fuel tank. I wanted to use the Open Roads fuel card before it gets suspended for non-use. It was a hot drive home with lots of stop and go traffic especially on US-90. Now to work on the concrete pad and shuffle the RVs. Tomorrow’s task…

Freightliner Shop

Tuesday - This morning, I took the class A to Doggett Freightliner on the east side of San Antonio. The 60 mile trip took almost 1½ hours due to morning traffic plus the ubiquitous road construction. The shop doesn’t do appointments so it’s just first come first serve combined with the skill set of available techs. 

The drive was uneventful with no issues with the engine. Coolant temperature stayed around 185°F for the entire trip and, overall, it was a pretty relaxing drive. 

It’s there for the regular annual preventative maintenance (oil, filters, inspection) plus replace the 20 year old air bags and shocks. A pressure relief valve on the engine driven hydraulic pump has been leaking and the Caterpillar shop in Wyoming sent me the replacement part. It was back ordered by a couple of months from Freightliner when the engine was replaced. There is also another hydraulic fluid leak near the center of the chassis. I’m not sure if it is power steering or one of the slide hoses. They are also checking the analog tachometer as it has been intermittent for a couple of years. So a laundry list of non-engine issues for them to check out. The RV chassis is Freightliner. The service writer thought that most things will be done in a couple of days. The shocks are not in stock and will need to be ordered. 

Back in D’Hanis - SKP

Sunday - We arrived back at the SKP Co-op. Shortly after arriving, I reconnected the chassis batteries and checked that they were charging from the house batteries. I discovered the reason the chassis batteries were discharging. I had accidentally turned on the parking lights while getting ready to go. But it started up just fine and I moved it to our storage spot to get ready for a trip to the Freightliner shop in San Antonio. I was going to take it down this morning but the hydraulic fluid was low and I didn’t have anymore. There is a real mess from the leaking hydraulic fluid on the parking pad.

The class C is now parked on our lot and we will continue to live in that until the class A is back from the shop. 

Monday - I used the DeWalt inflator on the class A tires and the front are now filled to 115psi for the first time. My old 12V compressor couldn’t get them above 110psi. I found the correct hydraulic fluid at Napa after checking Advance Auto and O’Reilly. So, all set to go to San Antonio tomorrow morning. 

I picked up a couple of gallons of gas for the Ural. It fired right up and ran fine for at least a couple of laps around the park. I’ll take it on a couple of short trip to ensure that things are running alright. After last summers problems, I completely drained all of the gas before leaving it. I guess that’s the trick. 

Wellington, TX - Tuscola, TX

Thursday - We stopped at a county park outside of Wellington, TX, after a modest travel day (~240 miles). It was warm so the generator was running for the last couple of hours with the rooftop A/C running on high. It’s still a warm drive. I didn't even get a picture of this stop though it is pretty nice. One of the few stops along US-83.

Friday - Another travel day. The original destination was a Texas State park but when we looked at the site, it was for a 20' RV. We weren't even close to fitting. The host said that all of the sites were for that size of rig. So we headed out and looked for something else. Hopefully, they will give us a refund.

Bridget found an RV park, really just a gravel parking lot with hookups. To me, if it has full hook-ups, I'm fine with it. The high today was 89°F so A/C was a must (for me). Nice showers. There was a brief power outage which causes the inverter to generate a low battery error. Since I moved the batteries, the cable runs are now around 7’. I should’ve used 4/0. Previously, the cables were around 2½’. 

Saturday - Another test this morning. Followed by some tasks for another travel day tomorrow. Another 240 mile day. That’s been about our average for this trip. 

Garden City, KS - HH

Wednesday - Today was a travel day from North Platte, NE, to Garden City, KS. About 250 miles. We are stopped at Hidden Trail Brewery, a Harvest Host location, for the night. For most of the day, we were driving into the wind. It’s pretty flat with gently rolling hills but the RV downshifts to 5th then 4th on every “hill”. 

It’s kind of warm today and the generator rule for this HH is only after closing which is 10pm. So that may be the only negative if it’s hot. 

There was a Filipino food truck so we both had noodles with egg rolls and crab Rangoon. I added some pork belly to mine and tried an old fashioned for the first time. Both were good. 

We were at 65% this morning with the refrigerator running on propane. Today takes us into TX east of Amarillo. Still several more days to Hondo. 

North Platte, NE

Monday - Today was a travel day to North Platte, NE, about 310 miles. We left the Hart Ranch RV park around 9:30 or so. Thank you, again, Brad and Elaine for sponsoring us at the membership park. The dash air is not working at all so around noon, we started the generator and the roof A/C unit. It’s better than nothing but doesn’t cool the cab area very well.

The RV park in North Platte isn’t fancy but the price is reasonable for full hookups. It’s next to the big train yard but the noise isn’t too bad…

Tuesday - We visited the Golden Spike Tower, which overlooks the Bailey Yard. This is the largest train switch yard processing over 1,500 train cars per day. Processing means separating individual train cars as they arrive and building up new trains based on the destination. 

It doesn’t look like it in the picture but each of the two yards (one for eastbound and the other westbound) has 64 parallel tracks for building up the trains. 

There is a lot of activity and all of the sorting and switching is done by computers after reading the bar codes on the individual cars. The incoming trains are routed over a “hump” where the coupler is released, and the car coasts into the yard with a computer switching in onto the correct track. Retarders control the cars speed into the yard to prevent hard bumps. 

This is the Golden Spike Tower which has an open air platform at the 7th floor and an enclosed space above that. Lots of information and is listed as a “must visit” for North Platte.

Back Towards Rapid City, SD

Thursday - Today was another short drive day back towards Rapid City. We are staying at Hart Ranch Camping Resort courtesy of Hondo friends Brad and Elaine. It’s a membership park and they have been members for quite a few years. 

Friday - I opted to hang around at the RV instead of going to the buffalo roundup at Custer State Park. It sounded like a bit much for me. Crowds and sitting outside for most of the day didn’t sound like fun. I’m sure that seeing the 1500+ buffalo being driven from around the state park into corrals near the southern end may have been pretty cool, but it sounded like a really long day.

I had ordered a couple of ferrite cores to “build” a ferrite core common mode choke to use with the JPC-12 antenna. This is to prevent common mode current from running along the braided metal shield on the coax from the antenna to the transceiver. 

Sunday - This morning, we went to the Buffalo Hunt Coaster location for breakfast and a church service. There is an old western town setting and a display of the set locations where some scenes from Dances with Wolves was filmed. 

Pretty touristy and commercial but breakfast was cheap enough with “cowboy bacon” as thick as ham slices. 

Hot Springs, SD

Saturday - A short travel day. After filling up our fresh water, propane, and gas tanks, we headed south to Hot Springs, SD, where Fairbanks friends Rick and Susie landed. We are mooch docking in front of their barn for a couple of days before heading north for the Buffalo Roundup in Custer State Park. 

Sunday - It is a warm-ish 79°F right now but the light breeze is nice. This is a beautiful area.

Tuesday - We headed into Rapid City as Bridget had a prescription waiting and Rick had a few things to pickup. 

We stopped at Reptile Gardens just south of Town. They had a snake show and a raptor show plus a lot of reptiles and other animals.  

To me, the real standout was the landscaping. It was very well done and colorful. 

The huge tortoises and the variety of snakes from around the world was incredible. It looked like a real tourist trap from the highway but it turned out to be much better than expected. 

Jewel Cave Nat’l Monument

Friday - We visited Jewel Cave this morning. It was named for the shiny mineral, calcite, found on most of the walls. The two men who discovered the cave thought it was quartz and were thinking that gold must be close. They ended up making their fortune with cave tours. 

Jewel Cave is the second longest in this country with over 230 miles of explored tunnels and fifth in the world. And, based on airflow research, they believe that there are many undiscovered tunnels. The map shows the known tunnels. 

This is a “dry” cave with only a few areas where water is seeping into the cave. Only a couple of areas have the typical stalactites and stalagmites. Underground lakes have been found at the 800’ level. On the tour, you take an elevator down, walk about half a mile on 750 stairs then take the elevator back to the surface. While on the tour, you are at around 200’ to 300’ from the surface.