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. 

Keystone, SD & Mt Rushmore

Thursday - After I joined the morning test session, we headed to Keystone, SD, about ten miles south of the campground. It was a very, very touristy location reminding us “glitter gulch” north of Denali. Lots of t-shirt shops, gift shops, and fast food. We didn’t hang around very long.

We went back to Mt Rushmore to watch the evening program. It was chilly 56°F when we arrived. We were told to arrive early as it was a popular show. I think there are maybe a dozen of us early birds here in the amphitheater. 

At 8pm, the ranger talk began. It seemed a bit skewed politically but not over the top. They then showed a sort movie followed by inviting the audience to sing the national anthem. They invited all active duty and retired military to come up on the stage as the flag was lowered and folded. Very nice ceremony. 

Are We Camping?

Tuesday - Today was a quiet day, and we mostly spent time in the RV park. Mid-afternoon, our Amazon orders were ready to be picked up in Rapid City at a Michael’s. We then went to Sam’s Club as I wanted to pick up a couple of items. They didn’t carry my favorite ramen, but the roasted chicken and vacuum-packed chicken thighs were good deals, about the same as Costco, which doesn’t seem to be in this area. We then picked up some groceries at Walmart on the way back. Exciting day. 

It was more of a “normal day” for us. It really doesn’t matter where we are; the days are kind of the same. After all, we aren’t in an RV to “go camping”. We are travelers, and the RV is our home. RV parks are more convenient than dry camping, but either way works for us. We don’t sit around a campfire roasting hot dogs or marshmallows, or have an elaborate outdoor setup as many of the weekend warriors seem to have, because we aren’t “camping”. I thought that this was an interesting topic after watching a YouTube video where they were replying to comments. One of the most common comments is "You aren't camping". They travel in a 45' Spacecraft 5th wheel pulled by an HDT (Mack tractor). They agree that they aren't camping, and we aren't either.

Wednesday - Another quiet, rainy day at the RV. I participated in the morning test session and am currently signed up for the afternoon session. I took advantage of the time to upgrade the laptop and iPhone to the newly released OS. It looks like a lot of changes to the appearance of things on the screen. I guess they need to change something every year. 

I signed up for the afternoon test session as well, and right when it was about to start, it started to rain. Starlink is affected by the rain, so I ended up switching to AT&T through my iPhone for the session. It worked, but the performance wasn't very good unless I had my phone next to the window. The screen capture was from the Starlink app showing the most recent outages.

The new sous vide appliance arrived yesterday from Amazon. Instead of the Joule model, I picked up the much cheaper Anova model. It was about half the price and still had BT and WIFi connectivity. The phone app doesn't seem to have the same quality recipes, and they charge an annual fee to use the app. I have it running right now using a tried and true recipe from the Joule app, cooking a turkey breast for tomorrow. I have it set at 132°F for 26 hours. The Anova app said 140°F for 8 hours or 145°F for 3 hours. We'll see how it turns out tomorrow.

Sanford Lab Homestake

Monday - This morning, we went back to Lead and Deadwood. These first stop was the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center in Lead. I was here in 2011 for a meeting and this was before the visitors center was built. The gold mine was closed in 2002 and turned over to the state and NSF to be used as an underground lab. The 4850’ level is a clean room environment with a neutrino detector as well as other instruments. 

Adjacent to the mine shafts is an open pit. Back in 2011, heavy rain in the area caused the pit to flood the shafts. Our tour didn’t happen due to flooded tunnels. 

The visitors center didn’t have much information on the research being done but was a nice stop. And it is perched right on the edge of the open pit mine. 

We then headed into Deadwood and did the walking tour after relaxing with some good coffee. Before heading back to the RV, we had lunch at a microbrewery in Deadwood.

Rockerville, SD

Thursday - We really didn't have anything planned for today. Just a quiet day in the RV park. The forecast is for highs in the upper 80s (°F), which is one of the reasons we decided to move to an RV park from the boondocking site at the Badlands. It's just more convenient. 

The Joule sous vide stick that I've had for years decided to die a couple of days ago. As soon as I plugged it in, it tripped the GFCI breaker and was reporting not enough water on the app. The pump motor appears to have failed, and the temperature control circuitry is not working. It would heat up full blast until the water was actually boiling. A replacement has been ordered, but the nearest Amazon delivery point is a store in Rapid City. And, the delivery isn't until next Monday.

Later - As forecasted, it got pretty warm this afternoon. At least it's not humid. I'm participating in the afternoon test session. More accurately, I'm waiting for the afternoon session to start. That's usually when I work on the blog post. It is so much easier to use the computer than the phone, especially if you want to change pictures or format text. 

Friday - We spent most of the day driving the Needles Hwy and going through Custer State Park. These are the rock formations that look like needles. If you look carefully, you can see one of the narrow tunnels. 

Here is a photo Bridget took with the roof of the Jeep open. Eye of the needle. 

Near the northern end of the highway, is Sylvan Lake. This was a very crowded area with not enough parking. 

After lunch and the visitors center, which had a wonderful movie, we headed out on the wildlife loop. We saw donkeys, prairie dogs, and this large herd of bison. This area took a while to get through due to bison on the road and cars not pulling over. They would just sit in the middle of the road taking pictures. 

After the bison, the only other animals we saw were a couple of deer along the road. When we arrived at the rv park, there was a wedding going on at the event center that is part of the park.

Mt Rushmore & Crazy Horse

Wednesday - We headed south to the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway, one of several scenic highways leading towards Mount Rushmore Nat’l Monument. There were several tunnels with views of the monument through the tunnel. After several 360° roads, i.e. the road passes over or under itself, we arrived at the Nat’l Monument. I attempted to take a picture of one but it proved to be difficult. Too many trees.

I’ve been to Mount Rushmore several times before and it’s pretty cool. I was thinking of walking the trail to the base but I’m still a little sore from the notch trail a couple of days ago. 

They had a decent movie here and highlighted the broken treaties by the settler’s and the miners. Sad history…

We then headed to the Crazy Horse sculpture. It still has a long way to go as shown in the next picture. I think the last time I was here was in 2011.

Rockerville, SD

Tuesday - We are in an RV park south of Rapid City in the Black Hills. We arrived yesterday and after the yesterday mornings hike, I need a rest day. Not that it was a long hike, but the scrambling over the rocks. 

This place has full hookups, nice showers, and a laundry. It was about 12 miles or so to a Walmart so we replenished our groceries for at least a couple of days. There is a Sam’s Club in Rapid City, which we will visit at some point. I’m not sure what is on the schedule but probably Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Needles Highway, and ??? 

The elevation here is 4400’ which makes for cool-ish nights.

Notch Trail

Monday - This morning, we headed to the east entrance of Badlands Nat’l Park to do the notch trail. There is a ladder about halfway so it gets crowded later in the day. It was nice and cool on the way out but was almost 80°F after getting back to the Jeep. 

Here is a shot of the ladder. The trail is an out-and-back one so there could be a wait for people in both directions. The rungs are pretty far apart and in you grab the cable in the wrong place, you may find your fingers pinched. 

At the top of the ladder, the trail hugs a cliff with some scrambling required. Sketchy footing from my old shoes so we headed back before some of the more challenging sections. 

View from the top! Note the smile.

After heading back to the RV, we got ready to head to our next location in the Black Hills.

Nomad View, SD

Sunday - This has been our parking spot for the last several days. We are an only about ⅓ mile from the paved road and maybe a mile from the entrance to Badlands Nat’l Park. We are pretty exposed to wind at this location but that’s probably why it was open when we came through here on Thursday afternoon.

This is the view in the opposite direction, i.e. from the rv door, and you may be able to see the highway. Wide open with nothing to block the wind. The weather guessers are saying mid-80s this afternoon so a little wind would feel nice. 

Badlands Nat’l Park

Saturday - This morning, we drove into Badlands National Park from the Precipice entrance east towards the visitors center. We stopped at almost all of the overlooks and, not surprisingly, most of my pictures look the same. The landscape is stunning but one can only imagine what the early settlers thought when encountering the steep formations. 

What is unique about this park is that you aren’t constrained to staying on the walkways. From the overlooks, there are multiple trails out onto the formations. Most with steep drop offs on both sides. Most of the overlooks had boardwalk to the edge. 

Today, there is no wind and 71°F so I can sit outside enjoying the sunshine. We also drove out Sage Creek Road to Robert’s Prairie Dog Town about five miles down the washboard dirt road. We saw numerous bison, antelope, and, obviously, prairie dogs. 

It was pretty cool last night at 40°F. This RV doesn’t have much insulation. The batteries were down to 65% SoC and by 4pm, we were up to 86%. So the generator was run for about an hour while preparing dinner. 

Minuteman Missle & Wall Drugs

Friday - Another picture from our parking spot. There are signs all along the rim side of the road saying no vehicles. We did adjust the position of the RV so we would be more level. This puts us broadside to the wind. But it’s about half of what it was yesterday. About 17mph with gusts to 30mph. 

After breakfast, we headed east to a former Minuteman silo. These were decommissioned after 1991 with many disarmed and the silos filled in. The visitors center was about 15 miles further down the road.

They had some good displays and a movie about the Minuteman missiles and how they were viewed by the locals. Some interesting responses. 

We then headed into Wall, SD, to the infamous Wall Drugs. Hundreds of signs along the highway to bring in the tourists. I guess it worked as we stopped in. 

I had apple pie and two 5¢ cups of coffee. Someone on YouTube said you get what you pay for but I thought the coffee was pretty good. Especially for 5¢! And, the pie was good.

We arrived back at the RV in time for the afternoon test session.