(2nd) Run

I went on my 2nd South Dakota run in Custer State Park.  We moved from the Rapid City area to a park outside of Custer State Park by Custer, SD.  This park has more of an outdoorsy setting with better views.

The 1st South Dakota run was just down a road by our 1st campsite by Rapid City.  Not a lot of great trail-like views but good to get the legs stretched after 3 days of not doing a lot physically.

The Custer State Park run was on a trail around a lake (Stockade Lake) and then I hopped on the Centennial Trail, which is a trail that runs through the Black Hills.  It is approx. 111 miles long total.  Only going to hit just a few of those, though.  Ran by someone who asked if I was going the whole way.  No, I am not Scott Jurek.  

It was about a 40 minute run, maybe 4.5 miles.  Still getting used to the altitude.  Good run!

Getting Out of Town

Day 1:

The Plan: get up, run a few errands, load up, and be gone by noon at the latest, travel to Mitchell, SD for the night, then continue on to Rapid City and the Black Hills the next day.

Reality: go to Lincoln to drop off our extra vehicle, stop by to see my Dad in the hospital (he’s out and getting better), it’s now 12:30pm, dog has an issue and needs to see the vet, only time available is 3:15pm, I need to go to a Verizon store to get a SIM card, stop by accountants office…

                                                               Our home on wheels

We didn’t make it on the road until 5pm or later.  Made it to Onawa, IA and tried to get a spot at Lewis and Clark State Park (full) so we ended up at On-Ur-Way RV park.  Cost us more but had full hookups (electric, water, and sewer) and really nice bathrooms with showers.

You need to be flexible when you are living and traveling the way we do.  It takes a while to get the camper and everything ready to go in the morning before you leave and then when you arrive it also takes time to unload and set up.  Putting in 9 hours on the road is not really an option unless it is absolutely necessary.  We also don’t drive 80, which was the speed limit in South Dakota (good job, SD lawmakers).

Day2:

We spent the morning doing boring but necessary stuff like laundry and then drove to Mitchell, SD, home of the Corn Palace. 

                                                    It's designed with corn, people. Corn!
We didn’t want to try and make the full trip to Rapid City- still probably 7-8 hours away.  Pulling a 32’ camper at 65 mph when it’s windy was not a lot of fun.  It didn’t help that I probably didn’t have the sway bar tight enough, and the back end of the camper was all over the place.  I drive looking at the side mirrors as much as looking out the windshield.

                                                           This view gets old...

We stayed at the lovely Famil-E-Fun campground.  Nice and quiet.

Day 3: Quick trip to the Corn Palace, fuel up, load up, then head for Rapid City.  I would have liked to be on the road by 11am, but somehow we can’t get moving some days.  It’s a good thing we are flexible and not on a real schedule.

A quick and necessary stop to Wall Drug, then arrived at Happy Holidays RV park in Rapid City.

Next up: fun times in the Black Hills…

"You should blog"

The short story on this blog- for those who don’t know about us:

This is about our journey of selling everything including our house, buying a big travel trailer and truck, and hitting the road for a year to show our kids the country and spend some time with them before they grow up and move out.  We plan on hitting every state for about a week.  I will post about the trip, the experiences along the way, and also the process of getting ready and selling everything and the work and planning that was involved and why.  I also plan on running and biking along the way and will post about those as well.  Hopefully it will be entertaining, and will help others follow their dreams. 

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you out there this year!