Bad Lands and Black Hills

Our first visit to the badlands and Black Hills of S. Dakota.  What a mistake we've made having all of this so close to our home and never visiting it until after we retired. 

Winnipeg and Canada faded off in the rear view mirror last Sat. and we've been doing the "Tourist Thing" for a few days now.  We started off with a couple of nights of no services camping in Fargo ND, and Pierrre SD, to see if we could manage fully self contained.  Everything went perfectly so we know now we can easily survive for 2 or 3 days without services.  It was much easier than either of us anticiated.

What could easily have been a one day drive in the car took us three and we're now set up just outside of Rapid City S. Dakota.  Over the next few days we're  going to see all of the things we came here to see, especially Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse.  We spent a few hours yesterday driving the Badlands and did the obligatory "Wall Drug" visit.  The Badlands are pretty neat.  Of course we've all seen pictures but they really are more impressive than the pictures can ever show.

We unloaded the car for the first time, on the road by ourselves, last night.  It was fun,  Some people from Alaska are parked next to us with their teenage son.  The father and son were all over it.  Some hunters parked down at the other end brought beverages and, to quote them, "came down for the entertainment."  People across the lane got out their chairs and a table and sat down to watch.  Happily everything worked flawlessly.

I read another "full timer's" blog and they use his 222 rule in their travels.  I'm starting to think I like it.  222 means 2 people, travel 2 hours, and stay 2 days.  :-)  I must be getting old or maybe it's lazy, either way I like it.  So we're here for at least 2 days before we head to Oklahoma City for Monday/Tues. next week.

We'll post a bunch of pictures on Picasa once we leave here but for now I thought you might enjoy "Bernie and the singing Gorilla" from Wall Drug.

Gotta go, thanks for keeping tabs on us and please leave a comment when you can.

Neal & Bernie

Smart car goes on

Yesterday was the big day, we did our first "test" load of "Little Squirt" on the back of "My Way."

Yes we have named the Freightliner "My Way." Seems a few people think I have a stubborn streak in me and "My Way" seemed appropriate. So it's a done deal. My sister in law, Norma, suggested Samu because the truck reminds her of a big white whale but "My Way" won out.

On our travels I'll be watching for one of those charcoal artists. When I find one I like we're going to have him/her do a charcoal sketch of a semi with smoke pouring off of oversize tires etc. I'll use that to make a big decal with "My way" incorpoated into it for the back of the sleeper. Just a bit of fun. Bernie thinks I've completely lost it. She's probably right.

For the first loading we winched the car up and it worked fine but it's a slow process. I decided to drive it off and then drove it back on again to see if that was a viable solution. Turns out that driving it on worked just fine although it is a bit nerve wracking. Once I work out a couple of bugs I think the normal course of action will be to use the winch.  The winch has to he mounted higher and further out for ongoing use.  Once we had it up there we realized the angles were too sharp (down,) because the winch was mounted low to the deck.  A minor hitch we plan to correct on Wed.

Darcy Brown, the owner of Integrity Venture (diesel) in Steinbach, MB, has put his heart into making this work, and making it something we would be proud of.  We Are.  He and his technician "Alex" have worked tirelessly to make it happen.  Darcy put Integrity into his business name to represent the style of work and business he wanted to own.  He's achieved it and I happily recommend them for any kind of diesel mechanic work you may need.

Since this is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada we're on hold until Tuesday morning. We have an appointment for some decals on Tuesday morning. Wed afternoon we're going back to the builders for a couple of touch ups, Thursday is a "wash em up" day, Friday is "pack em up," for a Sat departure to the Black Hills of South Dakota and South.

It's been seven months since Bernie and I decided to do this and we'll be on the road a week from today. If you're the praying type please think about us on Sat morning.

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS.

Thanks for stopping by, please leave a comment when you can.

Neal and Bernie