One of the neatest things we found along our journey was a sticker exchange club on Instagram called the RV Sticker Club. Campers/travelers of all kinds (RV, bus, van, car) can find people to trade stickers with. We love seeing all the different designs, sizes, and shapes these stickers come in.
It’s a fun way to “meet” different people. We used the logo my sister created for us and ordered stickers through Sticker Mule. Sticker Mule has a ton of different options! We played it pretty safe for our first design and got an oval with the logo on it.
So far, we have traded with a lot of people in the USA, some from Canada, Germany, and we even sent one to France!
click to enlarge
One of my latest projects has been to figure out how to store all the stickers. We have a binder with our travel postcards and our stack of National Park Service maps, but how are often are you going to take out a book or binder to look at it? The stickers are neat and colorful, so we thought about displaying them on the wall. We had a big blank spot over our couch that was perfect. I bought a large frame and started applying the stickers. I’m pretty happy with it so far and made sure to leave space for more trades!
For our week in South Dakota (for Mount Rushmore), we stayed at the Rafter J Bar Ranch.
They offer full hookups, RV and tent camping, and cabin rentals. There is swimming pool, bathhouses (open!), laundry facilities (washer and dryer by quarters), a small store, and a pancake breakfast (for a fee, Monday-Thursday, Memorial Day to Labor Day). Unfortunately, when we went to reserve a spot for the pancakes, we were told they were not doing them this year due to Covid-19.
It is a beautiful campground and seems well maintained. RV spots are pull through or back in and are on gravel spaces. A lot of the spots are in the shade. It is really well spaced out so you don’t feel cramped in. The beginning drive is paved and has street lights lining it. They do (as of our booking) take a discount for Good Sam members.
It backs into The Black Hills National Forrest for hiking activities.
It is a bit of a drive to get to other places. There is the small town of Hill City about 10-15 minutes drive and a Walmart about 30-40 minutes away. Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore, and Crazy Horse Memorial are 20-30 minutes away.
The laundry room closest to our camp site had 3 washers (although one was broken), which costs $3.00 to do a load of laundry. They were regular sized washers. The driers (there were 2) were much larger and cost $0.25 initially. I think each load of our laundry used about 2 quarters to dry (on medium heat).
The pool was a nice size and there were tables with umbrellas. The camp store had souvenirs, beer, ice, basic camping and first aid supplies, and ice cream sandwiches! There is also a small parking area just for pool parking, if you are in a further away camp spot and want to drive up.
I felt very happy with our campground selection . If we would ever come back to this area again, I would definitely stay here! Everything was well maintained and we didn’t feel crowded. When we drive around and see other campgrounds where they are packed in like sardines, I am so grateful we found this site.
The boys made a video tour of the campground, if you would like to see it.
~Sarah
SUMMARY OF CAMPGROUND:
Our rating: 4 out of 5 hitches
Cell Phone Reception: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile
WiFi: Yes
Laundry: Yes
Bathrooms/Showers: Yes
RV Sites: Pull Through, Back-in
Pop Up Tents/Gazebos On-Site: Yes
Amenities: picnic table, fire pit/grill, playground, volleyball and basketball
Cabins: Yes
Tent Camping: Yes
Full Hook-ups: Yes. There are 30 and 50 amp sites.
Pool: Yes
Food On-Site: Camp store, pancake breakfast suspended due to Covid
Sunday, fun day! Well…a little bit of fun mixed in with a lot of driving.
Tonight as I am writing this, I am exhausted. It was a long day of driving, with some tourist stops thrown in. I got a few blog posts started tonight as well. I had made notes, but hadn’t had a chance to sit down and write things out for posting until now.
Another early morning travel day, this time we finished up heading towards Mt. Rushmore. We had things mostly packed last night and were just going to empty the fresh water tanks (since we would have full hookups) and the black and grey tanks. The black tank valve handle had been in the same position since we bought it. It could be pulled open, but not shut any further, so we thought that was the closed position. Nope. Big stinky nope. Poor Ben. He got sprayed with the black tank before managing to somehow get the valve actually shut all the way. We had the water hose out, so he could spray down and change clothes, but what a shitty start to the day. (Pun intended.)
After cleaning up the area and Ben, we were finally on our way. We had lots of hours of driving to get in so we could arrive at our next stop. The whole point of this trip is to learn and to see things we haven’t seen before, so we did make a couple of stops along the way.
Our first touristy stop was at the Corn Palace. Yes, you read that right. The Corn Palace. It’s another quirky place we found online. It has an interesting history, with American entrepreneurial spirit behind it. Today, it is a permanent building in the downtown of this small town and is decorated each year with a new design. The decoration is made out of corn! Different colors of dried corn are used to create patterns and murals. It was rather busy on the inside (again with limited mask wearing), so we mostly admired the outside. There is a video presentation, but with so many people crowding around, we didn’t stay to watch it.
Among our hours and hours of driving, we had seen signs for Wall Drug. (I think we started seeing signs in Iowa.) We had seen probably a hundred signs?! They ranged from banal (Wall Drug ahead) to outrageous (YOLO Wall Drug). In a testament to the tough character of the people of South Dakota, Wall Drug’s marketing never stopped. For literally hundreds of miles in either direction, they broke up the somewhat boring drive with focused, fairly low cost advertising. Along with being funny, you just have to respect the tenacity.
It turned out Wall Drug was on our way to the next campground. So, another win for Wall Drug advertising. We decided to stop and we were glad we did.
It was crazy! We tried to see as much as we could in an hour, but we probably could have spent the better part of a day there. There were a bunch of little shops (bookstores, camping supplies, fudge, ice cream, cafe, souvenir, etc.), a chapel, a splash pad…There was free water near the splash pad, a tribute going back to when the store offered free ice water to travelers in the 30’s. It wasn’t ice cold, but it was cool. We bought some donuts and a slice of cherry pie to share. We also tried the $0.05 coffee. It was actually good coffee! Ben liked it so much, he bought another cup. 🙂
RVer NOTE: Stop for gas before the Wall exit if you have a larger RV and/or are towing and need to refuel. There were two gas stations right near the highway exit/entrance, but neither were set up for larger vehicles. The next exit had 1 broken diesel pump. Finally at exits 60 or 61, we found diesel and spaces large enough for us.
We got to see part of the Badlands on our drive. The change in scenery was amazing and beautiful. Ben and I were talking about the settlers who came through. To get all the way there and see just more vast open space, somebody must have just said “Nope. I’m done. Not going anymore.” The sheer amount of openness is daunting to think about crossing on a horse or on foot.
We checked into our campground and Ben finally got to put up his netted pop-up room/clam shell/tent. We got situated, set up, and ready to relax. Our spot is great. It has an amazing view of the mountains and it’s nicely shaded. The laundry room isn’t too far and the pool is open. The boys are excited to go swimming.
Most of the truckers that had also used the casino’s overnight parking last night were gone by the time we left. Let me tell you something; I feel huge when we are driving and towing the RV. However, when we pull into a gas station with truck pumps or park next a semi truck, I feel a little small.
We started early again to get the most of our day. We had left the slides in and everything put away for the one night, so we had much less to do in order to leave. We hadn’t even unhooked the RV from the truck. Our next stop was also in Iowa, although right near the South Dakota border. It was another casino, Grand Falls Casino. This one had an RV park with full hook ups for $35/night. We also had access to their outdoor pool.
It was pretty standard driving, no sudden storms this time. There was some construction, but nothing eventful. We did see lots of windmills and water towers. One water tower was even painted yellow and had a smiley face on it! We found a pay phone at a rest stop in Iowa. Seriously! Blue frame and all. We became card carrying rewards members of Kum & Go.
Once we arrived at our destination, I had to go into the hotel check-in desk to get the key to the electric box and our designated spot assignment. We also got the wristbands for the pool. The campground was all pull through spots, with full hookups. The RV park was towards the side of the property (road behind us and the driving range in front of us).
We grabbed some dinner, and this time it was pretty much what I expected. I did get to make a nice salad though!
The boys enjoyed the pool for a few minutes before it got too crowded and we left. We have noticed that not very many people are wearing masks in Iowa or South Dakota. There are signs “recommending” wearing masks, but nothing requiring people to wear them. We are one of the few, other than employees, and we are still trying to maintain a social/physical distance. The night ended with the boys filling in our travel map*. We have one on the kitchen wall and one in their room for them to fill out. (Thank you Denny & Gabe for the map, the boys love coloring in where they’ve been!)
Saturday we explored the area a little bit and went to the pool again in the evening.
We began Saturday morning with getting bagels from Bagel Boy. They were pretty good (and reasonably priced when compared to back home).
Will really wanted to see some oddities/quirkiness on this trip (things like the biggest ball of twine). We checked on AtlasObscura.com and RoadsideAmerica.com and found a few options. After seeing how far they were from us, we decided on Mr. Bendo, a large statue holding a tailpipe outside of a muffler shop. He was pretty large! According to roadsideamerica.com, in 2018 the city said he could no longer hold his tailpipe, as it acted as a sign for the business and was too tall. When the city’s people heard about it, they were upset and got the city to reverse their decision. Since it had not been considered a sign when it first began in the 60’s, they said it was a work of art instead.
Our next stop for the day was extremely out there. We went to Buffalo Ridge 1880 Cowboy Town. This one was definitely an experience. It was out in the hillsides, and this man has created quite the livelihood. He was very nice as he showed us around. He had a two pump gas station, a souvenir shop, the cowboy town, buffalo (also sold buffalo hides, skulls, and burgers), had several billboards on his land (both for rent and to advertise the cowboy town), and offered overnight parking. What an entrepreneur!
The town consisted of several buildings/exhibits: a gold mine, antique farming equipment, a saloon, a sheriff’s office, etc. There is an upper walkway so you can view the town as well. The other option to get a bird’s eye view is to climb the tower. You can see the buffalo herd sometimes from here as well.
The town had many hand-painted signs explaining what each exhibit is about. There are mannequins in each location, some of them are animatronic and speak or move. It was certainly an experience! The town is a little run down. It is a huge undertaking for one person. He also said he is still cleaning up some tornado damage from a few years ago.
Some of the robots still work, although they are a little worn. The town does sit out in all of the elements, so there is some weathering to the paint, wood boards, signs, the mannequins and their clothes. Some areas smelled a little musty, so I didn’t stay in there too long with my allergies. You could tell that a lot of work had gone into making the town, although I’m not sure exactly how historically accurate some of the information was.
I would definitely stop and check it out if you like finding oddities and things off the beaten path. When we went it was $8/adult (12+) and $4/kids. We did a quick video of some of the exhibits, if you want to check it out!
I have been told that I am not writing enough. I am taking that as a compliment because the people in my life think I have something to say. Well intrepid fans, thank you for your patience. Hopefully the following is worth the wait.
My wife is so darn nice and optimistic, that her version of RV life comes out too…perfect. Everyone loves Sarah. But many want to hear the real story of RV life. Well, I really struggle with being anything but blunt and people love a train wreck, so here we go.
Driving: I tell anyone that will listen that the key to life is marrying well. I wish I could say I found the right one and I was so amazing I charmed her into marrying me. Unfortunately, I was just a stupid 21 year old that lucked into an amazing person who decided I was good enough to hang on to. All that said, Sarah has driven the rig 80%+ of the time. I took a brief 200+ mile stint of the first 1,400 mile we have driven so far. It wasn’t hard driving, but certainly not my favorite. So, I am very glad that she is a competent, independent woman that can manage almost anything.
NOTE: My driving experience stopped when I got over confident pulling into a gas station and set the RV up for a bollard catastrophe that required backing out of a rather easy pull through spot. We are still learning to back the rig up well, so this ended up with some terse language back and forth with my aforementioned love of my life. Gratefully the gas station on the semi side was close to empty and real truckers can spot a newbie RV owner a mile away. They all gave us a wide birth as we figured things out. Apparently I am going to learn humility on this trip.
Kids: Sometimes I think God put kids on this planet to test us. More time with them has been such a rewarding and frustrating time. Being mini versions of us, the kids know exactly what buttons to push to get us angry. Overall, I am learning to be more patient and they are learning how to deal with Dad in 400 SF of space.
Some fun kid situations so far:
During one of his first events using the rather small shower in the RV, one of them managed to shut himself in the doors. To which the rest of the RV got to hear “Ow my penis.” This has been an ongoing refrain for anyone that gets hurt (regardless of region).
The kids convinced me that since the Greyhound did not make it on the trip we had enough room for bikes. After Walmart provided fully assembled bikes for under a few hundred bucks I was convinced. Will got a nice Mountain bike that he can grow into and Nick got a classic BMX with upgraded handle bar brakes.
So, the kids are not expert bikers. They have only cycled in controlled suburbia sidewalks. So, after we got the bikes ready at the camp site, I gave them a quick tutorial on biking with hand brakes and on gravel. I would have been better to teach the various trees how to ride bikes as in retrospect I don’t think they could hear me over their internal dialogue of “YEAH BIKES!!!!!!”
Well friends, no matter how frustrated you get with your kids, you never need to reduce yourself to corporal punishment. Mainly, because kids do it to themselves.
Day 1 of bike ownership the older one learned the hazards of gravel as he lost most of the skin from both elbows. On the upside, this allowed me to use the nice first aid kit my mother-in-law made for us and to dust off my first aid merit badge skills.
Day 2 the younger one learned the hazards of the front brake as he flew over the handle bars. Luckily nothing was permanently damaged and he kept all his teeth.
POOP: I have gotten the opportunity to do some plumbing in my life. As a two time home owner and a dad to two rambunctious boys, I have replaced a number of toilets. It is never a fun job and often leaves me stinky and disgusted.
Well, RV life gets you close and personal to this exciting part of human life. On day 2 of boondocking we got to empty the black tank and remove the hose. Nothing can really prepare you for a 6:30AM poop shower/bath. Apparently we had a knife valve that was sticking. I haven’t seen much more that motivates me in this word than a 3″ open line of urine and feces under 30 gallons of head pressure. I found the strength within me rather quickly to “unstick” that knife valve and stop the cascade of fun. After a quick wash off, I even managed to smile long enough for a photo. Although, I have to admit the smile is slightly forced for the picture.
Money: Man is this cheap adventure expensive. It seems like everything we do costs more than I expected. $10 to park at Mt. Rushmore, $30 to see Crazy Horse, $20 Custer State Park, $10 parking Deadwood, $25 Buffalo Ridge 1880 Cowboy Town Museum, $6 for bundles of firewood, multi-hundred dollar RV campgrounds. Hopefully most of these are normal start up costs and this outflow of cash slows significantly. Some of the more expensive items we purchased to get started (besides the RV itself): TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensors) for RV tires $327; Coach-Net insurance $179; backup camera for RV $546; EMS (Electrical Management System) to help manage potentially unreliable campsite electrical grid $387; telescopic ladder $120.27; RVLock door locks $290.99; Viair compressor $311.37; under mattress pad (keeps air flow, prevents mold) $106.95; blackout curtains for boys’ room (they broke the aluminum blinds night 1 of use) $73.39; wheel chocks/x-chocks/levelers $150; LevelPro $145; full time RV insurance $621; Good Sam roadside assistance $80; the list goes on, but it makes me tired just to write it all down. I factored in about $5,000 for start up costs and I think we will likely blow through this pretty quickly. I will do a later post mid adventure reviewing this gear and seeing if it stands up to full time living. In general, so far, I have really loved all the things that we have gotten.
Work: I was lucky enough to work for a company that let me go remote for a year to live out this dream with my kids. They agreed to this all pre-COVID, so prior to the huge swell of remote workers making this mainstream. They are a remarkable company and I am grateful to work for them. Based on perceived limitations of remote work, we decided it would be best to move from a Manufacturing Leader to an Operations Analyst. The Manufacturing Leader role is easiest done with a physical presence and has many direct reports that require regular interaction. The Operations Analyst position has no direct reports and allows for more independent contributor work. This has been my first week in the Operations Analyst role and it went very well.
Pluses:
When doing independent contributor work, I can retreat to an office with the best view of my career.
I thought the hardest part would be connectivity. I have been blown away by how good the coast to coast networks have been. I would say it is very similar to home. The only time we lost signal was deep in a National Park. We were even able to FaceTime my dad in Deadwood so he could see the staged gun fight.
Deltas:
I am still adapting to being an hourly employee. I have done this before and will get back in the swing of things. I tend to get lost in my work and time flies by. It is just a hassle to set alarms to make sure I do not go over my 40 hours.
Time zones are tough. We are currently on in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) and my work is in Eastern Daylight Time (EDT). This translates to a 2 hour delta. This is a double edged sword. I start earlier (i.e. – 6:30AM/4:30AM EDT/MDT). I finish earlier (i.e.- 3:00PM/1PM EDT/CDT). So I am working several hours before the family wakes up and going to bed several hours earlier. It should be interesting to adapt to the Pacific Time Zone.
WRAP UP:
So far, I couldn’t have asked for more.
More time with my kids has been great. I am really getting to know them better and am learning a bunch of things over that I thought I knew about them.
Things break, smell and challenge me every day. I am regularly humbled by all that I do not know, frustrated by interactions with my family and the world and pushed to learn faster than I previously have. It is all good and really just part of life. We are living more now than we did and getting out there. Hopeful for the best that is to come.
June 9th started our adventure. Although we had been living in the RV for a month now, it’s very different trying to pack it up, move it, and then unpack it all again.
We have watched countless YouTube videos. Seriously, we have been watching for about a year or so now. Trying to do this in real life is so much different (and harder) than watching all the videos would make you think it would be.
The night before we packed up all loose items. All loose items: coffee pot, radio, paper towel holder, baskets holding remotes, Nick’s plants, dehumidifier, all cords/games/etc.. Everything had to be moved out of the way of the slides. Anything that could move had to be packed away, shut away, etc. We even took out the microwave glass plate and wrapped it up after hearing about how the door could open in transit and the plate could fall out and break.
We also packed up the cooler and the snack bag for the truck and preloaded everything we might need. The slides were put in, and we thought we were good to go.
It still took us almost two hours in the morning.
After finally getting on the road, driving was ok. We hit a few spots of construction where there was heavy stop and go traffic. We had to slam on the brakes once when the person in front of us slammed on theirs. There was a semi behind us. Of course, the semi is larger and heavier than even us and stopping is even slower for them. He ended up pulling onto the shoulder to avoid rear ending us. Based on where he was sitting on the shoulder, we definitely would have been hit. We were very lucky. My heartbeat took awhile to get back to normal.
We ended up stopping every few hours for bathroom breaks and/or for fuel. Indiana had surprisingly nice rest stops with lots of larger parking spots for semi trucks and RVs.
Will took a turn in the front passenger seat when Ben had some work to do. (For some reason the back seat has more space than front passenger seat.) He took a few pictures, but quickly fell asleep!
Stopped traffic, Will’s reflection in mirror taking pictures, sound asleep minutes later
Iowa was very green. As we were driving through, we checked with the BassPro Shop that we were planning on stopping at for the night. They told us that the city had recently put out No Overnight Parking signs, so we could not stop there. As we were trying to find a new place to stay for the night (we were planning on boondocking), a big storm rolled in and with it a tornado warning. So much fun. The visibility was extremely low, even with headlights and wipers on full blast. It got extremely dark very quickly. It was a harrowing part of the drive. When it cleared up a little bit and the sun came back out, we decided to call it for the night and looked for another place to stay. With a little more research, we found Riverside Casino in Iowa. They did allow overnight parking.
We got the RV parked and went to find some dinner at their cafe. I’ve had casino food before and it’s normally not something to write home about (excluding Las Vegas). This place was delicious. We got several items to split between us: fish tacos, pizza, salad (with chicken), and an amazing poutine. It was a wonderful dinner. We also got a chocolate chunk cookie and a zephyr (glazed donut filled with mouse/cream puff filling, topped with sugar and glazed walnuts).
On our walk back to the RV, we were greeted with an amazing sunset. All in all, it was a decent day. But now I want more of that poutine and another zephyr!
