Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

Nasty Weather and Slow Days

Wednesday September 14, 2011
Broken Arrow Campground
Custer South Dakota

 

Not much going on these past few days
since we went to Bear Lodge.
Tuesday the  weather turned cold and windy. 
I was inside most of the day
working on the plan for the next week or so. 
Where are going when and for how long to do what.  
It seems much more complicated with the current restrictions.

But we were rescued from total boredom
when our friends Jeannie and Eldy (Where's Eldo)
moved in right beside us. 
They’d come a long way to check up
on us and we had a great night
having dinner and talking at Winnona’s table.

 

P1170518

 

Wednesday we found the weather
had turned colder and rainy.
We had intended to boondock
at Wind Cave National Park’s Campground
and try out the solar panels.
But with night time temperatures
predicted to drop into the low 30’s
and no sun expected,
we revised our plans and decided to take off
for Custer, South Dakota and stay in the campground
Eldy had picked for the two of them.
Thanks Eldy and Jeannie.
We’ll go ahead and scout it out for you!

 

We packed up,
everything performed perfectly
jacks, slides
Hooray!
So off we went.

The rain was drizzling off and on
but things weren’t too bad until
about 8 miles out of town on one of
the three different two lane roads between
Sundance and Custer,
we came upon a VERY slow moving
caravan of 4 escort trucks with flashing lights
and two high flat beds with complete buildings on them.

They were going about 20 mph
when we got into the line behind them
and slowed to 5 or 10 going up the Black Hills. 
So a trip of 80 miles took
twice as long as it would have since we had to
follow them up and down
for about 30 miles before they turned off.

 

To Custer SD 002

 

We stopped at the top of Salt Creek Overlook
to get a picture of the Black Hills but
with the weather such as it was,
the picture isn’t much.

 

To Custer SD 005

The Black Hills are named after the dark green
carpets of pines that cover them.  They stretch
125 miles North to South and 65 miles east to west
and rise 300-400 feet above the red valley floor.
Bur oak grows in the Salt and Beaver Creek valleys
I was looking down into.

 

Thank goodness the fog didn’t get
terribly bad until after we had gotten
out from behind the barely moving cavalcade.
Hardly my favorite driving conditions for even
what should have been a short trip.



Foggy Custer 007

 

We finally pulled into Broken Arrow Campground about
3pm.  The high hadn’t gotten out of the mid 40’s.
So we got things hooked up and turned on the heat
for which we had forsaken Wind Cave Campground.


It was so dreary and rainy we didn’t even get a picture
of our site here in this Horse Campground.
Pretty interesting place though.
They have corrals and barns for horses and more
than half the rigs are horse trailers with living space.
But they are making very nice quiet neighbors!

Pictures on all of the above to come
assuming at some point we get a clearer day.

When David went in to register the fella behind
the desk greeted him with “Howdy Pardner”.
That’s twice in about 4 days some has said “HOWDY”.  
Sounds as novel to our ears as our Ya’ll does to lots of other folks.

 

Freezing rain tonight.  YUCK!
But………..quiet!!

 

Even colder predicted for tomorrow,
along with more rain and fog.

May be a good day to go to Jewel Cave and see
what sort of a tour I can do in a wheelchair.
IF we can see to drive there.

8 comments:

  1. That cold front seems to have a long reach. It's cold and raining on our parade in NC right now too.

    Hopefully, it'll pass shortly. In the meantime, enjoy the quiet :)

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  2. Be careful in those rainy and foggy conditions!

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  3. It may be yucky there but it is still better than working ;o))

    Lowered the house price and working hard to find a buyer:o))

    Enjoy the down time and the quiet!!

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  4. I may have said this before, but I can't wait to be in South Dakota!

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  5. My daughter took the full Jewel Cave Discovery tour last fall - one hour or more, as i recall. I took the shorter Scenic tour and think it could easily be done on crutches and/or wheelchair. Elevator down into the cave, one fairly wide, level and short passage, then a large viewing platform in one large "room" of the cave. Perhaps one or two steps on parts of the platform but plenty to see from any one spot. Reservations required, I think, for either tour,so probably worth
    it to call ahead for current info. Small but interesting exhibit in the VC. I walked a nice, fairly level path around the VC area while she was on the longer tour. See the "things to know" section of their website. A beautiful area of our country.

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  6. Getting behind those override loads can be a test of patience.

    We were forced back into long pants and jackets over a week ago and have to leave the heat on overnight. Getting down into the high thirties at night. Time to move south:)

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  7. We encountered a few of those slow ride behinds in our travels...yuck...surely makes for a long...long day of travel!

    That cold front has made our days quite comfortable now in Nevada...days in the 80's...nights in the 60's...LOVE IT...stay warm!

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  8. That was some serious fog! And a very slow trip - I imagine that tested your patience - would have mine as we well know ;)

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