Minor Troubles - Luckily

Thursday September 22, 2011
Winnebago Industries
Forest City, Iowa

 

Let me start with a note to all my nurses out there. 
First I so appreciate your concern and your comments.
Thanks for being out there.
Here’s the scoop -
The orthopedic Surgeon in Kalispell, Montana
said that it “appeared” from the 3 side x-ray
as though I had re “fractured” an old injury.
But because of the old injury, she could not tell
if it was a complete break or a crack.
She congratulated me on my icing to excess
for days and was amazed at the decrease in swelling
after only 4 days.
Her advice was to use crutches for around 3 weeks or until
my leg felt ok with weight bearing.  But that
I should be doing some weight bearing by 3 weeks.
And begin those rubber band stretching exercises
at that point.   That would have been today.
  I was doing my short bit of no assistance
walking in the Badlands,
3 days early on the 19th with little complaint from
my ankle as long as I didn’t go faster than
a snail’s pace.  Not sure how to know else is
important, other than to listen to the ankle,
without some sort of further tests which
no one last time or this time seemed to think
was necessary.   They just kept taking x-rays and
they all looked exactly the same even though the ankle was
clearly showing less and less signs of injury on the outside at least.
Marti, I’m going to email you
about your break and see if it was similar to mine
and what you did.   
Thanks so much to all for your concerns.
I feel very warm and fuzzy.

On to what’s happenin’
We arrived in Mitchell South Dakota on
Tuesday, afternoon
after a long and difficult drive.

We were awakened about midnight on Monday
with the wind blowing the coach all around
I checked with Weather bug and it said
45 –60 mph winds all night
The way the coach was rocking I’d say it was mostly 60.

We brought in both slides
and took down the cradle point antenna.
Not sure how David kept from being blown away doing that
given what he weighs. 

The coach still shook and I
could hear things being blown around outside
and flying down the campground road.
I found out the next morning that
Terri Young had called at 11 PM
, she and Mike are camped across from us,
to see what we were doing she was so worried about the winds.
I’d turned my cell phone off for the night because
I had been getting unsolicited calls
from East Coast marketers at 7am East Coast time
which is 5AM mountain time.

 

The winds continued into the morning
although they had quieted down SOME. 
I called Terri back and they hadn’t decided whether
to stay in the Badlands Campground or go.
They were headed further west so they’d be
going into the winds.

We left the campground about 9am
and had to wait behind 2 others to use the dump.
That made me feel a “little” better about going anywhere. 
I wasn’t too keen on going in this weather
but we needed to do about 200 miles
to make it to Forest City Iowa and Winnebago by Thursday. 
David thought we would give it a try on I 90
since we would have the wind at our backs.  
I drove the car so it wouldn’t wag behind Winnona. 

 

Driving wasn’t too bad since I 90 is a straight
no need to shift road.

 

Just after we crossed the Missouri River
and determined that we couldn’t afford the
time to stop at the Rest Stop/Information Center
about Lewis & Clark that Mike and Terri
had recommended.
(see river in rear view)

 

 

David noticed that the slide topper
was coming loose.  
Of course with the wind, it was impossible
to go up on the roof see what was wrong. 
We stopped in some teeny weeny
sketchy looking Casino truck stop
off of I 90 and called Winnebago. 

When he went outside to check
the topper, David also noticed that
the only other hood latch had broken off. 
And the hood was hanging open.
I’d called him on the walkie talkie 20 or so miles back
to say that some rather large metal thing
had just bounced across the highway and I had hit it.  

He said he thought it had probably come from
the semi that just passed him. 
But it turned out it was our only hood latch,
the other had come off back at Jim and Mary’s in Missoula.

So now we had to tie up both the hood
and the topper with ropes.

So that’s what he did without going up on the roof
thank goodness.

 

 

 

 

Here is Ms Winnona with her mouth tied shut.
She has a matching set of “braces”.

 

 

We made it to R & R Campground in Mitchell, South Dakota
where they are into their winter rates
which are $15 for full hook ups and self serve. 
We got there about 3:00 and by 5:30 the place was full.
Word must be out.

When we got there David informed me
that he thought he had the flu
and when we took his temperature it was 101.4. 
So on the couch he went with covers and a cold compress. 
I told him to take 2 aspirin to help bring down
the fever but he insisted on taking Naproxen Sodium
which did no good so a couple hours later
when the fever had gone over 102 he agreed to the aspirin.
Sorry, too busy for pictures of the patient.

 

I got us leveled, hooked up, got dinner
and took care of the patient. 
I used the crutches but luckily my ankle is much improved
and I can stand on it with no complaints and
do some walking on it especially inside the coach. 
Not sure what we’d have done if he had the flu
and I was still totally on crutches.

 

But we managed it all including the winds
which continued to roar and strip the leaves off
of the trees at R&R.

 

Next morning, Wednesday, was the miraculous cure. 
He felt fine. 
24 hour bug that wasn’t intestinal.
AMAZING! 
TERRIFIC!! 

 

We took our time leaving
so it wasn’t until about noon that we set out
for another nearly 200 mile drive to Welcome, Minnesota.

We were welcomed to Minnesota before
we got to Welcome.

 

 

But once there, we set up at Checkers Welcome Campground
a Passport America stop, 30 amp full hook ups
for $14.  Just off I 90 but far enough that there
was little traffic noise.  There was one train which
must also go through Peter D’s in Great Falls since
at 4am he drove through blowing his horn twice
long and loud.

 

 

Up this morning and on the road for a short drive
to Forest City Iowa (77 miles) and only 3 turns.

First section of our trip, about 20 miles, was on I 90
where we could see that Minnesota farmers have
gotten the message about wind power and
are seeing that they can generate income from the
air and the soil.

 

BUT the next route 169 was THE WORST road
we have been on in nearly half a year. 
Talk about taking your home through an earthquake.  
We had to slow down to 25 mph just to keep
the rattling down to slightly below deafening.  

After the longest 20 miles ever driven,
the rest of the roads were the usual 2 lane.

We pulled into the big town of Forest City Iowa
(population 4000) about 11 am and went
in to talk to the folks at Winnebago Service
about our list of things to be checked and done.

We want to keep the bill under $1000 hopefully
so some of these things may revert back to David.
But at least we can buy the parts here and not have
to figure out where they can be shipped to us.

He’s now at the Winnebago Factory Tour which started
at 1:00 and I’m trying to catch up with the blog
posts.  He didn’t decide to go until 12:30 and
dashed out grabbing a quick sandwich as his lunch.

I’m not THAT interested in the tour although
I might go tomorrow while he waits with Winnona.
He seems to think he has to be there every second
while they are working on her and tomorrow is
Friday so it was today or tomorrow or Monday.
We hope we won’t be here on Monday.

Winnona is now parked in one of their “free” spaces
with 30 amp electric, no water, no dump
until our appointment at
SEVEN FIFTEEN AM tomorrow.

Guess we’ll be getting up before the sun rises and
potentially having breakfast out although I’m not sure
this one horse industry town has a restaurant
that isn’t a Kwik Stop.
Guess I’d better check the place out thoroughly
before being so hard on them.

Thanks for checking in on us.

WALKING in the Badlands

Monday September 19, 2011
Cedar Pass Campground  Site 12
Badlands National Park, South Dakota

 

We got out to do the Badlands Loop Road
and its overlooks at 9am this morning. 
Way to go David!

 

The Badlands National park encompasses 244,000 acres
in its 3 areas in southwestern South Dakota. 
Eroded buttes and spires protrude from a mixed-grass prairie ecosystem.  This spectacular scenery is the result
of tens of millions of years of geologic forces
of deposition and erosion.

 

 

 

The Park loop road, Route 240, goes from Wall, SD at Exit 110
on I 90 down and through the park and up
and out at Exit 131, at Cactus Flats South Dakota.

  
 

 

Many folks do the entire loop including the section
down I90 in order to see Wall Drug at one end
and the Minute Man Missile Historic Site at the other.

We were going to do the just the sections in the park
having no interest in either of those other two sites.

 

We started off toward the Cactus Flats entrance
but found that all the overlooks were overlooking to
the East and into the sun. 
So we went back the other direction
planning to come back East in the late afternoon.

 

 

Our first stop heading North West was
the Saddle Pass Trail where David wanted
to take the “most strenuous maintained route in the park”.
The trail is very short but very steep.

He set off to do the climb.

 

I set out to sit and wait on the
nice bench placed there no doubt
for those who had second thoughts
after going part way up.
Many did and I saw them go up
and very quickly come back.

 

Lest you should think, as I originally did,
that the white stuff on the ground is sand.
I took this picture so you could see the cracks
in the rock hard soil.

 

Eventually, I crutched my way over to where the trail
starts ascending pretty straight up.  You
can just sort of see that horizontal path.
The blue poles mark it.

 

When homesteaders first settled above the wall
in the early 1900’s, they used this route
as a shortcut to the town of Interior
(2 miles west of the park)
where they did their shopping.
Since wagons could not go down or up Saddle pass,
they were left topside while the folks walked or led a horse carefully down.  Once in town a wagon was loaded with supplies,
taken back to the base of the pass
and the supplies carried load by load
up to their waiting wagon on top.

 

This is not an easy up and an even more
difficult down.

 

 

But here he comes back after
the climb,

 

all smiles and taking this
picture of me.

 

If you want to see what he saw,
then you’ll have to come back with me
and we’ll hike it together and see for ourselves.

 

There were a total of 13 overlooks.
Some with board walks, some without.
Some with trails. 
Here are a few trails I’d like to do on my
already being planned return trip
to this fabulous place.
:-)

 

 

I’m only going to give you a peek
at a few of the overlooks and I know I’ll still have
too many pictures.

One that had the
greatest effect on me was this one
entitled Journey to Wounded Knee

 

Pretty sure everyone has heard of Wounded Knee
It was made famous not only by the American Indian
Movement of the 1970’s
whose base was in the Pine Ridge Oglala reservation,
but also by the excellent book by Dee Brown
entitled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
The actual area of Wounded Knee is 65 miles South of here.

In December of 1890, a band of Lakota
led by Chief Big Foot
crossed the Badlands at this location en route to
Wounded Knee Creek.

 

 

The Lakota are a part of the former Great Sioux Nation and
are divided into seven bands.  The Oglala were sent to
the Pine Ridge Reservation, south of the present day park.
The Minneconjou were sent north to the Cheyenne
River Reservation.

 

Big Foot, a Minneconjou, was leading 350 of his people in the harsh
winter weather to the safety of the Oglalas’ home when the 7th Cavalry detained them along the banks of Wounded Knee Creek.
This was the same 7th Cavalry led 14 years earlier by
General George Custer at Greasy Grass, Montana
better known later as Little Big Horn. 

The accounts of what happened at Wounded Knee differ depending
on which side was reporting, but on December 29, 1890
the soldiers opened fire killing at least 200 Minneconjou.
30 soldiers died.  I’ll leave you to your own conclusions
and more research if you are interested.

 

Look closely at this site through which they passed
over 100 years ago.

 

No mention of this was made on the signage
here or in the “Badlands Official Road Guide”
booklet.   But we both saw it
immediately.

 

 

 

After some time of contemplation at this place,
we thought we’d take a break for lunch.

We stopped at the Conata Picnic Area.
Pretty fine spot with built in shade!

 

 

We ran into Mike and Terri at a couple
of the over looks.

I asked them enviously if they had done any
of the hikes.   Mike said Terri had seen too many
of these signs and wasn’t very keen.

 

 

Another of my favorite places in the
Badlands is the Yellow Mounds area.
This is THE most gorgeous area.

 

 

While the Rocky Mountains were being formed
and the continent was in great geologic turmoil,
a huge swathe of the central US was underwater.
The Yellow mounds are fossil soil created from
the exposed seafloor of the Western Interior Seaway.

 

 

The top layer of sediments left behind as the sea
receded has been weathered and
chemically altered over time into the beautiful
Yellow Mounds.

 

 

Yellows, reds, greens and purples stack on top of each
other here to create some of the most colorful geologic
formations I have ever seen.

 

 

 

 

 

There were a few more overlooks after Yellow Mounds.
We had this picture taken by a very nice
volunteer at one of them.

About this time I had traded in the crutches
to try out using the walking sticks.
My hands were getting blisters on the palms
and my arms were getting sore too.
After 17 days, it was time to put
a little weight back on and check the reaction.
It actually went very well although I was
”walking” much more slowly than with the crutches.
Don’t I look like a pretty normal person here??

 

 

Then it was time to head back east and do
the other end of the drive and take
a look at the areas known as
“the door” and “the window”.

 

 

Walking up to the “door”
I thought this looked like what I
expect to see if I ever get to Egypt.

 

  

 

As we approached, I asked David
how tall he thought these grassy mini buttes
were.  He said about 6’.
What do you think??

 

 

He’s 5’10”

 

 

David decided at the door to go on inside
and walk around a bit in the Badlands.

 

 

 

When he came back, I asked what it was like.
He said walking on the moon only there is gravity.
Can’t wait until I can do it!!

 

 

Our last stop of the day was  at “the window”.

I saw this fellow munching as I walked
slowly along the boardwalk.
I was walking so  slowly that I didn’t cause him to
even bat an eye.  :-)

 

 

The “window” looked out on what I thought resembled
a Roman ruins.

 

 

On this last boardwalk,  I thought I’d
try no crutches and no sticks.
So here I am on my feet unassisted.

David recorded the momentous event
from the car he had driven to the end
of the boardwalk to shorten my walk.
Neither Nurse Nancy nor Nurse Sparky
were here to object.  :-)

 

 

Pretty happy about this.

 

After we got back and had dinner
Terri and Mike came over and
Terri brought one of her famous pies
(eat your heart out Paul).
So here is the beauty

and it tasted as good as it looked.
Notice whose plate that first piece is on.
:-)))

 

 

We are both taking off tomorrow in opposite
directions but it has been wonderful to
see them these past two days.
Sure hope they show up in Florida in January or February.
And you too Katie!!