What we’ve been up to

As mentioned in our last posting, we had planned a vacation with David and Valentina to the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Last Thursday we tested our AC, given the high temps most of the country was experiencing.  We found ours didn’t work, and we needed to replace the control board somewhere/sometime.  On Friday morning we left; as of Wednesday night, we have just returned and are now ready for a couple of days of rest.  We still don’t have AC, but we did receive the replacement control board. 

We left the cabin last Friday with temps in the high 50’s and encountered more rain as we entered Duluth.  We also had a scare with our laptop dying, and hoped it was just in need of a battery replacement.  We got a replacement in Duluth and hit the freeway for Minneapolis.  On our way we started to back up all of our data to be safe, but the new battery quit along the way.  Now we got concerned.  By the time we got to Minneapolis, the temps had gone up to 105-106 depending on whose thermometer you might believe.  We did have AC from the dash, while the engine was running, but nothing in the RV end. 

We picked up David and Valentina in Prior Lake and headed across the state to Pipestone MN on state and US highways.  Eventually the temps dropped about 30 degrees and we saw people at our campground that night wearing jackets.  It was a long day – a little over 400 miles, so we turned in right away and played tourist at the Pipestone National Monument on Saturday morning.  We had brought David and his brother here 32 yrs ago, and now he showed his daughter around.

Saturday was another long day as we left Pipestone by mid-morning and pushed on to Custer SD by the end of the day.  In 1980, the evening show at Mt Rushmore was pretty dramatic, so we tried it again this year.  It was different, and OK, but not as dramatic. 

Sunday David and Valentina took our car and did their own sightseeing while us old folks took the motorcycle and played on the twisty roads – Sylvan Lake Rd, Needles Highway, and Iron Mt Rd.  It was a great day.

          

          

We had dinner at a great little pie shop in Custer, while David and Valentina spent the night camping at Devil’s Tower

         

On Monday we got together again by mid-day and we had a steak dinner together.  In the evening we introduced them to geocaching, where they found one on their first try.

Tuesday and Wednesday were a little easier return home: taking the Badlands Loop in the morning and stopping briefly in the afternoon in Mitchell SD (where we met Brett and Jen and their girls on their way west for a family vacation to Colorado). We hope they have as much fun as we did.

Now we are back in the Minneapolis area, where we have some social and maintenance duties to take care of, before beginning our next Nomads project next week.