Colorado Thru South Dakota

This is a “catch-up” post since I haven’t blogged since we left Alamosa. I figure I can either “travel and experience” or “blog about the travel and experience”…I chose the first option.

As we drove beyond Denver we saw the Loveland Fire that’s been in the news with it's 740 acre burn

 

We stopped for the night in Wheatland, Wyoming, about 80 miles north of Cheyenne, staying at the Mountain View RV Park----no mountains in sight!

Wyoming has a lot of grasslands swaying in the breeze.

Coming into South Dakota you see a mark difference in the terrain.

We made good time and got into Rapid City about noon.  On the way we saw the Crazy Horse Memorial

Rapid City, per se, is pretty spread out

 

We stayed at the Elks Lodge Campground, going down Jolly Lane to the Lodge we drove by this produce stand with very unusual shaped brushes/trees outside. There were pipes secured to the trunks to support them.

After a fast set up we went to Lab Corp to get our drug testing done for amazon.com and then went to pick up our mail at Americas-Mailbox. It was nice to see “our home” and meet the office crew.  They were all very nice and greeted us like “family”. Part of our mail was our new license plates; so Jim took the time to put on our new plate on the truck.

After two days of hard driving we went to “chill” a little bit and went to bed early.

Tuesday we got to the DMV real early and had an easy time getting our new drivers’ licenses.  So we are official “South Dakotans” now but still claim Colorado…finally was able to get Jim a Colorado ball cap before we left so he feels better.

Next we drove out to see Mt. Rushmore…one of those Bucket List items.

Next we stopped at the gift shop there and bought new wedding bands for each of us.  Now we have the same rings as Rich and Terri and Tom and Nancy Doyle!

Driving over the rough and bumpy roads north of Denver and through Wyoming we saw that our microwave was sagging forward…like it lacked any bolts holding it in.  So again we are blessed with meeting wonderful people on the road, and we remembered we met Dennis Sides while he and his wife, Colette, at amazon.com in Coffeyville, KS, our first year there.  I remembered they summered at the Hart Ranch in Rapid City, so I called them and sure enough Dennis offered to take look at our microwave.

Well, “taking a look” ended up being a three hour job with completely taking out the microwave and all the backing and support boards….the damn thing didn’t have ANY bolts holding it in….ONLY the bottom two metal clips of the mounting board was holding it up and on.  With Jim’s help, Dennis had to reinforce the whole mounting section from hunks of wood he carries around and put everything back together.

The venting wasn’t completed at the factory so the microwave was venting into the rig instead of outside. So Mr. Jim Mossman, when we see you tomorrow MAYBE I can prevail upon you to see if you can put some decorative lattice on the top opening?

We’ve bumped along across South Dakota, Minnesota and now almost into Wisconsin and the microwave is holding tight; so, again, thank you Dennis for “starting again” for the season to fix our microwave situation!  Now you can shut down again for the season and go relax.

OK, folks, that’s it for today and tomorrow I’ll write about Wall Drug and the Corn Palace.

Remember, you are loved.

Long daaaaayyyyyy

Did enjoy our Spanish Omelets at The Campus Cafe yesterday morning before we took off from Alamosa. But it was a lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng day! We left about 8:30 a.m. and didn’t stop until 5:30 p.m., with two stops along the way.

We drove on the most direct route, taking I-25 straight up the state of Colorado and into Wyoming. We only intended to go as far as Cheyenne, but Jim said he wasn’t tired so we kept going.  We ended up in Wheatland, WY about 80 north of Cheyenne.

The ride was uneventful – once we stopped because we both thought we had a flat tire, but it was just the road sounds. But I-25 was really rough north of Denver. In fact, our microwave kind of loosened itself from it mountings and is sagging forward a little from the top.  Luckily, we met an RV tech in Coffeyville our first year at amazon.com (Lindas-that’s Dennis and Collette) and he HAPPENS to be in Rapid City working at the Hart Ranch, so we’ll look him up today and see if he can fix the microwave.

When I got up this morning (now our normal 4 a.m.) Jim said “I had another funeral this morning”. That’s his way of saying we caught another mouse. Man, oh, man, that makes what 10-15 by now? But it is that time of year I guess.

When it gets light we’ll head on in to Rapid City and should be there mid-afternoon. We are staying at the Elks Lodge campground.  That should be plenty of time to get our mail from Americas-Mailbox and our new plates for the truck and rig! And also give us time to get our drug tests done at Lab Corp which is required to work at amazon.com

Tomorrow we will get our drivers’ licenses and do some sightseeing.

More tomorrow…..remember, you are loved!