Friday, October 10, 2014

WILLISTON NORTH DAKOTA TO STURGIS SOUTH DAKOTA & HAPPY TO FIND A NICE QUIET RV PARK

THIS IS THURSDAY’S POST

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AND I EVEN CAUGHT THE SHADOW COWBOY IN THIS PHOTO OF OUR ‘DAYS END’ RV PARK IN STURGIS SOUTH DAKOTA

Unfortunately in my Thursday night tiredness I accidentally deleted my whole Thursday post so had to start all over again this morning.  Hate when that happens.

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A FEW LAST PHOTOS OF SOME BUILDINGS SEEN IN THE CORNER GAS EPISODES…THIS IS THE DOG RIVER POLICE STATION ON MAIN STREET ROULEAU WHERE DAVIS & KAREN HUNG OUT

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THE RED BRICK DOG RIVER HOWLER BUILDING & BURNED DOWN FOO MART ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE DOG RIVER POLICE STATION

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A FREIGHT TRAIN ROLLS INTO TOWN & THE DOG RIVER HOTEL JUST A COUPLE BUILDINGS UP FROM THE POLICE STATION ON THE SAME SIDE

We think it was the cold that woke both of us up around 5 a.m.  Neither Kelly or I are hardy cold weather folks anymore.  I didn’t even get out of my P.J.’s, just pulled my clothes on over them.  No morning music & we didn’t even bother with coffee.  Knew if we could get the rig started we would have heat so made the decision to head on out of town & move further South.  Thanks again to our ‘battery boost’ it started.  Thought about trying to find an RV repair place in Williston but in the end we just wanted to get moving so off we headed right into the Williston morning rush hour traffic.  This seems to be a booming area so traffic was heavy but worse than traffic was all the road construction stretching for about 40 miles south down highway 85.  It was a nail biter all the way as we dodged & deeked around endless arrays of orange cones.  By the time we drove ourselves out of the twisting construction zones I was just about totally drained.

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OUR HEAD HONCHO & JACK OF ALL TRADES CHECKS FOR A ‘RE-SET SWITCH’ IN THE ENGINE COMPARTMENT

Soon as the sun was up Kelly had the coaches manuals out trying to troubleshoot our problem.  She is such a patient person with things like that.  Plugged her computer into the cigarette lighter & clicked onto a couple RV forums looking for help.  Wasn’t long & she was on the phone trying to line up an appointment with an RV repair place to have a look at our problem .  Luckily she found one in Whitehead just West of Sturgis so that was our destination Thursday morning.  Found ourselves still kinda feeling down in the dumps about not only our electric problem but the whole trip so far.  We were at least bolstered by a bright sunshiny morning with reasonable temperatures.  It is very easy to feel down when one is overtired & stressed for whatever reasons which I’m sure many traveling RV’ers well understand.  

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Pulled into Northern Homes & RV just West of Sturgis South Dakota.  They had the coach in their shop for half an hour & came back with the news our inverter is shot & we would need to replace it for a cost of $2,600 plus labor.  We said thanks but no thanks.  We will get a second opinion on that & I see a trip to Solar Mike’s over in Slab City coming up next month.  We trust Solar Mike to be honest with us.  Of course a trip to Slab City always means a stop in one of our all time favorite places.  Borrego Springs is just West of the Salton Sea:))

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NICE LOOKING PARK WITH LOTS OF TALL AUTUMN FOLIAGE TREES

We were feeling so weary from days & days of stressful travel we decided an RV Park was in order.  Found a nice one right in Sturgis called ‘Days End’ at the intersection of highway 34 & I-90.  A few rigs parked here & there & nobody in the office so found us a quiet spot & shut er down.  Turns out we had full hook-ups for $23 a night.  Totally acceptable.  And Oooohhhhhh how nice to have running water again.  Ran an ordinary extension in through a window & we had electric.  I know I grumble a lot about crowded RV Parks but no crowding here.  It was off-season & we were happy campers.  Didn’t take us long to fire up a couple nice soothing hot showers.  We began feeling human again as our weariness quickly began to fade.  Optimism quickly returned:))

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STOPPING AT THE OFFICE TO REGISTER

Our plans for the morning are to hop into the Jeep & head off to see MOUNT RUSHMORE, the town of Custer & take us for a drive through the Black Hills.  Kelly is still battling a cold & low energy levels so we’re probably going to stay here a few day, relax & just soak up some nice weather while it lasts.  Gonna enjoy some Park facilities as well.

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Sturgis itself seems to have a lot of bars, saloons, & various eateries.  Pretty little town with an old main street off to one side.  If Sturgis sounds familiar it may be because of the annual motorcycle rally here every year.  Summer of 2015 will be their 75th year holding this big event.  Thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts plus a few bad dudes probably thrown in for good measure too.

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THIS STURGIS MOTORCYCLE SHOP SELLS ‘INDIAN MOTORCYCLES’

Now to address that ‘comment’ in our Shout Box questioning my honesty.  The comment’s writing style & tone looked familiar!!   First, as I have mentioned many times in my posts I use Facebook at the end of each day to drop my daily post in.  That’s it.  I sometimes get a few comments & ‘Likes’ so I go back in the morning to have a look.  Unless Kelly mentions to me about something she has seen on Facebook & I don’t use it & am not active on it.  And two, I had a Twitter account about 3 years ago which I used like Facebook to drop my posts in at the end of each day.  Hadn’t done that for a long time & thought I’d start again a couple months ago.  I have never sent a Tweet other than my post at the end of the day…………………………………     

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KELLY TOOK THIS PHOTO OF PHEEBS THURSDAY NIGHT

GROANER’S CORNER:((  You may not know that many non-living things have a gender. For example:
1) Ziploc Bags -- They are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
2) Copiers -- They are Female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
3) Tire -- Male, because it goes bald and it's often over-inflated.
4) Hot Air Balloon -- Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it and, of course, there's the hot air component.
5) Sponges -- Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
6) Web Page -- Female, because it's always getting hit on.
7) Subway -- Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
8) Hourglass -- Female, because over time, the weight can shift to the bottom.
9) Hammer -- Male, because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.
10) Remote Control -- Female. Ha! You thought it'd be Male. But consider this -- it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying.

9 comments:

  1. So nice that you have a house as a home base once you get down to the southwest. Even though you still have to figure out what's going on with the rig, at least your winter doesn't depend on getting it fixed right away. :) I'm glad you found an rv park you can enjoy.

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  2. Great place to stay put for a few days. Many great things to see.

    Hope Kelly gets to feeling better.

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  3. Our next door neighbors have a Harley and got married in Sturgis last year at the big rally. I loved Mt. Rushmore...In one of the bars down town they re-enact the shooting of Bill Hickcock and it's pretty neat...They also have a Boot Hill Cemetery where Calamity Jane is buried, if I remember correctly. Also...watch the movie on how Mt. Rushmore was built...very interesting. Glad you didn't turn around and go back home...Luckily you do have a stix and brix in Arizona!

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  4. The absolute best prices ive seen on quality inverters is at imarine.com. You could buy from there and get Solar Mike to install once you get south. Glad you got some heat and warm showers.
    Nina a

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  5. Glad you are having a few days to relax
    it makes all the difference. We are only a state or so away from you,we are on the Idaho/Utah border. Just north of Salt Lake City.

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  6. Ahhh when I saw RV park in your title, I went WHAT???? now I see why.

    When our inverter stopped working, Steve took the cover off (after unhooking any and all power sources) he found a loose connection. Tightened it up and put the cover on... restarted the power from the solar and batteries, and VOILA! It worked!

    So if you have someone else along the way check it out again, perhaps they can try that?

    We trust Solar Mike too, and he won't steer you wrong. Good guy....

    Karen and Steveio

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  7. This is stupid I know, but will mention it, as if I know anything at all. When we were having probs with electrical a month or so ago, it turned out to just be the GFI thingy.. ours is on the outlet in the bathroom and that little red button was poked out, got tripped somehow and just poked it back in and everything worked... Also in MY RV you can't run the tv and microwave at the same time or it trips the reset inverter button... just maybe???

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  8. I had the same problem with a gfi breaker in the bathroom and lost all AC power but that was on shore power, the inverter turns 12 volt DC to 120 volt AC which could be a bad inverter but when plugged in to shore power the inverter should be by passed completely. The confusing part is the lack of engine battery power, that is separate from the house batteries unless momentarily connected with the switch for starting. The engine battery could be dead and the alternator would provide power for running once the engine starts. A simple cheap volt meter to check the engine battery could prove or isolate that.
    Another thing, do you have AC power with the generator?
    Mickey

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