Days 62 thru 64 - Aftermath

Day 62 - Saturday - source of the leak

Tomorrow we'll be heading up to North Dakota and although Lance at the Ford dealer said we could keep the loaner we've decided not to, for 2 reasons:  1.  We'd have to drive separately and 2.  It's an old (2008) gas guzzler.

So we drive both the RV and the loaner into Spearfish and return the car.  It's time for lunch and we drive down to Dickey's Barbecue for lunch.  We discovered them a few days ago and like the food.  It's when we're returning to the RV after lunch that Vicky notices that the roof air conditioner over the bedroom no longer has a cover.  As we'll soon find out, the technical name is a shroud.

It must have been blown off in the storm and that would account for the deluge we had yesterday.  We call our insurance company and several RV repair places to try to find a shroud.  We soon discover that most places have already sold out of shrouds - we weren't the only people to lose one!  We're close to Northern Hills RV, who did the previous work for us, and Sean, one of the owners, agrees to take a look and see if he has a shroud that will fit.  He gets up on the roof with the only shroud that might fit - it doesn't - and informs us that there is also serious damage to the air conditioner unit itself.  He takes a couple of pictures for us.  The insurance says an adjuster will be in touch on Monday and so we drive back to Spearfish, park overnight in the Walmart parking lot, and hope it doesn't rain (it doesn't!).

Day 63 - Sunday - on to North Dakota

It's time to head north, and US85 looks dead straight on the map except for a couple of turns.....and it is indeed straight.  Didn't know the Romans were in North America! We follow the familiar route from Spearfish through Belle Fourche, and at the northern edge of that town, where we have previously turned right to the camp area by the reservoir, we keep going.  Soon we're out of town and traveling through ranch country, with rolling meadows.

This gives way to grasslands, with many views of cows, but little else to tell us where we are, as it looks the same everywhere.  This is not to say it doesn't have beauty - although it's not the native grassland, it does give us an idea of what the prairies looked like (minus the bison) before white settlement.  The major town in northern South Dakota on US85 is Buffalo (pop 353).  We stop there for a cup of coffee at the only place open on Sunday, a cowboy bar with a sign saying "Soup of the day: whiskey".  Speaking of signs, I've attached a copy of the road sign just south of this town.  Bison (pop 336) is about 50 miles east of Buffalo and since there are several towns between the two, I think somebody at the highways department has a sense of humor.

Continuing north, it's not too far to North Dakota and 16 miles north of the state line, our destination for the night, a city park in Bowman, SD.  Lorella and Tom, the camp hosts, have sent us a welcome email and Lorella gives us the rundown on the area.  The campground is nice, next to the BNSF railroad tracks, and we have grilled hamburgers and a good night's rest.

Day 64 - picking up a car, and finding a cute town

Monday should be a short trip - about 58 miles north on US85, now known as the Theodore Roosevelt Expressway, to its junction with I-94 at Belfield, then 15 miles west on the interstate to Medora.  However, as you remember, we don't have a car at this point, so we make a detour to the huge town of Dickinson ND (pop 23,000).

I mentioned the scenery during the drive up to Bowman.  Well it doesn't change much for most of today - except that we see fields of corn, sorghum and, surprisingly, mustard as well as the inevitable cows.  We take back roads up to Dickinson which probably accounts for the fields of crops - this is farm country.  The roads are quite narrow and on the rare occasions we meet another vehicle I slow the RV down and pull to the right, scaring Vicky with our proximity to the edge of the road.

In Dickinson we've reserved the smallest car that Enterprise car rental has, and it's waiting for us.  The website said it might be a Chevrolet Cruze.

This is North Dakota and the smallest car they have is a 4x4 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.  They give it to us for the price of a subcompact but we won't talk about the gas mileage!  However, it has every super luxury accessory you can name and is very comfortable to drive, and we certainly fit in with everyone else around here!

While in Dickinson we find a laundromat and have lunch while the clothes are driving.  Then Vicky drives the RV and I get to be a pickup truck driver for the 30 or so miles along I-94 to Medora.

This little town is the gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which is the reason we came up here.  About 10 miles before we hit town the scenery changes dramatically.  These are the North Dakota Badlands, ruggedly beautiful but quite different from the Badlands we saw in South Dakota.  Here there are no areas of green, just spectacular cliffs and mountains.

We're staying for a week at Sully Creek State Park, and the turnoff is just before the town, so we settle into the surprisingly quiet park before driving into town for our first view.  The park has a section for people with horses, so we'll be lulled to sleep by neighing.  What we see in Medora, and the details of the wonderful week we enjoy in this cute little town, will be my next post.