Nope. It is not
possible to have a better day. I
I woke up fairly well rested……6 hours is better than I
thought I would do. The bed was very
warm and soft. I was loving the new
sleeping bags. Really, really loving the
new sleeping bags. That was a plus.
Until Mike got up and said that it rained in on him all night and his bed was
wet and hot. Sure it rained in.
Still raining. I made
my way to the restrooms and did my morning get ready routine. My usual routine doesn’t include sticking my
head under a cold spigot of water to wet my hair for styling, but you get the general picture.
Back at the camper we struggled through breakfast. Tough to cook in such a small area. Egg and cheese burritos, cherries, tea, and
toast. Toast didn’t go with a burrito,
but we will have toast every morning to help fill us up. This wasn’t Harrison’s favorite breakfast
because he doesn’t like eggs, but we had to have one egg day. I am not overjoyed with the performance of
the fridge/cooler. The things on the top
didn’t feel very cold. We are at about
50 degrees outside, so I was hoping for a colder fridge. Not sure what will happen when we get to
sunny California. I found some Excedrin
and downed 2 pills. I seriously
considered 4. They did take the edge
off. A little. Just a tiny bit.
Finally broke camp at 9:20.
It was difficult to take the camper down under the tarp in the rain. One tarp strap broke, which broke Mike’s best
efforts at cheerfulness for a few minutes. Mike had taken a closer look at the driving
time for today, comparing Google directions to the Atlas. He said that Google directions said 7 hours
of driving to Mt. Rushmore. He estimated
that it would take 9 hours. He also said that Nebraska was just 5 miles away to
the west. Did we want to hit Nebraska since we weren’t going to hit that state
on the way home? Since we didn’t cross the state line last night. I said that was a good idea. That way, we could color in Nebraska on our
map of the United States that we have been working on for 5 years. Every time we visit another state we color
that state on the map. Goal = Take children to every state in the Union.
I now had the atlas from the back of the car in my possession, but I couldn’t, for
the life of me, find the road Mike said we were on or the towns we were going
through. I just got bifocals for the
first time and haven’t been very good at using them. I wasn’t sure if I was
seeing the Atlas properly. However after
30 min. I made Mike pull over because we should have crossed the Missouri River
25 min. ago! When I finally found the
town of Soldier, the crapbag was that we were going east instead of west! So back 25 more minutes! When we got back to where we started, Mike
asked if we still wanted to try going west to Nebraska. In for a penny, in for a pound, let’s do
it. 10 min. later we were crossing the
Missouri River on a gigantic bridge……that we almost slid off. I am not kidding. It was worse than an icy road. Our balance was off with the camper pulling
down on the hitch. It was so scary, I
started holding my breath and frantically praying. As we were descending the other side of the
bridge, the camper was pushing us down the slippery decline. Jesus was there
for us. That is all I can say. So Mike honked the horn because we crossed
the state line. I lobbied to go north in
Nebraska so we didn’t have to re-cross the bridge. Mike decided since we were so late we would
just go back again, which was the much quicker route, only more carefully on the way back. He told Natalie and I to get out our cameras
and take pictures of the bridge and water as we crashed into it…..I mean
crossed it.
Up to this point, we had worked like troopers cheering each
member of the party up as we each took turns being grouchy. Someone kept falling down, but we all knew we
had to stay happy, so as a team we would rally the down person each time
something hadn’t gone our way in the mess of breakfast/dressing/breaking
camp/sliding off the bridge. But when I
took out my camera and discovered the SD card missing…..I just about broke for
good. Last night I had put the SD card
in my computer to load up the pictures.
I forgot to take it out. Now it
wasn’t in the computer either. It was a
really big, expensive one. Plus it had
pictures on it.
So we got out of the car and turned everything upside down
to no avail. Drove back to the
campground, looked and asked for it. No
luck. So now we are just getting started on our 9 hour or more drive at 11:00
AM. To add insult to injury, we were
back on the whiplash road. Don’t judge
my typing. More later.........
Honk the horn! We’ve crossed the state line! Into South Dakota! Wide open spaces! Mike has decided to become a rancher.
Harrison driving again.
Stopped at a scenic overlook. We are having a lot of rain, which is a
bummer, but this is very captivating scenery as long as we are in the car
staying dry.
We love the look of South Dakota. Even in the rain.
We finally made it to Custer KOA Kampground. Twisty turny
roads. High elevation, rain, and fog
made it a bit treacherous, but the change in the scenery is captivating to
us. More rain. Arrived very late again. The next crapbag today was the puddle of
water and wet bed in the camper.
Apparently we aren’t water tight now that we have the extra wood panels. Not sure if I mentioned the wood panels in my remodel post. Mike extended the camper to make it taller so more comfortable beds would fit. It should seal, but apparently doesn't. I used the heater to blow on the bed, wiped
up the mess on the floor and then turned the heater on my wet clothes. It didn't turn out too badly except it is upsetting to know we are going to get wet every time it rains.
Dinner is a a big brouhaha that takes more than an hour and
a half despite my simple recipes. The
electricity on the camper keeps blowing a fuse or something and has to be reset
every 30 seconds. This is really a pain as it is located under the heavy
table of Natalie’s bed that is NOT easy to move. In frustration Mike and I sat
down on the dinette couch…….which of course broke and sank into the clothes.
More loveliness to add to the day.
We managed to have chili and cornbread. It took forever to cook because I was cooking outside and it is pretty cold. However, it was good. The cornbread, while not as good made in the microwave as in the oven, really tasted good tonight!
We were hoping to go to the Mount Rushmore Lighting Ceremony
that night, but rain and exhaustion changed our plans.
So with the camper leaking, the electricity not working, and
the broken bench. We aren’t feeling the
love for our camper anymore.
Up next: Mount
Rushmore! Benjamin Lincoln, Danny Kaye,
and Rattle Bears!
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