Back From S. Dakota

South Dakota Trip Day 1

Our plan was to drive from Jefferson County, MO to St. Joseph, MO and spend the night at either Beacon RV park or the AOK campground. Both parks were full so we drove to Rockport, MO and stayed at Tina’s Elk Motel and RV park. The Rockport KOA is out of business. Driving 380 miles in a day isn’t my cup of tea, I prefer to drive no more than 325 miles.
Tina’s motel was closed for renovation and half of the RV sites weren’t functioning. It was a self service RV park, put $16 in the provided envelope and drop it in the lockbox.
Just before 5:00 PM one of the nastiest thunderstorms we’ve ever experienced rolled through the area. The storm was accompanied with extremely high winds and biblical amounts of rain. We were just about to abandon the trailer in favor of the truck when the wind finally subsided.
After the storm had passed the clouds began to break up and we were treated to a beautiful sunset.



We had to weather a heck of a storm before we were rewarded with this sunset.

S. Dakota Day 2
We had a fairly short and easy drive to Sioux Falls, SD despite all the road construction in Iowa. We stayed at the Sioux Falls KOA. Once we were setup in our site we drove to Falls park in Sioux Falls. The park is quite beautiful and the falls were a series of three waterfalls.
When my wife fixed dinner for us we discovered low propane pressure. I had to switch to the propane tank on the passenger side of the Wildcat for the rest of the trip.

The falls in Falls Park in Sioux Falls, SD.

S. Dakota Day 3
On to Wall SD where we stayed at Arrow campground in Wall. We did our mandatory trip to Wall Drug of course. What’s up with fuel prices in S. Dakota? Regular gas is more expensive than the mid-grade gas. I’m not complaining, it just seemed strange. There was quite a bit of road construction on I-90 and in some places we had to cross over to the eastbound lanes. I wasn’t thrilled about driving west in the eastbound lane because if we would have had a blowout there wouldn’t have been enough shoulder to pull onto.

Small kids were concerned when the T-Rex would try to escape in Wall Drug's backyard mall.


S. Dakota Day 4
It was a short trip today to Horsethief RV park near Hill City, SD. We were assigned to campsite 51 which worked out good because the site right next to us (site 53) isn’t used anymore. The site itself was mostly gravel and dirt though. After settling in we took a short drive on highway 87 passed the campground to see just how tight the one lane, low overhead tunnels were that go to Custer State Park. Thank God we didn’t miss our turn into Horsethief or we would have had serious trouble trying to turn our rig around.


On the way to Horsethief this sign gave me the "willies." Fortunately the campground was right around the bend.


I wasn't expecting the tunnel to be nothing more than a hole blasted through the rock.

Ohh the familiar sights I grew up not far from the falls. What a nice picture. Too bad I didn't know you were coming through or maybe we could have met. As kids we use to ride bikes to the falls everyday and fish or play on the rocks. Can't say it was the smartest things our parents did back in the day, but times were different. Glad you are enjoying the state, minus a few hicups.