Badlands, Bison, South Dakota, Travelog

Pre-paving the adventure

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Should we stay or should we go?
Wind warning! Should we stay or should we go?

Many different philosophical and spiritual teachers discuss the notion of pre-paving, be it through deeds, thoughts, affirmations, visualization, or praying. Today, Liz and I appreciated the pre-paving of our adventure through experience from just the past few days.

The switch from Daylight Savings Time has really affected our travels in that it has gotten dark before 5pm. Having to be navigated, situated, and camped before sunset has proven difficult. Luckily, the moon is almost full right now and the pre-paving already happened.

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We have heard great things about Badlands and were eager to get there. But, today began with yet another wind advisory, cautioning light and “high-profile” (aka RViejo) vehicles against traveling in the 20-30 mph winds with gusts up to 50 mph. The advisory was from 8am to 4pm, prime travel time, across the entire region from Custer State Park where we were staying to Badlands. We debated all morning whether to attempt the drive and ultimately decided at noon to give it a shot. This was not our first wind advisory nor our first drive in heavy winds. Thank you pre-paving.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABrQkea1Iys

We traveled slowly, took a 2-hour break to do laundry and for Liz to have a really good burger at a truck stop in Hermosa, and arrived at the ghost town of Scenic at 4:15pm.

Ghost town (mostly) of Scenic
Ghost town (mostly) of Scenic

The purveyor of the sole open business confirmed that the 15 miles to our intended camp site on Sage Creek Road was indeed all dirt and gravel.

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Luckily, we had tackled just a road on the way to Devil’s Tower 2 days prior. Pre-paving at work. Undeterred, we set out on our course.

As we weaved our way across moon, rocks, grassland, and farms, the moon rose majestically over the horizon. The sun set beautifully, as the guides we read claimed it would.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMC4aitde1E

We then encountered the bison, which the purveyor also spoke about. Had we not run across all the bison in Yellowstone, these sunset encounters would have almost certainly sent us back. However, this time we took the beasts’ presence in stride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyBLfhOSDt4

 

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They were a welcome and enjoyable addition. Pre-paving again.

Their excrement was another story. Rubi found it particularly important to investigate.

Very important investigation underway
Very important investigation underway

Tonight’s camping is free, but is boondocking in the backcountry. We even got to sign the register!

The bathrooms are clean and pleasant, but beyond those vault toilets we’re on our own. Water and heat are for us to provide. Luckily, boondocking is becoming old hat. We may even be getting good at it. 🙂

The evening has not been without novelty. After being in bear country, we were happy to feed Rubi outside the van. Just after bringing her in from the cold, we heard a coyote braying a bit too close to our door. Since the door was not shut properly, we quickly addressed the issue, sending a haunting slam through the valley. We haven’t heard from him or her again. Here’s to a peaceful night’s sleep and an enjoyable tomorrow.

Travelog

Peaceful hikes, peaceful nights

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The day began peacefully with some warm coffee, a little tetherball, a clothed visit with the ranger, and some cereal. Then we were off for our first real hike on this adventure..

After wandering through the campground looking for the trailhead sign we saw the previous night on the way in, we arrived at the edge of the campground. Confused and a little defeated, we let Rubi wader through the tent camping sites as we doubled back to the host station. Finally finding the sign, we continued up the campground road on our way to Centennial trailhead.

Forty minutes later, we still hadn’t reached the trailhead. Instead, we found brief cell tower reception, a boat dock, more deserted (or, more accurately, closed) campsites, and a well-worn unofficial trail leading around Sheridan Lake. Rubi thoroughly enjoyed being off leash, sniffing the grassland and trees, investigating more deer poop pellets, and romping along the lake’s edge.

We packed up camp as 3 new campers arrived. Happy at our luck of having the campground to ourselves for the night, we ventured off to the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Everyone we spoke to raved about Crazy Horse and enjoyed it more than Mount Rushmore. Liz and I would agree.

The memorial’s scale is huge as is the mission to promote better understanding and appreciation of native people.

Crazy Horse scale model (foreground) and construction of full monument (background)
Crazy Horse scale model (foreground) and construction of full monument (background)

Currently, only the face and part of the arm are completed. They have removed 6 million tons of stone, but still have 1.5 million left. It’s unclear how long the project will actually take to finish. Since the project refuses to take any state or federal money, it relies entirely on private donation, visitor’s fees, and sales at the gift shop and restaurant for funding. If you’re in the area, head over and support the project.

The story of Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor, and his life’s dedication to the project is quite moving. The fact that his wife, until her death this year, and 7 of his 10 children continue to work on the memorial after Korczak’s death in 1982 speaks to the family’s commitment and dedication.

After Crazy Horse, we took a short drive to Custer State Park. It was relatively quiet, with a few other RVers on the property. We plugged in, took hot showers, and enjoyed a bowl of matzo ball soup to warm up before turning in for the night.

Another Van-cooked meal (matzo ball soup) over route and camp planning
Another Van-cooked meal (matzo ball soup) over route and camp planning
Travelog

Crossing into the Dakotas

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr8QDAan0pQ

We are spending the night in the Black Hill Mountains of South Dakota, like Rocky Raccoon. The day started with our thinking we had the entire Keyhole State Park campground of Pat’s Point in eastern Wyoming to ourselves. While getting dressed with the windows open, the ranger approached us. I guess people actually go to work on Monday morning. Since there was literally no one else at campground, he looked past Rubi playing tetherball off leash.

We decided to go the most direct way to Devil’s Tower, on a road that turned to gravel at the park’s edge and turned to very well-maintained dirt and gravel about two miles later.

12 miles of this on the "direct" route
12 miles of this on the direct route

A mile or so after that, I realized that our driving 12 miles per hour on the direct road would result in a 15 minute longer driving time than if we’d just stuck to the regular roads and driven around the park. But by then we were on an adventure and happy to drive off the beaten path. RViejo got a little dusty, but handled very well.

Devil’s Tower involved a nice visit with the prairie dogs and an hour-long hike sans Rubi since it was again a national park.

So cute!
So cute!
As we approached
As we approached

Devil's Tower

Two hours later, we arrived in Deadwood, SD.

South Dakota

We drove through the cute, historic town quickly as we were attempting to make the Mt. Rushmore light show, which everyone said was the best part of the national monument. We arrived at Mt. Rushmore at 4:45pm, but it was already mostly dark and there were literally about a dozen people at the entire site. As far as we could tell, there is no light show in the fall. 🙁

Just lights...no show
Just lights…no show

Mt. Rushmore

We later realized that Deadwood is where Liz’s paternal grandmother Hazel was raised. Maybe we’ll go back. We also looked for the Horse Thief Inn, but only saw the Horse Creek Inn. The Horse Thief Inn is where Liz’s grandmother worked and there are early pictures of Jim Moore, barefoot, on its grounds. We couldn’t find the Horse Thief Inn on a map either, so we assume it closed.

The moon is mostly full so the stars are out, but not as plentiful with the moon’s bright light. It did make for a pleasant evening stroll with Rubi, without the need for headlamps. The pines swooshed in the gently breeze and we heard a few ducks settling in for the evening as well.

RViejo

RViejo

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Ever since we started this trip, people have been asking what our vehicle is called. For the record, neither Liz nor I are in the habit of naming cars. My first car, a grey 1990 Honda Civic, was “My Civic”. My second car, a silver 2003 Volkswagen Golf, was “The Golf”. Thus far, our current vehicle, a 2006 Gulf Stream Vista Cruiser on a Freightliner Sprinter chassis with a Mercedes Benz engine that’s white with beige RV accent paint, has been the “The Van” or “The Rig” or “The RV.”

The Rig

The Van had 23,000 miles on it when we bought it in 2014, meaning it had been driven very little. It was in very good condition, with everything working properly and with few signs of use. It had a few quirks from the beginning, the most notable being this wood storage container mounted to the dinette table.

Custom made from the original owner, we think
Grandpa’s Box, custom made by the original owner we think

We have made good use of it, as you can see, but from the beginning called it “Grandpa’s box.” There was also a little wastebasket screwed into the side of the passenger’s seat and empty holes from where who knows what used to be affixed, our guess mainly for organization. So began the theory that an elderly gentleman had bought the RV new, intended to use it for weekend fishing trips with or without Mama, and then died.

We ran the Carfax report and found a story rather consistent with our fabricated one. Someone bought the vehicle near LA with cash, owned it until 2013, and then it went to auction. At some point, it traveled from California to Arizona where we purchased it.

Meanwhile, in Mexican culture, an old man, both literally and a husband you’re forced to keep around, is called “Viejo.” Liz’s stepmom called her father, Jim, viejo all the time, as in “Come on, Viejo, get your own pills, you silly man” and “Ay, Viejo!”

While driving down the road, talking about Jim Moore, thinking about our rig, we realized (OK, I said it because I can’t help but come up with horrible names that are puns, like our dog L.B., thus named because he was both a “lazy butt” and from the pound. I’m so clever!) that we might call our RV “ouR Viejo.” So, for the time being, that’s what he is.

Leaving Seattle, Travelog

Day 1: Finally on the road!

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When we finally picked the van up on Friday afternoon, Victor at the auto shop told us that there was a bad connection on the cable that connected the battery to the chassis ground. There was corrosion all over the connection. He claimed, multiple times, that all of this had NOT been our fault. If any of you believe otherwise, we don’t want to hear it. It’s much easier to blame someone else! We were also thrilled to hear that our house battery was also in good shape, holding a charge well.

Goodbye Seattle!
Goodbye Seattle!

We bid Seattle farewell and headed to trusty Issaquah, about 10 miles east of Seattle, for the night.

First RV park!
First RV park!

We were finally (finally!) on the road!

Cheers to van dwelling!
Cheers to van dwelling!
Leaving Seattle, Lessons learned, Travelog, Unexpected twists

Day 0.75: Almost on the road

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Comfy hotel outside Seattle as we're waylaid again
Comfy hotel outside Seattle as we’re waylaid again

The day before…

Day 2 of our unexpected delay brought some good news. While the alternator is fried, the shop can build a new cable and get us on the road (fingers and toes crossed) tomorrow. In the meantime, we’re staying at a lovely hotel enjoying a king-sized bed, a truly hot shower, and regular electricity.

Many blame Mercury in retrograde for our mishap. Liz and I blame ourselves. Today, we both finally understand why power management of our house battery is so important. And why we were crazy not to immediately find shore power once our system started failing. The liquid propane detector beeping because it has low power is not just annoying–it’s the canary in the coal mine. Get more power to that battery, quick!, or your battery will reach the point of no return.

I had already come to the conclusion that boondocking, living without additional power sources, was difficult. But I couldn’t articulate exactly why until now. Yes, it’s weird to wear a headlamp and use camping lanterns inside a vehicle equipped with LEDs. Sure, it’s a little funny to wash your face with water from a water bottle since the rig’s water pump won’t work. It really would be nice if the generator would start to power up the battery, but I guess we can do without it. What the fuck were we thinking!?!

Thank goodness we learned this lesson in Seattle, where we know the area, still have our second car (which is very Rubi friendly), have plenty of hotels, and know how to deal with the rainy weather. Let’s hope and pray we never get into this situation again!

The day after…

Leaving Seattle, Travelog, Unexpected twists

Day 0.5: Stuck off the road

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A real bed...heaven!
A real bed…heaven!

The day before…

The next morning, the Golf started just fine, but the RV again took a couple cranks to turn over. It was raining, and the wipers were jumpy when I turned them on. I thought it was related to the fact that wipers didn’t seem to wipe well—I was actually glad that I might have found the solution, namely that the guys who did a little body work for us put them on too tight. As we drove the few blocks to the marina, three dummy lights came on on the dashboard. “This isn’t good,” I thought to myself. Once Liz parked the Golf, I told her to come check out the dashboard. I turned off the van to see if that would reset it, and it wouldn’t start. Battery #3: dead. We used the Golf to jump the van (we had just found the jumpers the night before), and decided to drive it to our local mechanic, who works on all foreign automobiles. We drove about 2 blocks when all the lights in the dashboard flickered in and out. We also realized the van wouldn’t shift out of first gear. More nervous than I’d been in a long time, I eased the van back down the hill to the marina. We called roadside assistance and told them we thought our alternator was bad and that we needed a tow. We put Rubi into the Golf and went back to the coffee shop in our old building to wait.

Three hours later, the tow truck finally came. The driver asked what the problem was. We told him, to which he replied, “You can’t jump a diesel with a car. You need to jump a diesel with a diesel.” He then used his Dodge RAM 4500 truck to charge our battery. We insisted he take the van for a drive before leaving. He agreed that something was funny, but suggested that he use his portable battery jumper to give it a nice jump and then that we drive to the repair place while he followed behind us.

Liz got into the van, I got into the Golf with Rubi, the tow truck driver got into his truck, and we started up the hill. At the same intersection where I freaked out, the van basically lost all power and stalled out. Liz was as freaked out as I had been. The tow truck driver had to then hitch up the van and we followed him to the mechanic. That was Wednesday afternoon, at about 4pm.

We left the van, both batteries dead, and headed to the La Quinta, which is dog friendly and about 3 blocks from one of the apartments we rented in Seattle. We just couldn’t seem to get out of town!

Rubi enjoyed the freedom, warmth, and dryness of the hotel room, as did we. We ordered some Chinese food and tried not to worry.

The day after…

Leaving Seattle, Travelog, Unexpected twists

Day 0: We’re officially van dwellers

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The day before…

The morning of the walk through was completely frantic. After sleeping on the air mattress, we work up early. We still had to load my car with all the Pittsburgh stuff, take out a ton of trash, throw all of the Goodwill remaining items into a vehicle, and clean the apartment some more. We had moved our clothes into the van, but hadn’t moved the refrigerator, kitchen, pantry, or Rubi items in. We woke up at 7am, with the walk through scheduled at noon.

I started on the task of loading up the Golf’s trunk, which went well but took a ton of time. It was packed to the gills, but at least all the items were safely hidden by the trunk cover, so we could leave the car at the marina for Nicole without worrying about it looking like a good break-in target. Right as I was finishing, the movers for our next door neighbor arrived, monopolizing the single elevator. So Liz and I took turns running all everything else down the 3.5 flights of stairs to the garage while the other person cleaned and cleaned. Since the trunk of the Golf was full, we basically just piled all our shit around the car.

At 10:30am, we asked if we could do the walk through at 1pm instead. I also moved the van to an open parking spot on the street in front of the house so we could eventually load it. By 12:30pm, I was sorting through everything in the garage, placing Goodwill items in the Golf, van items in the van, and wondering how we ever managed to accumulate so much stuff. I feared it would NOT all fit in our small space. I also moved the Golf out of the garage so we could turn in all our keys.

When the walk through was over, we were left with this:

Moved out!
Moved out!
How did we get so much stuff?
How did we get so much stuff?
Before the afternoon of organization
Before the afternoon of organization
Can't leave the Golf looking like this
Can’t leave the Golf looking like this

After a refreshing sandwich from Subway outside our former home and a nice final visit from our friend Clare, we migrated everything to the marina to repack and further purge. As darkness descended, we were wrapping up and Liz readied herself for a final Goodwill run. Which is when we realized the Golf’s battery was dead. That was battery #1. We were ready to jump the Golf with the van when some guys came over and helped us with their beat up diesel truck. We welcomed not having to move the rig and Liz was off to Goodwill.

I was left in the rig. I put away our dishes and realized the RV’s house battery (for the lights, heater, fridge, etc.) was low. We luckily have a meter that tells us the voltage that the battery in the back is putting out. It should be 12.6V or higher when healthy. Once it gets to 12.0V, it’s only about 60% charged. And if it goes below 11V, you could be in real trouble. Ours was at 8V. I turned on the engine, which should allow the coach battery (the one that starts the car and powers car-related things like the radio and the power windows) to charge the house battery. Normally, that immediately pops the voltage up to 14+V. The van took a moment to turn over and then started. But the house battery stayed at 8V. I started to get worried and figured the best thing to do was to turn off everything that was drawing power and just use our camping lanterns and headlamps.

I told Liz about my concern about the RV, but we were both too focused on making sure the VW recharged so we could leave it at the marina for my sister Nicole, who was planning to fly out the following week and drive it back to Pittsburgh for me. We took a long ride for dinner to recharge the Golf battery, hoping it would work despite it being nighttime and raining.

Since we were also worried about the RV, we took it for a night drive as well, filing up the air in the tires and getting gas so we’d be ready to begin our adventure on Wednesday morning. I checked the voltage the whole drive and for some odd reason it wasn’t budging about 8V.

We knew the battery in the back was a problem, but it was 11pm and we were exhausted. We really needed shore power, meaning a 30 amp plug like they have at RV parks and marinas to give our battery a good charge. We looked to see if we could run our RV cord through the fence back to our old boat slip, since we still had the marina key, but it wouldn’t fit. We decided to go to bed and deal with it in the morning.

Once we found our parking spot for the evening, we tried to start the generator, so it could power the battery. But the battery was so low, it wouldn’t start. It was clear we had killed battery #2. So, we boondocked down by Lake Union, a couple blocks from our old house, on Tuesday night, sleeping without heat and using camping lanterns. The irony is that Liz and I had both watched this video from the Hipster Gypsies, where he was completely freaked out when his battery got to 1V.

We were too green and tired to realized what a pickle we were about to be in.

The day after…

Leaving Seattle, Travelog

Day -1: Our original departure date

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We decided to delay our move out by a day. Despite selling all of our stuff, including the boat, we ran out of time to go through all our papers and other belongings. We also still needed to clean the apartment and load my car with items bound for Pittsburgh. Luckily, the property manager was actually somewhat sick on Monday anyway, and was happy to delay the walk through until Tuesday.