RV Sabbatical Adventure

We said goodbye to Montana and started our journey to the Black Hills in South Dakota on day 49. We love the Black Hills as we have visited on family vacations in the past with the kids. Theresa has fond childhood memories as she spent many summers at the family cabin in the Black Hills. We did not know when we booked this part of our journey that it coincided with the famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. We definitely experienced the sites and sounds of all the Harley Davidson motorcycles. We were pleasantly surprised that the rally did not impact travel around the area. The trip was uneventful and we rolled into the KOA by Mount Rushmore in the early afternoon.

The fun started as we were escorted to our RV site. To start, we were squeezed into a site where are neighbors were almost an addition to our RV. We also had no sewer and only 30 amp service. We had to balance running only one of the two A/C units. We also had to turn off the A/C when using the microwave. The real fun was leveling the RV on a slight downhill site. We learned a lot about what not to do. Key learning, it is important to level the RV before unhooking from the truck. We had not experienced this until this stop. Well we definitely did not make the adjustments with the blocks as needed. We spent the next hour trying different approaches. Through trial and error, we determined that we were not going to get the RV level for this stay. We have added this to our checklist going forward before unhooking from the truck. We wrapped up the day enjoying ice cream at the RV Park.

We spent Day 50 exploring the Black Hills starting with a visit to Crazy Horse. It had been 10 plus years since we had visited and the progress made was amazing. The Crazy Horse monument is an incredible story. It is a huge undertaking that will take many more years to complete. We have provided photos below for your enjoyment and it is a must see when visiting the Black Hills.

Next on the agenda was to visit Mount Rushmore. Another option was to take the scenic drive through Custer State Park on the Needles Highway. We decided to take the scenic drive on the Needles Highway as we had not done this before. We were not disappointed by our choice. Mount Rushmore is cool, but we had visited it on our previous 3 trips to the Black Hills. The views were amazing. We also enjoyed the many tunnels along the way. They were very tight in the truck. We have provided photos below of the amazing views. Highly recommend the Needles Highway scenic drive when visiting the Black Hills.

We made the most of our one full day in the Black Hills. On day 51, we packed up and headed for our one night stay in Chamberlain, South Dakota. Our travel days have been uneventful and Theresa has continued to be a master navigator. Today was different. Theresa drove for part of the trip. She wanted to gain experience behind the wheel with the RV. She did great and even pulled it into the truck stop for gas perfectly.

We stayed at the Oasis RV park in Chamberlain near Big Al’s Oasis. Big Al’s is a popular stopping point for travelers going and coming from the Black Hills. We enjoyed dinner at Big Al’s restaurant. We glad that we were only there for one night as we were right next to the highway. The sounds of the Harley Davidson motorcycles coming and going for Sturgis were constant. They definitely added to the experience being by the highway. The checklist approach to set-up and pack up has worked well for us until now. I forgot the hose splitter in the Black Hills. This oversight resulted in a trip to the hardware store to get a new one along with new quick disconnects. We now have this on the checklist. We wrapped up the afternoon visiting a sculpture of a Native American woman overlooking the Missouri River. The sculpture is an incredible site and we have provided photos for your enjoyment below.

We head out on Day 52 to visit family in Madison, South Dakota. The next post will recap our visit in Madison. Thanks for following and I hope everyone has a great Weekend!