The Trip West 2015 Vt to WI to MN to SD

The closing was supposed to take place on Aug 31, so on 8/30 we officially moved out of our house for the past 40 years and took up residence in our trailer at Hidden Acres Campground in East Dummerston. It was our intent to stay there just 2 nights and then be  on our way. However, problems with closing and Undischarged liens kept us there an additional 2 days.

Our spot - Hidden Acres

Home is where you park it

The closing finally took place on Sept 2 after a delay of 2 days. We are now Full Timers. On Sept 3 we left the Brattleboro area. With mixed emotions. On the road again and not believing it, we headed west towards Wilmington, Searsburg Mtn, Woodford Mtn and Bennington. Soon Vermont was in the rear view mirror and we were on our way to I 90 - a road that was eventually going to take us all the way to SD. But not just yet on this trip. First it was a stop at Carl & Hope's (brother and sister in law) in Philadelphia, NY.

Rest stop on I 90 in NY

Walmart- Utica, NY for Fishing License and some lunch

Fort Drum - Home of the 10th Mountain Division

Our stay at Carl & Hope's was to run from Thursday thru Sunday and we wanted to make the most of it - especially the fishing part. With everything involved with emptying out the house I had not had a fishing rod in my hands for almost 2 months. Not good. On Friday we fished Butterfield Lake and on Saturday drove to the other side of Fort Drum and fished Lake Bonaparte in Harrisville, NY. Beautiful little lake. The last time we were here the rumble of artillery fire was distinct in the distance. Not this weekend though.

While we were fishing Mary and Hope were doing their thing: shopping. On Friday night we travelled in to Watertown and had a nice meal at Red Lobster. Great time with great people. And then it was time to leave our friends.

Sunrise on Sunday morning - Philadelphia, NY

Home is where you park it. Carl & Hope's yard.

And then Sunday morning got here and it was time to leave. After a great breakfast served up by Carl & Hope we hit the road. Our first day travel plans were to get somewhere in the area of Cleveland, OH which would be a travel day of about 400 miles.  We actually  made it farther - by about 85 miles and stayed in rest area along I 90. It was a busy rest area.

Getting ready to head out and begin a new days adventure

With day 1 behind us, our goals for this day were to end up somewhere in the vicinity of Madison, WI. Again, another 400 + mile day.Oh, by the way, today was also Labor Day.  The day began for us at about 4:15 am and the first part of our trip took us through the rest of Ohio and on in to Indiana and it wasn't too long before we noted a sign for Howe, IN. Mary and I both looked at each other with the thought that the name of the town was familiar. And sure enough it was - the home of DRV Industries - the MFG of our new 5th Wheel.   For sure we pulled off I 90 to check it out. When we pulled in to a gas station to get some directions, we saw an amazing site:

Young Amish lad going fishing.

The boy was nice enough to give us directions to DRV Factory and while I was there asked him if he minded if I took a picture of his rig. Awesome picture. Then it was back down the road about a mile to the DRV Factory.

The sign outside the factory

Customer rigs outside the factory

And then there was us.

Just too bad it was Labor Day and the place was closed. Would very much have liked to stop by and have a look at our unit being built. It was actually supposed to be on the line at this time.

As we passed through Indiana, we saw signs of the RV Capitol it is supposed to be. In Elkhart we passed a number of RV Factories and then the RV Hall of Fame.  Kay & Joe Petersen, the founders of Escapees, are supposed to be inductees if I recall correctly. Continuing on, we went through South Bend, IN - the home of Notre Dame University as well as a few other schools. Around 9:45 we found ourselves in the Chicago area. It is a good thing this day was a holiday as I cannot imagine traveling in this traffic on a busy day.

Chicago has its share of crazy drivers too and I was just not lucky enough to have a camera handy to catch the guy that passed a guy on the right, cut across 2 lanes to the left and then lifted his arm out of the window  to give the guy he passed on the right the finger. All while traveling about 80 MPH.

All the while we have been on I 90 we've been using our EZ Pass to pay tolls. Chicago tolls got me to wondering if I had enough money pre-paid, so began thinking about next stop, signing in and adding some money to the pre-paid. Oh, and did I mention the problem with my credit card? Seems I should have let them know that I would be traveling and anyways, I had to get with them too to straighten out our travel plans with them so they would not be picking up our charges as potential fraudulent charges. Oh, and back to Chicago. I had the same kind of experience as I do when I get anywhere near New York City. Tension in the neck muscles followed by a  headache. Chicago driving did this to me and was I glad to exit and get back on open roads headed to Wisconsin. A good part of the afternoon was spent traveling in Wisconsin. I have to say traveling because we were in the west bound lane. If you were in the east bound lane- headed for Illinois, you were mostly parked. I have never seen a traffic jam like that one. Solid traffic, 2 lanes, stop and go, for over 50 miles. Totally unbelievable. Mary found us a great little campground to spend the night at in the town of Lake Delton, WI. Country Roads RV Park. I'll tell you how nice. When we posted on Facebook, got comments from 2 of our friends from AZ winter who are WI residents. One, from Eau Claire that it is one of their favorite campgrounds, the other that said they were located only 40 miles from where we were. Country Roads was good for us. After some hot showers, a glass of wine, and a little relaxation we were like new people. Ready for some more miles.

Our spot at Counry Roads RV Park

Tuesday,Sept 8 and time to move on again. Little challenging getting going this morning as we were right in the middle of a series of Thunder Storms and downpours. We did leave just after 8. In a downpour. And did it rain for at least the first 5 miles. We kept going and eventually drove out of it. Our target now was the Minnesota line.

Minnesota is a big state - at least the part we travelled in today. Very pretty. Very agricultural. Corn and Soy Beans is all you can see. Everywhere.

If we weren't looking at farmland, we were seeing trucks going by hauling hogs. Lots of trucks and lots of hogs.

Occasionally we saw some interesting signs.....

Mankato brought back memories of Little House on the Prairie. Rest stops along the way were very nice and we left each impressed.

Finally we passed through Sioux Falls and that left us with just another 40 or so miles to get to our night stop, Americas Campground in Salem, SD. When signing in we were quickly identified as Un-Dakotans. And when I told our story of emptying out our house and selling it and going on the road, they had a word for the process we just went through - de-crapitated. Anyways, park was very nice. Now batting 2 for 2 in overnight stays.

Park was not overly crowded and I did manage to walk over to Mobile Suites unit parked there and talk with owner about his rig. We talked for about 20 minutes and I left very impressed with the unit.

Wednesday morning arrived and it was time to pick up and head out. Todays destination is Box Elder. Along the way we saw some amazing sites, stopped in some awesome Rest Areas, and learned some things about South Dakota that we were never aware of. One of the first things we noted about the ride in South Dakota was the amount of sunflowers being grown.  Mary did some quick internet research and found out that SD is the largest producer of sunflowers in the country with over 617,000 acres planted.

At one point along I 90 I measured the length of one sunflower field at 1 mile long with a depth of field being as far as you could see. Mind boggling!  Also mixed in were fields of Milo and Corn and Sorghum. We took a rest break at Rest Area in Chamberlain, SD. And were we ever glad that we did. It was without doubt one of the neatest, prettiest, most fascinating Rest Areas we have ever stopped in. Pic's are worth a thousand words......

Chamberlain, SD Rest Area main building

Pretty amazing architecture in this Rest Area

View from the Main Bldg to the Missouri River below

A look from the hiking trail to the Main Bldg

Highway Patrol had an office in the Rest Area

Nice to see they got preferred parking......

 The inside of the Main Bldg was like a Museum - loaded with artifacts and displays of animals, native artwork. And of course a whole section just filled with tourist information. We really enjoyed our brief stopover here.


And then it was back on to  I 90 and crossing the Missouri River.

Along the way interesting signs presented themselves to us......

DeSmet exit announcing the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder

Check out the Speed limit out here

And then there were the trucks. We saw just about every size, shape, length, combination that you could imagine. From trucks pulling 5th Wheel Trailers and boat trailers, to Commercial Trucking Co's(i.e., UPS) pulling triple 27' trailers, double 45' trailers, to the totally unbelievable tandem dump trailer combinations. Again, a pic is worth a thousand words.....

All along I 90 in SD we kept seeing signs for Wall Drug. There had to be at least a million of them. We decided that we did indeed have to have a look......so, when we got to Exit 110, we pulled off and followed the crowd to Wall Drug. This place is for real. After we parked, we watched 3 tour buses unload / pickup people.

Wall Drug - caption Eat or be eaten

Note the bus zone

The other side of the street

The sidewalk in front of Wall Drug

I needed a rest

Wall Drug. With this experience over, it was now on to Box Elder - only about another 40 miles. We finally made it.

Main office of Americas Mailbox. Our camping area was around in back.

Our spot. 

Ellsworth AFB is off in the distance

Americas Campground - Box Elder

On our first full day here, we had a pretty hefty agenda. First up was a trip to DMV to get our South Dakota drivers licenses. No problem. In and out. Hardest part was finding the place, which we eventually did. Then it was off to Fischer Rounds Insurance Agency to sign Aps for our  new South Dakota based Truck, Trailer, and Umbrella policies. When we arrived Mary noted on their sign that they were also reps for BCBS, so after signing, we met with the Healthcare Rep and got all of the paperwork out of the way for our new Medicare and Medicare RX policies. This was definitely a bonus and something that we had not planned on. The person we spoke with was very helpful. From there, we got a recommendation of a bank where we planned on opening an account. So it was off to Black Hills Federal Credit Union in downtown Rapid City. This also went smooth. Opened up checking and a savings account. By this time we realized that we were hungry and that we had not had breakfast and it was time for lunch. And did we find a nice place to eat. Pizza Ranch. Buffet style lunch.  Had soup, salad, pizza, fried chicken, and pizza dessert.

When we got back, I started working on Ford Credit problems and getting Pennington County Clerk a copy of the Title for our truck so that we could register it here in SD. I did get through to someone at Ford credit who informed me that they had just gotten the Title 2 days ago and had already sent it off to Pennington County. That afternoon I got an email from Americas Mailbox(who is handling the registering of the truck) advising that the clerk had the copy of the Title and that I needed to complete one more form and give them a certified check for $168 to complete reg process. I immediately went over to the office and got all of this taken care of. They said, I could probably have my plates the next day, if everything went ok. Unbelievable day.

Day 2 here is going to be spent catching up- on this blog, getting the truck and trailer washed, cleaning out the trailer,  and a bunch of other odds and ends that need taking care of. But mostly a day of rest. We've earned it.