Friday, April 29, 2022

Counting the Days

188 days

That is the number of days since we returned from our last great adventure. That does not count our few weeks to Oregon to help Forrest and Somer with their house. Plus, this is our first adventure with the new truck! We've been pretty much all packed up for almost two weeks waiting for the fields to be ready, but today is the day (4/26), we are finally hitting the road and starting our Great Summer Adventure (GSA)! 

Barb has organized things, so Dakota has pretty much the whole back seat to herself! Well, most of the time. Dakota even has a brand-new comfy dog bed and a mat to cover the front and back to minimize dog hair!

108 Days

On our last night home, Dan, Bonnie, Kevin and Cheryl came over to say goodbye and have one last beer. Well, one turned into two, which turned into 3, which turned into multiple shots of fireball, which turned into us playing Cards Against Humanity which turned into us moaning and groaning as we tried to open our eyes the next morning. Ugh! We are going to miss those guys! It will be 108 days until we see them again!

As much as we love it here, we are ready for a change of scenery.  We are not at all apprehensive about leaving the house. Between the alarm, cameras, locked gates, people we have staying at the house and our neighbors, the house will be in good hands. Our closest neighbor works from home and her office window faces our house, well within rifle range, so she calls or texts when someone comes down our driveway asking if she should fire a warning shot or not! 

7,169 days

Our first day was a rather short one. We stopped by to see our niece Alana in Spearfish. Alana and her husband Ryan recently moved to Spearfish from Denver. Barb and I have not seen her in 15-20 years. We talked about it and we could not exactly figure it out. She was probably 18 or 19 and now, well, she is older than that. We determined it was closer to 20 than 15 so we are going to will say 7,169 days. I certainly would not have recognized her if I saw her on the street. She said she would have probably recognized me as I look like "Grandpa". I am not quite sure how I feel about that. 

They recently got a French Bull Dog so now Zoey has a cousin! It was payback time for Zoey as Sophie bit, pulled and tugged on Zoey's jowls, does not feel so good on the receiving end does it?!?!?


After an hour or so of visiting, we were on the road to our first destination for our GSA; Faith, South Dakota, located right on the 45th parallel!
We spent the night at their city park. At $10/night with electric it was a bargain. There is one water spigot available for 6 sites but a huge Class A parked near us was hooked up to it so we did not take on any water. We have not de-winterized yet anyway as it is still below freezing at night. Speaking of freezing, it was so nice out when we arrived we did not turn on the heat when we went to bed. We woke up to our inside thermostat display 42 degrees. We rock, paper, scissored who was going to take the dogs out and turn on the heater. Damn, Scissors cuts paper and I was the big loser!
In the morning we found these two cool statues in town. 
Our destination the next day was just a couple hours down the road, Mobridge South Dakota. This is the oasis of warm weather that I found while doing my research. Plus, bonus, it was on a huge body of water which mean possible fishing! This is also where I had my first Perception versus Reality moment of the trip. In my mind I pictured us arriving in Mobridge, a quaint lakeside town where the locals are friendly and people lined the banks of the lake pulling in walleye after walleye, saying "The fish are right here!". The reality of it was much different. Although the town is nice enough, it was not quaint and the water levels were so low that you had to walk 1/2 mile to get to the edge of the lake and I did not see a single fisherperson in sight! Combine that with the 20-30mph winds and ....well, lets just say my perception blew away with the wind. 

All cannot be lost here though right? There must be something fun to do in Mobridge. So I got on The Google to see what there is to do in Mobridge South Dakota. Up popped this result from Trip.com 10 Best Things to do in Mobridge. Perfect, exactly what I was looking for. So I clicked on the link and up popped not 10 things but 6 things. Two of which were The Badlands and Bear Country U.S.A. both back near Rapid.  3 of the 4 remaining items were restaurants, one of which was Burger King! 10 things to do in Mobridge, well 6, and one of them Burger King? Well, at least we had the #1 thing to do in Mobridge; The Klein Museum, so off we went! Pulled into the parking lot "Closed for the Season". Mobridge was a bust. 

Wait, we did find one thing to see. A Cowboy Riding a Walleye Sculpture!
So down the road we went. Found a nice little overnight spot at the Fort Rice Recreation Area at the boat ramp. Barb found it on Freecampsites.net. We got all settled in and set up behind a berm which protected us from the wind and were set for the night. You never really know if can really stay at some of these areas so when the Sheriff drove by and just waved, we figured we were good to go. Nice free spot if you are ever in this area. 
The next day we drove to Mandan to check out some antique stores. We spent a few hours perusing the stores but did not find any treasures. Then we checked into a nice little campground called Hillcrest Acres RV Park so Barb could get some work done on her computer. She still does some work for her old work (which we appreciate very much!) so we wanted a place with good internet. While she was doing the I flushed the lines and de-winterized the rig. Hillcrest offered full hookups and great wifi for $40 a night. Another perfect overnight stop!

383 days

We arrived at the farm on day 4 of our GSA and are all tucked into the shop where it is warmer and out of the wind. They had been without power for over 6 days. It turned back on about an hour after we got there. I guess we brought some good luck!

On our journey we averaged 10mpg and saw diesel prices that ranged from $4.71(Bismarck)-5.89 (Minot). Both were about what we were expecting but we hope to see those fuel prices drop in the coming weeks. 

It has been 383 days since we started planting last year. Last year I arrived at the farm on April 11th and we started planting somewhere around the 15th. This year, it is more than 2 weeks later. Depending on weather and the soil, it will take 3-4 weeks to get everything in the ground. Sadly, we can only stay 12 days, not nearly long enough to get everything in the ground but hopefully we can put a good dent in it! 

40 comments:

  1. Wow, someone keeps great records to remember all the days from events!! I hope the rest of your travel adventures are wonderful ones!

    betty

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    1. Well, they are actually rough guesses but it does help having the blog so I can go back and refresh my memory!

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  2. Happy farming. It is that time of the year, we are starting to recognize the perfume of liquid fertilizer in the air here. Looking forward to your travels.

    Deb
    On a long and lonesome highway….

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    1. Ah, the sweet smells of spring. Ode De' Fertilizer, they could bottle that scent and sell it as a perfume.,... Not!

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  3. That bucking trout just goes to show you that every town has something interesting! Did you know that Sitting Bull was born near there and is supposedly buried there?

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    1. We did see that about Sitting Bull later when we were looking at another site. It some something about "the disputed" grave of Sitting Bull and of course the monument. We did not, however, make our way out there to see it.

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  4. Mobridge is now off our bucket list. When you are out exploring new places you just have to make the best of it then. That's what makes good memories. Like when we met.

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    1. If only I knew who this was! Was it memorable in a good way when we met or something we wish we could forget but just can't?!?!?

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  5. Better put on your long johns ... those tractors are cold even with heaters!! Gotta love Burger King ... our claim to fame #1 Best Thing To Do is visit Applebys!!

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    1. Have not been in a tractor yet. Waiting for things to dry up a little before we get in the fields. Maybe 3-5 days.

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  6. (It’s Joe and Gay) Wahoo! Let the GSA begin. Love the puppies personal riding space and I hope we see photos of the planting.

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    1. Still too wet but we are busy getting ready. Hoping to get in the fields by Wednesday!

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  7. Too bad your planned stop was not as great as you expected. I am sure Dino will have lots to say about that. lol Nice to be on the road again.

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    1. Hey, they cannot all be winners. How boring would that be? It is nice to be on the road and far away from home with no guilt for not working on one of our projects!

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  8. Have you noticed all the anonymous posts? Blogger seems to have changed their default. Hope they fix that. You’re off to a great start!

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    1. Yes, I cannot comment with my phone without it being anonymous. When I use my computer it is fine. Not sure what is going on and not sure who some of these comments are from!

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  9. Hope you guys have a great trip.
    We plan to spend a few weeks in July, in central Idaho, rafting, hiking, and SxS riding ourselves.
    Sure hope you are right about (diesel) fuel prices dropping. Unfortunately, the trend here in the west is still upward. But we gotta live and enjoy life while we still can.

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    1. Here too, I have not seen anything that would qualify as a significant drop but a guy and hope! Rafting, hiking and SxS'ing in Idaho sounds like a blast, we will have to do that some summer!

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  10. And only 1 day since my last comment! The dogs look great in that photo in the back seat. How to catch up a with relatives after so many years. You are very fortunate to have wonderful friends wherever you travel.

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    1. We are very blessed to have good friends throughout the country. In fact, our first 4 stops on this journey will be at friends or families places!

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  11. Sure hope we (America) doesn't run out of food this year...

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    1. As of right now, the planting season looks like it will have enough moisture, at least in this area. Now, we just need the right about of rain at the right time throughout the growing season!

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  12. Looks like your trip is off to a great start! I think the pups have the best seats in the truck! Interesting statues for sure. I love when city or county parks offer an inexpensive RV sight for visitors. Wish more did that! Looking forward to your updates.

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    1. I know they do it to attract business to their town. And we would have spent a few dollars at the bar/restaurant but....who closes on a Tuesday?!?!?

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  13. I am glad you made it to the farm and the GSA has begun. How did the new truck handle? I am glad you put more pictures of Barb and no dog videos.

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    1. Love, love, love the new truck. I had not been in it for over a month until the other day when we hit the road. Changed the oil today. That was a pain compared to the GMC so I am glad that I will not have to do that for a while again!

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  14. Hopefully you get a chance to play with all those farm toys you love so much.
    Colibaba’s

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    1. Today we spent the day scouting the fields to see which ones were dry(ish) then we spent the rest of the day getting some equipment ready.

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  15. Sounds like your GSA is going to be awesome. I am looking forward to hearing more about your adventures :)

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    1. We are too looking forward to seeing what the summer brings!

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  16. How do we know it's not you posting anonymous comments to yourself so that it looks like you have hundreds of readers.

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    1. Good point, but if I were doing it, I would be raving about what an awesome blog writer I am like "Best blog ever, I am inspired by your wisdom and writing!"

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  17. I was really surprised to see you in ND. With all the snow I was sure it would take weeks to dry out enough to drive the tractors in the fields. Good you at least have 12 days. Love Dakota's new bed!! Quite the cozy spot. Suppose she'll have to share it at times...haha!

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    1. Us too! But with all the wind they had it blew most of the snow off the fields and into the tree rows, ditches and potholes. There are still some drifts here and there in the low areas but fot the most part it is all gone.

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  18. This reminds me of the time we were traveling through the middle of nowhere Florida and I looked up restaurant options on Yelp and the only options for miles around were fast food joints. Church's Fried Chicken was the big winner, as I recall. If there's one thing we've learned over the years it's that these towns can't all be winners!!

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    1. At least these places have been the exception instead of the rule. And I am sure that Mobridge does have its charm, we just did not find it on this trip.

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  19. Burger King as a highlight place to go--ROFL! Well, it does sound like they were lucky to have one, I suppose.
    Nice to see friends, family, and critters. Cool statues. :)

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    1. I know, we thought the same thing! We are at friends now, helping them plant their crops.

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  20. Good luck on your trip, I hope we can meet up in Maine.

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