Thursday, May 17, 2018

Day 11: Long day, short miles and more lessons learned...

Total Miles = 103.0

Late yesterday we tried to end our day outside a town called Lusk, WY at a nice little rest area, unfortunately there was no overnight parking. So we rested a bit before hitting the road again.  As we were leaving the Lusk area we realized that the "No Overnight Parking" thing was probably because they had their very own 'pay to use' truck stop and didn't want any boondockers at the rest area taking $$ from the locals. Oh well.


So we headed north up the road towards Newcastle and found a great little rest area at a fork in the road at 85N and 18E. Clean and quiet. (see Jim's video on YouTube).

Now let's talk about lessons learned... LOL. You see as we headed towards that great little rest are we decided to turn on the generator and it worked like a top... until it didn't :-(

Lesson #1 check the generator every morning to make sure there is enough oil in it for the journey.
YUP, the generator (which is beginning to really tick me off) got to it's low point and shut off while we were driving along.

So we stopped for the night, did a little homework by reading the manual (hahahaha) and reading some forums. We knew we would need to stop at an auto parts store to get the right oil the next morning so we sat outside for awhile and ate some dinner and packed it in for the night. It was quiet and peaceful, very conducive to a great nights sleep. 

This morning Jimmy decided to check out his video camera and give it a whirl and we both stepped outside. Out of habit we closed the door behind us to keep Molly inside. 

Lesson #2: ALWAYS have your keys (or a spare). We didn't know the door could be locked from the inside and when it shut would remain locked. 
YUP, neither one of us had our keys AND the doors were all locked. YUP Locked!

Trust me when I tell you that these are 2 items on our daily checklist and tomorrow we WILL have a spare key for the cab. 

It took hours to get someone to 1) figure out where we were, 2) get someone to us (and not past us) 3) get on the road again. It turns out that when I called into Good Sam the gal only heard me say Newcastle NOT between Lusk and Newcastle and sent the poor guy NORTH of Newcastle. When he got to the rest area there he called us only to find out he was almost 100 miles away and the only locksmith in the area. 1 1/2 hours later he found us. 

But he got there and got us on the road again and we made it to South Dakota. Our plan was to stop in Deadwood but after a long climb up a very windy road we opted to drive on through. I will admit that the road was very beautiful with a gorgeous creek following us up all the way. 

 But Deadwood was a huge tourist trap and even in one of the
visitor centers you had to pay for parking. Since we had both been there before we moved onto Spearfish, SD to replenish supplies (at Walmart), get oil for generator and find a real RV Park to hookup at. 

It's funny how things happen along the way. We called Chris' RV
Park to see if they had any spots left and how much for the night and the lady said SURE! We asked for directions from Walmart and she told us to give her 5 minutes as she was just cashing out of Walmart herself. She came out and lead us right to the park. 

They say timing is everything and sometimes it's even true. 

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