Saturday, August 17, 2013

Small Town Mentality


      We landed late in the evening in a small one horse town called Tea, the sites were small compared to some we had been in, but the family owned RV Park made up for that with the atmosphere. They had a pool, laundry, a trail around a soy bean field, lots of shade and wonderful friendly neighbors. Some of these make the trek from Arizona in the winter to Tea, SD in the summer, true snowbirds; a dream we were waiting patiently on ourselves.
      
     Work had landed us back in this area, the hubby had a few weeks’ worth ahead of him and after that we were on our own. The owners of this park were very friendly; they worked with us on the rent and let us pay it as we got it. We have to always be sure to not burn any bridges with any of the parks we stay in as we never know when we may be back in the area in the future. The owners had their son, daughter-n-law and grandchild that lived on site too; there’s and ours were just the right age to play and swim together. They hit it off nicely, like two kindred spirits that had known each other for years; but then again children seem to do this.
      
My view on my morning walk on the outskirts of the Red Barn RV Park, Tea, SD

     Our days were spent in the park mostly because we had visited the zoo a month ago while in Sioux Falls. The daily routine quickly became breakfast, a quick play with her friend, watching some TV and then a dip in the pool before dinner. You would think this in itself would get monotonous and boring but it was actually very relaxing, knowing what would come next. The only worry we had was to find the work to pay the bills; this task was helped by with the boss we had followed back to his home city of Sioux Falls.
      
     The hubby had a job working on the boss’s family’s house, then a few days off, before starting a framing job. This was not one of his favorite jobs as the supervisor here would gripe about the workers stopping work only to take a drink of water, in 90+ degree heat! This job didn’t last but a few days, by the hubby’s decision. The next position we found was interesting, it was bee keeping on Mormon land. It was interesting in the fact that the hubby wasn’t sure if he was allergic to the bees or not; turned out the allergies had been outgrown, but I was one worried wife during the days he was gone. He learned new trades in this position too, something we’re always looking forward to; you can never have too many trades under your belt.
      


     Just before we left this beautiful family run RV Park, he got a position working with geo-thermal heating/cooling. Another great trade to have, I only wish time had permitted us to stay longer and learn more on this one. Imaging heating and cooling your home with only air flowing through pipes placed deep into the ground, your house would stay a comfortable 68˚ year round. The only electricity used was to pump the air through these pipes, not to power the compressor for an A/C or heat up the coils on a heater. I was very interested in learning this one as I would love to install in our future home to cut electricity costs tremendously.
      
     We had stayed in touch with the co-workers from Rapid City, one being very determined to have the hubby trek back across the state and work for him. After some convincing from him, we decided to take another ride back West across the great state of South Dakota. If you’re keeping counting that would be a total of 3 trips across this state on I90 in a matter of a couple of months. After staying in Tea for a month we had really gotten to know the owners and neighbors here, I will miss them terribly but it is also on my list of ‘stop again’ areas in my travel book. 

     
not one of my favs, but then again I'm still a work in progress too
     The lil one had gotten to go to a carnival with her friend before we left, compliments of the owners; they knew we were struggling to find work and thought she needed a good time before we left. This park really defines ‘family run’ and they truly made us feel like family while here; so much so that I painted a canvas of the badlands for her as a gift. It was time to take that leap of faith again and go back West.

Until next time…..


Learn to smile at every situation.  See it as an opportunity to prove your strength and ability.  ~Joe Brown

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Backtracking East on I90


      We woke up on a beautiful June morning overlooking Rapid City for what was to be the last time on this very steep hillside that had been carved out for the RV Park. I wasn’t going to miss the steep climb to the laundry or to walk the dog but I was going to miss this wonderful city with all of its history. After a hot cup of coffee overlooking the hills and ravine surrounding us, it was time to get to work sliding in and hooking up the rig.
     
last time to have a hot cup of joe overlooking this scenery
     We are slowly getting better with getting everything ready to go; instead of three days, we’ve gotten it down to two. I know to some of you this may not seem like a very big accomplishment but to us it is.  Can you imagine packing up a two bedroom house with all of your belongings and getting it loaded on the truck in a matter of only two days? I can’t either, that is why I am happy about our being able to do this in our rig, much faster than a year ago when we started full timing.
      
     One very important lesson we learned at this park; bed rails on your tow vehicle are NOT a good idea. They look good when the truck is unhooked and riding alone but when you get it in a pinch they will do some damage to the underside of your fifth wheel rig. Yep, you guessed it! While pulling out we put a small hole in the underside of the rig that has treated us so good on this journey. The hole was smaller than my hand and we were out of time at this park meaning there was no time to call the insurance company and wait for repairs. It was time, for better or worse, to hit the road again.
      
     
     Seeing as we had already traveled this same exact path only a month before, I didn’t bother with dragging out the camera for pictures. There wasn’t much that had changed in the scenery in these past few weeks. The lil one settled down with a movie and we got ready for a long, boring, monotonous 6 hr. ride across the state of South Dakota again. We were heading from the very west side of the state back to the very east side, back tracking like this is not the norm for us; but work required it.
      
     We had run through all our saved funds for this particular trip in these quickly passing four weeks, but we did get to see and do all the great things Rapid City offered us as tourists. On the lil one’s list of accomplishments was getting to see buffalo at Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore Monument and the most impressive site being Crazy Horse, as her bloodline ties her to this site. She did learn the faces on top of Mount Rushmore and to this day can still tell you the first President of the United States. If we can experience it firsthand the knowledge sticks in the ever growing brain we are feeding.
           
miles upon miles of this

     

     After a very long day traveling up and down the rolling hills of I90, sometimes not even making it up to 45mph going uphill, we landed in a small town outside of Sioux Falls. I had researched the area previously and quickly found that they didn’t have very many RV Parks to suit our needs. This time we decided to stay just outside of the city in a small town called Tea, this ended up being one of the best parks we had been in to date.



Until next time…..

And that's the wonderful thing about family travel:  it provides you with experiences that will remain locked forever in the scar tissue of your mind.  ~Dave Barry

Saturday, August 10, 2013

It is Never 'Goodbye'

     It was nearing our time to leave Rapid City, SD and the very special friends we had made; vowing to always keep in touch. Facebook seemed to make this a much easier job than it would have been years ago. While here we had met a special couple, Lakota Rick (the nickname we gave him only to remember exactly who they were, I’m terrible with names) and his wife Kathy. They quickly became family to us if only in our hearts, they followed the Native ways as closely as possible; something we try to do.
     
     They were two of the few people we got to say goodbye to before hitting the road. There was but one more place the hubby needed to see before heading out, Bear Butte; it was an honor to have Lakota Rick and his wife go with us. We had to make a pit stop and buy tobacco as an offering for our prayers, one of the many traditions still followed by the Natives. We made a detour and zoomed through Sturgis; after hearing I hadn’t been there yet, they felt I had to at least see the town before heading out.
                   


     
     It was nothing that I had imagined, considering all the activity and visitors this small sleepy prairie town had all of one week a year. The most notable site were the huge white letters perched on the side of a mountain to let tourists know they were in Sturgis, a good photo op but nothing to really write home about. Our next stop was the one we were really looking forward, Bear Butte. It was hard for the lil one to contain the energy and curiosity from learning about another piece of the Sioux heritage.  While traveling down the highway it didn’t take long for this magnificent mountain to appear, you could see it across the barren plains for miles before actually reaching the winding road up to the base of this mountain.
     
Following Lakota Rick and Kathy to Bear Butte
     
     We pulled in to what is now Bear Butte State Park and explored the visitor center.  The hubby and the lil one, both of whom have Sioux blood running through their veins, went up the trail for a bit to place their offering and pray.  I stayed with the puppy in the only shade possible as I felt this was something the two of them needed to share without mommy interfering.  It was a hot day in the middle of the summer in the most pristine landscape of prairie lands.  I sat and imagined the pioneers coming across this rugged landscape all those years ago with only the mountain as a guide to the gold rich Black Hills. There have been artifacts found on the mountain that date back 10,000 years; amazing when you stop and think about that little tidbit of knowledge.
      
     
     The Cheyenne and Lakota people have had a spiritual interest in Bear Butte that goes back as far as their earliest recorded history.  Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull traveled to this majestic mountain, they are the two most famous visitors I can remember from the learning lesson in the visitor center.  Many Indian nations gathered at Bear Butte in 1857 to discuss the white settlers that were invading their homelands. There is way too much history at this particular site to even begin to touch it in such a short blog as this one is.
      
     With the offering and prayers finished, a short history lesson about the lil one’s heritage; the theme of this whole summer, it was time to say goodbye to our friends and go further on our journey. We promised to keep in touch, and to let them know how the buffalo liver turned; this they had blessed us with, 100% all organic buffalo liver (it was delicious by the way).  It is never ‘goodbye’ in this lifestyle as we never really know when our paths may cross again; we have learned to say…..

‘Until next time’

It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.  ~Johann Schiller