.

.
Borrego Springs, CA

Monday, May 31, 2010

First day jitters

I usually have a restless night’s sleep the night before I pull out on the road after being in a spot for a while.  Last night was no exception.  Add to that the fact that this would be my first real trip with the new, larger rig, and I guess you could say I was a little wired.  :)  Emma kept a low profile, thankfully.  I ensconced her in her crate and off we all went.  After 300 relatively uneventful miles, both rigs arrived at the chosen campground just west of Mitchell, SD.  The only glitch happened when Pam and Stan noticed that their electrical hook up cord had somehow fallen out of it’s storage compartment and was dragged along the road for a portion of the last leg of today’s journey.  It was scuffed up a bit, but not dragged long enough to rub off all the rubber coating around the cord.  How weird is that? 

IMG_8528By the time we arrived at the Famil-E-Fun Campground,  I was feeling pretty comfortable with the new rig.  It is much more stable on the road than my last rig.  I got a pull through site tonight, so I’ll deal with the backing up of a larger rig later.  :)  This is a Mom and Pop type campground that was supposed to be a Passport America Park.  Not so anymore.  So, for $22, I got full hook-ups.  I needed that tonight since I’ve been parked in Andy’s driveway for almost two weeks with this rig and will need to dump the tanks in the morning.  This campground is great for an overnight stay, but I wouldn’t want to be here on a holiday weekend.

IMG_8526Our sites look nice, but that’s because there’s an unused site between us, and on a busy weekend there would be campers behind each of our rigs.   To this campground’s credit, it is the first campground I have ever stayed at that gave a lower rate for solo campers!  I’d stay here again just because of that!  Even though we’re close to I-90, there really aren’t any road sounds, and if it were a little warmer, I’d take advantage of the good sized swimming pool.

IMG_8529They really could use a little help with their spelling, though.  :)

 

My friend, Peggy, in Vermont, sent me an email today about the picture of the insect I posted last night.  She figured out that it is a Giant Ichneumon Wasp!  It turns out that it was a female, and was laying an “egg” in the wood pile.  It lays the egg where there is a larva of a horntail wasp so it’s larva can feed on the other larva.  I guess I was pretty lucky to see such a thing happening!  If you Google giant Ichneumon wasp, you can see a very interesting video of this.  Cool beans!

 

Tomorrow, our plans are to make it to Custer, SD, so we can go see the Crazy Horse Monument on Wednesday.  I hope tomorrow goes as well as today.  It’s great to be back “On the road again!”

IMG_8536

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight’s sunset in the campground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by….talk to you later,  Judy

9 comments:

  1. Fellow RV blog couple Mike & Pat at http://mikepatstravels.blogspot.com/ have just returned to their summer place in Custer a few days ago. Mike has worked at the State Park there & has done many tours of the Crazy Horse Monument over the years. Don't know how big a place Custer is but keep an eye out for a very big red truck with a very big matching white & red 5th wheel trailer. Very nice folks & I'll bet they would like to meet Judy & Emma for sure:)) If you see them, say hello from, The Bayfield Bunch:))

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Judy (and Emma), welcome to "God's Country". Hope you enjoy your visit to the Black Hills. If you are in our area, give us a shout.
    Pat (of Mike and Pat's Travels)

    ReplyDelete
  3. As you go west in South Dakota you will have the wind in your face, it never stops blowing in South Dakota & Wyoming, That will be a good test as to how the new rig will handle.Glad to see you and Emma are on the road again, Rigg's and I gave the trailer a good shakedown last week and he really did well, little or no barking and his manners were really good, I am now looking forward to many more miles with him and Donna. Be safe out there, Sam & Donna.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Judy--there is a fabulous campground, Broken Arrow RV Park and Horse Camp just outside Custer in the country--you will pass by Mike and Pat McFall's (Bayfield's comment above) place on the way to this campground. VERY nice people that own the RV park and quiet, lots of room to walk Emma.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Neat bug!
    Glad your on the road again , I live my RV'ing thru blogs like yours!
    G&M

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glad your maiden voyage went smoothly. Judy, can you add the option for searching your blog entries on blogger? I was looking for the type and age of your old rig. You can find it under layout, choose the "search this blog" option and put it wherever. Keep the sunny side up :0)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice campground when not full, with the space between you guys.

    Hey, we found a nice campground where you can see Crazy Horse right out the windows of your RV, and see the lazer show at night, and faintly hear the music. Called Heritage Village

    http://www.heritage-village.com/

    Right next door to a riding stables, and has a cute store, restaurant, bar with live music etc. over the hill from the sites. We stayed there a week and got discounts for Good Sam and I think 7th night free with a week.

    Almost all sites were pull through, a bit close but we were with friends so we didn't mind.

    Close to Custer and Badlands for day trips too.

    ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
    Karen and Steve
    (Our Blog) RVing: Small House... BIG Backyard
    http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  8. test..I now have a gmail account..did u get this?
    Pam

    ReplyDelete
  9. Usually I don't read post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very pressured me to take a look at and do it! Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thank you, quite great article.
    Feel free to surf my web-site ... free iphone 5

    ReplyDelete