License Plates, the continuing saga

So, here it is, getting close to three months since I bought my new to me rig, and still no license plates.  Since I have cell phone service now that I left Red Rock, I did have a message from the Minnehaha Treasurer’s office that there was a problem with sending my plates.  Okay, so this morning I gave them a call.  They told me that I needed to have a notarized affidavit  of non-residency sent to them, and also a weight ticket.  After asking what a weight ticket was, I figured out I could do that.  Seems to me Universal RV in Minnesota could have provided that!  After telling the woman that I am a South Dakota resident, and have a SD driver’s license, she told me I still had to have the affidavit, and that I should just go to their website, print one off, and take care of it.  She also told me I was lucky she still had my paperwork on her desk.  Normally, she would have already returned it to I don’t know where.  Ugh!

I went to the website and viewed the form.  What jumped out at me was that it said if you had a SD driver’s license, you didn’t have to do this form!  It also made you swear before a notary that you didn’t have a SD driver’s license or a license anywhere in the US.  OMG!  So, I called the lady back in  Minnehaha County, and told her what I found out about the form.  She said, “oh, I thought you didn’t have a SD driver’s license.”   Duh!!  Didn’t you listen to what I said???  I must say that she was not the most friendly person to work with.  She also made some disparaging remarks about folks that register their rigs in SD, but don’t actually live there.  Get over it lady!  Anyway, I sent her the weight ticket today via snail mail, so I’m hopeful that I’ll finally have plates by the time I make it to Malheur NWR.  We’ll see.  :(

On a more positive note, when I visit a National Park or Refuge, I usually buy a tee shirt to commemorate my visit.  Well, I think the folks at Craters of the Moon National Monument need a new tee shirt designer.  :)   So, instead I bought this book…
Luckily, I’ve been to quite a few of the places listed, so I won’t have 1000 of them to try to squeeze in!  :)  It’s fun choosing a state, and seeing what this author thinks is worthwhile to see.  She also suggests the best time to be at each place.  Malheur NWR is listed with September and October being among the best months to visit.  Alrighty then, I guess I’ll be checking that one off!  I got the maps and campground guides out again this evening, and I think when I leave here I’ll spend a week in the Boise, ID, area to see some things and take care of getting a tall enough ladder at Camping World.

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

Deadwood, SD, to Buffalo, WY

The driving trip today was a comfortable 209 miles, and thankfully there were no traumas.  The hardest part was just getting out of the KOA!  The road out was at a more than 10% grade and very narrow.  I made it unscathed, though.  :)

We had decided to hop off of I-90 shortly after crossing into Wyoming, and head a ways north to visit Devils Tower National Monument. 
Devils Tower dominated the horizon as we approached.  As I entered the park, I was asked if I could pull over in a parking area and “car pool” with Pam and Stan as there is very limited RV parking at the Tower.  I did so, and it’s a good thing.  There really is limited parking for RVs.  Even the car parking is limited for a National Park.


Skies were overcast and the sun was not in a good position for pictures, so I didn’t think my photos would turn out very good.

Pam and I decided to try a portion of the Tower Trail.  She has a broken toe, and Stan has back issues, so we weren’t able to do the entire 1.3 mile trail.  The beginning of the trail is very steep, and I was short of breath as we got to the first set of benches.  Since lighting conditions were pretty bad, I wasn’t too interested in continuing, but Pam persuaded me to continue along the trail a little further, and further…  Her foot wasn’t bothering her too bad, so we made it about half way around before we turned back.

During the month of June, the Tower is voluntarily closed to climbing.  The reason for this is that Devils Tower holds spiritual significance to at least seven Native American tribes, and June is  when they hold ceremonies at the tower.  These tribes have always considered this to be a sacred place.  Signs along the trail ask visitors not to disturb the prayer bundles that can be seen in the trees at the base of the tower. 

I can understand why they think this place is sacred.  It is magnificent.  I don’t think climbers should ever be allowed here.  Go find somewhere else to hammer holes into rocks for climbing!  Climbers are not allowed to mess with the great cathedrals of the world, so why should they be allowed to deface this natural cathedral?  Ugh, enough on that.  :(

As we walked along, we noticed that many of the pine trees had big chunks of bark missing low down on the trunks.



It turns out that these are caused by porcupines eating the barks.  Pam wondered if this is how they got their name.  What do you think?  Porcupines….pine bark??  I sure don’t know.





After a little while, there was a break in the clouds that improved picture taking, but you still can’t see the yellow and green hues that are visible in the “columns” of this monolith. 
This is the view from the trail looking out to the land approaching Devils Tower.  I’m thinking, definitely a sacred place…
It’s hard not to take a million pictures of this natural wonder.  :)

The rest of the trip to Buffalo, WY, was wonderfully mundane.  :-)  Snow covered mountains loomed in the distance.  We’ll deal with those tomorrow.  The site at Deer Park Campground was easy to get into, level, not cramped, and set up only took minutes.  Life is good once again.  :)  Tomorrow, we’re on to Cody, WY.

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

Deadwood, South Dakota

Deadwood is located in a valley surrounded by the Black Hills of South Dakota.  We hopped the shuttle from the campground this morning that took us to the center of town.  I was surprised to learn that the main street of Deadwood is lined with one after the other of casinos.  I'm not a gambler, so that held little interest for me.  I suggested we take one of the bus tours of the town, and for $8, we had a one hour narrated tour.  Apparently, Deadwood was quite a wild town in the 1870’s!  There were a lot of saloons and bordellos, after gold was discovered in them there hills.

It’s main claim to fame is that this is the locations where James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok was murdered, in a saloon, in 1876.
The tour included the Mt. Moriah Cemetery, where Wild Bill is buried.  Along side him is the grave of Martha “Calamity Jane” Canary.  Wild Bill died at the age of 39, and Calamity didn’t die for another 27 years, but her final wish was to be buried beside the only love of her life.  Historians seem to think that her claim to be Wild Bill’s sweetheart was a figment of her imagination, but her final wish was granted.  What a woman she was in this rough and tumble wild town!

The picture at the top of this post comes from the cemetery which is located at the top of one of the surrounding hills.
Here’s a shot of my present traveling companions, Pam and Stan, from the same location.  Before we caught the shuttle back to the KOA, we had a discounted lunch buffet at one of the casinos.  It was just okay, and cost $7 each.  Nothing to write home about, though.
We are parked on level two of this four terraced campground.  You can see how we are packed in like sardines!  I guess I’m the only non-white rig here.  :)
  


This is the view of pines and the surrounding hill from the dog run in the campground.  I’m not sure what the flower on the right will turn out to look like.  It seems spring is not as far advanced here in the Black Hills.



We’ll pack up and head out tomorrow morning.  Our plans are to end up in Buffalo, Wyoming, at day’s end.  I hope the trip is not as adventurous as Tuesday’s drive.  :)

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

What does a camphost do?

That's one of the questions I got this weekend from one of the campers. So I thought I'd let you readers know how a holiday weekend goes. Probably the two most important things that I do is meet and greet the campers, and keep the bathrooms supplied with enough toilet paper. ;)

There are five pit toilets scattered throughout the park, one semi-modern bathroom, and one bathroom with flush toilets and showers. I don't have to clean them, that's done by the staff, but I do need to make sure there are enough supplies available throughout the day and night. I generally tour all of them about three times a day on a busy weekend.

I also post the reservation signs at individual sites and answer all sorts of questions from the campers. This was a pretty quiet holiday weekend. On Saturday, I drove around the loops to remind campers of the astronomy program being offered.

Sunday night, about 7:00, a camper came to inform me that the lights had gone out in the main bathroom building. I appreciate it when they let me know about problems. After investigating the problem, I called the park manager, Joel, and between the two of us, we were unable to get the lights to work. He called an electrician, but being a holiday weekend, he was unable to come out. So, that meant I drove around to every site to tell them to bring a flashlight if they were going to use the bathroom last night. By visiting each site, I avoided having multiple campers knocking on my door all night, and I believe I prevented folks from becoming upset over the situation.

Today, the electrician showed up in the early morning, and the lights are now working. Then it was the mass exodus, and almost all campers had left by noon. Once everyone was gone, I hopped in the cart and visited each site to pick up garbage and toss any extra fire wood in the back of the vehicle. I must say that this only took me about an hour. What a difference from when I hosted in South Dakota. Minnesota folks are extremely neat. They not only put all of their trash in the dumpsters, but they also put all their plastic, glass, and aluminum in the recycle bins! When I hosted at Richmond Lake Recreation Area in South Dakota, it took me a half day to just pick up the trash left behind by campers, and the number of sites was half what it is here.

There were no real emergencies this weekend, and things went quite smoothly. Over the years, I've had some real hair raising situations, and some really comical happenings at this park, but thankfully, not this weekend. So....that's some of what I do as a campground host.

This evening, I took Emma to a boarding kennel for the night. I've got a couple of medical appointments tomorrow, at the Mayo Clinic, as well as other errands I have to run. She would have been stuck inside the rig for too many hours, so she's having a little holiday (and so am I).

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

Sunday's Blast from the Past...

I know I said I probably wouldn't post today, but I had forgotten that I was planning to do some pictures from places earlier in my journey on Sundays. So, after I did my five week stint at Richmond Lake Recreation Area in South Dakota, I hit the road with a time line of two weeks to get to near the Washington coast.

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One of my stops along the way was Medicine Rocks State Park in Montana. This park was kind of off of the beaten path (about 25 miles south of US 12). The draw for me was free camping.

Of course that meant no hookups, but it was a beautiful spot and someone had left a great pile of firewood, so I had a nice campfire that night.

There were many sandstone outcroppings that stood quite high and all were shaped by the wind. Stretching to the west of these mounds were the great plains. The Native Americans considered this a place of great medicine. It turned out that I was the only one to camp there that evening.

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

Scenic Sunday or the Past Revisited

One of the blogs that I follow is http://fabgrandma.blogspot.com/ . The author of this blog has recently begun posting a Scenic Sunday picture of places she has been. I really like that idea and hope she doesn't mind if I borrow that idea on Sundays and post some pics of places I have been since I started fulltiming. I had been on the road for over two years before I started this blog, so I'm hoping folks will enjoy seeing some of the places I've been and the things I've done. I guess the pics won't always be scenic, but hopefully interesting.

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My first volunteer assignment after hitting the road was as a campground host at Richmond Lake Recreational Area, near Aberdeen, South Dakota. That was back in the days before I towed a car, and had a motor scooter to get around on.

There were only about 24 sites to take care of at this place that fell under the South Dakota State Park system. I remember having a nest of Cooper's Hawks nearby, many pheasants around the area, and heat in the 110* range. I enjoyed my time there and the beautiful sunsets.

So, that's my first installment of "The Past Revisited."

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