Remote camping

We arrived at Pelican Point Landing and we found a beautiful campsite, a view of the lake but absolutely no cell service.  So we will check when in town or can find service!!

More later,
S & D

This & That...and we leave for next spot

Hello Out There,
We have wrapped up our stay at Left Tailrace and are headed to Pelican Point, near Jamestown, ND.  We are leaving a day early as we have learned you need to travel Tuesday-Thursday, NOT Monday or Friday!!!  We plan an early morning and are hoping that the rain holds off as we load up and break camp.  One of these posts, I'll clue you in on the "setting up & breaking camp" checklists.

We have had great motorcycle rides and went to Chamberlain the back road through Ft Thompson and you see the Missouri most of the way. Once in town we stopped at a river walk park for a short break and I ventured out on the "quartzite boulders" again -- and yea, no bruise but the wind was blowing and I am hanging onto the big cottonwood tree. Bridge behind crosses the Missouri.

Here's the motorcycles waiting for us to return from the walkway.

We have been working on Zoe's window shades.  Remember the Pendergast's slept in the basement so we have been adding blackout shades to windows in Zoe that don't have those room darkening shades.  A trip to Walmart for the window curtains and velcro we have been creating our custom shades.  Darrel is just so darn handy.... and it really does work -- this one is on the front door.

We have several more to make as it takes a little time to cut, install the sticky velcro and add to window frame.

But we have had some relaxing time --- Darrel hanging out on the patio because when the cycles come out to play, we have extra room in the garage and we sit out there for dining or just to watch what is going on.  Has its own awning and steps to enter, plus the railing to keep you from falling off.

The doors in the background allow you to close off the outdoors when you don't want the rain or bugs.

Finally, I have pictures of the bedroom.  Today was laundry day before we head out tomorrow (Thursday, 6/21) and the bed is made up so nice and neat -- the pictures are from several views and I'll try to explain what you are seeing.

This view is from the hallway door, extra blankets on Darrel's side!

This view is from the bathroom door (we have a pocket door which allows access to the bathroom without going into the hallway that leads into the living area.

This view is from Susan's sitting on the bed -- to the left is the doorway to the living area and to the right is the pocket door closed -- yes, there is a TV in the bedroom!  

NOTE:   We have better TVs in the 5th wheel than we owned in our home of 33 years (go figure!)

This view is with the pocket door open and you can see the bathroom wall with the linen closet on the right hand side (mirror) -- we have made extra room by adding over the door hanging hooks because clothing storage is at a premium!

This is the view we have from our stairs to the front door of the cove when other campers are here.  The weekends are busy with a full campground but it clears out on Sunday night or early Monday, and we have more openness to see the water.

So we say good-bye to Left Tailrace Campground and a big thank you to our camp hosts, Ron & Linda, plus Yorkie, Chico, who really knows what is going on -- as they have provided us with a wealth of information and good tips!  Plus a big thank you to Ranger Bob for trimming the tree to the north of our campsite!

Catch up with you from Pelican Point next time!

Happy Travels,

Susan & Darrel

Bumps & Bruises

Hello Family & Friends,
You might notice from the title that we have had some bumps and bruises over the last couple of weeks -- mine is the bruise from climbing down the lake banks and falling on my butt on the quartzite rocks that line the shores.  They are boulder size so I have a really nice bruise, no pics but trust me, it is a rainbow of colors!!!

Now a bump -- when you see a BUMP road sign it means either missing patches of paved road and/or 4 or 5 huge dips in the road which makes you feel like you are on a roller coaster ride... pay attention to the road sign warnings!!!

Another bump is that flying rocks from passing Fed Ex truck will hit your truck windshield and within 5 miles will cause a crack.  I don't have to send a picture of that for you to imagine that image.

So several hundred dollars later we have a new windshield.  I have to give a shout out to Ron's Auto Glass in Yankton and Tim from Tinting Pro for the repairs.  It was a long trip back to Yankton but we couldn't have been treated better.  We were suppose to have a loaner vehicle so we could run errands while we waited for it to be repaired but the loaner was already out, so the secretary loaned us her Personal car .... I definitely will need to send her a thank you for helping us out.

Another bump is figuring out grocery shopping and laundry as we are 25 miles away from these services.  We definitely had a spoiled previous life with all these conveniences at our fingertips which we probably took for granted or didn't recognize their convenience.  We are still learning to remember the cooler for foods that need refrigeration on these warmer/hotter day temps!!!

But as the Pendergast motto goes "Nobody got hurt (well, I did get a bruise)" and as our granddaughter Reilly would say "I'm Okay" --- we are doing OK!

So until next time (and pray for no more bumps OR bruises),
Susan & Darrel

PS  I will try to have some fun pics for the next post!

2nd Destination - Left Tailrace Campground

Yes, we are still alive -- the Internet service is slow and I haven't had the patience to wait to post.  I am hoping this goes well or it will be really a short post with more to follow when I find a quicker connection.

We arrived Friday, 6/8 at Left Tailrace Campground - Big Bend Dam project located by Ft. Thompson on Lake Sharpe (found out it was named after a Governor of South Dakota) -- it is absolutely beautiful with bluffs lining one side of the lake and more grassland type landscape on the other side.  We are about 25 miles from Chamberlain, SD

We have a nice campsite that is a pull through -- a couple draw backs is that the water is nonpotable which means you cannot drink it (something to do with lead pipes or soldering when installed?? but is on the schedule to be replaced by next year and no sewer, which is pretty common at Corp campgrounds so we are conserving water usage to make it for the 2 weeks).

Here we are ----

We took the motorcycles out of the garage area today (Monday, 6/11) since we had storms on both Friday & Sunday nights.  We think we are rainmakers -- it seems like where we travel, we bring rain.

Oh, here's the pics promised from Laura Ingalls Wilder home in De Smet, SD.  The first picture is in front of the surveyors house the family lived in the 1st winter they were in De Smset.  

The 2nd picture is in front of Pa & Ma's home (Laura never lived there) but that is the final home they stayed in until their passing.  The young lady holding the door is our tour guide (a high school student) and she was very good in explaining the historical site and all the buildings on it.

The 3rd picture shows a shot of most of the 2 story house.  Pa kept building on the original house until it was fairly large for those days of homesteads.

We are headed to Pierre, SD on Tuesday through scenic byways on the motorcycles following the Missouri as it makes a loop back on itself.  We hope the temps hold at a pleasant 75 degrees -- and that the breezes stay light.

Signing off for now,

Traveling Pendergasts

How do we fill our days?

So glad you asked 😄 well, we are learning all about Zoe, plus taking a few motorcycle rides, and figuring out how to stow away LOTS of stuff, and downsize even more STUFF, and then how to make the TV audio play out of the stereo and making SMORES over the campfire.  (I probably should have bulleted this list as it can go on and on and on.....)

We took a motorcycle ride on NE HWY 121 and then visited the Lewis & Clark visitor center near Gavin's Dam project -- here's a different view of the dam from the balcony of the visitor center.  We also watched the fisherman just below the white water you see in this picture using a bow & arrow to fish -- it was kind of interesting.

I have also promised some inside pics of the 5th wheel, so excuse the mess and I mentioned above, we are still moving in and everyday we repack the space.  I think within a month or 2 we might be moved into the space.

Bathroom sink/medicine cabinet area         Commode and I now have a toilet
                                                                      paper stand not pictured

 

Shower - my shower bag resides there at night 

Kitchen/dining room area                                                Living room and recliners

 







Here's the garage area without the cycles -- we are still organizing all the "extra stuff" that you don't have cabinet space or a basement -- I will get one with the motorcycles inside so you can compare.

We did take side trip to De Smet, SD where Laura Ingall Wilder lived and taught school, where she met Almanzo.  I have been to the homestead in Mansfield, MO and the Ingalls homestead in Independence, KS and now De Smet -- I thought it was the last one but I learned there are Laura Ingalls Wilder sites in Walnut Grove, MN, Burr Oak (I think IA or MN) and Peppin, WI so I have a few more to visit. 

I have some pictures of this visit but haven't downloaded them yet and I will get pictures of the bedroom when I get a chance.

Here's our travel pack -- Beau (truck), Zoe (Fuzion 5th wheel toyhauler), and two Triumph Bonneville motorcycles.  This picture was taken right before the storm as you can see the sky changing.

We tucked the cycles into the slideout to hopefully protect from the storm. 

 

1st Destination- Yankton, SD

Greetings,
We arrived safe and sound on Monday, 5/28 at the KOA -- wonderful campground, well maintained and quiet (so far during the week days) -- we pulled out early from Topeka and would have loved to show the full moon that greeted us as we departed but I couldn't snap a shot with the trees.  Here's our first stop to check the cycles and in general make sure we hadn't lost Zoe at least in Holton.
NOTE:  I really don't like selfies as I am too short to capture much, but at least we have great smiles!

And to answer the pressing question I am sure is on all your minds, yes, Susan does drive Beau & Zoe (but only between the rest areas).  I am sure I will get better but I really need some lessons to feel a little more confident that I won't take out a electric or telephone pole or a car or people.... need I continue???

I did see this sign on the back of a semi in Sioux Falls and thought I should get one for Zoe -- we'll see if I can find a placard somewhere that might reflect my learning curve and give a heads us to those folks traveling behind us

.

We headed to Sioux Falls to get our domicile setup as South Dakota Full Time RVers and here's the Pendergast's at the Sioux Falls Park.  A very nice lady took our picture -- NOTE: everyone we have encountered as been really nice and friendly -- a good sign as we begin our traveling journey.

We really have been learning the RV and just taking a moment to catch a breath or two.  We did get the cycles out of the garage (now, hoping we can get them back in).  I will try to get some inside pics of Zoe but we are such a mess that Saturday (June 2) is my cleaning day and I hope to have her looking a little more respectable by then.

We did venture to the Lewis & Clark State Park that is shared by South Dakota and Nebraska.  The Gavin Project Dam is awesome and here's a pick of the flood gate controls running.  The dam road is controlled by a stoplight and is only 1 lane each way.  We had planned to stay at the campground near the dam but decided we didn't want to move back and forth as we couldn't get reservations for the 2 weeks we were planning to stay.

OBTW, the Cottonwood trees are "cottoning" and it sometimes looks like it is snowing, but the temps will tell you otherwise (93 degrees here today).  You really have to keep your helmet visor closed or such down the seeds (not bugs).  

NOTE:  Darrel and I have intercoms in our helmets so we are able to communicate with each other as we travel which is nice when you need a "rest" break or to avoid a pothole or big bump in the road after the 1st one experiences it 😊.

Signing off for now as we anticipate stormy weather and I need to close up the garage and batten down the hatches.  Being from KS we know about "thunderstorms and high winds/hail) but experiencing them in a 5th wheel trailer will be a new experience for both of us!  I do know where the storm shelter is at the KOA!!

Traveling life's highway,

Susan & Darrel