Retirement Misadventures: Catching Up from Many Trips

I have gotten behind in recording my adventures. I guess in the big picture it's a good thing to be busy and have so much going on but I don't like that I've neglected my blog. Today I am down with Covid and confined to home so what better time for catching up.

After my few short excursions in the campervan I began traveling. My first trip was to South Dakota. I was invited to help bring home a handicap van for my dear friend with ALS. The van was purchased by her sister-in-law in South Dakota. So three of us were up bright and early to check in for a flight to Rapid City, SD. I was afraid we wouldn't make connections in Chicago since they had changed flight times allowing only 30 minutes between flights but the arrival and departing gates were very close and we had no problems there.

We arrived in South Dakota to beautiful 80s weather described as "smoky" by the weather app. We were picked up by the sister-in-law with the van and we were off. Our destination was Keystone with plans to spend some time checking out the Black Hills area before heading home. After checking into our hotel and a delicious dinner, we drove to Mt. Rushmore for the lighting ceremony. I had seen this once before and remembered it as an awesome, patriotic presentation with music and the lights gradually coming on the presidential faces. While the presentation was different it was still a very moving experience. A park ranger talked for about 30 minutes about our country's diversity, adaptability and resilience in troubled times. Then the lights came on suddenly revealing the Presidents.

Lighting Ceremony at Mt. Rushmore

Arriving for the Lighting Ceremony

Back at the hotel we settled in. There was a bad smell in our room and it never went away the two nights we were there despite supposed efforts by the hotel staff. I think there was odor coming from the drains. I would not pick that hotel in the future if I were to visit the area again.

The following day we spent exploring Keystone and the Black Hills. We visited the Presidential Wax museum, revisited Mt. Rushmore and also toured Crazy Horse Memorial as well as driving around this beautiful National Park. The Wax Museum was great and had a wonderful gift shop for souvenirs. Crazy Horse Memorial also included a museum of Native American artifacts which was very interesting. It was there we saw a Native American Hoop Dancing demonstration. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Another delicious dinner and we fell quickly to sleep back at our hotel despite the odor.

George Washington and Betsy Ross in wax

Sunrise on Mt. Rushmore

Driving through the Black Hills

Crazy Horse Memorial

We were awakened the next morning about 3 a.m. with a phone call from the front desk. Apparently the alarms on the van had been going off about every hour all night. We went out to see what the problem might be. No alarms while we were checking on it. After deciding it must have been bumped or something we returned to bed. Just as we were drifting back to sleep the phone rang again asking us to move the van since it was still alarming. So we moved the van to the farthest part of the parking lot for the night. At this point (4:30 a.m.) I was too awake to return to sleep so I took my tablet to the lobby and got a cup of coffee. Research revealed that this is a problem with that make and model of vehicle, usually worse if wet. Well, it did sprinkle a little the night before. Checking under the hood of our van it did not look anything like the ones on the YouTube videos so we left the next morning hoping drier weather would prevent recurrence.

We had talked about our route home and what we wanted to see on the way. Wall Drug and the Badlands would normally be on the list but since I really wanted to visit the Museum of the Fur Trade in NW Nebraska we chose that route instead. Our first stop on leaving Keystone was driving through Bear Country. They had so many more animals than just bears. We really enjoyed our drive through and got some great photos.

After a few hours of driving we made it to the Museum of the Fur Trade near Chadron, Nebraska. It was out in the middle of nowhere with an empty parking lot. First appearance was not too impressive. On entering we found a different story. There were rooms and rooms of different collections related to the Fur Trade in North America. After touring all the displays we went out back to an authentic trading post from the early 1800s. Then we checked out the gift shop which was not the usual t-shirt and magnet shop. They sold actual items used from that time period along with some good historical books on the era. I cannot begin to describe what a treasure this place is. I will post a link to their website for you to check out. It has a good video to watch also.

https://www.furtrade.org/

So many interesting collections in the Museum of the Fur Trade

Inside the 19th century trading post

We continued our drive through Nebraska stopping at some local points of interest. Nebraska has some beautiful places with large areas with little habitation. It could be a desolate place to be traveling through in a covered wagon. I don't envy those early travelers at all.

As luck would have it the alarms on the van started going off again two nights later. We heard it this time and kept the van remote next to us so we could turn it off quickly. I was determined to fix it and the following morning I traced a wire down under the hood and unplugged it. All the lights continued to work so we drove off and had no further problems the rest of the trip thanks to YouTube and their informational videos!

Our final stop before returning home was to stop in St. Charles, MO. We had visited the historic home of Nathan Boone, son of Daniel earlier and taken the tour. Something we had tried to do last Christmas but a tornado hit the area as we pulled into the parking lot and our tour was cancelled then. In addition to the home there is a school house, church, blacksmith shop, general store and other buildings. These are historic structures brought here from the area and set up for showcasing the early 19th century time period.

Nathan Boone Home

St. Charles itself is an old town with much historical interest. They were having some type of event while we were there and the streets were blocked off with vendors. We only went to the downtown historic area for dinner and again for mass the following day but I am putting this town on my list for a return visit when I can spend more time here.

So we made it home from our trip with very little "misadventure" all of which will provide us laughs in the future as we reminisce. Driving across our beautiful country is a joy everyone should experience. I, for one, cannot wait to see more of it!