June 1, 2013

View of the day-Our camping stop for the day, Grand Lodge at Highmore, SD...in their campground to the right, not in the Lodge.

We spent the night jammed between a RV hauler, who was sleeping in the cab of his pickup with the engine running and several semis doing the same thing...but we were tired, so that didn't matter.  There was a lot of coming and going of traffic during the night, too, but that's life in the fast lane.

We got the camper closed up first thing in the morning and got the pickup fueled, then fueled ourselves with breakfast from the Cenex. Then it was time to roll.

For a Saturday, the traffic was not too bad.  Could have been the cool, wet weather or we had just beat the rush.  Once we hit Minot, we had 4 lane highway to Wilton, so that helped a pile, too.  By the time we got to Sterling on the other side of Bismarck...which we avoided by going east to Wing, then south to the interstate...it was time to take a break, have a stretch and a snack.

While we were walking to the store, we noticed the shop trailer was hanging down on the front. Just great, we thought, it looked like the same thing that had happened to the last shop trailer.  But upon further inspection, we could see that the safety chains were indeed, doing their job.  

Now, we can't quite figure out how this could have happened...the roads were rough, but surely not rough enough to have caused the trailer to jump off the ball...and we were certain the latch had been locked in when we left home...we both checked.  What we didn't do was a complete circle check before leaving the Cenex at Kenmare. Could all that traffic have had a saboteur among it?  We will never know.  We got it jacked back up and put a lock on the latch to prevent future similar events from happening.

The rest of the day was the usual...shut up and drive...and that is pretty much what happened.  We had another day of strong north winds, which really helped us along.  Interesting how we can be so thankful for the same strong wind at our back, that we curse when it is in our face.

We made Highmore...which was Al's choice for destination today...and went in search of someplace to park his rig.  The usual spot had huge signs saying No Truck Parking, so that was out of the question.  Since tomorrow is Sunday, we found a small stretch to park in at the CaseIH dealer's lot. Hopefully they don't mind us squatting for the night.

After the General was parked, we went into town to see if there was a spot open at the town park we had stayed at previously.  Nope.  There were a couple of campers and tents set up for the weekend, so we went back out to the highway to see if we could park out by the Grand Lodge.  They have RV spots for hunters and harvesters and as luck would have it, they were all empty.  Marilyn went in and registered and we were set for the night.  After getting the camper set up...we left it hooked up to the pickup, since we weren't going anywhere...we decided to go to the restaurant in the lodge for supper.  Great choice.

The inside of the lodge was really quite stunning, with all the deer heads and pheasants lining the walls.  In the restaurant, Saturday night was Prime Rib night, so that was what we ordered...it was absolutely amazing...and reasonably priced.  If you're ever in Highmore, SD, we highly recommend it.

So back in the camper, Al got to listen to his hockey game on the XM radio and Marilyn was able to get internet from the lodge...another vote for staying here in the future.

No rain in sight, but we might get that wind direction change tomorrow...