Wandering...

        We had talked about a trip to Nebraska to visit our new grandson… have you ever watched the movie “R.V”.?

        Maybe I’m exaggerating slightly…

        We left South Dakota Wednesday, getting away from the crush of the Rally and taking the grandkids to meet their new half-brother.

        We’ll take you back a bit, to when we procured a used motorhome in pretty decent shape. There were some problems as with any used vehicle, but the majority were pretty straightforward… gas line to the generator, a reluctant water pump, nothing that created a major issue.

        We left the Black Hills and headed out on I-90.  Two grandkids hadn’t in recent memory traveled farther than Pierre, so they started wondering “how far” within an hour or two.  The roads were in good shape with a little construction scattered here and there.

        We noticed that we didn’t meet many motorcycles… further indication of a small Rally.

        We were in the middle of no-where when Bob asked, “Is that a tire?” The answer was immediate with a clunk followed by the sound of a tire flapping into the wheel well.  Pulling over, I jumped out to see fluid running beneath the motorhome, which caused immediate alarm.  Luckily, I guess, it was the water reservoir draining!  Outside of that, the inside duelly had blown and that was the most visible damage.

        We were lucky enough to be able to limp into a little town named Draper and very relieved to see a mechanic’s shop in the rear of a convenience store. We approached the clerk with our problem and she stated, “Well, the guy who’s got the mechanic shop has closed it and opened a bar,” pointing down a hallway. We ventured down the hall to the bar, where the bar maid said he was out.  A really nice woman then started talking to Bob about the repairs.  I went back to check on the kids, who were literally hanging out the windows of the motorhome.

        As we stood there, a man approached and said, “Is the propane tank leaking?”  I agreed I smelled propane so he turned that off and then stated, “If he’d pull out of the mud puddle I’ll take a look at that tire.”

        We’d found the guy to help us like so many rural people do… he had that tire fixed and us back on the road in no time!  The downside was that it took out the propane line and some of the electrical in addition to the water reservoir.

        So here’s a public thanks to the guy and his wife who run the Busted Nut Bar in Draper, S.D.  They are good people and if you go that direction, stop and buy them a beer!

We made it to Nebraska and had a great time exploring the Ashfall Fossil Beds.

Robey ended up with a really well made science kit called “Crystal Mining” by KidsLabs.  It kept him busy for hours, digging out various stones for his collection. He could identify most of them by name, having learned from Bob.  There was a nice assortment of quartz, rose quartz, amethyst, agate and dolomite.  We’ve got some great clay on one of our claims that we might try to create some Black Hills mineral kits.  It would take about 300 kits to use up just what we have handy here at home!

        Our hosts also took us to the Knox County Fair, which was a real treat for the kids and grownups alike. (I copied this photo from Britt's Facebook)



All the kids in Nebraska minus Alex, who'd rather take a bike ride

          So we said our farewells to our extended family and got about 15 miles down the road before the same tire blew again! 

        We were so fortunate that the first guy who stopped to help was a race car driver, who turned around and went home to fetch his trailer, complete with every tool you could dream of!  His pit crew, probably wife or girlfriend, and he rotated in the new spare we had acquired. There’s good people everywhere, but rural America has the best!

        A good look at the tires showed the two that blew were more than ten years old; all the rest were of a newer vintage. 

        With that in mind, we proceeded home with one trek through some pretty gnarly road construction until the Black Hills were in sight, the air cooled and we were once again surrounded by the smell of pine trees and a crisp Black Hills evening.