| In January 2007 Peter and Christiane E.
flew from their native Germany to Florida and rented a Class C motorhome
and traveled with us ten days. They had rented motorhomes in the west five
times, but that was their first trip to Florida. They looked at new motorhomes
at the Tampa RV Show and looked at used motorhomes at Lazy Days RV. Back
in Germany they set plans in motion to retire young and travel around the
United States by motorhome. I helped them do research and they ordered
a 2008 Newmar Dutch Star, a very nice 40 foot diesel pusher, and a 2008
Honda CR-V.
We happened to be in Clarksville, Indiana (Louisville, KY) when they arrived from German to pick up their new home from Tom Stinnett RV Freedom Center and sales woman Tammy Gordon. I assisted in the pre-delivery inspection and Linda and I took them shopping at Wal*Mart, Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, Sears and a few other places. Shopping was interesting since they needed everything to equip a motorhome for fulltime living and items and lifestyles are different in Germany and the United States. I told them to push their cart down isles in Wal*Mart and take one of each item off the shelves. Linda loves any type of hobby and Christiane taught her to make puppets (dolls). For my birthday Christiane gave me a puppet and it goes great with my monkey (my mother made for me) and my Huggy Bear my grandsons gave me during my last cancer surgery. The Ermkes first motorhome trip was to Boonville, Indiana near Evansville where SMI is located. They had SMI install an Air Force One braking system on their CR-V. At the campground they found only half of the electric items in their motorhome worked and the campground checked their power and it was OK. So they called me for advice. Linda and I decided to make a service run and we put my tool chest and some test equipment in our CR-V and drove 100 to Boonville. I found their ATS (automatic transfer switch) had a broken part and I made a temporary repair with a dowel stick. Our entire trip was 221 miles, but it was worth it. The Ermkes had electric again and they treated us to a pizza buffet.
The week before we began our summer travels one of my lower teeth broke off even with the gum. Since I have had cancer three times in the jaw and neck area and a total of 76 radiation therapy treatments, my lower teeth are in bad shape and my jaw bone is brittle. Having a tooth removed is major surgery by a specialist with antibiotic treatments before and after surgery. The entire process takes at least a month. We had plans to travel with two couples to Gillette, Wyoming and to the Calgary Stampede with one couple. We had already paid over $1,400 for those events and it was too late to cancel. My dentist, Dr. Chris L. Williams, is aware of our travels and lifestyle and he knew we planned to hit the road in a week, so he smoothed the broken tooth and applied a patch. Thanks to Dr. Williams I avoided surgery and we hit the road on time. Day 1 - 235 miles The Ermkes followed us from Clarksville, Indiana to Champaign, Illinois where we met my sister Gloria and Don Martin. We overnighted at Wal*Mart and ate at Home Town Buffet. During the trip we stopped at Flying J in Whiteland, Indiana and due to flooding their phone lines were not working. They could not pump propane (we were near empty) and we had to pay cash for diesel fuel. We scraped together $200 cash and the Ermkes had $300 so that is how much fuel we bought. Day 2 - 357 miles We along with the Ermkes and Martins drove to Des Moines and overnighted at Wal*Mart. We ate in that night. Their parking lot has an open area in front that is OK for a few rigs. A security truck with a flashing yellow light was where we wanted to park so he moved to make room for us. We drove I-80 across Iowa and it had been closed for several days due to flooding, but the highway was opened to traffic a few hours before we arrived. We saw many farms flooded and felt sorry for the farmers. Day 3 - 344 miles We overnighted at Cabela's in Mitchell, South Dakota. They have 31 RV sites behind their store and encourage RVers to spend the night. Each site is 70 feet long and 15 feet wide and they have a dog run, dog cages, a horse exercise area and a dump station. Of course they want us to shop in their store and we did big time. After we arrived we shopped at Wal*Mart, Cabela's, visited the Corn Palace and ate at Applebee's. The Corn Palace is decorated with corn and grains with a different subject each year. It was mostly barren the end of June and as crops come in later this summer it will be fully decorated. During the day's drive Christiane talked about the Great Nothing - long stretches of rolling prairie land with few houses and small towns many miles apart. The Ermkes don't see that type of scenery in Germany. As the sun set a newspaper photographer arrived and asked us a few questions and took our pictures.
Day 4 - 310 miles Another "Great Nothing" day rolling along I-80. At Rapid City, SD we turned south and a few miles later Peter, a pilot, thought we should stop due to a storm over our planned route. So we pulled our three rigs over to the side of the road and waited 45 minutes for the storm to pass. A few miles south we ran into a little rain and then I saw snow, deep snow in the highway and in the hills. It was 76 degrees so how could it snow? SNOW? Linda said that is not snow - it is hail!!! Sure enough, hail was several inches deep with fog rising so thick we could not see down the road. I turned on the headlight and fog lights and drove carefully at 10 mph. The road was curvy with steep hills and there was no place to stop so we kept driving slowly and we could not see the other motorhomes, but we kept in contact by radio. I don't know if we drove through 10 or 20 miles of hail, but it seemed like a long drive. We did see a snowplow clearing the highway. In 2000 we camped in the same area and had three hail storms and the last one had tennis ball size hail that did $8,000 in damage to our motorhome and Honda. We just missed the bullet this time, but during our six night stay we had hail, only pea size, three more times. (While we were driving to Rapid City a reporter called Linda and interviewed her about overnighting at Wal*Mart and Cabela's instead of staying in campgrounds. The intent of the article was to show RVers take money away from campground owners and the newspaper article misquoted Linda on several items. The article was picked up by RV News and spread around the country. We have done several interviews with newspapers including a feature article in USA Today and this is the first time we have been misquoted. In the near future I'll write an article with my thoughts.) Hill City, South Dakota We chose to stay at Horse Thief Campground near Hill City because it is between Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse and within short drives of other interesting and scenic places. The campground was on a hill in the middle of the Black Hills and the drive to our campsites was a challenge. The dirt and gravel road was washed out with ruts and getting around trees used all of our driving skills. But once parked the campground was OK, quiet and dark, and yes, the daily evening rain and hail. Mount Rushmore For our first day of traveling in the Black
Hills of South Dakota we decided to visit Mt. Rushmore. We arrived to dark
skies, a little rain and the The next day we returned to Mt. Rushmore
and it was a pleasant sunny day for walking up close to the mountain. The
Presidential carvings on Mt. Rushmore were funded by the state of South
Dakota for one purpose, to bring tourist and money to the state. Later
the U.S. funded the project and made it a National Park. The carvings began
in 1927 and were completed in 1941. The workers were dropped from the top
of the mountain on cables and made the carvings with jack hammers for 50
cents an hour and there were no fatalities during construction. Abraham
Lincoln was first placed on the left, but bad rock caused him to be moved
to the right and the funding ran out before his left ear was finished.
There were supposed to be three Presidents on the mountain, Lincoln, George
Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Theodore Roosevelt was added after the
carving started.
Crazy Horse Near Mt. Rushmore is Crazy Horse Memorial.
Korczak Ziolkowski single-handedly started carving the mountain into Indian
Chief Crazy Horse riding a horse in a tribute to all Indian tribes. He
has since died and his wife and some of his ten children have continued
the project. The monument was started in 1948 and it will take generations
to finish. When completed it will stand 563 feet high and 641 feet long.
(The four Presidents on Mt. Rushmore would fit inside of the horse's face.)
The museum at the visitor's center is one of the most interesting we have
seen on the American Indian and the twenty minute movie on Ziolkowski and
the mountain is a must see. The memorial accepts no state or federal money
and is funded by admission fees and souvenir sales.
Custer State Park Custer State Park is a large (71,000-acres)
and diverse park with mountains, valleys, plains, rolling streams and wildlife
living in their natural habitat. We saw deer, pronghorn and wild burros
(looking for handouts), but where were the buffalo? A park ranger told
us to drive a few miles back a gravel road and sure enough - the plains
were full of buffalo. We stopped and made some pictures and actually we
probably got too close to them. They were not fenced in and were roaming
anywhere they wanted and then suddenly they disappeared over hills. We
were lucky to see them because as we were leaving other car loads of people
were arriving to empty open fields. We continued up the beautiful Needles
Highway over a narrow winding road and through one lane tunnels and at
a parking area we saw Mt. Rushmore in the distance.
Journey Museum The Journey Museum in Rapid City is bypassed
by most tourist, but we are not tourist, we are fulltimers seeking out
the unusual. The museum contains archaeology and geology displays, a Sioux
Indian museum, the pioneer days and much more. Plan to spend about two
hours.
South Dakota Air & Space Museum East of Rapid City we found the Air &
Space Museum on Ellsworth Air Force Base. There is an indoor museum and
the outdoor area displays many aircraft and bombers including a B-18 and
a B-52. Bus tours of the Air Force Base are available.
Deadwood It had been eight years since we had been
to Deadwood, South Dakota and the town sure has changed. We won't be returning.
Deadwood is a restored old western town with casinos lining Main Street,
high priced souvenirs, no where to park and the visitors center even has
parking meters for those wishing to visit town. We saw Saloon # 10 where
Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back of the head by Jim McCall as he was
playing poker. Wild Bill was holding a hand of two eights, two aces and
a queen. Since that day, August 2, 1876, that hand has been know as "dead
man's hand." Calamity Jane of western fame also lived in Deadwood and was
a friend of Wild Bill. They are buried next to each other in the city cemetery
and we drove up a hill to the cemetery and found a gate and a woman wanting
$1 a person to walk into the cemetery. Now, this is a public city cemetery
and they wanted us to pay to enter!!! We refused and left. I'm glad
my parents aren't buried there because I would have to pay to visit their
graves. Oh, we did eat ice cream cones before leaving Deadwood.
We had a great time traveling and touring
with the Martins and Ermkes and before we hit the road to Gillette, Wyoming
I snapped pictures of Don and Gloria Martin and Peter and Christiane Ermke
with their motorhomes. I don't want to forget what they look like.
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