Choc’full of stuff

Last night we stayed in a Super 8 motel.  We were less than impressed.  The entire place is supposed to be non-smoking.  However our room was located right near the entrance where the people congregate to smoke.  Well evidently a pack of smokers all sucked and blew at the same time creating a large cloud of smoke that managed to waft into our room through the AC unit. Ali was not happy.

I asked at the front desk if we could possibly move.  They said we could go upstairs but there is no wireless Internet on the second floor.  The no Internet plus having to repack and relocate our junk made us just grin and bear it. I threw a spare towel over the AC vents.

Other things bothered us about the place.  The drain in the tub was miserably slow.  By the time you finished a shower you had water up over your ankles.  The bed sucked too.  I woke up with all sorts of aches in my back from sleeping on the bowled out mattress.  We won’t be looking to stay in a Super 8 anytime again soon.

This morning I noticed something weird.  Actually I noticed it the evening before in the light rain while I unloaded the van.  The power locks stopped working.  Hmm that’s weird.  Well this morning I noticed the power seat was dead as well.  After some troubleshooting I determined one of the relays in the fuse box was screwed up, or so I thought. 

When I swapped the relay out the stuff started working again.  However when I pushed the power lock button on the passenger side door all was dead again and the relay would get VERY hot.  After some more trial and error throughout the day I have determined that somehow that switch must have developed a short when it was exposed the the light rain.  I had that door open for awhile as I unloaded the van in the wetness.  So as of now I have that switch disconnected and everything else is working. 

Nicki and Sadie had been rammy from being in nothing but the van and hotel rooms for the past few days.  Ali actually found an off leash dog park only a few miles away.  We pulled up and there was noone there.  The grass was wet but walkable.  Soon after letting both dogs off the leash they were off an running, savoring being unleashed and free.  They ran and played for 15 minutes or so and loved every minute of it.

We had a relatively short amount of miles today to put in to go from Sioux Falls to Rapid City.  It was a good thing because we made some stops along the way.  South Dakota has some beautiful countryside filled with rolling hills as far as you can see.  We stopped at a place marked as a “scenic overlook”.  It lived up to it’s description.  The pictures we took don’t quite capture just how awesome the view was looking out at endless green hills in every direction.

Route 90 seems to be non-stop tourist attractions.  I commented to Ali several times throughout the day how if the dogs weren’t with there was much more I would want to do/see. 

We did manage to stop at Wall Drug.  I remember Wall Drug from when my dad drove us out west when I was in my early teens.  Much like South of the Border on I-95, this place has countless billboards starting several hundred miles away.  Wall Drug which started out as a simple drug store has morphed into a full blown tourist trap over the years. 

Again because of the dogs, we had to check it out in shifts.  I went in first and did a quick look around.  The area seemed much bigger and developed than I remembered from the early 80’s.  I probably only spent 10 minutes taking a quick look.  The only thing I got a was a free Wall Drug bumper sticker.

Ali went next.  She got a bunch of Xmas ornaments, some ice cream for us and gift for me, a huge over-sized Wall Drug pencil.  I had told her on the way out that I bought a similar pencil when I was there as a kid to use in pencil fights, one of my various odd youthful hobbies.

From Wall Drug it was less than 50 miles to our hotel in Rapid City.  Last night Ali saved us from huge sticker shock when she checked ahead for the rates on the LaQuinta here.  I almost shit my pants when she said $249 a night. WTF?????

Well luckily we had enough LaQuinta rewards points for a free night.  So we managed to score the room for NOTHING, a huge win.  In South Dakota, indoor water parks are evidently a big deal.  We saw a bunch of them advertised.  Well this LaQuinta has one as well, a massive, extremely cool one.  Too bad we don’t really have the time or energy to enjoy it.

When I checked in I asked about the sky high room rates.  The clerk said it is only like that 4 months of the year.  In the winter the rooms are like $40 a night.

After checking in and unloading our gear we wasted no time shooting back out to go see Mt Rushmore.  Again, as I kid I saw Mt Rushmore but I remember very little about it.  In fact I told Ali that when we saw it I kind of remember being pissed off at my dad so I sort of thought I walked up, said, “There I saw it” and did little else. Well I appreciated it much more this time around.

We brought the dogs with but they weren’t allowed in the park.  They had to just hang out in the van in the parking garage.  Luckily the cool temps and the cover from the garage made leaving them alone less worrisome.

Mt Rushmore is just impressive.  When you stare up at this creation that was carved out of the face of the mountain you can’t help being amazed by what went into creating it.  Ali and I took a ton of pictures and walked the Presidential Trail that takes you right to the base of the monument.  I wouldn’t  be surprised if Ali and woke up with stiff necks tomorrow from walking around while looking up so much. 

What impresses me more is this was started in 1927.  Much like the Hoover Dam, it’s incredible to me what could be accomplished back then with technology that is far inferior to what we have available today.  We spent a lot of time just taking it all in. 

In the gift shop there was actually an old guy that worked on making the monument, he was 17 years old when he did it.  He told us a lot of interesting info.  He was there selling some book for $10 that had more info about the monument.  I didn’t buy the book but I did ask if I could take my picture with him.  He seemed less than thrilled for some reason but he obliged me anyway as long as we agreed to not use a flash which hurt his very old eyes.

Before we left we hit the book store for Ali to pick up some stamps for her National Park book which she left back at the room.  There was some old dude there working the register that was incredibly slow.  He was totally oblivious to the long line as he went into long diatribes with people instead of ringing them up and going to the next person.  We probably spent 15 minutes waiting to pay for these dumb stamps.

Before we left I had to have Ali shoot my first road trip L sit and  a very scenic one at that, right in front of the monument.  Surely people thought I was nuts but I tried to not look at other faces around me.

Tomorrow it’s on the great state of Montana.  We peeked ahead to the forecast for Yellowstone.  The night we arrive the low is supposed to be 27 degrees with a chance of snow.  Snow, in June… wow that would be something.

A few blurbs.

So far we have put in something like 2300 miles.

We saw a billboard along 90 that went something like this:

WEAR MORE FUR. HELP CONTROL THE ANIMAL POPULATION. 

It wasn’t a joke.

Sadie is capable of producing incredible amounts of feces.

This trip is going to cost us a ton of dough.  Yea gas prices are close to a dollar a gallon less this time around.  But this time around we don’t have 6 or 7 nights of free lodging at relatives plus we are on the road longer than ever before.  Everywhere I look I just see $$ signs.

The PV 2.0 has averaged 15-16.5 mpg so far about 20-30% improvement then the old party van squaked out.

A bunch more pics were taken today and added here.  Keep checking back as I add more.