I can create weather!

Thor has nothing on me.  With a simple flick of my hand (usually while on the steering wheel of the motorhome) I am able to create a headwind.  A few days ago, the forecast was for light wind from the north on our departure day... today: wind from the south at 15 mph, gusting higher.  Yes, we are heading south.

The Aspect handles it fine, but fuel mileage suffers.  Remember all the times I posted about how good our mileage is with the scooters in the Black Hills?  Yeah, one day of driving our "circus train" into the wind negates that.  ;-)

It was an early start to our day - we had a time scheduled at an oil change place in Rapid City (Super Lube).  We were up before 6:00 am (??) and rolling with just the motorhome at 7:00.  They open at 7:30; we were a few minutes early, and they took us as soon as they could get the place open.  Fast, friendly, and efficient.  Faster than any dealer we've used for an oil change, and they check (and fill) the tires, top off the washer fluid, top off the transmission fluid, wash the windshield... in and out in less than a half hour.

Time for a breakfast stop before heading back to Hart Ranch to get the CR-V and cargo trailer.  In that short amount of time we were gone, a road crew had started construction on the road leading to Hart Ranch - we got stopped coming and going and decided to hook up the car and trailer down the road a bit.  Leaving Joan to get the Honda and the cargo trailer...

Rufus, as always, is a great traveler - he hopped up on his tower that is tucked behind my seat as we pulled away...

He does get some lap-time in, as well...

Once south of the Hot Springs area, we are out of the Black Hills...

Gets kinda flat.  We stopped in Chadron at a Walmart so Rufus could have lunch while we were stopped.  Joan had sandwiches and salad ready for us, so we got to have a leisurely lunch, as well.

While in the Wally World lot, I can keep an eye on the car and trailer with our rear view camera.  There was one guy who drove around us, just looking - I'm thinking he was looking to see how we are hooked up.

Leaving Chadron, there are some steep hills and pretty terrain.  We looked for fall colors, but not much has changed here...

There are some pretty shades of green with the farmland...

Hey!  Well... hay...

Yeah, a Dad joke.  We came over one hill and saw this...

... a giant piece of farm equipment slowly moving down the highway.  He did pull over just a bit so we could get around him.

Getting close to Alliance, NE, we saw this reminder of a Doobie Brothers song...

If you said, "Long Train Runnin'," you get 25 bonus points.  Alliance is a busy railroad hub, especially with train cars full of coal.

We saw some of those dreaded orange signs - yeah, the ones warning of road construction.  In this case, 26 miles of it.  Turns out they had most of it done, and we enjoyed some smooth running...

I kept an eye on the fuel gauge - it was dropping faster than usual, thanks to the hills and headwind.  I could see we were going to be fine, but this will be the first $100+ fill-up in quite a while.

Another Rufus hug - the boy spreads the love around...

Just before getting to the RV park, we pulled into the local Walmart to gas up the coach... I was able to get a pump on the outside, making our egress easy.  While I was gassing up, a young guy filling his SUV on the other side of the pump asked how our rig tows.  We visited while pumping.  When he found out we were spending the night here, he suggested we check out the camping around Lake McConaughy, just outside of Ogallala - he said, "Great sandy beaches."  When I told him where we were from, he said, "I was there for a few months teaching kite surfing!  Yeah, you have really great beaches there!"  Small world.

We pulled into the RV park and the lady checking us in asked about our length.  We have stayed in this park many times coming and going, so I knew they had nice long pull-throughs.  She wasn't sure we'd fit... I reassured her that we would be fine.  The guy who escorted us to our site came in while we were visiting and added to the conversation: "I don't think that site you're going to is going to be long enough.  What are you - about 80 feet long?"

"Not even close to that.  Every part of our caravan is low profile, so it looks longer than it is.  Really, we'll be fine where she has us."

He was just sure we wouldn't fit, but escorted us to the site... as we pulled in, it was clear that we could add a stretch limousine to our rig and still have enough space.  ;-)

"You were right," he said.  We've been staying at this place for at least 25 years as we pass through, and with a bunch of different RVs.  Really, I wasn't just guessing.  Plenty of space...

We were in before 4:00, allowing for some kick back time, a walk around the park (just me, there are stickers in that grass, so Rufus had to stay in the coach), and Joan made us a great supper.  I'm thinking we'll make it a reasonably early evening for turn-in tonight.

:-)