Custer State Park...

 

Another great riding area.  We have options for getting there - decided to take the route that runs us past Mt Rushmore and come into the park via Needles Highway.  I did take a 360 camera and mounted it on my bike to start, then on the back of Joan's bike... I wanted to get some video of the CTX in this pretty scenery.

Joan packed us a picnic lunch and we got out early, hoping to beat the crowds on Needles Highway.  I did grab a few still from the video - they will have to suffice while I work on the video.

A cooler day today, with partly sunny skies.  It was just right with a riding jacket on when we got out before 9:00 am.  Fun curvy roads as we made our way through Keystone and past Mt Rushmore...

You can see George's profile in the image above.  Hwy 244 goes past Mt Rushmore and connects with Hwy 385 near Hill City.  A left, then another left, and we are on the highway that winds its way to Custer State Park.  We stopped at the northwest entrance, bought our season passes, and then stopped long enough to move the camera from my bike to Joan's.

Another first for us when we got to the Needle's Eye Tunnel: no traffic!  Early is the answer.

No traffic from either direction through the tunnel, and no one in front of us for the first few miles on the other side of Needle's Eye...

We were behind a pickup for a while; he passed several opportunities to pull off and let us get around.  I did politely flash my lights at him, and he understood.  Zipping around him, we had clear road ahead of us again.

This is great riding with beautiful scenery.  It also takes us past our favorite picnic area in the park.

We pulled into the Hole In The Wall Picnic Area and had our pick of tables.

With lunch done, I went to fire up my camera again... low battery.  Those photos above are from my phone.  Joan took a selfie before we pulled out...

The rest of the ride took us through Custer State Park, back to the full length of Iron Mountain Road, back through Keystone, then onto Highway 16.  We stopped for gas before heading back into Hart Ranch... I got 75mpg, Joan's Xmax did better.

I took some time to clean up the bikes before putting them away; Joan trimmed up a piece of carpet we had left over from a shelf-lining project, and made a liner for my top case (trunk).

Yeah, yeah, but what about the important stuff?  Rufus was happy to see us when we got home - this was before taking him outside...

That piece of carpet he's sitting on... that's the new liner now in my trunk.

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Happy 21st Anniversary, Steph and Dan!  Yep, just a short 21 years ago, these two youngsters were joined in wedded matrimony.  And now, 21 years later, I still remind Dan: no take-backs!

:-)

Iron Mountain Road - The Video!

 

Here is the grand unveiling of the video I shot this morning -  this one is different from most of what I shoot in that it was all done in one take.  No cuts, no edits.  The situation was unusual in that I was able to ride Iron Mountain Road from the intersection with Playhouse Road to the north end of IMR with no traffic.  Oh, there were a couple cars and a bike that were going the other direction, and I did have to wait a few seconds for a car to clear one of the tunnels... but, no traffic in front of me slowing me down.

What a treat!

Once back home, I downloaded the video (took almost as long as the ride) to the iPad Pro to insert all the keyframes (that tell the camera where to look).  Transfer to the MacBook Pro to use iMovie to add the titles, add music from a royalty-free source (no copyright issues that way), then a voice over.  The longest part of the whole process is uploading the finished project to YouTube.

If you are a rider, you will appreciate the perspective.  If you are a non-rider, this video will give you some idea of what it looks like when riding a great road like this.  The Honda CTX700 DCT is a fun bike for this kind of riding.  It is surprisingly nimble for its size and carries its weight down low.  The Dual Clutch Transmission allows you to be in the right gear at the right time without having to work a clutch or shift lever... if you want a bit more engine braking, use your left thumb to downshift; use your index finger to upshift.  All the control of a manual transmission, with faster shifts.  Sport Mode on the transmission is a real treat in this kind of riding.

Without further ado, here is my latest Iron Mountain Road video...

Thanks for riding along!

That may never happen again...

 

You got the answer right on Final Jeopardy?  Funny - you get NO bonus points for being a smart ass.

It is going to be a hot one in the Black Hills today; as in: close to 100º.  That isn't the "may never happen again" part.  With the anticipated temperatures, I got out early on the CTX today; left Hart Ranch before 8:00.

I took one of the 360 cameras along, planning to shoot a few still images...

Like most action cameras, it is a wide angle field of view.  Unlike most cameras, I can just shoot away, then decide after I get home what view I want from the camera: straight ahead, looking back, off to the side, from above.  I could take one photo and get a bunch of different views from that same file.

By the time I got to Iron Mountain Road, I decided to shoot a video - there had been so little traffic, this might be the one opportunity to get one video, uncut, with no cars in front of or behind me.  Yep.  I angled the camera forward a bit, turned on the video, and just enjoyed the ride.

I have "processed" the video - now I just have to decide what to do with it.  ;-)

Live with it...

 

Talking about Joan staying with me?  Well, I hadn't considered that; thanks for bringing it up.

Since we arrived at Hart Ranch, I've had pretty much one thing on my mind: yeah, riding.  I have gotten a ride in each day, now, so I felt like I could take a breather.  I made breakfast on the griddle (with Joan's prep work), took Rufus for a walk, and just settled in.

Hart Ranch has lovely grass between the sites; Rufus really enjoys being out in the grass.  When we pulled in Friday, the grass was already a bit tall where the sewer connection is.  Maintenance does a fine job here with the grounds-keeping... understandable, they don't mow around your utilities, so they don't wind up cutting a power cable, hose, or sewer hose.  When possible, they can mow all that between one RV moving out and the next moving in... that doesn't always work out, depending on the timing.

One of the nice perks of this membership resort: they have tools you can check out - in this particular case, electric weed-eaters.  If you've been a reader here for any length of time, you know how I feel about lawn work.  This, however, is different.  I went to the maintenance shop and checked out a weed-eater.

We had a plan: one runs the weed-eater, the other moves stuff (like the above mention utility connectors).  Joan ran the weed-eater, I was the move-stuff guy.  It went quick, since all we had to do was right around the utilities and the edge of the cement pad.  I started sweeping... as fast as I swept grass, more blew in from the other side of the pad.  Joan swept... same results.  I made an executive decision: live with it.  It's a bit breezy today... let the wind do as much work for us as possible, and we'll sweep anything that's left in a day or 6.

After the last couple of cool days, the heat is moving in again.  Oh, not like south Texas heat - the humidity here is generally around 35% or so.  But, when the heat gets going, the tough go for ice cream... yes, we have another plan.  It is important to plan for these things.  :-)

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I got my ice cream.  Made efficient use of the drive into town to go to Sam's, Best Buy, and PetSmart.  We were going to pick up another jumper/compressor at Sam's, after returning the one we had (glad we bought the extended warranty on that one - we usually don't).  Their website showed they have them in stock.  After looking around for a while, Joan found the tag on the shelf, but no stock.  She asked an employee about that, he looked it up, and said, "It shows we have 48 of them in stock."

I said, "We only need one - any chance we can get that?"

He clicked on his radio and told us, "They will drop one."  I didn't know what that means.  Apparently, there is a pallet of them... somewhere.  About 10 minutes later, we were treated to a parade: a guy in a green vest, followed by a loud beeping forklift, followed by another guy in a green vest, followed by a guy in a blue shirt.  The went past the aisle where we were waiting, then the guy in the blue shirt shooed us out of that aisle and closed it off.  They all disappeared into the next aisle.  They were gone for a while, then the parade went the other way.  No sign of the jumper/compressor as they all disappeared along with the loud beeping.  We waited for a while longer, with no sign of the guy we first spoke with or the parade members... then, decided to get on with our afternoon.

The "blockers" were out in force... they tried to block each lane and slow us down, but the nimble Equinox with the 2.0 turbo was able to out-maneuver and out-run them.  Not for lack of trying on their part.  On to Best Buy, where we had ordered another external hard drive for Curb-Side Delivery.  When we told them what site we were in, the app said "Someone will deliver your order in the next three minutes"... and gave us a countdown timer on the app.  Sure enough, the guy brought out the order in 2 minutes and 51 seconds.  I was impressed.  Joan got antsy at the 2 minute 30 second point.

On to PetSmart to get stocked up on food for our furry boy - you have to get it when you can, when they have what we like in stock.  A short wait to pay, and back to the streets.  Even more blockers... they have to be using radios, as we'd move around one, another would pull out in front of us.  All from the same two counties; it can't be a coincidence.  Again, it took some maneuvering, but we managed to get out of town and onto the 4 lane that would take us back to the motorhome.

It wasn't as much fun as being out on the motorcycle, but I have to say it was quite invigorating as we made each move to avoid the blockers... there's just SO MANY of them.  This might make an interesting video game?  Nah, I can live it in real life... almost every time I get in the car.  It would be nice to have a vaporizing weapon that could fire from the grill of our vehicle.  "The humanity!" you say?  They have it coming.  Of course, I'm kidding... maybe just a stun ray?

Sturgis: One Month Before the Rally...

 

 

Out on the CTX again today.  The plan: ride Vanocker Canyon.  The "side plan": stop at the motorcycle dealer to make sure they have the belt in - I scheduled a service appointment a month ago, to get the CVT belt replaced on Joan's Xmax.  A good thing I stopped to check - they didn't order the belt, but they assure me that they can get it in time for our service appointment next week.  And that's why we follow up.

With the plan to ride Vanocker Canyon, Nemo Road, Norris Peak Road, and Rimrock Highway, I thought I'd clip the 360 camera on and get a view of what Sturgis looks like one month before the Rally comes to town.

After shooting that video, I figured I'd throw in some "bonus footage" of Vanocker Canyon.  I got surprised when the road surface in the canyon is in the middle of getting a freshly oiled surface... is it slick?  Will it leave an oily mess on the bike?  Hey, I'm here - gonna ride!

Through the canyon, a right turn to the little community of Nemo, and down Nemo Road.  Joan made me a lunch, and I stopped at a picnic area (Steamboat Rock) along Nemo Road.  When I pulled in, there was no one there.  I parked the bike and went to use the potty there.  When I came out, another guy on a bike had pulled in and was sitting at the nearby picnic table in the shade... I grabbed my cooler, walked that way, and said, "You willing to share some shade or if you want this all to yourself, I'll find another table."

He said, "Have a seat."  My new friend Jay.  We talked about motorcycles and good riding roads (all over the country).  It was a pleasant time.  When I was done eating, I wished him "safe riding" and hit the road.  Some of the best riding is right here in the Black Hills, and the roads I was on today were nearly empty.

Here's the video...

 

Together Again...

 

If you said, "Buck Owens, a country music singer, 1964," you are not a whippersnapper and you get 20 bonus points.  If you said, "Janet Jackson, 1997, from the album The Velvet Rope," you also get 20 bonus points.  If you said both of those, you get 50 bonus points, because those are completely different genres, and I am impressed.

Today, Joan and I got out on the bikes... first time we've ridden together in a couple months.  Joan is not a fan of the riding to be had in the Tropical Tip, especially when it is hot and humid.  I ride most days, I even take her scoot out once in a while.

A lovely day here in the Black Hills - the temperatures ranged from 63º to 74º while we were riding.  Comfortable with a riding jacket.  Plus, it was fun to be out riding with my Honey.

I did put a 360 camera on the bike... it's been a while since I did that.  I had a loose plan: shoot some short video clips.  When all was said and done, I had 42 video clips, ranging from a few seconds to a minute; yeah, that was more than I intended, and a lot of work to download and edit.  I will work on that.

In the meantime, here are a few still shots from those videos...

Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.  Oh, and... this is why we're here!

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I didn't have it in me to edit all those video clips.  So, here is a fun "trailer" of The Black Hills (The Ride); coming soon to a blog near you.  ;-)

So good, so good, so good...

 

If you said, "What the crowd sings during the Neil Diamond song Sweet Caroline: 'Good times never seemed so good...' " you get 15 bonus points.  If you said, "Taco John's Potato Ole's with nacho cheese sauce," you are correct, but no bonus points.

I am talking about riding.  Specifically: riding the CTX.  I got out for the maiden cruise through the best curves in the Black Hills today...

 That map shows a lot of good riding.  It does not highlight "our loop" which takes us from Hart Ranch, through some great twisties that aren't highlighted on the map, Playhouse Road to Iron Mountain Road, through Keystone, then back on the fun twisties.  Our loop is highlighted in a faded yellow below...

That's all I have for images today, since I didn't take a camera along.  But, here's what the ride was like...

I have had the CTX for just over 3 months; this is the first opportunity to take it on some really good twisty roads.  I intentionally ran over some tar snakes (where tar has been used to fix cracks in the road) - you notice it, but the tires on this bike are much bigger, so it isn't as butt puckering as with the Vespa.

This bike is plenty powerful enough to keep me entertained.  I rode in Sport Mode today, using the paddle shifters as necessary to keep the engine at the RPM I desired - fast, easy, and very sporting.  The bike goes through the curves great.  I had concerns about the size and weight of it (longer and about 150 pounds heavier) - thought it might not be as "flickable" as the scooter.  It isn't, but it handles the curves as well as any bike I've had, including a couple of BMWs that were known for that sporting ride.  You put the bike on the line you want through the curve and it holds it.  No fuss, no drama.  I started out riding it easy, then worked up to pushing it harder.  And harder.  Dare I say: it might even be more fun than the Vespa... and the dual clutch transmission is perfect in Sport Mode with this kind of riding.

Regarding that "flickability": on Playhouse Road, coming around a blind curve, a truck coming at me was over the center line - no problem at all swerving around it.  Shortly after that, a Jeep was delivering mail on that same road - the driver pulled back into the road obviously without looking; countersteering to the left and then snapping the bike back right.  Easy.  Didn't even feel like a "close call."

Very little traffic to that point, so I could ride as hard or as easy as I wanted.  Damn, this bike is good... did I mention that already?  Once onto Iron Mountain Road, I had several miles of nothing in front of me, and then a convertible Sebring with a couple out for a pleasure drive with the top down.  They strictly adhered to the speed limit.  There were several opportunities where they could have pulled the right side of the road and let me around (double yellow line, so I wasn't going to pass), but they didn't.  Finally, as we came to the first of the tunnels, the yellow line goes away, and I was able to zip around them.

More open road in front of me.  For a bit.  Then I got behind 3 Slingshots (3-wheelers, more like a car than a bike) from Minnesota.  Truly, they were enjoying the drive and didn't hold me up much.  In fact, through the pigtail turns, I had to work to stay up with them.  I was behind them the rest of the way into Keystone - it was actually fun watching them drive through the curves.

Taking a right onto Highway 48 after downtown Keystone, I once again had no traffic in front of me.  Once back to the turn onto South Rockerville Road, I have "closed the loop," and am riding the twisty roads I started on.  Every bit as fun, and a new challenge to ride them the other direction.  I passed 3 motorcycles, a car, and a pickup going the other way; nothing in front of or coming up behind me.

I know as the season progresses, there will be more traffic.  But, today was all about the discovery of how this bike really works with the kind of riding I like to do.  Two very enthusiastic thumbs up!  Honda knows how to make good motorcycles, and the Dual Clutch Transmission is a real delight in this kind of riding.

Some reviewers of the DCT have said, "One of the downsides of this transmission is it can't anticipate what's coming up ahead of you..." as in: breaking and downshifting prior to coming into a tight curve.  Well: duh?  No manual transmission can do that, either.  To get the most out of the bike, you use the paddle (trigger) shifters to up and down shift as you would with a manual transmission bike.  The only difference is: no clutch lever for your left hand, and no shift lever for your left food... you do it all with your left index finger and thumb.  The shifts are instantaneous and positive.  If you leave the transmission to its own decisions, it may not shift up or down at the same time you would... but it would probably be very close.  Yes, you could ride this bike through the tight curves in Sport Mode the whole time without touching the paddle shifters and it would still be a good ride.  With the control input the ride has, it makes it a fun, outstanding ride.

Any concerns I had that this bike may not be as much fun as the Vespa in this twisty stuff are gone.  No photos or videos today, just some delightful riding.  And a big smile on my face.

What a difference...

 

Overnight low was 57º.  I took Rufus for a walk this morning - he had his fur coat on, I put on jeans and a sweatshirt.  First time I've had long pants on (other than while out on my motorcycle) in months.  It rained and the wind blew overnight; or so I was told, since I slept through it.  It was blissfully quiet from my perspective: no air conditioner running, no road noise.

We need to stock up on some groceries, so I don't know if I'll get a motorcycle ride in today.  The high is only going to be 68º and wind above 20 mph.  But, bright blue sky and a few puffy white clouds.  I know this cool weather isn't going to last, but it sure is a nice change of pace.  At home, this would be a typical "winter" day.  After all the heat we drove through, I'll take this.

Rufus is happy to be where he can go for a walk any time, and is now happily sitting by the screen door, looking out...

 

The Twinge...

 

I mentioned that twinge in the stomach feeling I got as we were headed home from Phoenix... excited to be home.  I got that again today at the first sight of the Black Hills in the distance.  Yes, I am happy to be here.

The drive has been long and hot.  The a/c has been on high in the coach whenever we're down.  The dash air has been on any time the engine is running.  Today, for an hour or so, I was able to use the vent.  When we stopped for a potty break and to get Rufus a snack, it was quiet in the motorhome.  That's nice.

We left from Ogallala, NE, this morning before 8:00 - rain and thunderstorms predicted in the Black Hills after 2:00.  270 miles on this leg, so we had it timed to get there before 2:00.  As we got closer, the weather guessers moved the rain back to 4:00... then 5:00.

We ran into a couple road construction stops along the way, but our timing was pretty good; not too much of a wait to get behind the pilot car.  Loose gravel, so we kept our distance from the truck in front of us.

Yesterday was a run from east to west in Nebraska - from 1,600 feet above sea level to 3,200 feet elevation.  Nothing that looked like a hill, just a gradual incline so slight you don't notice.  Today, it was lots of hills.  And curves.  Two-lane road mostly.  I had mentioned a couple days ago that we have seen very few RVs on the road - that changed today: scads of RVs of all kinds coming at us on the two-lane.  Maybe they were saving up time off to get the 4th of July in the vacation.  RV parks we passed had plenty of open sites.  Hart Ranch, on the other hand, is full - every site in the "overflow area" is full.  They are putting in more sites, but those aren't going to be done for a while.

Today's drive:

 The start of the construction...

Rufus was on my lap during most of the drive...

At long last, driving into South Dakota...

That twinge when I could see the Black Hills getting closer...

We stopped for gas before rolling into Hart Ranch.  Everybody played nice.  The hills and a headwind cut my mpg into the 8s.

We checked in at the guard shack (Welcome Center) going into Hart Ranch.  I went into the Lodge and got us registered.  Then to our site.  I backed the cargo trailer to the site, then we turned it around by hand (easier to get the bikes out when the back of the trailer is facing the street).  I backed the coach in, Joan pulled in with the Equinox.  We are here!

Settling in: it took us a couple hours to get the coach set up, stuff unloaded from the car and cargo trailer.  Griddle and e-bike set up. The sites here at Hart Ranch are double width paved; grassy areas between the sites.

The last thing to do: get the bikes out of the trailer so we can set the interior of it to be our "portable garage" instead a bike hauler...

My ass was dragging - I didn't even take the bike around the block.  Plus, the sky was getting grayer.  Started the bikes just to move 'em back into the trailer.  

Shortly after coming into the coach, we got a phone call from Steph - I had sent her a text to let her know we were in and settled, so she knew it was a good time to visit.  Good to hear her voice and catch up both ways.

Rufus found a bag to crawl into - "Is this camping?"

He makes me smile... plus, he's a good boy.  ;-)

Trapped...

 

Like a rat.  No cheese.

I hate inconsiderate people.  Hate is a strong word that I don't use very often.  It is appropriate at times, and this is one of those times.  We pulled into a Pilot gas station, and they only had one row of pumps, with 3 pumps on either side.  I pulled to the side where our fuel filler is and... the light blue Jeep at the pump in front of me had the fuel nozzle in the car, no one around.

I waited.  After 20 minutes, I went inside and asked the person at the cash register if they could make an announcement to have the person with the light blue Jeep to please move it so other people could use the fuel pumps.  I had someone pull up behind me right away - I couldn't back out.  There wasn't room to get around to the side.  I was caught.

When the fat f**k who belonged to the Jeep finally came out, he had 3 full bags of stuff that he casually tossed into his car.  Yep - he put the Jeep at the pump and went inside to do his shopping, preventing anyone from getting at the 3 pumps on that side.  I would say he was stupid, but I think he just wanted to be as close to the door of the gas station as possible, with no regard for anyone else.  Then, he slowly ambled to the side of the Jeep with the fuel nozzle in... and started pumping gas.

A week or so ago, I saw a meme on Facebook that said, "Never in the history of calming down has it worked to say, 'You need to calm down,' to a woman."  I thought that was funny at the time.  True, and funny.  I am here to tell you that it also applies to men.

Yes, I was pissed at the inconsiderate guy, and having no way to just drive away.  It did not help to be told, "Just take a breath - we aren't on a time crunch."  Very true.  I just didn't need to be told to calm down.  If anything, being told to calm down in a situation like this has the opposite effect.

When he finished pumping, the guy sneered back my way, shrugged his shoulders and said something.  I couldn't hear what he said, so I opened my door and asked, "Are you ever going to move?"

He said, "There was a long line in there."

"Bullshit - just give the rest of us a chance to pump some gas and move on!"

He slowly moved his fat f**k self into the driver's seat, fussed with nothing particular for a while, then very slowly drove away.  When I was able to pull forward and go outside to finally pump gas, there was a woman with a pickup truck on the other side of the pump.  She said, "That guy is an asshole - I was two cars behind you and was able to back out and come around to this other side.  You were caught there."

Yep.  We will take the Pilot at Exit 300 in Nebraska off our list.  Even in the best of circumstances, it would be very crowded getting the motorhome in there (not the case with most Pilots).  This was the first time we have stopped there; also the last.

On the bright side, it was a relatively easy drive today, and we were down by 2:00.

For those playing "Road Bingo," I saw something today I haven't seen before: a semi went by me and in the passenger window was... a monkey.  Yes, a real live monkey.  All I could think: what must the cab of that truck smell like?  Next thought: so this is how that monkey-pox is spreading??

It was raining when we left this morning...

I thought that might help keep the heat down, as it was 75º while it was raining.  Wasn't long before the sun came out, the temperature went up, and it was humid...

Blue sky.  A 15mph crosswind... but, it wasn't a headwind.  8.98mpg.  So close to that magic 9.0 number.  One day to go.  I am more than ready for a motorcycle ride!  :-)

Ole'

 

No, this is not an Ole and Lena joke.  An easy driving day today - we were off the road by 2:00.  With "the pad" we leave ourselves, we can make these last 3 driving days less than 300 miles.  Today, it was only 220.

You know when you were a kid and there were some foods that bring back happy memories?  Well, supper today wasn't from our childhood, but from when we lived in the Black Hills... Taco John's.  For those not familiar with it, it is fast food Mexican of sorts.  The thing I like the most: Potato Ole's.  They are like a flat tater-tot with some kind of seasoning on it (it may be crack), and a creamy nacho cheese dip...

 It just so happens that there is a Taco John's close by our planned stop for today.  No, we didn't stop here just for the TJ stop, but you might as well take advantage of it when it presents itself.  TJ's is based out of Cheyenne, WY, and is in 22 states, primarily in the upper Midwest and Mountain region.  I had to send that photo above to Steph - she loves their Potato Ole's... she and I stopped at a Taco John's on our way to the Winnebago factory last December.

Back to the drive: with only 220 miles to make, we didn't head out until 9:30.  There had been a pounding rain/thunderstorm around 1:00am last night, the the local weather showed a chance of more of the same along our route.

The ground was saturated when I unplugged electric this morning, but we were in the sunshine.  That didn't last long...

Fortunately, all we got was wet.  That was a dark sky ahead of us in that photo above.  We drove into some rain, but nothing ugly.  It was nice to have some overcast for most of the drive today, and it wasn't so blistering hot.  (mid-80s when we got in this afternoon).

A Nebraska stop tonight, and another one tomorrow night, then into Hart Ranch on Friday (that's the plan).

RV Observations...

 

Not a long driving day today: leaving Winstar Casino and going just north of Wichita, KS.  Hot!  It was already 87º when we left at 8:30 this morning.  But, Rufus got a walk in the nice grass at the RV park.  He spent most of the day on my lap... he is a big, warm boy.

Only two cities of any size to drive through today: Oklahoma City and Wichita.  The rest is pretty open...

 

well, with the exception of several construction zones in Oklahoma, where things got a bit narrow.   I needed a potty stop while in Oklahoma, and they aren't big on providing rest areas on I-35 (there is one at each state border, none in between)... I pulled into a Love's and was surprised to see that they have overnight RV sites, with power and water...

Nothing where you'd be "camping," but it is paved, with utilities.  I was surprised to see they want $42.50 per night for a site.  When just passing through an area, something like this would be enough.  All back in sites, so those with a motorhome towing a car would have to unhook to use the site.  Interesting premise - I always thought something like this would be a good idea, but at a more reasonable rate.  That said, that is one of the "observations" I notice in the title of this post: RV parks have gone up in price.  "Well, sure, what hasn't?" you say.  True, but places going from $30 a night to more than double that seems a bit extreme.  It used to be easy to find $30 RV sites two years ago; the average for a "typical" sites seems to be $40 to $50 along our route.  Passport America used to have a lot of parks where you could get the site for 1/2 price - fewer of those these days, and almost never during the travel season.

Another observation: we didn't see a lot of RVs on the road the last few days.  I expected more.  And the RVs we were seeing were more inexpensive (that's relative) travel trailers than higher end motorhomes or 5th wheels.  I keep reading that travel trailers are the "hot" item in the RV market, with a lot of people buying them during the pandemic, so they could still travel and socially distance.  There seems to be less of a concern about the distancing thing; certainly mask usage is WAY down compared to a year ago.

I think the price of gas is having a real impact on people using RVs.  Towing just the cargo trailer, I am getting about 9 miles per gallon with the motorhome.  Stopping with a need for 40 or more gallons (based on looking for fuel before we get to 1/4 of a tank left) means putting $200 or so into the tank.  So far, we have found gas in the $4.49 to $4.69 range (less than the $5 per gallon that gets talked about on the national news).  I am guess that people will be using those RVs they bought last year less and perhaps taking shorter trips.

Over the winter, we saw a lot of RV parks that were full.  That was also the case last summer as we headed north.  It does not seem to be the case this summer (so far).  If that trend continues, I think you are going to see a lot of used RVs for sale by the end of summer.  People who thought it would be a "fun get-away" are finding there is some work involved in using any RV.  And, there are some folks who sold their house while the market was high, and bought an RV to live in... until they find another place they want to live.  While we enjoy it, RV living isn't for everyone.  Even for relatively short periods of time.

Driving by a lot of car dealers so far this trip, it is apparent they they still aren't back to pre-pandemic inventories - a lot of half-empty lots.  Not so with RV dealers - almost every RV dealer we have driven by so far seems to be packed with inventory, especially in the entry-level travel trailer offerings.  It makes me wonder if there is going to be a glut in that market in the very near future?

We rolled into the "mobile home and RV park" that is our overnight stop around 2:30.  It was pushing 100º.  All we need is a plug in so we can run air conditioning.

In what I would consider an out of the way place, we have 4 bars of Verizon service - the best we've seen this trip.  It will be good for being able to watch Stephanie's debut as a co-host on an internet show, where they will be ranking TV-theme songs from the 70s through the 2000s.  It starts at 6:00pm Arizona Time, which will be 8:00 where we are.  We'll be watching.  Here's the link...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekDF7xckIEc

Happy Summer Solstice Day!

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Getting Skinny...

New diet?  Oh, hell no!  With this heat (100º here in south Kansas) and some instability in the air, the result is a chance of thunderstorms.  By 6:00, the local weather weasels are showing where the cells are on radar.  We were already watching that.  Nothing right over us currently, but looking at a big tree from our dinette window, we could see the wind was coming up... that can be a sign of a nearby storm and the down-drafts.  Being cautious, we started the coach and pulled in the slides.

Future radar (best guess) shows a couple cells coming over us before the night is over.  For now, we'll leave the slides in.  The sky is looking dark southeast of us, but that is supposed to be moving northeast... no telling what is coming at us from the southwest.  The air conditioning is on full blast.  It is working hard to keep us comfortable.  Radar looks worse north of us; good thing we stopped when we did.  It should move on through before we roll north in the morning.

On the bright side, the clouds rolling in have dropped the temp into the 80s.  It's a start.

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Around 9:00 a thunderstorm rolled over the top of us.  Lots of thunder and lightning.  First real world test of the water-tightness of all the repairs.  A pretty solid rain.  Supposedly, Winnebago puts it through their "water test" after replacing the roof and/or the windshield.  Rufus is a little anxious with all the thunder, but he handled it well.  We did, too.  ;-)

Even heavier rain at 9:30, more lightning...

Should move through by 11:00 pm.