Up and at 'em this morning. Joan made smoothies and cinnamon rolls for a bit of sustenance to hold us while we make the move. I was just putting shoes on to go out and unhook utilities when Mother Nature surprised us with about 4 minutes of rain... just enough to get everything wet and make mud out of all the dust (from the gravel road) on the hood of the coach. So, that's fun.
As usual, we did our move in "shifts"... this time: first the bikes, then the coach then back to the Purgatory Flats (aka the Meadows) where we hooked the Equinox to the cargo trailer, backed the rig around so we could load up the stuff on the patio. Then, off to the new site, where we backed the trailer in, unloaded the stuff, rotated the trailer, put the bikes back in the trailer, then set up utilities and our stuff. About 2 hours.
On the bright side, Rufus has a nice tree on our site... we are on a paved site, with paved roads. We'll be on this site for the next 21 days, then one more move before we head out.
Home, sweet home, for now...
I keep switching the bear's sign to "Go Away," but it keeps coming back with "Welcome." ;-)
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One of the guys on my scooter forum said this about gas prices: "I guess the price of gasoline is cutting into travel. As you must know well after taking your caravan of vehicles North," when I mentioned that traffic has been lighter when I've been out riding.
My reply: I think Joan figured it cost us an additional $400 or so in gas to get
here over last year. RV park site prices have increased as well. Food is
more expensive. It hasn't cut into my riding - I'm riding more this
summer because I'm going out more often solo. Joan is good for a couple
times a week; if I don't get at least 5 outings a week... well,
apparently I get cranky. I can't imagine that, because I'm a fu**in'
ray of sunshine. If you don't believe me, ask Rufus. He and I have an
arrangement: I regularly tell him that he's a "good boy," and he tells
me I'm a ray of sunshine.
No riding for me today. It was another "moving day," where we get out
of "Purgatory Flats" (what I call their Meadows - gravel roads and
sites) and back to the nice, double-wide paved sites. The weather
weasels were calling for rain late this afternoon and evening, but clear
this morning. They lied; it rained right before we started our move at
8:30 this morning, and has now rained twice more (by noon). After our 9
days in the Meadows, the motorhome, car, and cargo trailer were dusty
from the gravel road... they are now muddy. So that means I'll have to
take a day off from riding in the next week and spend it washing our
stuff. It hasn't been heavy rain, that would rinse stuff off - more of
what I call "nuisance rain," where it just grubs up everything. And
being candyass, makes me not want to ride in it. But, I'm not cranky
about it. What was the question? Oh, yeah: prices... I have always
said, "I can make more money, I can't make more time." As I get
statistically closer to the big dirt nap, I'm going to enjoy the ride.
The tourist industry here in the Black Hills is apparently down slightly
in numbers, but up in what people are spending... so the merchants and
tourist attraction people are happy with the season so far. The numbers
from Sturgis are in: attendance up the first week of the Rally, and
down the last 4 days. They base those numbers on daily traffic counts
coming into Sturgis... which apparently doesn't take into account that
people spending the whole Rally in the area may be going in and out of
Sturgis more than once a day. Here's my observations: crowds seemed
about the same - it's a lot of people. Go riding early in the day so
the roads aren't as crowded. Vendors must anticipate that each person
coming to the Rally will buy a minumum of 10 T-shirts each. There were a
metric shit-ton of T-shirts on racks and tables on that last Saturday.
Food prices on Main Street were crazy high - it made ballpark food
prices seem reasonable. If Harley bike sales are off, it wasn't showing
in Sturgis: that was a LOT of Harleys and not much of other brands,
although I noticed more Indian motorcycles this year. A Goldwing here
and there. I didn't not see another CTX anywhere, but I did see 5
scooters over the 10 days. Riding with a bunch of motorcycles on the
roads is still better than getting caught behind minivans and SUVs
(especially if they have Minnesota plates). And that's all I got to say
about that.
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