Next stop, Camp America RV Park
As we prepared to leave White River State Park in MN, we had to make a stop at the dump station for the black water tank and grey water tanks. The black water tank was still registering as being two-thirds full. We found out that the sensors get coated with paper, etc. A YouTube video gave us an idea to improve the situation. Before leaving a campsite, pour a bag of ice down the toilet. That will slosh around while driving and help to clean the sensors!
Our six plus hour drive to Camp America RV Park, near Salem, SD, included two rest stops and a stop near Hartford, SD, for a late lunch and fuel. We arrived about 4:30 p.m., which allowed us enough daylight to do some shopping in Salem and dinner at the Back Roads Steakhouse. We shared a 14 oz. ribeye steak dinner!
The Park had a nice little pool. With temps in the 90’s, the pool was a nice amenity. We tried it out and met a family from Paola, KS, on their way to Yellowstone. Another couple was traveling across America, having recently visited Alaska! They had rented an RV, since they came from Scandinavia!
I got a few laps in before the kids from many other RVs converged on the pool and started to get a little noisy. So, we went back to the RV to journal and watch TV.
Our Featured Trip to the Corn Palace!
This was to be a three night stay at the Park. The trip to the Corn Palace was on our first full day here. Back home, one of Connie’s nieces, Jennifer, who had lived in South Dakota for a while, said the Corn Palace was “stupid”. After our visit, we had to disagree. I actually thought it was great for a small rural community to come up with such a clever idea to put their town on the map with a unique building and festival.
We decided to eat breakfast on the way. However, the local Hwy 81 Café was closed, on a Saturday! We took Hwy 38 toward Mitchel, where the Palace resides, hoping to find a small-town café. After fifteen miles, there appeared to be no small town to forage. By then, our hunger dictated we head south two miles to catch I-90. We saw a Hardee’s but it was too late for breakfast. They suggested we stop at the gas station at the first exit into Mitchel, with a Merlin’s Restaurant attached. They had a VERY good breakfast buffet! Good food is the highlight of my day!
It is never the same!
My brother, Bill, liked the Corn Palace, but said it would not be the same as what he saw. They change the murals every year. The draw of the Corn Palace is that it is covered inside and out with murals made with different colored corn. Not all corn is yellow. There is Indian Corn, etc.
The interior murals portray local history and are constant. This is also the high school basketball court. The exterior murals are what the tourists see driving through town. They DO change every year. We took a tour of the Palace, bought some things in the gift shop (which funds the murals), and watched the video on how the Palace came to be. We thought is was worth the trip!
Then, of course, we had ice cream after that. We bought some groceries and ice which fit into an insulated bag, thankfully, since it was 98 degrees outside!
It’s hot so cook over an open fire!
It is better to cook outside on a hot day. So, I cooked chicken kabobs and asparagus over charcoal in the fire pit. However, we had to eat inside due to flies and a sewer smell thanks to a north wind.
We spent some time looking for upcoming stops after our planned week at the Farm Island State Park, near Pierre, SD.
A Sunday Drive
It was Sunday, July 16, 2017. And, though we did not take the RV, we wanted to say we had traveled through Nebraska and Iowa. We were so close. So, we headed south on US Hwy 81 through Yankton on the Missouri River, down to US Hwy 20 to go east to Sioux City, IA.
I was the passenger, today. Connie drives the truck when the RV is not attached. I wanted to take pictures of barns and cattle, etc. I was also the distracted navigator. We missed our turn at Crofton, NE where state Hwy 12 ran along the Missouri River to Sioux City, IA. By the time we realized that, we were too close to US Hwy 20 to turn around. My guess was we traveled an extra 50 miles through farmland due to that error.
There are not many little towns in rural NE Nebraska. We finally found a little drive up diner in Jackson, NE. I still cannot find that town on the map. It was 3 p.m. and Connie was starving! She ate a larger than her normal hamburger, which she regretted later.
I saw that Connie did not note in her journal when we stopped to get fuel and coffee at a gas station in North Sioux City, IA, there were over one hundred motor cycles in the parking lot. They must have been on their way to Sturgis!
Please Note
This may be too obvious. However, in case you ever lose your sense of direction, the Interstate system is labeled like the old US Hwy system. Even numbers go East and West. Odd numbers go North and South.
Therefore, when we reached Sioux City, IA, from the West on US Hwy 20, we took I-29 North to I-90 West to our RV Park to end our Sunday drive about 6:45 p.m. Just in time for another swim, while Connie did laundry—bless her heart!
My oldest daughter went over the hill as we went up the hill!
We left Camp America RV Park on Monday, July 17, 2017, my daughter, Victoria’s 40th Birthday! Now, she is over the hill just as we are leaving flat farmland a few hundred feet above sea level to rolling plains, where we reached a height of 1,790 feet above sea level.
There will be more camping along the Missouri River in my next post. Until then, happy travels!