We made it home. We drove 9866 miles, filled up the MP 35 times and we cleared customs 4 times. Fuel costs ranged from $4.70/gallon in Canada to $2.15 on the day we left. We did have, and do have a few issues with the MP but thats to be expected after 10 weeks of abuse.
The house is still prepped for the arrival of a hurricane so we have some unwrapping to do. The blog will now take a rest for awhile. Thanks for hanging in there with us. Signing off, for now.
We are a little west of Knoxville. Today was another slog. We have stayed in this park before. It is another CCC built park. It has a lot of stonework that is typical of their work. Should be in Tega Cay tomorrow. Things are winding down.
Nothing of note happened today. We got on I-40. We have driven on that highway so often we really don't need a map from here on. It is obviously still summer here. I did a bike ride on an abandoned golf course that is in this park and I came back soaked in sweat. Two days ago we were running the furnace. Today we have the AC on. Looks like our route will take us through Tega Cay. Should be there on Thursday.
I used my last bike inner tube to repair my bike. If this happens again I'm screwed. I was able to get out on the trails this morning and returned with both tires still inflated. That's kinda weird. After the bike, we went for a hike. There is a pretty weird tree next to the MP. When we first drove up yesterday we thought the ground was covered in tennis balls. Its called a Bois D Arc or Osage Orange. We continue south tomorrow.
We drove through Bentonville on the way here. There was a nice Wal-Mart. This is another CCC built park. There are a lot of trails, some for mountain bikes. I rode one of the bike trails this afternoon and you'll never guess in thousand years what happened. The good news is that I only had to walk my bike a mile and a half to get back to the trailhead. After I examined the puncture in the tube I realized that the Yahoo that fixed my previous flat was a doofuss. It's sometimes difficult to determine if you are being served by a doofuss.
Today's project was to fix my bike. I'm sure you will recall I had an unfortunate blow out on my rear tire the day before yesterday. After I got the tire off, I noticed that the sidewall had split. I needed a new tire. We found a bike shop across the Missouri River in Atchison, KS. The owner called it a bike shop but it was a place that the "American Pickers" crew would find interesting. I got the new tire but I'm going to have to replace it with a 'for real' mountain bike tire when we get home. We explored Atchison a little since we were there. Amelia Earhart was born there. Her birthplace is now a museum. The pic is her birthplace plus the view out the front door. We have had our memories refreshed, somewhat, about the Lewis and Clark expedition since we have been near the Missouri river for a few days. Thomas Jefferson bought 830,000 square miles of land from Napoleon Bonaparte for $15,000,000. Thats 3 cents an acre. The Native Americans, who had been there for millennia, weren't consulted. Lewis and Clark were sent out to see what we bought. Paddling upstream must have sucked.
We have been experiencing some unexplained weird electrical issues the last few days. They all came to a head when I tried to back into our campsite today. All I got when I turned the key was clicking. Jenny tried a jump from the Forrester and that didn't work. I started unplugging stuff and Jenny revved up the engine and we finally got the old girl to start. I began calling people who would know something about the systems that were acting strangely and I came to the conclusion that the truck battery has it's fingers into MP systems that you wouldn't expect. I took out the old (5 years) battery, took it to Wal-Mart and got a new one. Things seem to be back to normal. Cross your fingers! We drove across S Dakota, into Iowa, crossed into Nebraska and then into Missouri. The Wal-Mart was in Kansas. We are camped at Lewis and Clark SP south of St. Joseph MO. This state celebrates Columbus day. This is that weekend and there are more people in this campground than you would expect. We are here for at least 2 maybe 3 nights.
We drove due east all day on I-90. Tomorrow, we turn south on I-29. We are in a commercial campground a little west of Sioux Falls. I didn't take a single picture all day, however, a significant event did occur. We are in the middle of what I have always thought S. Dakota was like: Farmland, rolling hills covered in corn, soybeans, sunflowers and other crops I don't recognize. After we got set up Jenny started laundry. I noticed that there was a dirt road near the campground that seemed to go west for a very long way. I got on my bike and started to ride. At 6 miles, I turned around and headed back. I was on mile 7 when I heard a loud POP! My rear tire blew out. Here's the situation: I'm 6 miles away from the MP, I've got a flat tire, Jenny's not answering her phone because she's in the laundry room. Here's what happened: I wasn't sure what the campground name was but Google helped me out. I called the campground and told the owner what had happened. She found Jenny in the laundry room and it was determined that because we were in a pull through site and hadn't disconnected the car, that it would be time consuming and difficult for Jenny to rescue me. The owners of this park are both female. One of them jumped in her truck and drove down the road looking for me. While I was walking my bike down this dirt road waiting for rescue, 2 different farmers stopped by and offered to give me a lift. I had to decline but I was impressed and grateful for the offers. I made it back safely and made a friend in the process.
As far as a resident of SC is concerned, winter has arrived. It was right at freezing this morning. There was a hike I wanted to do and Jenny wasn't very interested. I went anyway. The trailhead was on that twisty road we drove on that first day. The trail is called 'Cathedral Spires'. I'm sure the scenery was spectacular but I couldn't see much of it because I was in the clouds. It was also blowing like crazy. One good thing, I had the trail to myself. We move further west tomorrow.
We really know how to kill a day. We did a couple of early morning, cold weather, hikes followed by a 2 hour tour through "Jewel Cave" followed by a drive on the wildlife trail and finally a visit to the Buffalo Corral. I'm not going to post any cave pics because this cave is mostly dry. I've got to mention that this cave is the 3rd largest cave in the world. 191 miles have been mapped. Thats not a typo. They believe that only 3 percent of the cave system has been mapped. They concluded this based on the volume of air that pours in and out of the original entry hole. 40 mph winds occur in both directions depending on if there is a high pressure system overhead or a low pressure system overhead. The buffalo round-up for the park occured last week. The grassland can support 1400 head. Every year there is a round-up and the excess are sold. There weren't too many buffs roaming around the park because most of them are corralled. We've got one more day here.
We are a little bit south of Rapid City. We were interested in this park because it's near Wind Cave NP and Badlands NP. This state park is 71,000 acres and has a lot to offer. We were originally thinking we would visit one of those national parks per day on one of the 3 days we are camped here. That's probably not going to work. This state park is spectacular so we will have to rethink our plan. Todays driving weather was gross. It rained all day. After we got set up we did one of the scenic drives through the park. The roads through the park are crazy twisty. We are near Sturgis and I'm pretty sure these roads are popular with bikers. There is wildlife in abundance. Deer, both muley and whitetail are everywhere, antelope too. There is a large Buffalo herd in the park but they were hiding from us. We drove by Mt. Rushmore. We didn't stop because we visited it a few years ago. We did see George in profile. If you look close at one of the pics you can see George contemplating chopping down that cherry tree. One more thing: snow is in the forcast.
I've never heard of Buffalo, Wy. either. Today was just a travel day and this place was just about the right distance, so here we are.We did stop in Sheridan at a super Wal-Mart. The idea was we would get all the stuff we needed with one stop. Well, it's Sunday and the pharmacy was closed and Sheridan is the only city in Wyoming that doesn't allow beer and wine to be sold in grocery stores. Luckily there were a couple of stores across the road where we could fullfill our needs and we didn't have to move. Tomorrow we are going to be in a state park in South Dakota that will give us access to two national parks.
I didn't take a single pic today but I found a few interesting items as I was scrolling through the past 2 months of pictures. Forecast low temp tomorrow is 33.
