Sept 11th to 14th - Hot Springs to Madison SD

Sept 11th – Sat – to Hot Springs SD
The trains did not let up all night! Since we drove so long yesterday, we had only an hour and a half trip today so took our time leaving and were at Charlie & Julie’s by 11. We parked the rig beside their 5th wheel, showed it off to Charlie & Julie and then walked to the neighbors where there was a group of friends watching a college football game and preparing to have biscuits & gravy for brunch. Bill & Joanie have a wonderful “playhouse” for get-togethers. It is a separate building (900 sq ft?) with kitchen, bathroom, a tall long table with stools and a couple more seating areas. And of course there are several TVs so everyone can watch the game without turning around. Items collected from trips are hung on every surface and the whole thing is so much fun. Also there were Norm & Barb and Lee & Rita (cooking). The whole group know each other from Nebraska – and are all Huskers fans - and have all ended up in SD.
After brunch, Charlie & Julie took us on a tour of Hot Springs and the immediate area. We drove up a narrow, rutted, steep, 4WD road to a get a great view over the city. I took some pictures of signature sandstone block buildings downtown that have been there over 100 years and still look great.
Charlie & Julie have a party room on one end of their huge garage which also has all the amenities – kitchen area, bar, bathroom and tall, long table with stools. This was where we spent happy hour, had dinner and talked away the rest of the evening.

Sept 12th – Sun – Hot Springs
We went for coffee at Charlie & Julie’s and then they made breakfast before we took our truck and all headed to Deadwood. Charlie drove since he knew where we were going and he loved the idea of trying out the truck. We stopped at Menards (huge home supply store) in Rapid City so they could get some plumbing supplies as Charlie is helping their daughter & son-in-law fix up a house. Of course we found a couple of items that we had to have.
We drove through Sturgis and got to Deadwood just after noon. After finding a parking spot, the next item was lunch which we were able to enjoy outside as it was a wonderful, sunny day. After lunch we went to one of the largest casinos and did a bit of gambling. I finally lost $20 and Terry moved to a 21 table and ended up $50 ahead. Charlie & Julie are not big gamblers so spent a few dollars each and then we all watched Terry play where Charlie realized he knew the guy playing next to Terry at the 21 table.
We took a different route home – through Hill City & Custer – and got back about 4:30. I had taken steak out for dinner. I put together potatoes & onions in foil, Julie contributed tomatoes, cucumbers & a zucchini casserole (veggies from her garden) and we were joined by their friend Mike for another wonderful evening in the party room.

Sept 13th – Mon – Hot Springs
Terry & Charlie took our truck into Rapid City to get a rock chip repaired. We had the truck only 2 weeks when we got the small chip and we didn’t want to take a chance on it running. While they were gone I worked on the blog and emails. Charlie & Julie are leaving tomorrow for a trip to Kingman AZ so had to do laundry, pack, clean up their car and run to town for a couple of errands. Then we were all going boating.
I made some sandwiches and we drove the short ways to the Angostura Reservoir where Charlie was borrowing a friend’s pontoon boat. It took a long time to get it running but finally we were cruising around the lake in 93 degree weather. We washed our sandwiches down with beer (of course), cut the motor and floated for a bit before we decided it was too hot and that we needed to be moving to get a breeze and then pulled the boat up on shore for a while. Charlie was worried that the gas was low but we explored more of the lake and returned to the dock without a problem.
Charlie & Terry returned to the boat with a can of gas as Charlie had used the boat a few times and figured he should replace some gas.
Bill & Joanie came over for happy hour and when Charlie returned he called Norm & Barb and they joined us as well. Eventually they all left and we had BBQ hamburgers for dinner.

Sept 14th – Tues – to Madison SD
We had coffee with Charlie & Julie this morning and still left at 8 with promises to get together this winter. We decided to drive the 401 miles to the other side of SD today rather than splitting up the trip. We took I90 and figured there wasn’t anything that we wanted to stop & see on the way. We stopped at Wall Drug for breakfast and pulled into The Lakes Campground on Lake Madison at 4 Central Time. We couldn’t figure out where to go to get a site and then a guy ran to catch up with us and led us to a spot in a different part of the park. After setting up (and hooking up all 30 feet of sewer hose and trying to get it to drain uphill!), Terry had to drive to the golf course beside the campground and register.
A couple of hours out, we had called our friends Clem & Marlene to have dinner with us so they arrived about 5:30. By then I had ribs boiling and had made coleslaw and potato salad. They had to check out the new truck & 5th wheel and then we had lots to catch up on before, during and after dinner.