OK, so Murphy would not leave us alone. After waiting about 40 days total for our appointment at Dakota RV in Rapid City to get our Schwintek slide out system fixed on our bedroom slideout, we left South Dakota unsatisfied. It seems that when we went in and made the appointment, after the service guy said he was ordering the parts needed AT THAT TIME, he failed to do so. 40 days of appointment time wasted! I held my mud and spared everyone within earshot an extensive lesson in 4-letter vocabulary and just apologized to them for wasting their time. Under my breath I was all, “You guys can kiss my big fat bicycle riding a$$!” Cue Willie Nelson… “On the Road Again”… Man oh man was I fuming…
So we had to relocate and we found space at Black Elk Resort in Hill City. It was a stroke of luck, seeing we are fast approaching the 4th of July weekend and most places are booked solid. The Black Elk Resort is a very nice albeit small RV Resort with cabins and a quaint little taproom on site for local beers/wines.
Welcome to Black Elk Resort & the Palmer Creek Taproom 
A look past the group fire pit toward the BBQ patio area 
Our home at Black Elk 
They said they were full up but during our stay they were not…
Taking advantage of a couple of days of moderate weather we tackled portions of the George Mickelson Trail. In total we rode almost 30 miles covering the section which includes the (4) railroad tunnels only labeled on maps as Tunnels A-D. These are all in the area between Hill City/Burlington Trailhead and a little past the Rochford Trailhead. It’s only about a 25 mile stretch of the entire 108 mile trail, but I’m guessing it may be the most scenic section of the trail.
Welcome to the Mystic Trailhead of the George S. Mickelson Trail 
These were nice trailhead cabanas… 
…complete with bicycle repair stations. 
The trail passes, dealt with on the honor system, were $15 and good for a whole year, or $4 daily. 
Part of the Mystic “ghost town”, this I believe was the old assayers office. 
Looking toward the McCahan Memorial Chapel, part of Mystic, the “ghost town”. 
Jeanne heading out, chasing them bluest of blue skies… 
The trail has many bridges over roads and creeks/rivers. 
Cool rock formations to ride by… 
Don’t even THINK I’m gonna remember which of the 4 tunnels this was. 
Bicyclists Union #520 rule #633.2 states we take a 5 minute break every 10 minutes! 
Jeanne heading into the darkness. 
There’s them dang blue skies again! 
Ooooooooh, so eerie! 
Scenic beauty all around. 
Jeanne getting ready to battle one of the bridges. 
Memorial benches are found all along the trail. 
A view below one of the bridges. 
Uh, oh, another of them union breaks… 
This would be considered a trail traffic jam… 
I think this was an old chemical storage shed in Mystic 
Closer view of the McCahan Memorial Chapel 
Inside the chapel 
The last tunnel had a small cave nearby. 
Inside the small cave 
The saloon for the megalopolis of Rochford 
Welcome to Rochford and the Rochford Mall 
The Rochford Mall 
Inside the “mall” 
We encountered a few critters on our ride, it seemed all eyes were upon us… 
…did I say it seemed all eyes were upon us? 
Even Marty the Marmot kept his eyes on us…(At least I think it was a marmot…) 
For about a mile in and around mile marker 53 we found several painted rocks, no hashtags or group names though…we left them 
This was a teaser, but, no, it is not one of the 4 tunnels. 
This is what I call a Bessie traffic jam.
Moving day took us a little farther than we usually prefer to travel in a day and we landed in a little county park called Sioux County Conservation Board Park in Hawarden, Iowa. It was July 2, and as you can imagine, all couple three dozen RV parks we tried to find space at were jammed to capacity for the holiday. But we were pleasantly surprised with the county park. They run on first-come-first-served basis and the site we chose was concrete pad with 30/50A surrounded by well kept lawn. They have a centrally located water spigot for fresh water and a dump station next to the sites. There were restrooms with showers also next to the sites. The park is right on the Big Sioux River and there is a boat launch right there in the park. We settled in for about 3 days to get us past the holiday weekend. We took the time to take care of some chores like a Costco run into Sioux Falls (1-hour drive away from the park) and a hand washing of Rosie. We toured the Nature Center they have on site and I got to relive my younger working years when I happened upon a patch of ragweed along the park road to the boat launch. At least I assumed it was rag, no hint of being cultivated. For those of you uneducated in the ways of the 420 lifestyle, ragweed is Cannabis of the low-to-none THC variety that tends to pop up in the wild, same type of Cannabis grown in the hemp “industry”. You gotta smoke a truckload to get even a headache. Without “firing up a fatty” I could not confirm the presence or absence of THC. But it is a pretty good likelihood the patch was good ol’, run-of-the-mill ragweed, especially since it was populated by a good number of males (unwanted gender in the cannabinoid world since they contain very little THC and tend to fertilize the women and change the energy of the female plant into seed production.)
Our home at Sioux County Conservation Board Park 
Looking past our house to the massive corn fields in the background 
And it was corn for as far as the eye could see… 
The Big Sioux River at our park 
They had a massive picnic area next to the river 
A look down the other way of Big Sioux River 
Oh boy! We better go see if Walmart has “Up In Smoke” on DVD… 
Just standing loud and proud at the side of the road 
“Do you hear that? Thats my SKULL!!!” Where’s Spicoli when we need him?!?!! 
This male plant was standing tall. 
From 1000-3000′ high in the sky, we’d be screaming, “I got color!” 
Inside the Nature Center. 
Numerous displays of various critters… 
The Nature Center also had a night sky display… 
Certain rocks of the area react to ultraviolet light…
“Downtown” Hawarden contained a small area called Calliope Village we had passed on our initial arrival in town, so we ventured back to take a gander. It consists of several old-style buildings billed as “A recreation of Sioux County’s first seat of government.” I did my tourist’s duty and snapped a few pix.
So that catches us up for now. Since we got hosed by Dakota RV Repair, we had to project out to an alternative repair facility. We settled on a return (yuck) to good ol’ Red Bay, AL to give some business to some of the local boys on the Tiffin off-site worker list. We were able to get things started with some HDMI cable wiring work by “Nick” on the 26th, so will be killing time for the next 4 weeks. Tune in later to find out how we filled the time. Until next post…