Changing Domicile (America’s Mailbox, Box Elder SD)

2015/07/18 davidhobden@mac.com

I told you in my last post from Wednesday that we were just going to relax at the Badlands Interior Campground and that’s exactly what we did. It was also our 32nd wedding anniversary so we just spent time together.

DAVID_STILLA_3_ — David & Stilla (15 July 1983)

But first, we said goodbye to my Dad and stepmom Elaine…

They’re heading back to Hermosa for a night and then on back home to Colorado Springs.

Dad pulling the coach over to the dump station under Elaine’s watchful eye.

Bye Dad and Elaine… safe travels! We’ll see you in a little less than a month when we go back to drop the grandson off with our oldest daughter before school starts.

Dad & Elaine leaving Badlands Interior Campground.

After we said goodbye to my Dad & Elaine, we hung out at our campsite…

and at the pool…

It was a great day of just hanging out. Happy Anniversary to my dear wife Stilla – thanks for putting up with me for 32 years! Hopefully there will be another 32 🙂

On Thursday, we packed up and went to the dump station to take care of business…

then we departed the Badlands Interior Campground…

and looked back one last time on the Badlands because we headed southwest on Hwy 44 instead of going through the park again…

Our destination for the day was Americas Mailbox located just east of Rapid City in Box Elder, SD. Travel distance for the day was about 75 miles.

Click HERE for information on Americas Mailbox.

Main Office for Americas Mailbox in Box Elder, SD.

We pulled in and went to the office to get one of their nineteen full hook-up RV sites behind the building. And guess what? Another Alpine is here! Larry and Lorna Kenney from Phoenix! It turns out we were in Quartzsite together in January for the Alpine Coach “Desert Rat Rally”. The sites here are a little over $30 per night. We paid for two nights and were able to park next to Larry & Lorna.

Parked next to Larry & Lorna Kenney at Americas Mailbox in Box Elder SD.

Inside the office, we were greeted by a very kind receptionist, who linked us up with a representative named Carla. She sat down with us and explained the different mail forwarding service “Home Base” plans and talked us through the procedures of getting drivers licenses and changing license plates.

Inside the Main Office for Americas Mailbox in Box Elder, SD.

She was very helpful and with her input we decided to take the Bronze Plan for our mail forwarding service. This is their least expensive plan (click HERE for more info) and should meet our needs since all of our bills and statements are online. We can always upgrade later if needed. The little bit of mail that we still get is currently going to our youngest daughter’s address and consists primarily of junk mail.

We made plans to visit the DMV for new licenses tomorrow (Friday), but I’ll write more about that in my next post. And with Carla’s input, we decided to wait on registering the vehicles since the Coach and the Harley were just renewed in May. Carla said it’s very common for people to wait until their vehicles are due for renewal… which makes sense – since we already paid Colorado… why should we throw that money away to renew in South Dakota right away, right? If questioned by law enforcement about why we have SD licenses but CO plates, we simply tell them the truth and say we’re in the process of moving. Carla made copies of our vehicle(s) initial purchase information, titles, taxes paid, etc., so all we have to do is make a call to Americas Mailbox and they will register our vehicles and send our plates to us. (for a $30 fee). I might still go ahead and register the Silverado though, since it’s due in November. But I’ll wait until Monday to decide.

Cool picture hanging in the ‘Americas Mailbox’ lobby.

After taking care of the paperwork in the office, it was already late, so we drove over to a nearby TGI Fridays for dinner. When we got back from dinner, I spent some time sitting outside with an adult beverage talking to Larry about Alpines… and of course we compared this-and-that on our Coaches, talked mods and issues, etc., which is just what us Alpine Coach drivers do 🙂 It’s a small RV world after all.

And that’s all for now… I know I’m behind but I have lots of pictures for my next post because on Friday we took our grandson to Storybook Island in Rapid City after getting our drivers licenses and then we drove back up I-90 to tour around Sturgis.

Saturday (today) we moved over to Ellsworth AFB to take advantage of their cheaper rates at the FamCamp. So check back in for more on all that…

South Dakota

Touring the Badlands (Badlands Interior Campground, SD)

2015/07/15 davidhobden@mac.com

The temperature Tuesday was in the high 80’s and low 90’s, but it felt like the 100’s. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun was merciless. Our mission for the day was to tour the entire Badlands Loop.

Our campground; “Badlands Interior Campground” is located just outside the south entrance to the park and just north of the small town of Interior. We took advantage of the small breakfast menu they served here at the campground office; pancakes, french toast, biscuits & gravy, and really good sausage links.

While we were near the office, Stilla, Kaan, and I paid to stay here for one more day. My Dad & Elaine plan on leaving us Wednesday to start heading back towards Colorado Springs. They will go back to the last campground we were at in Hermosa for one more night to meet up with Biff & Linda who are still there, and then move on from there. We’re still not sure where we’ll head to next, but that’s the fun of full-timing.

Our view Tuesday morning at the Badlands Interior Campground.

After breakfast, we all piled into my Dad’s Jeep one last time for a tour of the Badlands Loop. We entered the park’s south gate, aka ‘Interior Entrance’ on Hwy 377 where I showed my disabled veteran access pass which got us in for free. The pass is good at all national parks but doesn’t do any good at most state parks. Just inside the south entrance is the parks’ Cedar Pass Campground. We decided to check it out for future reference and did a quick drive-thru.

This sign shows the rates: (click picture to view full size)

With only a handful of electric sites available, I don’t think we’ll stay here anytime soon. A lot of the sites are close together and are really just pull-offs to the side of the road, if anyone is running their generator it could get quite annoying. No trees or cover to speak of either.

We turned left on 240 at the T-intersection here to start our Badlands Loop tour…

So follow along now on our Badlands Loop tour…

Stilla and Kaan walked up the trail a little ways…

And then they had to come back down without slipping…

We continued west, stopping at almost every one of the many scenic overlooks…

At the Fossil Exhibit Trail, we arrived just in time for a ranger talk…

Ranger talk and fossil exhibit at the Fossil Exhibit Trail.

Stilla, Kaan, and Coach on Fossil Exhibit Trail.

Kaan climbing yet another hill at Fossil Exhibit Trail.

More scenic overlooks…

Dad & Elaine at one of the many overlooks along the Badlands Loop Rd.

Dad & Elaine along the Badlands Loop Road.

Kaan checking out the trail to one of the overlooks.

We left 240 and turned onto Sage Creek Rim Road (dirt) thereby extended our tour by about 15 or 20 miles…

Views along Sage Creek Rim Road; Hay Butte Overlook & Sage Creek Basin Overlook…

Herd of buffalo along Sage Creek Rim Road.

Can you spot the Bighorn sheep in the picture below…

Bighorn sheep along Sage Creek Rim Road.

We stopped to check out the prairie dog town…

Kaan, Elaine, and Dad at Roberts Prairie Dog Town.

Sage Creek Road dumped us back onto 240 just south of the town of Wall and the intersection to I-90. We took I-90 east to exit 131 which leads to the Badlands National Park northeast entrance where we first entered the park with the rigs a couple days ago.

We heard about the Minuteman Missile Visitors Center that is on the north side of our exit and decided to check it out.

Minuteman Missile Visitor Center at exit 131 along I-90.

The Minuteman Missile Visitors Center has ample parking for big rigs if you ever want to stop by.

Stilla, Dad, Elaine in front of the Minuteman Missile Visitor Center.

We found out that the Visitors Center is not where the missile silos are located. There are two sites; Delta-01 and Delta-09 (see map below). The Visitors Center takes reservations-only for tours of Delta-01, and the limited number of reservations are all gone in the early morning. Delta-09 has a self-guided tour and we could go there, but if you look at the map (below), you’ll see that we passed it at exit 116 about 15 miles back. We didn’t want to backtrack to see it at this time. Wish we would have known about that beforehand.

We watched the documentary after a short orientation talk from a retired missileer / volunteer ranger in this theater.

And then we toured the center which only recently opened as you can see from the makeshift exhibits taped to the walls…

Elaine and Dad in the Minuteman Missile Visitors Center.

Their final exhibits will be installed in September…

Some of you may recall that Stilla and I had the opportunity to tour the Titan II Missile Museum site near Tucson, AZ earlier this year (link HERE) if you’d like to see more. Too bad we didn’t get to see more than just the visitors center for the Minuteman. Maybe next time 🙂

We continued on back into the Badlands National Park through the northeast entrance and worked our way back to our campground on the southeast side – this time we passed by all the overlooks without stopping since we toured this route the previous day. We dropped off our little dog “Coach” at the Coach after we ran up the AC and then we went back into the park to enjoy dinner at the Cedar Pass Lodge restaurant located next to the Ben Reifel Visitors Center. Then it was relaxation time back at the campground…

It’s now early afternoon (Wednesday) as I finish up this post. My Dad & Elaine hooked up, dumped, and left the campground this morning. We’ll stay put today to relax and do whatever… it’s our 32nd Wedding Anniversary today… Happy Anniversary to my dear wife Stilla!

We might head back towards Rapid City tomorrow… stay tuned…

South Dakota

Black Hills; Crazy Horse; Wall Drug; Badlands (Badlands Interior Campground, SD)

2015/07/14 davidhobden@mac.com

On Sunday we took the looong way to Crazy Horse Memorial through Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We had to pay an $11 fee at the entrance station.

We’re still touring around with my Dad and stepmom Elaine. So we left the Silverado at the Heartland RV Park and I chauffeured my Dad’s Jeep as we toured the south end of the park in search of buffalo. Grandson Kaan had never seen a real buffalo. Our first stop was at this Wildlife Center / Ranger Station…

where we asked the friendly ranger for the best place to see some buffalo…

He told us about a 8 mile dirt road loop just outside the ranger station parking lot. He said we’d be sure to catch sight of about 400 head of buffalo there. And he was spot on – after a couple miles we saw…

After driving ever-so-slowly past the buffalo and taking what seemed like hundreds of pictures, we got back on the main road (WIldlife Loop Rd) and soon found ourselves blocked by a herd of wild burros…

Then we drove up Mt. Coolidge to view the fire tower. At 6,023 feet Mount Coolidge is the highest point in the central part of Custer State Park.

Elaine and Stilla on the Mt. Coolidge Fire Tower, Custer State Park, SD.

Then we drove the scenic Needles Highway…

And now – I couldn’t resist the opportunity to put in a couple of old pictures from 2006 – which is the last time Stilla and I were here in the Black Hills. We attended the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally:

2006 08 10 Sturgis Trip (14) — David – Sturgis trip 2006

2006 08 10 Sturgis Trip (15) — Stilla – Sturgis trip 2006

2006 08 10 Sturgis Trip (7) — David & Stilla – Sturgis trip 2006

And here’s an even older picture that I dug up from 1996, same bike, same Stilla – parked with a view of Mount Rushmore in the background.

1996 mount_rushmore_heritage_stilla — Stilla on the Heritage in the Black HIlls, SD circa 1996-97

We tried to get the same picture in 2006, but now the road has guard-rails and the tall trees now hide Mount Rushmore from view – same bike, same Stilla, same spot…

1996 mount_rushmore_heritage_stilla 2006 08 10 Sturgis Trip (11) — Stilla on the Heritage in the Black Hills, SD. 2006

After our scenic tour through ‘memory lane’ and Custer State Park – we finally ended up at the Crazy Horse Memorial and paid a $28 parking fee for our carload. The visitors center is free and consists of a museum, gift shop, restaurant, theater, sculptors workshop, gallery, etc., We watched the documentary film in the theater, toured the welcome center, and visited the restaurant. Great place to visit if you haven’t been. Click HERE for more info from my friend wikipedia, or HERE for the official website.

Here are the pictures (below) that I selected of our day at the Crazy Horse Memorial:

Stilla and Coach in front of the Welcome Center at Crazy Horse Monument.

Stilla, Kaan, Dad, Elaine at Crazy Horse Monument.

When we got back to the campground, we met up with our FCRV friends Biff & Linda again who had been entertaining some old friends of their own for the day on a tour through Custer State Park. We all drove over to a local Pizza joint for some evening food and conversation.

And that’s all for our Sunday.

On Monday, we packed up and headed over to the Badlands. We took 79 north out of Hermosa and then I-90 east. I took the lead, while my Dad followed in his rig. We stopped at Wall Drug for lunch. Now if you’ve never been to Wall Drug, you’re missing out on a pretty cool tourist trap. Click HERE for their official website or HERE for more info on the roadsideamerica.com site.

We were able to find a parking spot easily, but as soon as we did, 4 or 5 other rigs rolled in beside us. We left the generator running so we could leave little dog “Coach” in the Coach with the AC on.

Stilla, Elaine, Dad in the Wall Drug parking lot.

Wall Drug main street:

Yup, got a couple T-Shirts here at the Harley shop:

And here are some more pictures (below) in and around Wall Drug:

Our grandson Kaan got to pet a buffalo…

and ride a real Jackalope…

Inside Wall Drug:

Kaan played at the water park for a short while…

he played long enough to get soaking wet… but the hot sun dried him out quickly…

and here he is – trying to dry off his t-shirt…

They even have a T-Rex here. We waited for feeding time (every 15 minutes) but couldn’t get Kaan to get very close…

My Dad and Elaine at Wall Drug, Wall, SD.

After our stop at Wall Drug, we continued east on I-90 past the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands until we got to 240. Then we went south to get to the east entrance of the Badlands National Park. The entrance fee was free with my disabled veteran access pass. I think it’s normally $15.

Kaan didn’t waste any time climbing up the hills at the first pull-off in the Badlands National Park.

My Dad, Elaine, and Stilla stayed in the shade while I tried to keep up with Kaan…

The view after climbing the first set of hills:

And the view back to the parking area:

The park has some ongoing road repairs that reduced the road to one lane. It was a little rough and tight in places with our Coaches on a 10% grade.

We drove back out the south side entrance of the park towards the town of Interior and found our campground – the Badlands Interior Campground. After we paid for two nights ($50), we got set up at our sites and jumped back into Dad’s Jeep to tour a portion of the park again and check out the Visitors Center…

Kaan ran all the way up this hill next to the Visitors Center…

Nice boardwalk leading to a grand overlook…

The evening shadows made the view even more spectacular…

How would you like to walk out on this ridge? It clearly looks like people have been doing it…

Back at our campground (Badlands Interior Campground) we chilled out with the AC on and only walked around the park for a short time. It’s been in the 90’s all day. We had leftover Pizza from our dinner the day before and I worked on this blog post.

Here’s our view this morning (Tuesday) from the campground:

And our spot:

Not bad, eh?

On Tuesday – we plan on driving the entire loop through the Badlands National Park. We have to make the most out of our last day with my Dad and Elaine, they plan on heading back to Colorado Springs on Wednesday.

Check back to see if we fall off any cliffs or into one of these giant cracks in the ground 🙂

South Dakota

Campvention Follow-up Pics; Travel Day; Mount Rushmore (Heartland RV Park, Hermosa SD)

2015/07/12 davidhobden@mac.com

As I said in my last post – I didn’t have time to include pictures of our last day (Day 5) at the FCRV Campvention due to computer issues. So here they are now:

On Friday morning, I took a short break from packing up and we drove over to the Cam-Plex parking lot to view the FCRV Campvention Parade…

In the evening we attended closing ceremonies inside the Wyoming Center building.

Where they handed out awards for the different events and activities that took place over the past week…

My stepmom Elaine, Linda, and Stilla handed out the left-over door prizes as the announcer called out names. There were a dozen or so prizes left after all the drawings earlier in the week, so they used this opportunity to unload the rest…

And when the ceremonies ended, the band kicked up and the dancing started…

Here’s Stilla and Elaine doing a line dance…

Once Stilla got her fill of line dancing, we (Stilla, Kaan, and I) walked over to the Monster Truck Show that was going on in the rodeo arena between the Cam-Plex and our campground. We watched from the sidelines for a bit, before walking back to the Coach. Here’s some pics of the trucks taken earlier during the daylight… my pics during the nighttime event didn’t come out very well…

And that’s all for the Campvention. It’s was a great event, especially since we had the opportunity to hang out with my Dad & Elaine and our friends in the FCRV Rolling Springs Chapter.

Saturday morning we left the Cam-Plex in Gillette WY around 10 AM to head over to the Heartland RV Park in Hermosa, SD. We convoyed with my Dad & Elaine along Interstate 90 towards Rapid City and then went south on 79. Our total mileage for the day was about 160 miles.

Here we are at the Heartland RV Park in Hermosa, SD. We made reservations before we left Colorado under the direction of my stepmom Elaine who did the planning. They accept the Passport America discount so we ended up paying ~$50 for two nights.

The pull-through sites aren’t long enough for the Coach and truck. We have to park the truck on the grass across from our site.

Elaine waving in front of their Coach parked next to us at Heartland RV Park in Hermosa, SD.

We met up with Biff & Linda Anderson who had arrived here at the same park earlier in the day to meet with some old friends of theirs. We all drove over to the nearby Lazy R Bar & Grill for some dinner.

Linda, Biff, and Elaine outside the Lazy R Bar & Grill in Hermosa SD.

Once back at the campground, we piled into my Dad’s Jeep and drove the scenic route along Custer State Park to get to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. We wanted to see the evening lighting ceremony.

We stopped for ice cream at the parks entrance…

And here’s the grand view…

We took the 0.6 mile Presidential Trail loop. Very nice. Luckily, we took the clockwise route so most of the steps were down.

We got back to the stadium seats just in time for the 8 PM show and lighting of the monument ceremony. The seats were packed.

After a ranger talk, we watched a well-made documentary on the big screen and then they turned on the lights…

After the lighting ceremony, the ranger called all veterans down to the stage area. I went down to the stage along with my Dad, where the ranger walked along the line of veterans as everyone said their name and branch of service. Afterwards, a selected few helped lower and fold the flag. It was a nice gesture of appreciation to all the veterans.

If you haven’s seen the evening lighting ceremony (Click HERE), you’ve got to add it to your list.

Today (Sunday), we plan on driving over to the Crazy Horse Memorial… check back in with us 🙂 Gotta go now…

Wyoming

FCRV Campvention [Day 5: Closing Ceremonies] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

2015/07/11 davidhobden@mac.com

Author’s note: No pictures today 🙁 Early travel day to Hermosa, SD. (just south of Rapid City). Will post pics of Closing Ceremonies and other Day 5 events in my next post.

Friday was basically a pack-up day for me after I worked on the computer because of my iPhoto crash that I mentioned in my previous post. I was worried because I haven’t done a backup of the hard drive since May of 2014. But it looks like I was able to bring things back in order 🙂

So after publishing the post yesterday (Friday), I loaded up the Harley after washing off all the dust that’s blowing around here in Gillette lately. Then I loaded the bicycles, took down the flagpole, and folded up our chairs so we can get an early start on Saturday. We plan on traveling with my Dad/Stepmom to Hermosa, SD where we made reservations earlier last month.

Stilla spent some time with my stepmom Elaine at the Cam-Plex Wyoming Center learning (or re-learning) how to line dance. And then at about 7 PM, we all (my Dad, Stepmom, Stilla, Kaan, and FCRV friends) went over to the main building for closing ceremonies, awards, and evening entertainment.

I did a full backup of the laptop overnight, which took hours. I had to let it run overnight and when I woke up this morning, the computer said it finally finished at 3 AM. I used my old Time Capsule™ Airport Extreme base station from Apple that I’ve been carrying around at the back of a cabinet in the Coach for the last couple years. It’s a 1TB Wi-Fi Hard Drive that I used to have set up at the house and hooked up to our router. As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t done a backup since May of 2014 and there’s really no excuse other than laziness. I suppose I could leave it plugged in and it would automatically do backups for me over Wi-Fi, but that’s not really an option when we’re limited to our Verizon Jetpack, our AT&T iPhones, or weak campground Wi-Fi. I just need to remember to get it out, plug it in to AC power, and then plug the ethernet cable into the laptop every so often.

Gotta finish packing up now… check back later to see what we’re up to…

Wyoming

FCRV Campvention [Day 4: Devils Tower] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

2015/07/10 davidhobden@mac.com

It happened again – I tried to add pictures from my Dad’s USB stick to my iPhoto album on the MacBook Pro this morning for the blog, and it just shut itself down. I had to do a complete rebuild of my iPhoto library and now all my folders are out of order. At least all my pictures appear to be there. Still not quite sure what’s going on – so anyway, after a long morning of messing with the computer, here’s today’s post… better late – than never, right?

On Day 4 (Thursday) of our FCRV Campvention Rally; we followed through on our plan to visit Devils Tower. It was very windy and still overcast in the morning, so we decided to leave the Harley at the campground and we all piled into my Dad’s Jeep. I chauffeured for the circa 120 mile round-trip.

Here’s our first view of the tower at a pull-off along WY-24…

Click HERE to read about the legend of Devils Tower.

Informational placard along WY-24 at a scenic pull-off.

Our first stop was at the Devils Tower Trading Post located just before the entrance to the park.

Kaan posed for a picture with a rather appropriate (for him) sign.

The Devils Tower Trading Post is chock-full of alien related trinkets and gifts because of the Tower’s association with the 1977 film ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind‘.

And we couldn’t help but notice that the Trading Post was already stocked up for the upcoming Black Hills Motorcycle Rally in nearby Sturgis, SD. I guess they aren’t wasting any time to ensure they sell out.

Stilla bought a couple T-shirts.

Then we took advantage of the little snack bar inside the Trading Post and had some hot dogs to keep up our energy for the hike around the tower that we planned to do later.

Dad, Elaine, Kaan, and Stilla in front of the Devils Tower Trading Post.

We drove through the entrance…

I used my Disabled-Veterans Access Pass and got us in for free.

We found a parking spot in front of the visitors center. After a quick tour through the visitors center, we took some water along for our 1.3 mile hike around the monument on the Tower Trail.

Stilla and Elaine in front of Devils Tower on the Tower Trail.

The Tower Trail is a nice paved 1.3 mile pathway that circles around the 867′ high monument. There’s another longer, un-paved path named the Red Beds Trail that circles around for almost 3 miles, but we opted for the shorter, closer trail.

Stilla and Kaan in front of Devils Tower on the Tower Trail.

The trail had lots of convenient (much appreciated) benches along the route. The weather ended up being quite nice with temperatures in the 70’s and only an occasional gust of wind.

Stilla and Elaine on the Tower Trail at Devils Tower.

Kaan enjoyed exploring along the side of the path.

Myself (David), Stilla and Kaan resting once again along the Tower Trail at Devils Tower, WY.

Elaine, Bill (my Dad), and grandson Kaan in front of Devils Tower on the Tower Trail.

Informational placard along the Tower Trail.

I’m not sure how long it took us to go around the tower, but we were all glad we did. Stilla and I were here 2 or 3 years ago with our little dog “Elvis”, but they don’t allow dogs on the trail and it was too hot to leave him in the car, so we didn’t get to do the trail back then. This time – we left our little dog “Coach” back at the Urban Escape Vehicle with the A/C on. Our kind neighbor Linda, volunteered to let him out to walk a couple times while we were away.

Letting the Jeep cool off before we get in after our walk around Devils Tower.

On the route back out of the park, we stopped by the Belle Fourche River Campground to check out the sites for future reference. They were nice – but we only saw a few spots for larger rigs and none had hookups.

This sculpture was near the campground:

Informational placard explaining the ‘Circle of Sacred Smoke’.

My Dad took a picture to emulate the picture in the placard (above):

And of course, we had to stop at “Prairie Dog Town”:

Then we stopped for ice cream at the Devils Tower Trading Post on the way back out…

We also stopped at the grocery store in the small town of Moorcroft on our drive back to the campground in Gillette. We scored some fresh fruit (watermelon, cherries, and bananas) to enjoy later.

Back at the Cam-Plex; Here we are again at yet another impromptu “Happy Hour” between our Coaches…

Elaine, Linda, Biff and Stilla hiding from the gusts of wind.

Later on; Stilla, Kaan, my Dad, and Elaine all went to enjoy some evening entertainment inside the Wyoming Center, but I stayed at the Coach to catch up on some recorded shows and download the pictures we took during the day.

This morning (Friday) I took a break from fixing the computer problems to go to the FCRV Parade (my Dad took lots of pictures). And just now, in the early afternoon, Stilla went over to the Wyoming Center building with Elaine to do some line dancing. Later this evening, there’s closing ceremonies and a Monster Truck Show. So check back tomorrow for a full update and more Urban Escape Vehicle.com adventure…

Wyoming

FCRV Campvention [Day 3: Rockpile Museum & Eagle Butte Coal Mine] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

2015/07/09 davidhobden@mac.com

Day 3 (Wednesday) here at the Cam-Plex for the FCRV Campvention stayed somewhat overcast with a comfortable 72° Perfect weather for getting out and walking around, so that’s what we did.

There weren’t any seminars or activities scheduled today that peaked our interest, so after walking little “Coach” and finishing up yesterday’s blog post; we jumped into my Dad’s Jeep to go check out the area along with my Dad and his camera (so fair warning – extra pictures today) 🙂 Unfortunately, my stepmom Elaine was scheduled to pass out the final door prizes from 2 – 4 PM so her unswerving sense of duty and unwavering dedication to the cause prevented her from joining us 🙁

The Wyoming Center building here at the Cam-Plex Multi-Event Facility.

We drove around to the northwest corner of the Cam-Plex and stopped at the Energy Exhibit, which is a permanent collection of vehicles and equipment that represent this area, which often calls itself the ‘Energy Capital of the World‘ due to the huge low-sulfur coal mining concerns that still sustain growth and support jobs in the town of Gillette.

Grandson Kaan and I climbed aboard a Burlington Northern GE U30C locomotive.

Stilla and Dad skirting along the side of a Burlington Northern GE U30C locomotive.

Grandson Kaan peeking out from the front of a Burlington Northern GE U30C locomotive.

There were quite a few representative pieces of equipment from the coal mining operations of the area on display…

Stilla standing next to a huge tire commonly used on the heavy coal-mining trucks.

Kaan standing inside a huge earth-moving bucket provides size perspective.

Our grandson Kaan even started a little earth moving of his own…

View from the Energy Exhibit towards the Cam-Plex; RVs in the background.

Kaan wants one of these to play with in the backyard Mom…

Kaan climbed up the back of this giant earth-moving truck to check out the massive engine, and…

of course, had to follow up with the front side…

to sit in the drivers seat…

After we had our fill (pun intended) of the earth-moving and mining equipment exhibit, we plugged the Rockpile Museum into the iPhone GPS and maneuvered our way to the north side of Gillette.

We had no trouble finding the Rockpile Museum thanks to the GPS, the sign (below), and the rock pile itself…

Don’t forget to click on this link to the museum to see more.

Not sure what this is, but it sure looks cool… an old stone age wheel maybe? 🙂 Maybe it’s a piece of petrified tree stuck in ancient sand that turned to stone with the middle of the old tree disintegrated and missing? My dad took this picture under the museum sign.

The Rockpile Museum is… you guessed it… located next to a rock pile! The rock pile is a local landmark and at one time overlooked the massive stockyards and rodeo shows. In even earlier days it was a favorite landmark that the cowboys used to find town and they often camped out under the boulders.

Additional out-building (extension) to the Rockpile Museum in Gillette, WY.

Strange looking windmill at the Rockpile Musuem in Gillette, WY.

Here’s some pictures inside…

Now this is an old RV…

This old RV has all the amenities of home…

More pics from in and around the museum… enjoy…

We watched some really cool short films… I really liked the one on setting off explosives to loosen up the overburden to get to the coal…

Inside an old schoolhouse. Kaan isn’t too happy about being back in school… he thought it was still his summer break 🙂

We worked up an appetite at the Rockpile Museum, so we drove over to nearby ‘old downtown’ Gillette to find something to eat. We found the Gillette Brewing Company with a pizzeria (Pizza Carrello) located inside the old Post Office building…

where we shared a pizza and Dad had a BLT wrap… yup, I said BLT wrap… they really make those here…

Mural on old downtown Gillette building.

Since we still had a little time to kill before we had to get back to meet up for Tacos at the local Elks Lodge, we drove several miles north out of town to check out one of the mining operations we heard about; the Eagle Butte Coal Mine.

We were turned away at the entrance gate. The manned shack had a young girl inside that told us we had to make reservations in town before we could enter the main coal mine area for a tour, so we just went over to an overlook and took pictures from a distance…

My Dad’s camera can really zoom in for some quality pictures…

Giant truck being loaded at the Eagle Butte Coal Mine near Gillette, WY.

Giant truck dumping it’s load at the the Eagle Butte Coal Mine near Gillette, WY.

It was almost time to get back and pick up stepmom Elaine so we could meet up with Biff & Linda Anderson for Tacos at the local Elks Lodge. We made plans earlier in the week when we first stopped there; they need the business. This quaint Lodge performs double-duty as the local VFW post as well.

We made it back to the campground just in time to pick up Elaine and convoy over to the lodge… a whopping quarter-mile (or less) away…

(L to R) Kaan, Stilla, Elaine, Dad, Biff and Linda at Elks Lodge 2825 / VFW Post 7756 in Gillette, WY.

After filling up on Tacos we decided we still needed dessert at the local Dairy Queen…

And that’s it for Day 3 here at the Cam-Plex. If you get a chance, the Rockpile Museum is definitely worth the visit and was the highlight of our day. Hope you enjoyed the pics 🙂

This morning (Thursday) it’s a little windy and overcast. Someone told me that part of the reason it’s so gray and overcast is because of forest fires up north and west of us.

Our plan is to go visit Devils Tower today since there isn’t a whole lot of activity here at the Campvention that interests us. So after my Dad goes to a 9 AM seminar that he promised to take pictures of, we’ll head out on the ~62 mile trip, (104 round-trip). Hopefully the weather holds up for us. I want to take the Harley since we have my Dad & Elaine in their Jeep to take our grandson Kaan along with them. Check back for a full report…

Wyoming

FCRV Campvention [Day 2] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

2015/07/08 davidhobden@mac.com 2 Comments

We had much nicer weather for day 2 (Tuesday) of the FCRV Campvention. We started out the day by checking out the “Pet Parade” that took place behind the main Cam-Plex building. Registration for the event was on the previous day and we didn’t get a chance to enter little “Coach”… he probably wouldn’t do well in a crowd anyway, he’s too shy and skittish around people he doesn’t know well.

Some folks went all out to dress up their pets with scarves, glasses, hats, horns, and full costume outfits. I think they awarded prizes, but didn’t stick around to see for sure.

Back inside the Wyoming Center building, my stepmom Elaine, Dad, and Linda have been busy all morning passing out the door prizes to folks that had won during the first round of drawings.

Elaine, Dad, and Linda in their tie-dyed t-shirts.

Here’s the system they devised to notify winners (below). They posted tickets with the winner(s) name and registration number on the closed shutters of the room at the Wyoming Center. Folks are supposed to stop by during the designated times and take their ticket to the door where someone is waiting to hand out the prizes that were donated by the Colorado chapters of FCRV. Around 475 gift donations were dropped off and therefore; with circa 500 rigs in attendance, almost everyone won something. 🙂

After the door prize pick-up times for the day had passed; they closed the room to prepare for the next day. We helped count the remaining door prizes which dictated how many second round tickets could be drawn. The total number of door prizes kept changing because some people were still dropping off late donations and we even got some gift cards from local downtown restaurants/businesses. Then we helped post the new tickets in alphabetical order on the board.

We used the Harley to get back and forth from the campground to the Cam-Plex throughout the day. I even toured around the grounds a couple times. Once back at our coaches in the early afternoon, Stilla put together a cheese, salami and cracker platter for an impromptu “Happy Hour”…

but once we sat down outside the Urban Escape Vehicle, it wasn’t long before it started raining so we had to cut our “Happy Hour” short…

(L to R) Stilla, Don, Dad, Biff, Linda, Cheryl, and Elaine.

It didn’t rain very long, just a passing shower. So once it dried out we took the bicycles for a long ride around the Cam-Plex. We made it back just in time for the evening’s scheduled entertainment.

At 8 PM, we piled into Dad’s Jeep once again to ride over to the Events Center building together for the evening entertainment. The nights entertainment is Charles King “A Fabulous Night in Las Vegas”… but first – if you recall from yesterday’s post, I had trouble downloading pictures from my dad’s USB stick. With that problem now solved; Here are a few pics of the previous (Monday) evening’s awesome performance by Tamra Hayden. Click HERE for a link to her official website. Or click HERE for a link to her youtube videos.

Tamra Hayden performing at the Cam-Plex in Gillette, WY.

She was pretty good… and wow! – did she ever have a strong voice…

For tonight’s performance with Charles King, we once again scored good seating in the mezzanine.

Charles King “A Night in Fabulous Las Vegas” performed songs reminiscent of the Las Vegas “Rat Pack” days and then in mid-show, he changed into an Elvis costume. Click HERE for a link to youtube. I couldn’t find a website for him.

Singer/entertainer Charles King at Gillette, WY.

The show was pretty good, but the acoustics in the large hall were definitely off… we had trouble hearing his voice over the musical instruments. Sometimes when he talked between songs we couldn’t understand a word. Oh well, it was still entertaining! Grandson Kaan amused himself with Stilla’s iPhone during the show, so even he wasn’t bored… thank goodness for free WiFi in the area 🙂

Elaine, Stilla, and self… in front of our Coaches at Gillette, WY.

Check back in to see what Day 3 of the Campvention brings… it’s overcast this morning but hopefully the cloud cover will burn off, I’d like to get in some more Harley-time. The only thing I know for sure is that we plan on going back to the Elks Lodge for Tacos this evening.

Wyoming

FCRV Campvention [Day 1] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

2015/07/07 davidhobden@mac.com

Day 1 (Monday) of the Campvention dawned gray and gloomy, but the skies cleared (for the most part) and it warmed up throughout the day.

My first sight in the early morning while doing doggie-duty with little “Coach” (or is it doggy-doodie?) was Biff Anderson up on top of his Coach. He got a new roof-top antennae for local channels because he’s been having issues with reception. He found a broken wire while putting on the new antennae and had to splice it back together.

Voila! All good now…

Biff Anderson on top of his Monaco Coach.

More folks continued to pour in yesterday and last night. The spots behind our rigs are now filled up. At last report, from a reliable source (my stepmom Elaine) says there are around 470 rigs in attendance. You can see my Dad (way back there) in the middle of the picture (below) next to the Alpine. He’s parked on the left side of us.

Spots behind our Coaches are now filled up… no more “open space” for get-togethers there…

Around noon, we went over to the Wyoming Center which is the main building here at the Cam-Plex to join in on the day’s activities.

We missed the previous evening’s entertainment, the “Gospel Trail Singers” but my Dad & Elaine gave us an update. We also missed the morning opening ceremonies while I was finishing up with the blog yesterday.

We found my Dad, stepmom Elaine, and fellow “Rolling Springs” member Heddy Servant in the door prize area trying to organize and finalize the raffle details.

(L to R) Heddy Servant, Elaine, Dad, and Stilla.

The prizes have been sorted, and laid out (on and underneath) the tables which have been covered to prevent prying eyes from turning into sticky fingers.

There were lots of youth activities behind the main building (Wyoming Center). Hot dogs and hamburgers were on the grill. We took grandson Kaan along for hot dogs and playtime…

Our grandson Kaan playing a little soccer.

Tor, Tor, Tor… which means goal, goal, goal in german.

We toured the vendor area again. I ended up buying a Road Mate DVR. I’ve seen these at many of the RV-related shows or Rallies that we’ve attended in the past. These devices normally mount on your dashboard or windshield to record your trip. The advertisement claims that they are designed for your security, protection, and save the best memories of your trip. I’ll post more about it later and give you my review. I paid $130 plus another $35 for the SD card it requires; called a SanDisk Extreme Plus SDHC UHS-1 Card. You can learn more about this device at their website; link HERE.

I peeked into the main stage area, where they were practicing for the Teen Pageant…

And at 2:30 PM, my Dad and I attended the “Tips for Extended Travels” seminar. Maybe I’ve been to too many seminars at other rallies in the past because I didn’t find this one very informative. That’s all I’ll say about that…

Later on, we hung out around the campground and finished up a rhubarb/strawberry pie with my Dad & Elaine. We washed it down with a wine/cranberry juice mix. Yummm.

Then it was time for the evening’s entertainment, so we piled into Dad’s Jeep to go back over to the Event Center…

My dad took lots of pictures and gave me his USB stick so I could download a pic or two for the blog, but unfortunately I couldn’t get it to work on my MacBook Pro. The USB stick showed up and I could read the info on it (size/capacity, used/un-used etc.,) but no pictures 🙁 As a matter of fact, after ejecting the USB stick, my laptop went black and I had to reboot. So, sorry… no pics right now. Maybe tomorrow.

After the evening show, it was time for a little hospitality sponsored by the FCRV folks out of Missouri. We waited in the long line, not quite sure what to expect…

The Missouri group shook hands with everyone as we passed a table loaded with free literature and a snack…

Kaan wasn’t too thrilled with the cheese & crackers that we waited so long in line for…

After that, we called it a night and retired to the Coach. Let’s see what adventure tomorrow brings…

Wyoming

FCRV Campvention [Pre-Rally Sunday] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

2015/07/06 davidhobden@mac.com

Wow! What a difference a day makes… Saturday was 95° with perfect weather for evening fireworks, but on Sunday, it stayed gray and overcast all day and it looks like more of the same for today (Monday) as I type this posting. And it’s only 54° this morning 🙁 Oh well, at least it’s not pouring down rain. Just a light drizzle at times.

This kind of weather is certainly not conducive to getting the grandkid off the internet and outside…

You may recall that I said in my last post that we volunteered to help out with the door prizes from noon to 2pm on Sunday…

Stilla, Linda Anderson, and Stepmom Elaine; accepting and staging the door prizes as folks drop them off.

The Colorado members of FCRV were asked to bring an item to the Campvention that has an approximate value of $10. The “Rolling Springs” Chapter (the FCRV group we belong to along with my Dad/Stepmom) are charged with organizing and conducting the door prize raffle. Note: (The “Rolling Springs” Link (above) is to an old posting I did… they don’t have a separate website). Many of the donated “prizes” were certainly over $10 which is a kind testament to the type of people RV’ers are 🙂 We don’t expect that everyone who attends will get a “door prize”, but we may be close…

I took the pics of the door prize tables early in the day, by the time we left; the tables were full and we started filling up the space underneath.

While manning our station at the door prize drop-off window, fellow “Rolling Springs” members and friends (Don & Cheryl McCarthy) arrived to say hi after driving straight through from Colorado Springs. Roy & Vivian Crouse (on the left) did the same thing, but a day earlier.

(L to R) Elaine, Roy & Vivian Crouse, Cheryl & Don McCarthy

So we completed our tour-of-duty at the door prize drop-off window in the Cam-Plex Wyoming Center and then got our registration “goodie-bag” after the line of people went down. Many folks did 4th of July activities elsewhere and have been arriving today. There should be more tomorrow.

Then we toured the vendor area, which didn’t take long…

The last time we were here at the Cam-Plex it was for the 50th Anniversary of the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) event. Click HERE for a youtube link to that event from 2013. This place was packed with thousands of motor coaches and vendors back then… but that’s to be expected; FMCA is a much larger organization than FCRV.

While touring the commercial vendor area; I did find a vendor that repaired windshield chips. Yoo Hoo, just what I needed! Some of you may recall that a rock hit the passenger windshield when we were driving over Raton Pass back in April. I posted about that HERE. I signed up at the unmanned vendor desk for an evaluation/repair. It wasn’t long before I got a call to meet the repair guy at my Coach. He repaired the chip on the Coach and even did one on the Silverado windshield that I’ve had for a long time. So, after a short phone call to my insurance company (USAA) for the Silverado, and a reasonable $40 in cash, I’ve got both repaired 🙂

Shortly after my windshield repairs were completed, we joined my Dad & Elaine, and Biff & Linda at Applebees downtown for an early dinner. Then we returned to the Boxelder RV park for dessert in Biff & Linda’s Coach…

And that’s all for now folks… we retired early (mostly due to the crummy wet-weather) and watched some TV. Check back for a recap of FCRV Campvention Day 1, which kicks off today…

Urban Escape Vehicle .com

Monthly Archives: July 2015

Changing Domicile (America’s Mailbox, Box Elder SD)

Touring the Badlands (Badlands Interior Campground, SD)

Black Hills; Crazy Horse; Wall Drug; Badlands (Badlands Interior Campground, SD)

Campvention Follow-up Pics; Travel Day; Mount Rushmore (Heartland RV Park, Hermosa SD)

FCRV Campvention [Day 5: Closing Ceremonies] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

FCRV Campvention [Day 4: Devils Tower] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

FCRV Campvention [Day 3: Rockpile Museum & Eagle Butte Coal Mine] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

FCRV Campvention [Day 2] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

FCRV Campvention [Day 1] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

FCRV Campvention [Pre-Rally Sunday] (Cam-Plex, Gillette WY)

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