Monthly Archives: June 2017
A Nice, Short, Cool Day . . .
Since we had a short travel day on tap we didn’t get up as early as usual, taking our time, and not leaving until a little after 10.
While Jan waited off to the side in the truck, I pulled out of the site and then parked for a few minutes. I wanted to walk the site and check the high grass under the rig to see if I had left any tools behind. We rendezvoused at the Mobil station out on the Interstate where I filled up with diesel. Or at least tried to.
Normally I can use each credit card twice at the pump, but this time after the pump stopped at $90 the first time, I slid the card again and was told, “You can not use this card again right now”. Never saw that before.
So I used a second card, and after a second $90 worth, I got the same message a second time. Oh well.
After not quite filling up, we were hitched up and on the road a little before 11am. Right before we pulled out, I started up the generator using my new starter bypass system. And about 30 seconds later we had power and air conditioning. Nice.
Our first stop was at Wall Drugs about 65 miles away, pretty much just for lunch.
When we came through here in 2008 we spent more time roaming around the block-sized place, but not today.
Last time we were here it was October and we were the only RV in the football-field sized parking lot. Today it was a madhouse, with rigs parked every which direction, blocking each other in.
We left the generator/AC’s running for Karma while we made the block walk to the store. I got in line at at the burger window and ordered a Beef Hot Dog and Fries for Jan, and a Buffalo Hot Dog and Fries for me.
After a nice lunch we made a quick lap around the gift shop before heading back out to the rig. I thought we were blocked in because someone had decided to park their ginormous 5th wheel in the access road on the side of the lot blocking it for everyone. But luckily the rig right in front of us pulled out and we were right after them.
We pulled into the Belvidere KOA about 2:30 and were quickly led to our long pull-thru site, with 50amp Electric/Water. Nice that we didn’t have to unhitch the truck.
Later when I went out to the truck for something and found this guy crawling across our site.
Although this guy is a Western Painted Turtle, he looks a lot like the Red-eared Sliders I use to have. He just doesn’t have the red stripe on the side of his head.
And then there’s this distant ancestor that we saw last week at the Reptile Gardens.
The largest turtle that ever existed, he weighed about 4500 pounds, was 15 feet long and 16.5 feet across the front flippers. Found near Hermosa, SD, he was about 100 years old when he died, and lived at the time of T-Rex, about 65 million years ago.
Tomorrow, we’ve got about 230 miles to North Platte, NE where we’ll stay for a few days taking in all the train stuff that’s there.
And about 5 miles after we leave the park we’ll be back in the Central Time Zone for the first time since March.
Thought for the Day:
If only the good die young, what does that say about us senior citizens?
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Wrapping Up in Rapid City . .
.Today was a stay-at-home day, so I could finish up with the generator. I needed to finish wiring up the new remote switch and then put all the covers back on.
Then I checked all the rig’s fluids, adding some oil and some coolant. Tomorrow I check the tire pressures, since the last time I checked them in Bend, OR it was in the 40’s.
Since we’re wrapping here, I thought I’d finish up with one of our touristy things that we did last Thursday, the 1st, when we did the Reptile Gardens.
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We got there a little before 1pm, just in time to take in the Snake Show, with these Albino Python as an example. Unfortunately due to the glass surrounding the stage I didn’t get many good photos.
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Right next door was one of Jan’s favorites, the Prairie Dog Habitat. They also have prairie dog on sentry duty.
Jan has been known to ignore signs like the one below, but not this time. Too many witnesses.
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In addition, there were a lot of babies running around, some even smaller than this one.
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This is Derek . . . the guy, not the gator. Derek showed us how to catch and restrain one.
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Gators can bite down with over 2,000 psi of force, but the saltware crocodile can chomp down at over 3,700 psi. Ouch!
In contrast, lions and tiger top out at about 1,000 psi, while you can tear into a steak with 100 to 200 psi.
But as strong as they are biting down, the muscles that open their jaws are pretty weak. In fact almost anyone, even a child, can hold their mouths shut.
One thing kind of funny was that as Derek was doing this, all the other 20 odd gators and crocs came out and were lined up along the bank, just watching.
Next up was the Bird Show.
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Then it was into the dome to check out all the snakes, bugs, and critters, including Jan’s favorite Tarantulas.
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Some of them are actually kind of pretty.
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This one will fling its stinging hairs at you.
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Waxy Monkey Frogs
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A Gold Poison Frog, supposedly the most poisonous of the bunch. Even the natives are very careful with it.
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The Blue Poison Frog.
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This is a Chameleon. Note the pattern on his side. He’s recreated the green leaves, the black background, and even the vertical branches. Amazing.
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An Iguana
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Here’s Jan with a slightly larger one when we were in Puerto Vallarta in 1997.
A Desert Horned Viper
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And one from my neck of the woods, a Copperhead.
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The Fierce Snake, or Inland Taipan, is reputed to be the most poisonous snake in the world, although I’ve seen other snakes listed that way.
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The Fierce Snake
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The centerpiece of the entire place is the dome, with birds, insects and other animals roaming free, and populated with many exotic plants and flowers.
We both realy enjoyed Reptile Gardens, one of our favorite places here. A Must See if you’re in the area.
Tomorrow morning we’ll head out about 10am, with our first stop the Mobil station right by our I-90 entrance to get diesel. At $2.43 a gallon it’s the cheapest place around, especially compared to the Pilot a few miles down the road where it’s $2.85. So that would be a $42 difference on a 100 gallons. Yikes!
Our first real stop will be Wall Drugs about 65 miles along I-90E where we’ll have lunch before going another 60 miles, stopping at the Belvidere KOA for the night.
A nice short day.
Thought for the Day:
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.” – Groucho Marx
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