Five Days, Four States, & A Thousand Miles

Now that our epic 2019 Alaska Trip is over, we have a couple destinations we have to get to.

First, we have flight reservations in Minneapolis on September 27, so getting there is our first priority. We're flying to Florida for Linda's Mom's 80th birthday, and we'll be there for a few days.

After that, we'll be making our way toward Myrtle Beach, SC where we are speaking at the Myrtle Beach RV Show October 18 - 20.

 

 

Then we have a little time before we get to our winter destination in central Florida.

But this entry is about getting to Minneapolis from Great Falls, Montana, a thousand miles.

 

Sunday, September 22 - Great Falls, Montana To Forsyth, Montana- 286 miles

We worked hard yesterday to get our rig organized for the next month's travel. And today we started our quick journey toward Minneapolis. It's not about sight-seeing or anything else - it's just about getting from one point to another.

We have five days to go the 1,000 miles, so we have to average 200 miles per day. And today would be the toughest.

I really struggled to find a campground in the 200-mile range. I found some in the 100-mile range and the over-300-mile range, but after all the work we did yesterday, we didn't really want to go 300 miles today.

I finally settled on Wagon Wheel Campground in Forsyth along I-94, a 286-mile drive, farther than we wanted to go, but about 50 miles less than the next decent option.

We pulled out of Dick's RV Park around 9:00 a.m. Linda took the Jeep to do some grocery shopping, while I took the motorhome to fuel up and to fill our propane tank. Dick's RV Park has propane, but their qualified propane pumpers wouldn't be there until 2:00 p.m., so they suggested the Flying J one exit down the interstate.

I fueled up the motorhome and was getting propane, when two big semis came in to fuel up at the diesel pumps. They were country music star Eric Church's road crew.

 

 

 

Linda had just finished shopping when I pulled in beside her in the outer parking lot at Walmart. She put away the groceries and we hitched up the Jeep. We were on our way a little after 10:00 a.m.

We took U.S. 87 east and then south for about 180 miles to the town of Roundup where we picked up U.S. 12 the last 100 miles to Forsyth. For what it's worth, the plan is to take U.S. 12 all the way to Minneapolis.

Along the way, we saw Pronghorn Antelope, Mule Deer, Porcupines, Bald Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks, and Northern Harriers. Not a bad wildlife day for just driving through rural America.

We had one section of road that was torn up for about five miles. It was horrible, but fortunately it was Sunday and there were no work crews.

Right in Forsyth, U.S. 12 starts running on I-94. We took I-94 to the next exit where we made our way to the Wagon Wheel Campground.

We decided to go with a pull-through, full hook-up site which was listed as $30 on their website. Well, they charged me $40. They only take cash, so I paid the $40 but said "Your website says $30, so that's what I was expecting''. The nice lady said, "Yes, our prices went up. I guess we need to change the website". 

She was very nice, and it was clear she probably wasn't tech savvy. I guess I should have verified the pricing when I called earlier to make sure they had a spot available. Linda drove around and pulled us into Site 9 where we got hooked up and settled in for the night.

 

 

They do have free Wi-Fi, but our Verizon service was really good 4G and we didn't need it.

A little later, the lady came by and handed me a $10 bill. Apparently, she felt bad about the website pricing (which still hasn't been changed), and I think that was the fair thing to do. I'm glad I stayed calm and didn't pitch a hissy fit about the price. I had read really good reviews about the owners of this park, and they stepped up and did the right thing without me doing anything more than mentioning there was a discrepancy.

So, with this long day, our next couple of moves can be shorter.

 

Monday, September 23 - Forsyth, Montana to Bowman, North Dakota - 170 miles

We didn't have to do much to get ready to leave, so we were on our way around 10:00 a.m. Today we had a 170-mile drive across U.S. 12 to Bowman, North Dakota.

Though most of the terrain wasn't all that interesting, we did go through a section of badlands that was pretty cool.

 

 

It was a pretty uneventful trip. We fueled up in Baker, Montana, just before crossing into North Dakota. We soon made it into the town of Bowman.

Just on the east side of Bowma is the Butte View Campground. It's a public campground right on U.S. 12 with 54 electric sites, 16 of which have full hook-ups. Electric sites are $20, electric and water are $21, and full hook-ups are $25.

Full hook-ups please. The camp host assigned us Site 54, a pull-through site where we didn't have to unhitch. 

 

 

 

The campground also has free Wi-Fi, a bathhouse with showers and flush toilets, a dump station, and a water filling station. This campground would have been at least $50 in Alaska if not more in the $70 range.

Linda set up the inside while I hooked up utilities. Later, I got out the Blackstone and cooked a pound of bacon followed by burgers. The night before, Linda had made a pizza bake (or crustless pizza), so tonight we ended up with Italian pizza burgers.

It was a warm day, and tonight was the first night in a long, long time where I could wear shorts outside comfortably.

There was some road noise from U.S. 12, but it quieted down at night after we went to bed.

What a nice little campground at a great price.

 

Tuesday, September 24 - Bowman, North Dakota to Mobridge, South Dakota - 160 miles

This morning Linda was ready to go before I was. I got on a roll with some administrative work and wanted to finish up before we got going.

We left about quarter after 11:00.

Today there was some good road but a lot of bad road, and it got really bad toward the end of the trip. Though it was a relatively short day, we were ready to be off the highway. Oh, and we crossed into the Central time zone soon after we entered northern South Dakota.

Today's target was the Grand River Casino & Resort campground which is about a mile and a half down the road from the casino. We pulled in and I noticed some references to the Corps of Engineers. It's actually a COE campground contracted to the casino.

The campground attendant told me that we were his first check-in in a week and a half. There are 69 sites with electric sitting on a peninsula out in a lake, and there were only two sites occupied when we arrived. Wow.

The sites are large and it's only $20, but since we're over 55, we got the senior rate of $15. It's crazy.

The attendant said people from around here used to come and stay all summer. The rules are that they had to move sites every 30 days but nobody was enforcing that rule. This summer they started enforcing it, so everyone got mad and moved down the road to a state recreation area .... where they have to move every 14 days. Whatever.

He assigned us Site 50 on a corner at the back of the property away from the highway. They only have back-in sites, so Linda backed in and I plugged us in.

 

 

 

Again, we had a good Verizon 4G signal.

As we were sitting in our recliners with the door open in the eighty degree weather, Linda looked up to see turkeys walking by checking us out. There were fifteen of them.

 

 

I guess they were curious because they weren't used to people in their empty campground.

 

 

We settled in and just enjoyed the peace and quiet for the rest of the night.

 

Wednesday, September 25 - Mobridge, South Dakota to Milbank, South Dakota - 200 miles

We got on the road a little after 11:00 for our 200-mile drive to Milbank, South Dakota. It was sunny but windy today.

After a fuel stop west of Aberdeen, SD, it was another uneventful drive to the South Dakota/Minnesota border.

A half mile north of U.S. 15 in Milbank, we found Lake Farley Park and Campground.

 

 

The campground has a row of 10 full hook-up, back-in sites and they are $22/night. The website recommends reservations, so I called while we were in route and they assigned us Site 6 over the phone.

You self-register when you arrive, and you can pay with check, cash, or card with an envelope or you can pay online.

We unhitched the Jeep and backed into our site.

 

 

All the sites are basically the same. There is a concrete restroom building that is shared with the rest of the park, but on the back side (the campground side) are two accessible restrooms with showers.

We once again had good Verizon service. In these last few days, we've had stretches of no signal on the drives, but those stretches have gotten shorter the farther east we get.

It was too windy to get the Blackstone out, so Linda decided to try a Keto "fried" chicken recipe in her Ninja Foodi using the air fryer function.

She marinated some chicken thighs in dill pickle juice, rinsed them, dipped them in an egg and heavy whipping cream wash, and then coated them with half almond flour and half crushed pork rinds. She sprayed them with cooking spray and air fried them.

They turned out great.

 

 

It was low carb, breaded "fried" chicken that tasted very much like Chick-fil-A. Very nice - our first "fried" chicken in several months.

After we got showers, Linda worked on her rug, and I started putting together my "RVing To Alaska" seminar for our upcoming RV show presentations. I'll also be adding it to our 2020 Spring Educational Rally seminar line-up.

Tomorrow, we complete the final leg of our journey to Minneapolis - 200 miles to Farmington just south of the city where our RV will stay while we go to Florida.

 

Milbank, South Dakota to Farmington, Minnesota - 200 miles

We pulled out of our campground around 11:00 a.m. and headed east. In just a few miles we crossed into Minnesota staying on U.S. 12. We were hoping that the roads would get better, but for the most part they didn't.

We drove about 800 of our 1,000 miles on U.S. 12, and though we enjoyed the rural trip with very little traffic, the road definitely could have been better.

Some of our readers will be quite disappointed that we blew right by the Biggest Ball of Twine (made by one person) in Darwin, MN. Sorry.

Once we got to the outskirts of Minneapolis, we needed to head south on the I-494 loop, but the ramp comes quickly and it requires getting through merging traffic. Of course, the idiots that needed to merge into our lane neither sped up nor slowed down, so Linda was forced to pass the exit.

Fortunately, we were able to get off at the next exit and make a quick turnaround without having to go any farther into the city.

We made it to spot in a quiet neighborhood around 3:00. However, the driveway of our friends is a bit sloped, so it took us about an hour to get parked and level and out of their way.

 

 

The biggest problem is that we blocked the basketball goal, and I can't play.

Scott & Robin are returning from on RV trip of their own later this evening, so we'll get to thank them for allowing us to stay here.

 

So, that's it for this segment. We're flying to Florida early in the morning, and won't be back in the RV until Oct. 3. Have a great weekend!

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Comments

[Tracy Perkins]

I am disappointed that you past up the biggest ball of twine but hey I get it. Those attractions are never easily accessed and when you are on a schedule it’s tough. Have fun at Linda’s moms and welcome back to the lower 48. It required a bit of an adjustment getting used to the crowds. Oh and dipping chicken in pickle juice?. Points for creativity but hmmm not sure about that one.

[jenny Johnson]

Alaska to Florida --Now that is Extreme Travel!!! Your RV is in MN and you will be driving it to Florida and Tennessee (not extreme) is right on the way--- Shall I send you a map?? LOL

[Janna]

I so enjoyed your Alaska blog entries and bookmarked so many of them for future reference. Be glad you aren't coming across the border into Montana this weekend--northern Montana has been inundated with snow and wind. Safe travels!