Day 9 – Another herd of Buffalo came to wish us a good
journey prior to our leaving Custer. We headed off for another very warm day’s
drive having tried the suggestions Brendan texted to us to coax the AC back
into action to no avail. Crossing South Dakota is much like crossing the
Canadian prairies but with cheaper gas prices. As the day wore on the
temperature climbed and we were literally melting into our seats and gulping
copious amount of water. I remember driving in the back seat of the 52 Chevy
sandwiched between my two brothers in Keremeos on the way to Kelowna in heat
like this but that was for a few hours, not days on end as we are facing. As we
stopped for gas in Plankinton the radio was reporting a temperature of 102F
in Mitchell. So while Pete drove on I had Garmin Gertie search for auto parks
supply stores and we followed her into O’Reilly’s in Mitchell to try Brendan’s
last suggestion (before taking it to a dealer) to see about a AC recharge kit.
Justin, the manager came out to the van, popped the hood and the kit did its
magic and shortly we were feeling the effects of cooling air where before we
had been blasted by heat. I could have kissed him.
We carried on a few more miles and took the turn off for
Lake Vermillion State Recreation Area, another facility of SD Parks and found a
shaded, lakeside pullout site with power, showers and flush toilets available,
beside a lovely manmade lake with only a few other quiet campers for $18. There
was a wonderful breeze blowing down the lake and it wasn’t long after she was
released from her seat that Mazy was wading into the lake. Pete and I joined
her shortly after to wash off some of the day’s sweat and grime.
After dinner, we spent a relaxing evening reading with only a few flies to disturb us. I heart SD Parks.
Day 10 – What a difference it made starting the day with cool air in your face even though the temperatures were already in the 80’s at 8:00am. Shortly into our drive we passed into Minnesota and finally picked up the T-Mobile network allowing us to connect on the road. While Minnesota has plentiful rest stops it has the worst road surface we have encountered so far. The constant bouncing makes knitting or locker hocking nearly impossible. On the crafty front, I had hoped to finish my Girl Friday sweater but ran out of yarn two or three rows prior to finishing the front bands so that will have to wait until we return home. So I have started on my locker hocked rug and as long as the road it not too difficult I can manage to work on it in the van.
We progressed through Minnesota and crossed over the mighty Mississippi into Wisconsin and the landscape changed from the long straight roads lined with corn fields to a more familiar green hilled dairy farm country, very pastoral. except for the billboards on the interstate advertising cheese at every exit. Our stop this night was at Lake Kegonsa State Park outside of Madison, Pete's first adventure with piloting the trailer through an interstate at rush hour. The campsite was OK but it was disappointing that it was too far to walk comfortably in the 90+F heat from the campground to the beach given that this was our longest days drive of the trip so far. We knew something was up when Mazy refused to join us at the picnic table for dinner and retreated to the trailer. At about midnight the most dramatic thunderstorm I have ever experienced took place around us with Mazy shivering and panting all the way through it as she tried to sneak her way into our bed.
Day 11 - This was to be one of our shortest drives, even though we planned a detour from the route Garmin Gertie and Map Point suggested so we would not have to attempt driving I-90 through the heart of Chicago. We were motoring down I-39 to pick up I-80 in just coming up to Mendota, Illinois when a passing motorist honked and motioned to Pete. We pulled off at the first exit and discovered a flat tire on the trailer, right down to the rim. AAA was called but Pete proceeded to jack the trailer, change the tire and get us ready to leave, call to cancel with AAA just as the tow truck appeared and waved to us. Turns out I-80 was still a challenging route, especially as the tire delay put us into rush hour again so we were glad when we moved over onto I-94 for the last 20 or so miles prior to arriving at Indiana Dunes State Park. This is a lovely site, a state park within a larger national foreshore on Lake Michigan. Very much a family campground but we have a large, paved site, again with power. With the help of a gentleman at the Visitor Centre for the National Foreshore Park we found a tire store that could provide us with replacement for our spare so we quickly dropped off the rim at this place in the quaint Indiana town of Chesterton and did some grocery shopping before heading back to the campsite. Dinner was interrupted by yet another thunderstorm ( this seems to be the theme for this trip!) but it was a relatively short one and allowed us a walk down the trail to catch the sunset
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