Becoming a South Dakota resident five years ago meant it was time to renew my driver's license. The bummer was I had let my extension expire on my license by one day...not good. Not only did I need to be there in person I also had to take a drivers test which I don't think I've done since I started driving. Knowing we needed to do this, we had South Dakota on our travel plans and I had downloaded practice tests and studied pretty hard for the last two days.
South Dakota provides a mobile licensing schedule and since we were in Spearfish, the office was open for the two days we were camped there, making it easy. Well...almost easy. I showed up at the office with my application only to learn I had to once again provide proof of our one night stay in the state. So, back to the Chris' RV park to ask for a receipt for our stay, and find 2 pieces of mail with our SD address. Since SD is the chosen state of residency for many nomadic travelers, the woman at the campground totally understood what I needed and printed out a very professional receipt for me and back we went to give it another try. The grumpy man who I had first talked to was gone for lunch :) and a more helpful person set me at a table to take my test on a computer that wasn't working; I couldn't get it to advance to the next question and picture! After trying repeatedly, I asked for a paper and pencil test and zipped through it...24/25, YES! And just like that I had my new driver's license and could help with the driving once again. Then time for lunch at the Bay Leaf Cafe in town where we found this painting; not Foster, but it captured our blue feelings, and couldn't resist his big eyes and ears.
I think we were both emotionally hurting after losing Foster only days before and we decided to stay near Spearfish and just chill for another two days. We found a different campground a little north and along a river, Wyatt's Hideaway. Quiet, and practically empty since summer was ending for most families and just what we needed. From there we drove south to Hot Springs, SD and spent a night at Kemo Sabay Campground. Interesting. The days were beautiful and very warm, and before leaving Hot Springs we wandered the town and art galleries, perfect for a leisurely morning.Continuing our southward direction we left South Dakota and drove on to southern Nebraska and a couple days stay at Scottsbluff RV Park. I don't think we left the park, even once, PK fiddling with things he wanted to adjust and I just walked and relaxed. It's one of our favorite county parks, with lovely views of the surrounding bluffs.
And, while camped there we received our first photo of our newest family member, Max Coyote Campbell, from parents Mandy and Mike Campbell, our niece and her husband.
Passing through Wyoming, it isn't far to finally get to the Boulder Elks Lodge for a stay and time with my brother, Kurt, and family. Back to the beauty of the Rockies, streams, hiking trails, golfing for Paul and lots of bike riding. It's becoming our annual late summer destination.
After a week in Boulder we made plans to meet up with one of our favorite German exchange students, Juegen and his girlfriend Steffi. He attended AG High School and was part of the same Exchange Student program as our student, Rado, and was at our home so often, we have always thought of him as one of our own. Juergen now works for Mercedes Benz in Aguacalientes, Mexico and had two weeks off with plans to see more of the US. So, we met them for two nights in Vail. What a fun two days, with geocaching as the big topic and adventure together.
Back in Boulder, we planned a camping trip with Kurt and Laura up to Camp Dick, a beautiful forest service campground only 45 minutes from Boulder. We had 2 lovely campsites next to each other and were visited by three huge moose about an hour after we were set up!! That's a bit of a scary experience.It was the first camping outing for K&L's newly adopted doggies, two beautiful black labs Frankie and MacKenzie, and they did so well!
Boulder was our destination also for repairing our SAAB that we'd been pulling with us since we had troubles in Helena, MT. There's a great SAAB repair shop in Boulder, and we were happy to learn we hadn't burned up the engine or caused terrible damage; a couple days in the shop and it was good again. But, since we do drive so many miles, PK decided we should sell and buy a newer model...same color, same convertible. Plus, I think he likes the fun of searching the nation for the perfect car. This time he found what he wanted in Fort Myers, FL. All was good until we started hearing about the hurricane that was expected to head towards the gulf coast...right to where the car dealer was located. A few tense days trying to find a transport company that could get down to Fort Myers and pick up the car before the storm hit that area; we made it by 2 days! Five days later it was delivered to us in Boulder. Our friends (and Paul's college roommate), Steve and Sherry, had contacted us and wanted to buy our 2001, how fun to know it was going to another SAAB lover!
With lovely fall days, we took the new car for a drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park the next day. The trees were gorgeous in full color and the elk were out everywhere we looked. Such a gorgeous park and drive all the way across the continental divide to the other side, though we didn't realize we should have returned by the same route to have the shorter drive back to Boulder. Big mistake...turns out we were more than a 4 hour drive back to Boulder using the route south from Grand Lake to Winter Park and finally back to Boulder. Such along day, but the car did so well and with the top down to see all the beauty of the park, it was fantastic!
No comments:
Post a Comment