Coronadventure 2 - Day 1: Arlington, VA to Spearfish, SD

Yes, it’s another Day 1.  We have just embarked on the RV trip we had planned for all along - the grand finale of my quest to visit all 50 states.  We booked an RV in South Dakota, and will loop into North Dakota, west into Montana, down through Yellowstone and Wyoming and back into South Dakota.  We are on this adventure for 11 days.  We have been talking about doing this trip since before we had kids, and had booked it pre-COVID — amazing that it’s finally here.

We took a 7:30AM flight this morning and were in Rapid City, South Dakota by noon, Mountain time.  

We had the RV delivered to the airport by the rental compnay, so no Ubers required on this side.  

Of course, they were missing our dishes and towels, so we ended up driving over to the RV shop to grab those.  Due to Covid and the just ended Sturgis motorcycle rally, we had zero interest in going shopping for supplies upon arrival.  We packed a bunch of items we saved from the last adventure and planned out two curbside Walmart pickups earlier this week - we got one upon arrival and we’ll get the second tomorrow morning.  Great Walmart pickup service made for a social distancing win.

We got a nicer RV for this trip.  We rented a 2018 Jayco Redhawk 29XK from a local dealer, and the kids are amazed compared to the Cruise America Standard RV we took across the country.  This one is 7.5 feet longer, has a bathroom you can actually stand in, and has a slide out in the main living area.  This is valuable square footage while parked.  The bench seating is a U shape, which we also think will be better for the kids on the road.  They love it and have already stashed their things all over the place.  It also has a v10 with more horsepower than the last one, which is making the drive easier.  It also has cool features like self-leveling jacks built in, an awning and outside speakers. 

Funny thing about your second RV trip in a year, we were fully loaded and on the road in almost no time.  This means we were were able to go see Mount Rushmore on Day 1!  Everyone says it’s smaller than you expect, but we disagree.  The viewing area is nice and there is a loop walk that lets you get much closer to the action.  Besides the rampant lack of masks (ugh), it was a nice stop.  

We saw the entire place in an hour and were back on the road.  Mount Rushmore is actually in a small town that was full of old time photos, wax museums and t-shirt shops.  Thankful for the mobile house to bring us to a nature evening.

Tonight we are in Spearfish, SD.  Real place.  Found a quiet RV park with solid social distancing that only takes checks or cash for payment.  On this trip, we are using the RV for everything, including showers.  Too much risk out in the world.  We stopped at a local restaurant for takeout bison burgers and Rocky Mountain Oysters for dinner.  If you don’t know what those are, enjoy the Google.

I’m blogging out under our fancy RV awning (another upgraded feature), which is protecting us from the drizzle.  Too cloudy to see stars, but we’ll get a clear night soon enough. Congrats to David for state #48.  Tomorrow we head to North Dakota to tackle State #49.