Thursday, June 12
It rained in the morning, so I snoozed my alarm for 15 minutes and got up at 6:15. Mosquitos were awful--it wasn’t cold but I kept my hood up for bug protection.
Complaint written at the time:
How come I wake up in the night feeling fine but when it’s time to get up, My right leg is shrieking pain?
Cool statue at rest area
After three great results from my choosing of campsites at South Dakota State Parks/Recreation Areas, I found the fourth to be a non-charmer. Not that it doesn’t seem to be a lovely little park alongside a lovely little lake, but because the site that I chose sucked. I know that I had chosen what I hoped was going to be a pull-thru (they called it something different) and it was supposed to be just long enough for the Mammoth and the Jeep without having to unhook. But instead it was a “pull off” meaning a wide arc in the road surface where you could park, and it was only just long enough to hold the Motorhome and Jeep but not long enough to make the swing that we needed to get both vehicles off the road. And barely wide enough for the Motorhome to extend its side slide-outs out.
So we struggled and eventually ended up unhooking the Jeep, which fixed the length issue. The width issue was addressed by putting the Motorhome tires on the gravel that was alongside the pad we were supposed to park on. Not that it would hurt anything, because the site was so unlevel that the jacks, which were on the pad, were going to support the entire weight of the right-hand side of the motorhome. There would be no sinking into the gravel, but it seems awfully weird to have your right-side tires four inches off the ground.
After that we discovered that the 50-amp power didn’t seem to work. Our tester was saying “no common” or some such error.. Ed tried the 30-amp and it was okay, so we went with that.
Later a park employee and a campground host came by. The employee tested the electricity and it worked for him, so Ed tried his own tester again. That time, no problem.
The host asked me where I’d gotten my park entrance pass, and when I told him the story, he informed me that you didn’t have to pay for each vehicle so long as they were attached when they entered the park. So, fine. Wasted money. Call it a donation to South Dakota parks and recreation.After that we took Molly for a walk,where she discovered the campground was infested with 13-lined ground squirrels. She really, really wanted to catch one of the ground squirrels. I may have a torn rotator cuff when we leave. But at least one of us liked the campground.
(Actually, I liked the campground, just not the site I’d chosen. The little lake was lovely. And the host was very nice.)
Add to trip notes: when choosing driving distances between stops, give a little attention to locations of diesel fuel truck stops. When we planned the route for the next day’s drive, a 4:12 minute drive used during planning turned into a 4:48 drive due to having to go out of the way to get fuel and then take little crappy roads to get back on the route. This wouldn’t have been a problem if I learned to keep all legs under three hours except the first and the last. Then an out-of-the-way fuel stop won’t ruin our drive.
Food: adding a bag of sauerkraut to amp up my vegetable intake is good. But maybe not Kimchi, or at least, not a great big jar of it. I’m getting tired of eating it every day.
At 8:30 I wrote:
It’s chilly and breezy, like a storm is blowing in. But not. I’m sitting outside so I don’t have to go in the screaming demon noisy and freezing cold Motorhome. Sucks. Wish I had a tent.
Sorry—just blowing off some steam
REVIEW: Lake Vermillion Recreation Area site 62 $42
Nice little campground; not so great site
East site campground. Firepit, picnic table, asphalt
The first five or so sites on the way into the campground are “pull-offs”, which means that the road widens slightly and there’s an electric box at the back end of the site. Our site ended up being too short for our 35’ motorhome and toad without unhooking—we needed more space to pull off so we could get both vehicles off the road and not have our driver’s side slideout protrude out into traffic. So we had to unhook the jeep and seesaw the motorhome into place.
The site was very low on the lake (right-hand) side. We used pads under our jack stands and were able to level our Class A, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Most of the other sites were more level.
Past the first five sites, there was a loop with lots of nice, long back-in sites. Some with shade and some clear, and almost all with good views of the lake. I’d recommend getting one of those.
The 50-amp circuit didn’t seem to work at first--it was giving a ‘no common’ error on our power monitor. But when the maintenance worker tried his tester and we shut off/on the breaker a couple of times, it was fine.
There is no water in the east side campground sites, but there are two water fills on the way in. I recommend that you skip the first one and go to the second; it is much easier to get to. The first one is in a very small parking area and on the right-hand side, so if your water fill is on the left, you’ll have to turn your rig around or throw the hose under. But the second water fill is in a big parking area, easy to get to, and on the left.
There is no dump station in the East Side campground, but there are paper maps at the entrance that show the location of the dump station on the west side. It only took five minutes to get there.
It was a very pretty place, about half full on a Thursday in June. The campground host was very nice. The only traffic I heard was in the campground and on the lake. There’s a small boat ramp with courtesy dock (I think) and plenty of boat trailer parking. Late in the evening the place started filling up (3 trailers came by in 5 minutes) and quite a few people went out in kayaks or fished near the boat ramp.
I think there are trails over at the west side. There’s a map showing them; we didn’t have time to take any.
Both east and west side campgrounds are easy to navigate to using Google maps. Starlink worked well.
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