More lake fun yesterday.  Weather turned out to be good, a few showers, but overall sunny and nice.  The slideshow shows pics of golfing and Deadwood, SD  Wild Bill Hickok Days!  Whoo Hoo!

Nice day at the lake yesterday.  Sun came out a couple of times.  The young ones got to get out on the lake for some skiing and tubing.  They also erected the biggest slip and slide in the area.  Used soap to get everything slicked up and had a blast.  No injuries this time around!

The slideshow has pics of our drive around needles highway in the black hills of south dakota!

Enjoy

Weather certainly did not cooperate yesterday to get on the lake, literally rain and thunder boomers all day long.  Still enjoyed lunch and dinner with Linda's parents, sorry forgot the camera and no pics yet.  Will do some today.  Hopefully, the weather will cooperate today to get on the lake.

Slideshow pics are of our visit to Devil's Tower.  Sorry these pics are not in the chronological order in which we experienced them, but that's what happens when we did not have good internet access for a month.

After three long days of driving, we made it safe into the Senecaville, Ohio area to visit Linda's family at their lake house.  weather is not cooperating as it looks like five days of nothing but rain.  Will still be fun catching up with Linda's family while here in a nice RV park along highway 70 in Cambridge, Ohio! Whoo Hoo!

I'll change the slideshow and add some pics here, if the local internet access will allow me!  Pretty good access so far.

The slideshow has pics of the storm and some fishing, while we were at Jim and Pam's lake house.

Finally got some internet last night.  Uploaded lots of photos, that I will be adding in the slideshow over the next few days of travel.  Check out the current slideshow, containing pics of the badlands in SD and our first fishing day with Jim and Pam.

What a South Dakota welcome from Jim and Pam!!!  I already wrote about the first day arriving in the afternoon and promptly going out on the boat for a great afternoon of fishing. Well, the next day we did more fishing, not as successful as the day before but still caught fish and had fun.  Both nights we ate the fish we caught, first night walleye and the next night that nice salmon I caught the day before.  Both fish were fantastic eating.

Now the adventure begins. We left Pierre late morning on Friday. Noticed a storm brewing from the west and managed to beat it to their lake house in Arlington.  But just barely. Within fifteen minutes of arrival, having barely parked the RV, we had to rush to Jim's tornado shelter.  An 8 by 4 foot metal shelter above ground behind their house.  Yes, tornados had been spotted in the area and moving towards us, multiple sitings and touchdowns!  Crazy but also exciting.  Was tough for me to get into the shelter with four other people, a neighbor stopped in.  While we all had some drinks to fortify us, I was a bit claustrophobic in that shelter.  We were in there for close to an hour before we felt safe to come out.  The damage to Jim's place was just some tree limbs on his beach and in his yard.  No dock damage and no damage to our RV.  Besides the tornados, they were forecasting large orange sized hail.  I was more worried what the hail could do to the RV then the tornado itself!  We escaped with no damage.  However, damage all around this lake community with one death and two serious injuries.  The death came from someone in a mobile home.  The two houses next door were ok, some damage but not much.  We have pics, but I have to wait until I can get an Internet connection on my pc to upload them.  Hope to do that later tonight when we stop at an RV place for the night on our way to Senecaville.

There's more weather stories.  The next night, last night, we had severe thunderstorms roll through the area again.  Major wind, rain, four inches of it and lite hail.  Linda and I stayed in the RV and it was a bit scary.  It seemed to go on hours, most likely three.  Again, the RV made it through with no
damage.  We have been very lucky and now it is time to get out of town!, lol.

Jim and Pam sure know how to entertain their guests here in South Dakota, big time.  Thanks guys, enjoyed the visit and look forward to doing it again some time, maybe without the weather issues!

Wow. What a great day yesterday!  Started out early for the drive to Pierre, SD to meet up with good friends from Florida, Jim and Pam Pfeiffer.  They live nearby in Watertown, SD.  Even though they went fishing and caught their limit in the morning, they still took us out when we arrived in the afternoon. Before we arrived, they had convinced us to drive the badlands loop with our RV. We thought we would do that on another trip, but based on their urgings, we decided to do the loop. What a nice drive. A big surprise to see the rock formations in the middle of what we expected to be simply good looking meadows!  Wow, wow, wow. Very nice driving day, weather was great and doing the loop, the right idea!

Back to fishing.  Unfortunately for us, no wifi at the RV park we are staying courtesy of Jim and Pam.  It's very convenient to the lake and our friends who have their RV set up here for the summer. The fishing here is amazing. Throw the line in where Jim positions the boat and you catch fish.  Walleye, bass and salmon were caught while we were out there.  I caught the salmon, which really gave me a fight to get it in the boat and not let it break the line.  Way cool!!!  Bad news for Jim, after cleaning 16 fish in the morning, after we got off the lake about 8:00 pm, he had to clean I think 14 more fish, including my big salmon. Ate some of the walleye we caught for dinner last night and will do the salmon tonight or tomorrow night. Doesn't get any better than eating fresh fish you just caught!

No pics for awhile, unless you look at our Facebook pages. We'll try to post a few pics over the next few weeks on Facebook.

Will be here a few days, then to Jim and Pam's house, then on to Linda's parents lake house in Ohio!!

The warm weather, lake fun has begun!  Whoo hoo!

Yesterday we decided to bike part of the Michelson trail about 10 miles into Deadwood.  Then have lunch in Deadwood while they were having a festival - Wild Bill Hickok Days!  Yee Haw!  It was a great idea, just some poor execution.  The route on the trail was about 10 miles, of which the last six miles was a 1,000 foot decline into Deadwood.  No big deal going down and really not too bad going back up, about a 4% average ascent.  We did not think it would be too bad.  However, after enjoying the town of deadwood and lunch, we made a wrong turn on the way home.  We took a turn that ended up ascending that 1000 feet over only 3 miles.  Fond some very steep parts that we actually had to step of the bikes and walk them a bit.  Made it back in one piece although very tired.  Just hung at the RV the rest of the evening, sitting outside reading and enjoying one of only two fires we have built since on this trip.

Today, we got up early to drive out to Devil's Tower in Wyoming.  Was a nice drive, very scenic and of course the Tower was amazing.  We;; worth the two hour drive form our RV.  Actually saw two sets of climbers on the tower, making their way up the south side.  Pretty cool.  Left the Tower after hiking around it and getting views of all sides and drove into Sturgis for lunch at the famous Knuckle Saloon!

Now back at the RV.  Going to have a Father's Day dinner in town at the Mangy Moose!  Nice way to wrap up a great father's day.  Got calls from both boys, so all is great!  :):)

Got up early this morning to drive Needles Highway, Wildlife Loop and Iron Mountain Byway.  Hoped to see a few animals.  Got to see Deer, Wild Turkey, Prong Horned Deer, lots of Bison and of course, Prairie Dogs.  The drive was nice, drove by Mt. Rushmore, quite a site.  Then laid around the RV and enjoyed the sun and took time to read a book.  Finally, we went for massages and dinner in Custer, SD.

Slideshow has pics of our drive to Hill City, SD.  Enjoy,

Good news!  Found a restaurant that has wifi for customers!  Sitting here nursing a few drinks, had some ribs and a brownie for desert.  Now a few more drinks and I may have uploaded three days worth of pics for the slideshow.  Will try to upload a few pics here after my update.

Let's see.  Two days ago we spent the day getting oriented, doing laundry, a few maintenance chores and just chilling at the RV.  Yesterday, we hiked 9 miles to Little Devil's Tower and Harney's Peak.  Very nice and some great views at Little Devil's Tower.  By the time we got to Harney's Peak, the clouds had rolled in and the views were obscured.  However, it was a good hike that taxed us a bit with some rock climbing and some scary heights!    LAter that night we built a fire and roasted some hot italian sausages!  Weather has still remained a bit cool, which makes for sleeping at night in the Rv very pleasant.  The night before last, we actually had a thunderstorm roll through, like we were used to when we lived int he northeast.  Was a very pleasant experience remembering the times in Allentown and New Jersey!!!

Today we golfed at Southern Hills Golf Club in Hot Springs, South Dakota.  Very nice course, with some fantastic elevation changes and a very nice mountain layout.  Both of us played well and Linda is not only striking the ball very well, but putting fantastic since her lesson from the neighborhood golf pro, Joe Blanc!  Thanks Joe for both our lessons in Sandpoint!

Still to come, Needles Highway, Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower in Wyoming, Sturgis, Deadwood, and more bike riding on the Michelson Trail.  I actually rode a piece of it two days ago, about 12 miles, just outside our RV park.  Linda and I will pick a piece to ride on Monday!  It is 109 to 114 miles long depending on which publication you read.  It is a rails to trails conversion, hard packed gravel over plenty of creeks, bridges, gorges, etc.  Would love to ride the whole thing, but will have to do that on a future trip.  Will return to South Dakota for sure!

A few pics, I hope.