Finne's Follies: About State Parks and South Dakota

80 degrees, but we built a fire anyway

Monday we waved goodbye to Minnesota. We're headed west again on our way to Spokane. This time, however, we're not racing winter to get there. And, we're not plagued (knock on that proverbial wood) with RV problems...not serious ones anyway. Who, after all, doesn't have at least some RV problems if they have an RV?

Our first stop was Sioux Falls-- Brandon, actually, which is a couple miles east of Sioux Falls. We stayed at another state park. One thing we discovered with these state park campgrounds is that hidden fee called a park permit. Our site fee at Rice Lake (a Minnesota state park) was $40 a night after factoring in the $7 a day park permit. South Dakota charges a mere $6 a day, and the site fee was considerably less, but we still ended up paying about $30 a night after taxes. I relate this not only to engender sympathy, but also to warn anyone who might be considering camping at a state park to be sure to inquire about the additional permit fees when you're checking on price. (Any guests that visit you will have to pay the day-use fee before entering the park as well.) I don't know why they don't build this fee into the camp site charge since it's pretty much impossible to camp without first paying the permit fee. That would make sense. But we are dealing with the government, here, so we shouldn't let our expectations run rampant. Considering that neither park had water or sewer, the price, in my opinion, was excessive. Live and learn.

Bike ride around Big Sioux River campground

Last time we went through Sioux Falls we visited the beautiful waterfall park, something we highly recommend you do if you're passing through. It's one of the prettiest sights anywhere. We didn't go back this time because we weren't staying long and the weather was against us. We did take our bikes out for a short ride while we were camped here and got some exercise, something we don't do nearly enough of.

Our next stop will be the Rapid City area, where we'll be camped for five days. In a regular park. With full hookups. I can do laundry again. Yay! South Dakota, being such a wide state, the distance between Souix Falls and Rapid City was just too far to make it one day, so our plan was to stop at a rest area overnight about half way... that is, until we discovered that South Dakota doesn't allow overnight camping at any of their interstate highway rest areas. (I wonder what the truckers do.)

We thought about stopping at a truck stop, but then it occurred to us that it wouldn't be right to take up a truck spot from a tired truck driver in practically the only truck stop between Sioux Falls and Rapid City, so we drove on by and pulled out our trusty phone app called "Allstays" to check out our options. No Walmarts on that stretch of road. There was one BLM free public camping area south of Wall, SD, but it was temporarily closed. Apparently people were failing to close the gate behind them and were letting the cows out.

So we did what any tired traveler would do--we stopped at Wall Drug, the famous watering hole half way between Sioux Falls and Rapid City, where you can get free water, a cup of coffee for a nickle, and "homemade" pie. (At least that's what they called it.) The pie was okay, but it certainly wasn't homemade. Anyway, it was supper time, we were starving and looking at another hour or more before we could eat a meal, and so we pretended it was homemade and gobbled it down.

Eating pie at Wall Drug cafe

Back in the coach, I pulled out my phone app again, still searching for a place to spend the night, and noticed an icon on the map labeled "OP" -- overnight parking. It was a little "Express" campground with only eight parking spots, but they were all pull-through with full hookups... and it was just a few miles down the road. It was almost too much to hope that we'd find an available spot at almost six o'clock in the evening, but we decided to try for it anyway. If it was full, it was only another hour to Rapid City. To our surprise, there were five empty spots. The site fee was a very affordable $10, a good deal less than what we would have spent at the "free" Walmart parking lot.

So here we are, comfortably and cheaply enjoying the evening with our slides out and both air conditioners running. It's 10:30 as I write this, and still 80 degrees outside. This week will be in the 90s, but at least the humidity promises to be lower than we've been experiencing so far. That's something.

Here are a few other pictures from our recent few days...