South Dakota--Day 4--Coach cough

We arrived in South Dakota on Sunday after three days on the road. We were not sure if we were going to make the last 20 miles though. The coach was doing a good job pulling the hills heading toward Rapid City when we started to experience engine troubles. The motor would start to "cough" and lose power and then the "check engine" light would come on. We pulled off the road several times and let the coach set awhile. We had no sign the she was over heating. It acted like it was just not getting enough fuel. Finally, we got going and limped in the last 10 miles at about 45 miles per hour. (We now have an appointment on Wednesday morning with a Cummins Diesel repair shop.)

But we did finally arrive at Hart Ranch. This is a member owned RV Resort with all the facilities the RVer would desire. We have a concrete site with full hookups, including cable TV and WiFi access. We are parked next door to our good friends, Lew & Dottie Anderson. These are the folks that led our caravan to Florida last January. They invited us to join them, with some other friends, for a hamburger cookout during the evening. We had a good time with good food and good company.

Monday was spent just relaxing around the coach and checking out Hart Ranch. Since this is a member owned park you are supposed to be a member to stay here. They have a special to allow folks to stay up to three nights if they will take the "tour", which is a sales pitch to become a member. We did our "tour" around 2:00 pm on Monday. After telling the salesman, "thanks but no thanks", we met up with Lew & Dottie and went out to dinner.

We will be here at Hart Ranch until Wednesday. At that time we'll move up to Ellsworth Air Force Base, after a stop at the engine repair shop.