Kansas by Accident
We were very excited to be on the road again and this time with what we thought would be the freedom we had been working towards for so long. Our first stop would be in South Dakota. We knew that at least until the weather turned cold, we could do some boondocking and live on the cheaper side. We would be slowly making our way to my families house in Rhode Island as there was a wedding we were hoping to attend.
We were going to stay at a few of the boondocking locations we had frequented before in the black hills. Our first stop being in Belle Fourche. This would be the beginning of what was a very quick downward spiral. The first incident in our parade of bad fortune would be our laptop no longer functioning to allow us to make YouTube videos, so we would have the unplanned expense of purchasing a new laptop in Rapid City before heading to spend some time in Custer, SD. And, we hoped that this would be the end of the unplanned expenses however…
We were headed down in elevation from Rapid City to Custer and every once in a while, we would smell that sickly sweet smell of coolant. Somewhat in denial, we though there was no way it could be our truck. But with the smell becoming stronger as we pulled into Custer we decided to pull over on a side street. We wanted to make sure everything was okay before we trekked out onto national forest service land with little cell service. This is where we discovered that the smell we had hoped was not our truck was in fact our truck and we were loosing fluid. It was a Sunday and we were not sure where we could go with the trailer for the night or where we would be able to take the truck to get repaired. As I called campgrounds in the area, I was quickly realizing that this was not a good week to be in this predicament as the Buffalo round up was going to take place the next weekend in Custer State Park and campgrounds were already booked. By chance, a good Samaritan (former sheriff) stopped to see if we needed help. He had some suggestions on shops to call in Custer to get assistance. In fact, one was within walking distance of a campground and the campground was less than a mile and a half from where we were parked. When I called they said that they would have space for us even with our undetermined leave date. With that information we topped off the truck with water and got it to the campground. The next day we called the auto repair shop and they said that they would be able to take a look at the truck so we brought it over. They would indeed be able to repair it but it would take the better part of the week and another large unplanned expense between the cost to repair the truck and a week in an RV resort.
While we were staying in the RV park we did get a few interesting surprises that helped to distract us while we waited for the Truck to be fixed. The first was seeing a hot air balloon land on the lawn in the RV park. We didn’t even have to leave the RV to see it, we watched it happen through our window as we worked that morning. The second surprise was a quick draw competition taking place at the campground. We had no idea it was happening and stumbled upon it one night while we were taking a walk. It is these little unplanned surprises that bring joy to traveling. Once the truck was fixed, we hoped that our bad luck was behind us.
We headed out of town to boondock at the location we were headed to before the truck broke down. We got there and it was relaxing and we thought, this is the freedom we had been hoping for. We did have some run ins with squirrels that seemed to be on our roof (at least we hope they were on the roof and not in the roof). But otherwise, we were enjoying the solitude.
When we finally got settled and started to relax, this is when I discovered, I was having some health issues and I would need to go to a clinic. So, we headed back into Custer so that I could get some help. This was another big an unexpected expense for us. We currently did not have heath care because we were unable to find or afford health care so everything had to come out of pocket. Once I got the help I needed and seemed to be getting better, it was time to continue south towards Nebraska and then start heading east.
As we continued with our travels, it began to sink in how our bad luck in South Dakota had severely impacted our finances and Ben was looking for a work camping job that he could pair with his online job so that we could stop moving and build our savings back up. By the time we got to Kansas, it was pretty clear we really needed to stop moving. Ben wanted to go to see an RV manufacturer in the area we were staying in and out of curiosity, he looked to see if they were hiring. They were hiring, and even better, they were hiring work campers. He inquired, applied, and got the job. So, we were going to miss the wedding in Rhode Island and stay put in Kansas for the Winter to dig ourselves out of the financial hole we had ended up in.
In time, Ben would realize that working online was not something he enjoyed and he would end up giving up the online job. We would move forward as we had in the past, with Ben work camping and myself working online.
It was very cold in Kansas and RVing in the cold is not for the faint of heart as we have discovered. We were not without issues that Winter, we did have an issue with the diesel fuel line freezing up at one point which left us with just an electric fireplace heater to keep the fifth wheel warm until we could thaw out the line. We had to do this in the dark, while it was snowing, with my hair dryer. We also had some issues with our Diesel stove which we would need to ship back for repair and service. And then there was the major lightning storm where the lightning struck so close that it fried our surge protector and the control board on the Despite the hardships, we were able to build back our savings enough so that we could move on in the spring.
As we came to the end of our stay in Kansas, we were not sure where we would be going next. We knew there was somewhere we wanted to be in August but we had yet to find a work camping job to fill the gap between April and August until one day when the phone rang.
That phone call was the opportunity we had been looking for. We would be headed back to Medora, but this time for a shorter season.