Today's drive was back to a much more reasonable 149.7 miles (88,484.4 total) from Flandreau, SD to Fort Thompson, SD. Joani found us accommodations at a very nice US Army Corps of Engineers park by the name of Left Tailrace Campground below the Big Bend Dam on the Missouri River.
I never really thought about how large South Dakota was until we started driving across it this time. Today's drive didn't even get us halfway across the state. Our drive was all on secondary roads that were very nice. We loved seeing the grasses ripple in the blowing winds across the plains.
I thought it was a bit unusual for the water below the dam to be as wide as the lake above the dam, but then it was an unusual dam. There were spillways on both ends of an earthen dam that was nearly a mile long. Below, it looks like our campground was on the lake instead of the river.
We are on the little spit, right on the water.
The COE website indicated tours of the dam were available, but there was no answer when we called so I missed my opportunity to ogle some grand scale engineering.
Wow, what a nice campground! It only had electricity (no water or sewer) but at just $9/night (w/geezer discount) it was a steal.
When I checked in on RVillage, I saw there was another full-time couple in the park. It looked like we had a five-day overlap in our stays, so I thought we could get together sometime. The horrendous heat - daytime highs hovering around 100 degrees - kept everyone inside (including us most of the time), so there was not a lot of socializing. I finally did meet Eileen and Doug (and their dog, Miles) on the morning we were scheduled to leave. They had been full-timing for around two years and seemed to have figured things out pretty well. I would have liked more time to discuss the full-time life, but it will have to wait. We did find we will both be in Arizona for four months this fall/winter so maybe we will meet again down the road.
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