Thursday, July 5, 2018, Move to Royal River Casino, Flandreau, SD

As much as I hated to leave Ho-Chunk, it was time to continue our trek west. Joani gave me the option of driving straight through from Wisconsin to South Dakota or splitting the drive up with an overnight in a Walmart parking lot. I thought it was too hot to boondock in a Walmart, so we drove all the way to the Royal River Casino in Flandreau, SD - a whopping 402.8 miles (88,334.7 total) not quite a record for us, but the longest driving day in recent memory.

Below, the welcome to Minnesota sign carved out of a slab of granite greeted us as we crossed the border from Wisconsin and below that the welcome to South Dakota sign signaled we had left Minnesota. I don't remember much else in between except a really long stretch of Interstate 90.

We settled in somewhat late for us after the long drive and cranked up the air conditioning. After just staying in an amazing casino campground, Royal River Casino was a significant step down, but still quite nice considering it was only $10/night (30 amp/no water).

Inside the casino, we registered, signed up for our Player's Cards (with free play money) and took advantage of the dinner buffet special. At $5 each, we didn't even feel the need to overeat. Of course, I smuggled a few samples out of the dining room for Sam. We turned our combined $10 of free play into $6.55 of our money.

When we returned to our coach we realized we were surrounded by a large family with firecracker crazy kids (3 or 4 campsites seemed to be related, all from Minnesota). They lit fireworks of all kinds for the next several hours. Around 11 pm, I started to wonder if there were any quiet hour restrictions. They finally ran out of energy (or ammo) and fell asleep. At least that's what I assumed - I was out like a light myself.