Days 28 & 29: Camp Inn Owners in the Wild!

On Friday we chanced to meet, after owning our Camp Inn for three full years, our first Camp Inn owners in the wild - Kent and Laura (owners of #471 [or so]), as they happened to pass by where we were camped at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park (located south of Mandan, ND).  They just happened to be on their way west from Wisconsin to visit the area around Banff.  

And just a short time later, we met DakotaDave (his Camp Inn forum name), who lives just across the Missouri River in Bismarck, ND.  We were surprised to see him with his 2014 550 Ultra (#?), only to find that he had been following the blog and planned on surprising us in New Salem, where we had posted that we originally intended to camp last night.  Luck was with us that I happened to post early yesterday, and upload our latest GPS track to our map.  When it started getting late and we hadn't showed up, checking the blog showed him that we had pressed on and that we were here at the state park, so he managed to chase us down.

Dave & Steve talking shop.

Dave's Subaru Forester and Camp Inn 550 Ultra.

We spent some time talking about the local area, our Camp Inns, etc,  and as darkness closed in us he decided to move on to his campsite farther along at the campground.  As luck would have it, he ended up with the site right next to Kent and Laura!

Our ride here from Schnell Recreation Area included an 11+ mile stretch of gravel, the only alternative to doing a similar stretch on the interstate where the shoulders are said to have rumble strips the full width of the shoulder.  It wasn't bad on the bike, except in a few places where the gravel was a little to deep for my skinny tires.  But unfortunately Alea decided to take the van and trailer down the same road.  The result was fine red dust managed to infiltrate the galley and the door jambs on the van, which hadn't been cleaned in five weeks, looked pretty disgusting.  So the first order of business at the campsite was to thoroughly wash both the van and camper.

The view from afar of the world's largest Holstein cow at New Salem, ND.

Alea and Lana, waiting at the end of the gravel road.

Ahoy! Paved road ahead!

We decided to take today (Saturday) off, and spent the morning checking out the park - the blockhouses, the rebuilt buildings around the Parade Ground, including the house where General Custer was living before galloping off to the Little Big Horn.

We've got the next several days planned out, with our intention being to arrive in Fargo on Thursday night.  We hope while there that on Friday morning we can have the trailer's wheel bearing and brake adjustment checked, since it seems we might currently have more bearing play than is desirable.