Today was another travel day. We left Sioux City in a much needed rain for the area. We continued north on I-29 to Summit, South Dakota where we headed westerly on Highway 12. We enjoyed a pretty drive through the Blue Dog Lake area before arriving in Aberdeen around 2:20 pm.
While traveling along Highway 12, there were road signs mentioning The Yellowstone Trail. The Yellowstone Trail was established in 1912 and was the first, transcontinental highway through the upper tier of the United States. The trail ran through Aberdeen. Today, of course, it is nicely paved.
Though the highway on 12 to Aberdeen was two-lane much of the way, it was also good pavement with little traffic. This stretch of our route was across the gently rolling prairie of the Great Plains. Since this was a Sunday, Martha played some music from one of her favorite Gospel performers, Linda Randle. Later on in the day we listened to some Broadway hits of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. We’re accustomed to switching drivers every two hours or so. Today it was no different.
Though the road may seem flat, it can be rising in altitude very
gently without even noticing. The weather was ideal upon
leaving since we started at around 60° and arrived with
the high being around 72° F, which was ideal.
This was the first day of our journey that we didn’t need the roof air conditioner powered by our 7,000-watt generator. It provided a good opportunity to see how the new residential refrigerator/freezer performed on the inverter. It functioned well keeping the refrigerated section at 40° and the freezer at 0°. Previously, we had an RV refrigerator/freezer that would, at times, struggle to keep the food properly cooled and the freezer doing the same. Now that we have the new Hotpoint, we have an all-electric kitchen. Gone is the reliance on propane for the cooktop and refrigerator. For us, this is quite a nice feeling.
Another common sight in this part of the USA is that of baled
hay along the wide right-of-way.
Do we know the way to San Jose? Absolutely.
Several months ago Byron installed a new radio in the dash that has a 9-inch screen. It is CarPlay compatible. It is nice that it is within easy view while driving. On this trip we’re giving RV TripWizard a try since the app works with CarPlay. Apple’s Maps isn’t designed for RVers since it isn’t aware of any height or weight restrictions. Maps doesn’t allow you to adjust other settings, either. For instance, Maps assume that a car (and auto speeds) is being used with the GPS. RV systems do.
On the dash (to the right) you’ll see Byron’s iPad which is running CoPilot, the trip routing software we’ve used since 2016. It is not compatible with CarPlay. Therefore, we’re able to see the differences in the display of information as well as the differences the software chooses in providing suitable routes. Though they are similar, they yield different results at time, especially when approaching exit ramps or turns where there are multiple lanes involved. CoPilot is much more precise.
At Aberdeen we were in for a nice surprise. The campground was a part
of the city park system. It is in one corner of the 252-acre facility which
also has a theme park in addition to the normal things one would expect.
Byron is standing in front of the campground office and lodge.
Campground Map: Wylie Park at Storybook Land. For sure, we weren’t expecting such a nice place with such a variety of amenities. They even
have a mid-gauge steam train that runs on a one-mile
loop of track.
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