South Dakota

After welcoming us with a tornado we got to see a much gentler side of South Dakota.








Found a nice campground overlooking Badlands.

















Night  of rest after the excitement of the previous day  of driving through a tornado and we were ready to explore. What a magnificent place, unlike anything either of us have ever seen before. we  kept saying that it was like being on Mars

Everywhere you look there was a picture opportunity

One Mississippi, two Mississippi

One Mississippi

Our first encounter (the next one will be somewhere south).

Stayed in a "secret" Forest River Campground" where the owner was very surprised we found him, since he is trying not to advertise. Met some interesting people; some were quite friendly, others threatened to shoot us, I was not even wearing my USSR t shirt :)

River delta is beautiful but as far as fishing goes quite disappointing (granted we are complete beginners at fishing), the only thing we caught was a small yellow perch that got hooked on a rod that was left overnight, we let it go. Paddleboats are a thing on Mississippi so we just had to do it, when in Rome...

During our motorcycle ride we stumbled upon a quaint little town  Alma where they were celebrating Swiss Heritage and saw a cow dressed for the occasion.

Tornado ...

Shorty after we entered South Dakota, the sky got darker and  darker. Marina got more and more concerned, she said half jokingly we're driving into a tornado...  To me it just looked like rain. Then it got worse with stronger side winds. Then cars started to pull over. As we approached an overpass, the wind got REALLY strong and started to push the RV sideways. We stopped under the bridge and just seconds later, it got completely dark and the rain was so strong you could not see more then a few feet. Minutes later it was over.

We later found out that stopping under the bridge is a bad idea, though I am not sure it was in this case. One window of the RV got broken but otherwise all is good.

I thought it was scary but I figured people here get through this quite often. An hour later, we stopped to rest and talked to an old trucker. He said, and I quote "In my 45 years of driving, over 7000000 miles, I have never been this scared. I almost peed my pants". OK then, so it wasn't just us.

Biggest catch so far...

I know that for the real anglers out there, this is no big deal, but it's my biggest one yet!  Marina made some delicious sandwiches with it :)

Catching dinner

Yes, we did catch dinner. We actually caught more then we could eat for dinner and today we're making fish soup.

Of course the best part about fishing there was the view ...

Camping pool

It rained last night. It filled the boat. After moving some of the water in the fresh water tank, Marina is cooling off in our impromptu pool...

Marina trying to catch lunch ....

Office with a view

This is my view at the office for the next few days ...

Settling in

So the plans are ever changing and we are settling in at our first campground stop right on Maumee river in Ohio. Bourbon is poured, fire is about to start. 3 days of fun, if everything goes according to plan, yeh, right

Marina drove the RV the first time ...

... and luckily she peed just before (otherwise she would've peed her pants :))

Just kidding, she did a great job.

Heading west ....

We put the RV on autopilot and took some selfies....

(in case it wasn't clear, just kidding, the RV was not moving)

Brunch in the parking lot.... again :)

Stopped to get a backup phone from Verizon. Marina started brunch. Best parking lot brunch ever...