Tylere's here!

JULY 22, 2023

Welp, it feels complete now that we have Tylere. Let the road trippin' exploring adventures begin! He flew into Sioux Falls, South Dakota airport and took an Uber over to us. We were about an hour behind him on arrival so luckily the crazy thunderstorm that we were watching along our drive didn't pass by the RV park while he waited outside with his bags. The storms out here are so wild. I can remember driving out west for the first time in college with my friend Jamie to visit Alaina, and I witnessed the craziest thunderstorms I had ever seen, and look forward to seeing more ever since, core memory for sure. The endless miles of wide open road make even the far away storms just look so magestic.

Sioux Falls KOA journey. This Rv park sat right along the highway and at first we felt a little skeptical, but we LOVED it! haha. https://koa.com/campgrounds/sioux-falls/. They even had a kickball court, which of course we tried out. Brians new favorite on the road activity.

SOUTH DAKOTA IS BEAUTIFUL. The park was clean, and they had the most "esthetic" gift store, as Summer called it, lol. Really cute stuff and super friendly staff. This leg took us again about 8 hours, Brian did a really great job mapping out each stop. Mainly because I almost killed us all 2 years ago naively making our stretches way too long and we could barely keep our eyes open, never again. Whoops. We also learned that when traveling in the RV, you need a few main important things, A separate GPS system that truckers use, that you can enter your height and width and weight and this will bring you on only the roads you will fit. Because let me tell you what we also learned in 2 years of renting, you do not fit everywhere! Low bridges, small tunnels. Terrifying really lol. We are learning to finally trust this nifty system, but I still have PTSD from some close calls and argument raising turn arounds and detours. This GPS will also tell you your ACTUAL arrival times, because you can not go nearly as fast in a massive RV towing a jeep as you can in a car. Fuse reader. All the cleaning products for alllllll the spills (especially with 3 dogs). the list goes on, and ill make one in here some day, because I wish I found a good one before starting all these adventures! Instead we just had to live and learn the hard way. Another thing is a tire pressure reader so you know your tires don't get too hot on the road on hot days, because if they do, you need to pull over and give them a break, which we have yet to encounter, but our temps have stayed really beautiful so far out here.

Time for margaritas, snacks, cards and dinner. This has been my favorite night so far at the camp grounds. They have all been fun and different, but finally. having Tylere here too after over a year of planning and booking, it was nice to relax and celebrate making it to this point and getting to relax a bit. Out west (and New England but really at the National Parks out west) you need to book your big rig sites (most sites I assume) a year in advance to get the good stuff. Luckily, the Aquarius in me loves this shit, so it works for us. There are also a handful of "really nice" sites at the RV parks and we have learned that we like to snag those when we can. Concrete pads, easy for leveling. Full easy hookups, nicer tables, chairs , fire pits etc. Makes being outside nice, because once you get where you are going it's nice to have some additional space. Brian had a bucket list item, roast hotdogs on sticks over the fire, so hot dogs for dinner it was! They came out really good!

As a whole, we are starting to get the hang of the break down, set up situation. Everything needs a place in the RV. EVERYTHING. Otherwise it's total chaos, and I do not live well that way! With Tylere here now, Summer will sleep on the table that goes down to a bed. We bought her a temperpedic mattress topper, because she tried out this bed on our last trip and wasn't comfortable. It worked (thank goodness because the complaining that would have followed if it didn't would have been unbearable since Tylere already "stole her bed" hahaha. Brian and I have been together for over 7 years now, so plenty of natural sibling rivalry, even at the ages of 12 and 25. But mostly love and and beautiful bond. Being a blended family can be hard on so many levels, but I have to say, I'm pretty damn proud of ours. We set up for bed and crashed. Tylere and I woke up in the morning and went for a 2 mile run, it's so nice to have him here now to work out with me. It can be intimidating to walk. or run alone in random RV parks all over the country, and I try, but can't get my husband out there with me. I'm not going to loose hope (Hi honey! come run with me soon?) I was also able to get a little yoga in after, striving hard for this, I've accepted that random people over at the next RV are. going to see me randomly doing yoga outside my RV, its fine. We broke the RV down (electric, sewer, water heaters, generators, gas.. so many things, Brian has a great rhythm down now and is showing Tylere the ropes. We didn't have to unhook the jeep. last night which was great! But usually that's in there too. Onto Mount Rushmore KOA to explore Custer State Park. We have been before, but barely scratched the surface. https://www.yelp.com/biz/custer-state-park-custer