#good morning campers this is not a serious post. I reiterate. this is not a serious post.

[ohyoufool]

good morning should we talk about how bitty leaked the conspiracy that beyonce was going to be at the DNC convention last night at Jack's direction because Jack is randomly entrenched in the democratic establishment and Bitty was like "fuck yeah Beyonce"

[ndakota2017]

Aug 17

After posting my dialogue, we returned to camp for the evening.  As we were sitting enjoying our cocktail hour, the wind began to pick up, but we didn’t think it was serious.  Boy, were we wrong!  Before I could get the pegs out of the ground and roll up the awning, the wind  was blowing 30-40 mph, with gusts up to 60 mph, we heard later. They didn’t have to convince us.  I was holding on to the awning for dear life and E was holding onto me and then the support pole.  I thought we were going to lose it.  The wind just wouldn’t slow down long enough to get the awning rolled up.  We didn’t know our neighbor across the street from us was having the same trouble with his 40 ft motorhome.  We were just hanging on for dear life.  After about 10-15 minutes or maybe an hour, two guys we met from Georgia in a nearby campsite came running over to help.  Two 6’2”ish, 250 pounders helped us hold it down long enough to get the pegs out and roll up the awning up with poles hanging out.  The 77 year old they had just helped with his awning ran over with his ladder and we got the poles secured and the awning fully retracted.  A disaster averted because of the willingness of fellow campers to leap to your assistance when needed.  Did I mention they were from the “South”, where people generally help their neighbors in times of need?  No questions asked.  They laughed and said they had to hurry over before I got blown into South Dakota, no more than I weighed.  We had been in the outer boundaries of a storm cell north of us.  We don’t know what kind of damage was done there, but I bet it was  a lot from looking at the radar on one man’s phone of the storm track.

We were able to get everything in order and have a late dinner.

Aug 18

Routine day. Up early, 9 holes of golf, back to campground for lunch.  We changed our location because the people who helped us left and they were in a relatively shady spot.  As we were getting ready to change sites our A/C went out.  I figured it tripped an external or internal circuit breaker.  No such luck.  We moved and tried to find the source of the problem with some trouble-shooting with my electrician friend in Tulsa.  No dice, no electricity at all and I apparently left my volt meter in Tulsa or I just couldn’t find it. I kept flipping breakers and switches until the electricity came on again.  Back to normal, right? Wrong.  While we were visiting our neighbors with the awning problem through the cocktail hour, the A/C tripped something and again no electricity.  He had a volt meter, but we couldn’t find the source of the problem.  I did everything I had done before but to no avail.  We figured on no electricity until we get back to Tulsa.  We would run the generator to keep batteries charged and go home.  As I was taking the panel off the inverter to check the wiring, just to do something, the lights came on.  When I put screws back in to secure the top half of the panel box, no electricity. I unscrewed the two screws, lights.  We’ll see how this works after we turn the A/C on Saturday afternoon, late. We have shade until about 1430 hours. 

Aug 19

We got up early, had breakfast, and took a nice two and a half mile walk around the post. We scoped out the jeep rides that takes you up to the high ridges of the Pine Ridge area. We didn't commit to anything because we didn't know when Concetta and Matt would be there. They got a late start and traffic was building coming out of Denver to Nebraska for the eclipse on Monday. The campground was starting to fill up. Concetta and Matt arrived about 2:30 and we set up their tent. We had a relaxing afternoon and I cooked hamburger steaks on the grill along with corn on the cob and a baked potato. We had a good visit Saturday evening.

 Aug 20

The weather was very nice and we got a good walk in Sunday morning before breakfast with Concetta and Matt. I signed us up for a jeep drive in the backcountry where we saw some spectacular scenery after we got off the road. We had to stop for a small herd of buffalo rambling across the road. One lady in front of us had gotten out of her car to take pictures and the buffalo started running toward her. She was able to get back in the car and as we went by her, the jeep driver who is a park employee reiterated to her to stay in her vehicle when buffalo are around. It was a nice drive and we enjoyed seeing the area from up high. It's a very beautiful place, calm and peaceful. It was not so calm and peaceful during the Sioux uprising in the late 1800s. I can't remember if I said it already that Crazy Horse was killed right there on Fort Robinson, bayoneted by a soldier when he tried to escape. There is a memorial to him and many Native Americans come there to pray. We had a relaxing afternoon visiting with our friends across the way and planning the next day. We decided to get up at 5:30 and leave by 7 to get to Hemingford, Nebraska, for the eclipse.

 Aug 21

 We got on the road by 6:30 and got to Hemingford about 7:15. We expected a lot of traffic and movement, but there was none. We had done a recon on the day before to find where we were going to park at the local city park. When we got there, we were the only two cars in the parking lot. We have the generator so we were able to have coffee and vittles for breakfast. About 9:00 AM cars started showing up. The people who pulled up beside us first actually live in Denver about a mile and a half from Matt and Concetta. What a coincidence. The parking lot never filled up, but there was a festive atmosphere with people from as far away as California, New York, Minnesota and Colorado. The eclipse started uneventfully, but the excitement mounted as we neared totality. We went into our van and noticed that there was a reflection of the eclipse coming through the skylight and projected onto the seat. That was interesting and we got pictures of it with the eclipse almost total and pictures later as the eclipse was ending. I can say that it never got totally dark as we had thought, but it was eerily silent and there was a yellowish hue around the park and cornfield next to the park. You can see a true 360 degree sunset during a total eclipse. We were so excited we forgot to take a selfie of us with the eclipse in the background. We do have pictures of the eclipse and we videotaped it. Concetta has edited the video and I will give anyone who wants to know the web address on YouTube. After the eclipse, we went down to the local American Legion and ordered T-shirts for a momento.  I'm sure the money is going for a good cause. We enjoyed visiting with the people at the club. After that, we parted ways. Concetta and Matt went southwest to Denver and we went southeast toward the Nebraska/Kansas border. We wanted to stop at Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska, where totality was one of the longest durations. We drove past it, but parking was expensive and there was a zoo of people going in and out of that attraction. We just kept on driving, hoping to stop about 4 maybe 5:00 PM. It turns out there aren't many RV parks or campgrounds on that road through the Sand Hills of Nebraska.  One state park was completely booked by a group of friends and family from Texas. We stopped at a municipal campground in a town I can't remember, but the only empty spot was by what I think was a sewer overflow. We drove around to see if there was another campsite open, but they were all reserved and by the time we got back to that one, it was taken. On the road again.  There was not another campground for 3 hours until we found a spot at a local marina about 20 minutes out of the way. We parked, had dinner and got up early the next morning and headed for home.

Aug 22

We had an uneventful drive at that point and made it home by 5:30.  As I write this, we have been home 6 nights and we're still playing catch-up with paperwork, cleanup and repairs to the RV, mowing the grass and getting the winter crop of tomatoes established. I will have pictures later, so as Donovan says just wait for it, just wait for it. It’s coming.

By the way, the electricity never stopped again, but I still need to check it out.