{"id":11946,"date":"2020-05-30T14:36:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T18:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/?p=11946"},"modified":"2023-06-19T19:47:37","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T23:47:37","slug":"i-cant-believe-we-made-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/11946","title":{"rendered":"I Can’t Believe We Made It"},"content":{"rendered":"

The road to the Toadstool campground was 15 miles down a dusty, white-gravel road. The RV, motorcycle, and Jeep were completely covered in white dust by the time we got to the campground. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yuck. Luckily, it rained last night and seems to have, more or less, rinsed off the RV and Jeep. We are counting on the road not being so dusty.<\/span><\/p>\n

John had scouted a route out of the area that will cut fifty miles or more off our journey and it is only 21 miles down a gravel road. Eh, what\u2019s six more miles of dust. An old local warned John, the way we are planning to isn\u2019t always passable. Not to worry John says, I checked it out yesterday and it looks good. <\/span><\/p>\n

And it started out good too. The road was barely dusty following the rain. What is that up ahead? Not a road grader? Oh, yes, yes it is and he is making a tall pile of dirt in the center of this one-lane road. At first it was okay, we could stay off to the left and miss the big dirt pile. <\/span><\/p>\n

But of course, the road is getting narrower and narrower. We have no way to go around the big dirt pile, we have to go over it. <\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m in a total panic telling John he is not driving a Jeep, there is no going off-road with the RV. We can\u2019t make this. We can\u2019t go through the grass. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"20200528_104620\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Relax he tells me. We just have to get around the grader and we\u2019ll be fine. I got this. <\/span><\/p>\n

I got this? I got this!? What do you mean \u201cI got this?\u201d I feel like I\u2019m in one of those \u201cWatch this! Hold my beer!\u201d situations. This is our house not a dump truck!<\/span><\/p>\n

I tighten my seat belt, hold my breath and hold on tight. We hit this dirt pile like nobody\u2019s business. I can hear the undercarriage of the coach scraping the dirt. I\u2019m thinking what if we get high-balanced on this? I don\u2019t think Roadside Assistance will come out here and pull us out. AAAAHHHH!<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s over. I look at John, John looks at me and with a wonderful grin on his face he says, \u201cSee?\u201d <\/span>I\u2019ll \u201csee<\/em>\u201d him, as soon as I can breath again. <\/span><\/p>\n

After that the road is basically okay. A bit bumpy in spots but heck, we have driven on paved highways worse than this.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first town we come into as we cross the South Dakota boarder is Ardmore. It has a population of about 16, and approximately 20 abandoned properties like this one. Some useless trivia, during the Great Depression no one in the town went on welfare and President Calvin Coolidge visited the town in 1927.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"20200528_104836\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We finally get off the dirt road and onto pavement. We are interested in doing some rockhounding in Fairburn and find a campground a few miles away in Hermosa. Fairburn is such a small town, their main street through town is a dirt road.<\/p>\n

\"20200528_162641\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The statues of President Theodore Roosevelt, President Ronald Reagan, and President George W. Bush were moved here after the three President\u2019s Parks failed in 2010. There are several more RV parks that have a bust or two. The rest are on Howard Hankins farm or behind closed gates. Click here to read more about it.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"20200529_164917\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Time to hunt for rocks. We head for Fairburn and the agate beds. Oh poo, the gate is shut and locked. Something about not driving the road when it is wet. We don\u2019t want to walk to the beds, it\u2019s like a two mile hike to get to the edge of the beds. Fine, we\u2019ll hike. I mean we\u2019re here. We head down the road and we come to a stream crossing. Oooohhhh, that\u2019s why the gate is closed. The Jeep could have easily made this. Oh well, we take off our socks and shoes and wade across.<\/p>\n

\"20200529_140850\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We spend hours hiking, bending over to pick up a rock that we just throw back on the ground. I ran out of suntan lotion, lost my jacket somewhere on our hike in. I\u2019m a crispy critter and looking forward to the cool stream crossing on our way back.<\/p>\n

\"20200529_133331\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t find any Fairburn rocks<\/a>, but we found a few bobbles of prairie agate. We have a place we like to go farther east where we find lots of really nice agate and have a better chance of finding a Fairburn.<\/p>\n

\"20200529_170522\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The road to the Toadstool campground was 15 miles down a dusty, white-gravel road. The RV, motorcycle, and Jeep were completely covered in white dust by the time we got to the campground. Yuck. Luckily, it rained last night and seems to have, more or less, rinsed off the RV and Jeep. We are counting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-container-style":"default","site-container-layout":"default","site-sidebar-layout":"default","disable-article-header":"default","disable-site-header":"default","disable-site-footer":"default","disable-content-area-spacing":"default","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[1102,1103,111,124,1104,1100],"class_list":["post-11946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-fairburn","tag-hermosa","tag-rockhounding","tag-south-dakota","tag-southern-hills","tag-toadstool"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/20200528_104620.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3hvz5-36G","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11843,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/11843","url_meta":{"origin":11946,"position":0},"title":"Toadstool Geologic Park","author":"Wendy","date":"May 26, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Toadstool. We just have to know, and they have a campground right there. Located in Harrison, Nebraska, in the Oglala National Grasslands down a 10-mile dusty dirt road. OMG! The coach, motorcycle and Jeep are white with dust. The Toadstool campground is very small, only six campsites and only one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/20200526_151743.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/20200526_151743.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/20200526_151743.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/20200526_151743.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10299,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/10299","url_meta":{"origin":11946,"position":1},"title":"Deming, New Mexico – Again","author":"Wendy","date":"December 13, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"It seems like every time we pass through New Mexico we end up in Deming. It is probably one of the least attractive places we have come across in our travels. It\u2019s brown, it\u2019s flat, it\u2019s VERY dusty, there is not a lot of commerce in the area, and as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/1210191650_thumb.jpg?fit=770%2C508&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/1210191650_thumb.jpg?fit=770%2C508&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/1210191650_thumb.jpg?fit=770%2C508&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/1210191650_thumb.jpg?fit=770%2C508&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9536,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/9536","url_meta":{"origin":11946,"position":2},"title":"Touring Arizona","author":"Wendy","date":"February 6, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"We have some time until John has to be in Atlanta, Georgia so we are going to do some sightseeing and touristing as we make our way across the country. Our first order of business is to wash the rig because after two months in storage and a month in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/general"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/0205191208_HDR_thumb.jpg?fit=834%2C626&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/0205191208_HDR_thumb.jpg?fit=834%2C626&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/0205191208_HDR_thumb.jpg?fit=834%2C626&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/0205191208_HDR_thumb.jpg?fit=834%2C626&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6730,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/6730","url_meta":{"origin":11946,"position":3},"title":"Rockhounding","author":"Wendy","date":"January 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"After a week of perusing the rock show, RV show, and swap meet everyone is ready for some quiet activity. A rockhounding adventure sounds good to everyone. Those of you who know John understand the the kind of adventures he gets us into. Sue and Phil, not so much. We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Boondocking"","block_context":{"text":"Boondocking","link":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/category\/boondocking"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG_7027_thumb.jpg?fit=580%2C388&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG_7027_thumb.jpg?fit=580%2C388&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/IMG_7027_thumb.jpg?fit=580%2C388&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7135,"url":"https:\/\/www.2dogsbarkin.com\/blog\/archives\/7135","url_meta":{"origin":11946,"position":4},"title":"The LONG Way to Moab","author":"Wendy","date":"March 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We are not EXTREME off-roaders, not that we wouldn\u2019t like to be. Our off-road vehicle is not our toy, it is our everyday vehicle.\u00a0 Our Jeep is not \u201ctricked-out\u201d, and we have smaller, all-terrain tires that are fine for road driving and light off road. 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