The Motor Home is Fixed, But we're Tired!

We were up early this morning, as the diesel mechanic was supposed to be ready to work on the motor home at 7:30 a.m. Since they charge $150 per hour to work on motor homes, we certainly didn't want to waste any minutes waiting for us to get out of his way! That would cost $2.50 every minute! They assured us that we didn't need to wait around the repair shop, so we headed towards the Missouri River to get some exercise.

Our destination is LaFramboise Island, which isn't actually an island. It's actually a peninsula that is attached to the Pierre side of the Missouri River by a causeway. We parked the car and took off on a little walk around "the island."

Our hike took us from the forest all the way to the grasslands on this little island.

We're still seeing wildflowers, framed up by the tall grass and the blue skies.

We also found lots of these silver-leafed trees in this area. Budding with tiny yellow blooms, they were also a fragrant part of our day. It's hard to describe the fragrance--not floral, not piney, not good, not bad. It's a unique fragrance that we are smelling over and over in this area.

When we started this hike, we had no idea how big this island was. So we wore our good tennis shoes instead of hiking boots, and we took no water or suncreen with us. But we're the type of hikers that have to see what's at the end of the trail, so we just kept going . . . and going . . . until we got to this narrow tip of the island with the Missouri River on both sides.

We saw lots of wildlife on this walk, but it was all slimy and scaly. We guess that comes from being surrounded by water. We saw a snake, and countless turtles and frogs. But the only picture-worthy wildlife showed up as we went around the bend. We saw something big in the middle of our trail.

For once we didn't have to hurry to catch a picture of this wildlife. This guy didn't move as we got him framed up for a photo, except to retract his head deeper into his shell.

After getting an unplanned six miles of hiking exercise, we circled back to the repair shop to check on the motor home. We are so excited to report that it was already fixed! They replaced the water pump that caused all our problems, and put on a new serpentine belt. They left it idling for an hour just to make sure everything was running properly. So we waited in the customer service area for a while. That's where we saw the other wildlife picture of the day. This tarantula-sized spider came out of the corner right towards Denisa. When we looked closer, we realized that she was carrying hundreds of baby spiders on her back.

They don't have bug spray at a truck repair place, but they do have brake spray that works equally well. The cargo of babies left the mother's back, only to be drowned in the spray as well. There were hundreds of babies!

After we moved the motor home back to its electrical site beside the building, we took off for a little more exercise. We had seen a walking/biking trail next to the Missouri River and we wanted to check it out. This was our view from a park bench as we first ate our lunch.

Then we unloaded the bikes and took off on another path of unknown length. Denisa likes ocean and river bike trails because they are almost always level.

We had great views of the water and the bridges. We are on the Pierre side of the Missouri River, while our motor home is parked on the other side of the river in the town of Fort Pierre. These sister cities are just separated by a river, but they are in two different time zones. In South Dakota, the Missouri River is the dividing point between Central and Mountain time zones.

When we started this bike ride, we didn't think we were riding very far. But it was such a beautiful day and the trail was so nice that we just kept pedaling, even when it took us through forested areas next to the river.

After five miles we were well outside the city, enjoying the views of the rolling green hills of South Dakota on the other side of the river. But it really was time to head back home as our legs were tired!

We also wanted to get back to Steamboat Park in Pierre for the opening festivities of Oahe Days. That would include the pie eating contest going on at the amphitheater. Let's just say that the guys on the left were attacking their pie with much more passion than the "Cream Puffs" team at the table on the right.

Then we enjoyed the patriotic tunes from the Capitol City Band before we took our tired bodies back to the motor home. We walked over ten miles and biked another ten miles today, and we were ready for bed!

We're a little sad to miss all the activities of the Oahe Festival Days this weekend, but we are super glad that our motor home is fixed and ready to head down the road. We are in a time crunch to get to our reservations in Canada this summer. As we were being towed into Pierre, we wondered what this episode would do to our summer travels. We are blessed to be back on the road without delay!