Iron Mountain Road Wednesday June 21, 2017

There was no big hurry to leave this morning with only 68 miles to drive. We arrived at Ellsworth Air Force Base (AFB) (at Box Elder, SD), the east side of Rapid City, SD about noon. We checked in and got one night of free camping and one night at a cost of $23.00. This is thanks to the Air Force Camping Club which we joined in 2015 when staying at Nellis AFB in Las Vegas. You get coupons and if you stay two or more nights - one of those nights is free. You know the old saying: "A dollar saved is a dollar earned." Anyway, even at $23 per night that is an excellent price in this tourist area. This Famcamp also has a free laundry - 4 washers and 6 dryers. You are only supposed to use two washers at a time - in order to be fair to other campers. There was only one available - so we used it and washed two loads. When we set up, the water hose leaked- Steve didn't like that and he did not have enough fixtures to repair it. The hose will need replaced. It was hot while we were doing laundry - so we did two loads and then stopped. We then set out to drive the Iron Mountain Road. On our drive there were lots of deer and the scenery was beautiful. We stopped a Forest Service picnic area and walked the dogs. We got home about 10:00 or 10:30 PM.

A few of the above pictures have deer in them. The picture of Spokane CG is where we parked for Steve to fix our brakes when we were in our first RV and drove this road in 2003. That trip was a doozy! It is a wonder we survived, we had trouble with the brakes, starter, gas leak near the starter and several other troubles. That did not stop us and of course we were younger then. That campground picture also gives details about the Iron Mountain Road. Anyway when we pulled into this place in 2003, the brakes were smoking hot and Steve almost got burned trying to check them. The people in the office were nice and said we could sit there until things cooled off and they also gave us directions on how to get to the campground that we had called. You see we got on a wrong road - not sure how that happened - but it did, and we ended up here. Glad we were able to stop awhile and then get to our camp site later. Memories.... Since we still had two loads of laundry and the weather was much cooler - we decided to wash them. We were up late finishing this task - about 12:30 or 1:00 AM. Some of the overalls were still not dry - so we brought them to the RV and will finish them tomorrow.