South Dakota Surprise

Well, what a fabulous day it turned out to be today. It started out with a glorious day in North Dakota where we packed up and got ready to drive south to our destination in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Only a short 2.5 hour drive. Before we left the campground, we visited with Avalyn and Wes, and enjoyed coffee and caramel buns as we said our goodbyes for another 12 months. 

Avalyn and Wes's campsite

Before we knew it, we were driving south towards the South Dakota border. Last night as I was going to sleep, I detected a whiff of skunk - hard to get that smell wrong. But it was only mild, and I forgot all about it until I woke this morning, and I picked up a slight scent of it again. I mentioned it to Murray, but he hadn't noticed it. Sure enough, as we drove out of the campground, there on Highway 1804 was a freshly killed skunk. The only skunk we have ever seen in this state during the 7 years we have been coming here. Our campground was only 12 miles north of the South Dakota border, so in only a few minutes, we were over the border. 

We called into the post office in the first town we came to over the border - Pollock, and I posted a birthday parcel off to my daughter who lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, and a card off to a girlfriend who is on duty in Djibouti. Back on board we drove along admiring the summer fields of corn, wheat and sunflowers, and eventually started thinking about lunch plans. We thought we might just pull over into a shady spot and rustle up something in the RV, and then realised that we would be at our campground by 1.30 pm. so we each had a muesli bar and decided to wait until we got to our campground. We had a fillet mignon steak out for dinner, so we had our day all planned - or so we thought. 

Murray had noticed some water leaking out of a house battery in the back of the RV, so he wondered if he shouldn't call into a battery place when we got to Aberdeen, and ask someone whether the leak was an issue. So I pulled out my trusty iPhone and did a google search on battery suppliers in the area. While I was on the iPhone, I saw a FB message flash on my screen from my friend Andrea. She mentioned that her mother in law Bobbie (her husband Randy's mum) was in the area visiting Andrea and Randy's daughter Jess, and was staying at the Mina Lake campground which is not far from where we were headed to in Aberdeen.  Just at that moment I looked up and saw the word 'Mina' on a town sign, and realised we must have been close to where Bobbie was camped. We had met Bobbie on our second US RV trip in 2008, and had parked our RV at the front door of their Wisconsin farm house. We knew Bobbie had an A frame camper when we last visited, so when we saw the sign for the Mina Lake campground, Murray did a quick left turn off the highway and we followed the signs 3 miles into the campground. We thought we would just take a chance on locating Randy's mum and saying hello. 

Driving through the campground - looking... looking...

On the first drive through the park, there was no sign of the distinctive A frame camper. We discussed how she could have sold the A frame and bought another camper, so we did a second drive through the campground. We noticed a pop top van and saw a woman on her own setting up, and wondered if that could be her. But as we got closer we saw 2 push bikes and a small tent, and figured, no, Bobbie was on her own, and had no young kids to sleep in a tent. So we drove out, all the while I was frantically trying to FB Andrea as we had no cell phone reception. FB was silent, but then we had only gone a short way up the road when I saw another comment from Andrea, saying her MIL had sold the A frame and bought a Eurovan. We had no idea what that was, but it was enough to make us go back and see if the pop-top van we saw with the two bikes was hers. 

We pulled up and from the window of the RV Murray asked if she was Randy Richert's mum, and just at that point we recognised her, and she recognised us. Not bad after 6 years, and only meeting each other that one time. She was as surprised as we were with the unexpected visit. We had a tour through her camper - boy, such a great setup - so compact and so right for her. She gets 28 miles to the gallon, and doesn't need to tow anything. She had her kayak in the water behind her, and a small tent where she puts supplies that neatly stack back into the kayak when she moves on.

Bobbie's Eurovan on Mina Lake

After we chatted for awhile she mentioned that her and her grand-daughter Jess were heading into Aberdeen for dinner, and if we would like to join them, they could pick us up from our campground. It had been a few years since we had seen Jess, and we didn't want to miss the opportunity to see her again, and to spend a bit more time with Bobbie. So we accepted her kind offer, and had a lovely evening with them. After dinner, we dropped into Walmart for some supplies for Jess, and then called into an Icecream shop for dessert. Here are the four of us enjoying our sweet treats! 

Jess, Bobbie, Trish and Murray

It was a simply glorious evening and it would have been great to spend more time together, but Jess still had an hour's drive ahead of her, and with the wildlife on the road at dusk and after dark, she was keen to get back to her place before dark. They dropped us off at the campground, and we acknowledged that it was one of those special little interludes in life - unexpected and unforgettable! All thanks to Andrea for the tip off!