For a review of the campground we stayed at in Custer South Dakota for 13 days click here.
http://www.jaycoowners.com/forums/f1...-go-30215.html
Started out on the 20th of August. Left the house at 4:30am and arrived at our first stop of the day in Onawa, Iowa at an RV Park off of I-29. The RV Park was called ON-UR-WAY RV park. A great place to stop during your travels. Had a well stocked camp store. The owners were very welcoming and the campground is well maintained. $32.00 for full hookups. It was a long day.....around 13 hrs with stops. i'll never do that again.
The 21st, left Onawa for a 4hr drive to Presho South Dakota. We stayed at New Frontier RV Park. Again, the park is off of I-90 and was in a field just east of the town. Very little shade, and when we arrived the campground was empty. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It was a self check in procedure as the owner was out of town and the manager had not yet arrived. This campground is great for a one night stop. Full hookups were $36.00 for the night. By 9:00pm there were about 8 RV's in the park.
Saturday the 22nd, I had an alert on my I-Phone there was a High Wind Advisory to the west of us. We packed up early in an attempt to beat the wind. Well, 20 miles down the road the wind machine kicked in. 45-50MPH with gusts to 65MPH. The advisory was changed to a warning. It took all I had to keep things straight on the road as the wind was coming out of the north/northwest. We witnessed several TT parts lying on the side of the road, mostly A/C covers and Maxx Air vents. We also saw a MH awning ripped off the sidewall with the tube still attached slamming on top of the roof in the wind. Was hoping and praying it would not rip completely off until I passed by. We made it to Murdo South Dakota where we stayed for about 5 hours for the winds to slow down. I needed gas anyway, I burned over a 1/4 tank fighting the winds for 40 miles.
Finally left Murdo mid afternoon, the winds were still strong with gusts to 35-40. Managable but kept me on my toes. We finally arrived in Custer at 8pm.
On the return trip home, we drove from Custer straight to Onawa Iowa again. From there we stopped at Interstate RV Park in Davenport Iowa. Interstate is placed right in the middle of a business park. Weird place for camping but it served the purpose. Still cheaper than a motel. We arrived home yesterday.
All the roads, I-80, I-29, I-90 are in great shape. we encountered very little construction. If we did come across any, we kept moving along at a reduced speed. I-80/I-94 in Indiana and Michigan were well....embarassing. After traveling these other roads, I was spoiled.
Our TV did the job well. However, as expected gas mileage was terrible. We averaged around 7.8MPG. Strong headwinds didn't help matters. We did manage to get 8.6mpg on the way back with calm winds.
The TT did well. No issues at all. For the Towmax tires, The tread still looks like new. No abnormal tread wear, no bulges etc. I weighed in at the scale on the way out of town and was 670lbs under GVWR. I maintained 50psi in the tires and checked them at every stop. I set my cruise control for 63mph.
Reading the threads here had me really nervous about these tires. After this trip, not so much. With ST tires speed rated at 65mph, I wonder if alot of the problems start with the transport companies. I witnessed a few of them zipping down the highway doing at least 80mph passing us. One of them towing a Jayco 26BHS!
Great trip overall except for the experience in Custer (link above). Hope I didn't Jabber too much, just wanted to report the trip.