Baby, Bad Lands, and Big, Bad Storm

This was our third trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Or first was just before we took off on Subject to Change for our Great Loop adventure. We drove up Labor Day weekend 2016 for my nephew, Jessie’s, wedding to Mackenzie. Last year in the RV, we took a route through Kansas and Nebraska to visit Jessie and the pregnant Mackenzie, in Rapid City before heading east to Cheboygan and the boat. So of course seeing them and now 7 month old baby Tristen was a must do. I tell you this so you understand why sight seeing in the majestic Black Hills was not on our agenda. Everything I need to see was found at The Marina at Sheridan Lake, Jessie and Mackenzie’s recent addition to their Black Hills Outdoors, MasterCraft and Pontoon boat dealership in Rapid.

Ok, this is the part you may be waiting for. Here we combine the stark time worn beauty of the Badlands with the here and now mighty power of Mother Nature, AKA -The Mother of all Storms per me. Once again, Campendium pointed the way to an amazing boondocking area, Nomad View Dispersed Camping, just south of Wall. We found a pretty level spot about 10 feet from the canyon edge, allowing us to enjoy cocktails while looking down at the folds of the canyon below.

Everything was great, hunky dory. Since we’d been to the Badlands in 2016, we didn’t feel the need to be too touristy. We took a drive and again enjoyed the scenery and as good boater/RVers, we stayed weather aware.

I now know I do not like South Dakota Thunderstorms that come in the middle of the night while I’m parked on the rim of a canyon in a RV.  We knew there was a slight risk of severe storms overnight, but in looking at the future radar track, they were supposed to come through Rapid City to our west and then skirt our location and head north east.  Even so, we decided to put away our cocktail chairs and roll up the outside rug in case of rain. Around 11:30 I woke up to  near constant lightning flashes to our west.  I woke Tim and we watched as the storm drew nearer and as the wind and rain began we dashed about closing windows and vents.  Then suddenly, everything quieted for a few moments as if the storm were holding its breath before blasting our rig.  Please understand, I like storms.  I have fond memorizes of being a kid and the whole family would head out to our front porch in Central FLORIDA TO WATCh summer storm clouds gather and heat lightning flicker in the clouds.  I love a good storm.  But this was not going to be a good storm; this was going to be a mean monster storm and I was beginning to not like it at all.  The rig began to bounce and shimmy with the winds, rain pummeled us and I wondered if there was hail mixed in.  I thought about our naked solar panels on the roof and how they were handling the torrent.  Would they survive the hail? The noise level inside the rig was scary- wind and rain and then for a few seconds a howling sound.  Now Ive never been in a tornado before, but Ive heard that a tornado sounds like a freight train coming.  Was that howl a freight train?  Holy crap.  Then I thought about the rim of the canyon that was just outside my bedroom window and how this giant, mean, bad storm could easily grab my rig and Tim and Maggie and I in it and toss us off the top of the canyon and into the steep rock below. Prayers began forming in my mind. After crouching low beside our bunks, I decided to move forward and sit in front seat. Should I put on my seatbelt just in case? Would it help me survive the tumble over the edge? Tim joined me up front as we watched a family parked ahead of us jump out of their travel trailer and seek refuge in their truck. No way would I want to be in a travel trailer in this stuff.   In time, I told myself to chill out, stop this nonsense, get ahold of yourself, girl.  Geez. At some point I grabbed my phone and started taking pictures and videos.   I I have no idea how long the storm lasted, but at some point we relaxed enough that Tim and I managed to go back to sleep.  We had survived that storm only to have a round 2 storm that snuck in around 3:30.  The rig never went over the cliff, the solar panels survived unharmed, and we saw no evidence of a tornado. In the morning, the only evidence of the brutal attack was some puddles that were rapidly soaking into the dry ground. I still don’t think I like South Dakota thunderstorms.

Being the good yachtsman Tim is, he checked his SailFlow app to find out what the winds had been. We had a period of steady 20-30 mph winds and then the spike to 60. Today as I began to write this section, I went back to Campendium and found this review obviously written by the dad of the family we watched saving themselves from their travel trailer.

After all this excitement, you may be bored by my next post.we’re heading into the green, serene farmlands of Minnesota. Hopefully you’ll hang with me.