We were scheduled to leave the Ft. Thompson area and arrive in the Black Hills today. Unfortunately, the weather forecast had wind advisories for 30-40mph winds with gusts of +50mph. Very concerning to travel pulling a trailer in such winds. After reviewing the hourly forecast, we decide to hit the road at 5:30am and try and stay ahead of the strongest winds. The plan worked well, but with the time change to mountain time zone, we had about 4 hours to kill before we could check into our campsite at Big Pine Campground in Custer SD. After we arrived in Rapid City we stopped for breakfast at a truck stop, hit one of my favorite stores (Cabela's), did our grocery shopping at Walmart, and Patricia even made a stop at a quilt store in Custer. We still had an hour to kill before we could check in. Given how the winds were by time we arrived in Rapid City, we definitely made the right call.
While our camper will be in Big Pine Campground for 6 nights, we will be leaving our camper here over the weekend while we make a quick trip down to Pueblo CO to visit our son. When we get back, we will be moving to a dispersed campsite.