Day 9, September 30, about 2200 miles, mountain view camp, Sundance Wyoming.
Up at seven in foul weather, cold, heavily overcast, light drizzle. It took almost 4 hours break camp and we did not get on the road until 11 o'clock, long past when I had intended to leave.
I decided to stop by Mount Rushmore since it was on the way to our next target camp in Buffalo Wyoming. The rained worsened on the 90 mile drive to Rushmore, but I still decided to visit anyway it to take in whatever I could.
Just before we turned off the interstate at the Rushmore exit, I rubbed my left eye with my hand and I was struck immediately with the same pain I had the other night when I rubbed my right eye after the bear spray incident I described earlier. Somehow, i had gotten some pepper spray on my hand without knowing it. Fortunately, i did not rub my "good" eye and, despite the excruciating pain, I was able to maneuver the Defender onto the exit ramp and then a block to the nearest place where I could pull over and use a syringe with water to douse the eye, which I did. A passerby told me that my left eye was extremely red. Another passerby suggested that I use milk or kids tear free soap to clear it out . I asked him how he knew that and he said he works for the local prison. I asked him if he had ever been pepper sprayed himself and he said no, only with the stuff the police use. Needless to say, he was not given a On The Road patch. After 30 minutes or so, the pain was Completely gone, and I got on my way again to Rushmore. I am not completely sure how I got more pepper spray on my hands, but I think it was from the tent bag that I use which the bear spray was in when did activated. I immediately drove to the local Walmart One block away and got myself a new tent bag, just in case the residue was picked up from the tent bag.
We drove another 12 miles or so to Mount Rushmore, and when I saw that the parking lot was quite a walk away from the monument and that I would not be able to take Donner near the monument, I decided to move on, but still check off Mount Rushmore on my bucket list. As it turns out, just up the road there was a view point where on a clear day you can see the profile of the monuments of the four presidents. But the weather did not cooperate, and the view was as you saw in the picture I sent earlier.
At first I decided to continue with my original plan and head to Buffalo Wyoming to a camp there, but since that was over 150 miles away, and we wouldn't get there until after six at the earliest, in the dark, I decided to head to Sundance about 90 miles to the north and camp there. The ride through the Black Hills forest was one of the most scenic that I have encountered so far, but that scenery soon turned into a wall of fog, make that thick fog, that I had to maneuver with my lights on, or so I thought.
As we approached Sundance, I Googled "camps near Sundance," and a popped the Black Hills National forest and so I plugged that address into my GPS and we headed for it. But at 5 o'clock, just as we pulled into the address both Google and the GPS had given me, I discovered that it was the forest office, not a camp. I'm sure I will find another nearby camp, I said to myself. But as as I turned towards the Defender, I noticed that its lights were out. The headlights are not working again. I thought I had resolved that situation before I left, but I guess that fix didn't hold. Since I was running out of daylight,m I drove immediately to a nearby convenience store and asked for directions to another camp that Google had had given me, the Mountain View camp. But instead of relying on Google this time, I decided to call them to get directions to make sure they were open and a camp. Well, as it turns out, I could not find my cell phone. I searched frantically for the next 20 minutes and discovered it wedged between my seat and my console, after having fallen out of my pocket. I quickly called the camp and they said they were open and had tent sites, so, I drove there quickly to avoid having to drive in the dark with no headlights. Not a good thing.
It took me almost 2 hours to set up the camp tonight because I had to empty out of the Defender everything I might need for at least two days, and maybe more, and maybe significantly more if my history with these things is any guide. Needless to say, the tent is quite crowded.
Tomorrow I will drive to Defender to a local garage a mile and a half down the road with hopes that they are able to take me on an emergency basis and get me back on the road. I will stay in this camp until I get word that did the Defender is fixed or not fixable, even with the wealth of spare parts that I have.
The options from here are not very numerous. If the Defender is fixed and I have confidence to take it for the rest of the trip, I will Move on as soon as possible. If it is not fixable, then I will probably have it shipped back like I did two years ago from Salina Utah, and rent a vehicle to either continue the trip or drive home.
This is not the trip I bargained for, but I will deal with it like I did with problems that popped up on my trip to years ago. I must say, though, that this trip has been plagued with problems from the outset.
The good news is that we are safe and in a camp not too far from town. The bad news is that I have no means of charging my batteries now that I will not have the defender, although I do have a number of battery chargers that I will use until I have no more charging left.
By the way, the residue on my hand when I rubbed my eye earlier was probably from the tent bag that I use, which was where the bear spray activated. Even though I washed it several times, the odor of pepper spray in the tent led me to believe that there were still a lot of embedded pepper spray in that bag, which I probably got on my hand. Needless to say, I bought a new tent bag at a nearby Walmart, and donated my pepper sprayed tent bag to the trash bin at the Mount Rushmore profile view pull off.
If it is nit one thing, it's another.
Ed and Don are from cold Sundance Wyoming.
