We awoke yesterday morning to strange sounds and sights - rainfall! It was great to hear the rain on the roof and to see the lawns and gardens just soaking up the moisture - everything here is bone dry as we haven't had rain for weeks and weeks.I did find someone who wasn't happy with the rain though - Rylie, our little puppy. I opened the back door to let her out yesterday morning, she took about 3 steps, put on the brakes, turned and scooted back inside. This rain is a first for Rylie and she didn't like it one bit. Later in the morning, I took Molly and Rylie for a walk and she seemed to be getting used to the idea that the rain wasn't going to hurt her, so that's good.
It was much cooler around here yesterday, and with the heat wave across the southern states showing no signs of letting up, it got me thinking about our first extended RV trip, and the hottest day we've ever experienced while on the road. The place was Mitchell, SD, the time was July 24-25, 2007 and the temperature was 107F with a hot, hot, hot prairie wind!
Luckily, we had a nice, big shady tree by us at the Mitchell, SD KOA
In fact, the weather had been extremely hot since leaving the west coast on July 10th. We encountered record breaking temperatures in B.C., Alberta and right across the prairies. So, when we left Winnipeg heading down to Minneapolis and then on towards Mt. Rushmore, we thought we had hit the worst of it - but, we were wrong. Mitchell took the cake - stepping out of our air-conditioned truck to register at the KOA was like walking into a blast furnace.
We were heading to this pool every hour to try and cool off a bit
We were booked into the KOA in Mitchell for 2 days just to rest a bit, because we knew that once we got to Mt. Rushmore, we would be very busy visiting all the great attractions in the area. The saving grace of our stay in the Mitchell KOA was definitely the swimming pool. For 2 days, Paulette and I took turns, every hour, going for a quick swim in the pool just to cool off. We also made sure to use the outside shower to cool off the pups too as they were really feeling the effects of the heat.
We couldn't leave Mitchell without seeing the famous Corn Palace
The evenings were about the only times we ventured into Mitchell to look around as by about 8:00pm it was at least bearable with the sun not directly overhead. We found Mitchell to be a nice little town to walk around and really enjoyed visiting there. The Corn Palace was a must see even if we didn't go inside.
Who's the real "dummy" on this bench? Molly seems to know.
All I can say is thank goodness for A/C in our 5'er. The only way we were able to sleep at night was by keeping the temps down to a fairly reasonable high 70's - as this was the first time we had ever used our A/C for any length of time I was still worried about burning it out! The rest of our trip home was just fine as the temperatures moderated to more normal levels.
As for here, the rain stopped at 9:00am and didn't rain again all day. The forecast now is for more sun and hotter temperatures over the next few days.
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