09-16-21 Thursday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 16 Papa Moon Winery & Cider House Scottsbluff, NE

- September 16, 2021

09-16-21 Thursday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 16

Papa Moon Winery & Cider House

Scottsbluff, NE 69361

Harvest Host

Return: Yes

Well.....Today started out good, turned not so good, then ended pretty good. We left Badlands at 11:00 AM and headed toward Rapid City then south. Our next stop was to be Crawford, NE...150 miles for about a 3 hour drive. The scenery was not much to look at so I didn't take any photos worth sharing.

For whatever reason our GPS sent us to Crawford, NE but not to Fort Robinson State Park. It was very weird where we ended up, in the middle of a residential area. We found the local visitor center and called the Park. The women on the other end told us to turn right on Highway 20 so we did. There was also a huge fire in the hills west of us. She told us to drive about 3 miles and the park is on the right. Well, we did that but at 3 miles the only thing we saw was a group of local police, sheriff, and firefighters. This was the place they were all gathering to help with the fire. The told us we went the wrong way and needed to go back about 6 miles and the Park was on the left. There was no where for us to turn this beast around so the sheriff told us we would have to continue the direction we were going but it would be quite a ways before we were able to turn around. He was right. We ended up travelling about 35 miles before we came to a 4 way stop where there was a lot we could turn around. We stopped here and tried calling the park for the third time. They kept putting us on hold.

Our plan was to stay in Crawford for one night then drive to Scottsbluff on Friday. Well, by the time we were able to find a place to turn around we were 50 miles from Papa Moon Winery & Cider House, our next stop on Friday. We decided it was too crazy to return to Crawford so Barry called the winery to see if by chance they could take us tonight and we could stay 2 nights. They said no problem and would wait for us.

We tried calling Fort Robinson again and this time I got through. I explained about the directions and not being able to turn around and that we needed to cancel because we were too far from the park. I don't think she believed me but I explained again what happened. I asked if we could get a refund, she put me on hold, then came back to inform me she would have to talk to her supervisor tomorrow, right now he's out fighting the fire. She would get back to me tomorrow. I thanked her again for her help.

The rest of the drive to Scottsbluff was crazy windy and scary. A few of the wind gusts almost blew us off the road. The winds were worse than driving I5 on a very windy day. Barry admitted later he was pretty scared and does not want to go through that again. The next 50 miles was nothing but rolling hills and wind gusts. Neither one of us said much during this drive. We finally made it to the road the winery is on but it was a very rough gravel road and Barry could only drive about 3-5 miles per hour. It was horrible. We turned into the winery driveway and we barely fit down the driveway. The owner met us at the end and then the battery light on the dash went on. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING!!!

We had to get out of the RV so she could show us the area to drive too. There's 3 other RVs here. She put us out back by the pond which is wonderful except the mosquitos. She said once we get settled to meet her in the winery. She knew we would need a few glasses to relax after the drive we just had. We drove around back to the other side of the pond and tried to find the flattest area possible. Barry leveled us as best he could. He was afraid to turn the engine off for fear it would not start again. He turned it off and then turned the key to see if it starts up again and it did. So we have to deal with this tomorrow.

We locked the coach and walked over to the tasting room sine the owner was waiting for us. She is a sweetheart and we enjoyed our tastings. I'm surprised by the ciders and actually preferred them over the wines. The wines are very different than our wines in California. We ended up buying 2 bottles of wine and 2, 4 packs of the ciders we liked. We also purchased a charcuterie board so we wouldn't have to cook. Went back to the RV and fixed up the board, opened us each a cider and had dinner.

We talked about tomorrow and going into town or looking for a local mobile unit to see if they can come out to see if it's the alternator. Barry thinks that is what it is. The winds started raging again and our RV is rocking back and forth. We decided it's time to go to bed so we don't have to think about anything until tomorrow.