Travel from Mitchell to Custer, South Dakota

We drove our coach 324 miles, about five hours of driving, from Mitchell to Custer, South Dakota.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:

Map

Here’s another variation of the map showing time zones (Mountain and Central) and elevations for the whole year, with a circle showing the highest elevation of this trip; a lot of climbing at the end of the trip, though not as much as ones coming up soon:

Elevations

An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:

Wind turbines and corn fields:

Wind turbines and corn fields

Dignity of Earth and Sky sculpture at a rest area:

Dignity of Earth and Sky

The aforementioned rest area:

Rest area

Crossing Missouri River:

Crossing Missouri River

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Sunflowers:

Sunflowers

There seems to be a Beetle crawling up that silo:

There seems to be a Beetle crawling up that silo

Paladin reaching out to touch my foot:

Paladin reaching out to touch my foot

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Entering Mountain Time Zone:

Entering Mountain Time Zone

Stagecoach art:

Stagecoach art

Rest area:

Rest area

Narrow roadworks:

Narrow roadworks

Passing Badlands:

Passing Badlands

More roadworks:

More roadworks

Exit:

Exit

Buffalo sculpture:

Buffalo sculpture

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Arriving at our campground:

Arriving at campground

Spending a month exploring New Zealand

A heads-up: we will be visiting my family and exploring New Zealand for 30 days from November 7th to December 7th.

Blog posts will continue while away, since the posts are a couple of months behind real-time. Though I may not cross-post to Facebook during this time, since that has to be done manually, so if you read the posts via Facebook, you’ll need to visit the Sinclair Trails website directly if you don’t want to miss my thrilling content.

We’ll continue the RV lifestyle in NZ: we are renting a campervan and driving around the country. Here’s our route, starting in Auckland, and finishing in Christchurch (the southern loop is in a clockwise direction):

New Zealand route

Not sure yet if I’ll have blog posts about our NZ adventure; no doubt I’ll take lots of photos, so I probably will. Stay tuned!

Mitchell KOA Journey

We stayed at Mitchell KOA Journey in Mitchell, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A convenient stop on our journey west. Our second stay here (see that post for more pictures). It was for sale last time, now under new management, with some welcome improvements.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-08-18
Check out: 2025-08-19
1 night

Weather:

Sunny
High temp 87°F, low 69°F
Negligible wind, gusts to 7 MPH

Noise:

Some freeway noise
Very occasional distant train horn noise
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#C-15, pull-through, gravel
Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t, since only one night
Somewhat level site; used air leveling, since only one night
Gravel driveway about 80 feet long by 10 feet wide
10 feet to neighbors on both sides
Picnic table
Fire pit
No trees
Clean site
Elevation 1,310 feet, front facing NE

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
55 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed); two sewer ports

Internet (in usage priority order):

RoamLink: 10-19 Mbps down, 16-19 Mbps up, 103 ms ping (the RoamLink service picks the best network)
AT&T: 26 Mbps down, 0.2 Mbps up, 105 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage pickup from site
Mini golf
Local frozen pizza available

See our previous review on Campground Reviews.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site; very narrow, but fine for one night:

Our site

Some frozen pizza options mentioned on the check-in counter; we love not having to cook on a travel day, so picked up a “Mac n’ Cheese Louise” pizza:

Pizza options

Pizza

Pre-cooking:

Pizza

It was interesting and tasty, and most welcome on a long travel day.

Our second stay here, and we’d be happy to stay again.

Video

Video: Maple Grove, Minnesota to Mitchell, South Dakota motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 350 miles from Maple Grove, Minnesota to Mitchell, South Dakota.

Travel from Maple Grove, Minnesota to Mitchell, South Dakota

We drove our coach 350 miles, about six hours of driving, from Maple Grove, Minnesota to Mitchell, South Dakota.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south then west:

Map

An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:

Joining I-94 East:

Joining I-94 East

Spotting our coach on traffic cams:

Spotting our coach on traffic cams

I-35W South:

I-35W South

Barge:

Barge

“The Corn is High; Drivers Shouldn’t Be”:

The Corn is High; Drivers Shouldn't Be

Rest area:

Rest area

Spotting our coach on traffic cams again:

Spotting our coach on traffic cams

Owatonna Degner Regional Airport:

Owatonna Degner Regional Airport

“SPAM Museum; Where Hawaiians go on vacation”:

SPAM Museum

I-90 West:

I-90 West

Three cherry pickers working on a power line:

Three cherry pickers working on a power line

Rest area:

Rest area

A wide line on I-90 marking where eastward and westward construction of the freeway met in 1978:

A wide line on I-90 marking where eastward and westward construction met in 1978

Interesting building:

Interesting building

Wall Drug in 355 miles:

Wall Drug in 355 miles

Welcome to South Dakota:

Welcome to South Dakota

Fuel stop:

Fuel stop

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Bull and horse sculptures:

Bull and horse sculptures

Wide load:

Wide load

Exit:

Exit

Arriving at a KOA:

Arriving at a KOA

Guided to our site:

Guided to our site

Minneapolis Northwest KOA Journey

We stayed at Minneapolis Northwest KOA Journey in Maple Grove, Minnesota. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A KOA on the way. Been here before; last time we had full hookups, but the site was so short that we had to untoad; this time, we didn’t have a sewer hookup, but the site was plenty long enough; for a one-night stay, the latter is usually preferred.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-08-17
Check out: 2025-08-18
1 night

Weather:

Partly sunny, thunderstorm overnight
High temp 77°F, low 70°F
Some wind, gusts to 26 MPH, but sheltered by trees

Noise:

Some road noise
No train horn noise
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#58, pull-through, gravel
Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t, since only one night
Somewhat level site; used air leveling, since only one night
Gravel driveway about 80 feet long by 8 feet wide
20 feet to neighbor on passenger side
5-14 feet to neighbor on driver side
Picnic table
Fire pit
No trees
Clean site
Elevation 950 feet, front facing NE

Utilities:

50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located (and in a locked compartment on the back of the neighbor’s 30 amp pedestal)
Didn’t hook up to water, conveniently located
No sewer

Internet (in usage priority order):

RoamLink: 12-23 Mbps down, 10-13 Mbps up, 270-340 ms ping (the RoamLink service picks the best network, so I’m not sure which one it used, other than not AT&T)
AT&T: 275-333 Mbps down, 3-7 Mbps up, 60 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Pool

See our previous review on Campground Reviews.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site; a buddy site (passenger sides facing), which we normally dislike, but don’t really care when only a one night stop:

Our site

Other sites; we were over there last time:

Other sites

Dog park and more sites:

Dog park

Fine for a one night stop. Wouldn’t want to stay here longer.

Video

Video: Kabetogama to Maple Grove, Minnesota motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 283 miles from Kabetogama to Maple Grove, Minnesota.

Travel from Kabetogama to Maple Grove, Minnesota

We drove our coach 283 miles, about five hours of driving, from Kabetogama to Maple Grove, Minnesota.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:

Map

An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:

Following the coach down the steep road in the campground:

Following the coach down the road

Probably should have a flag on that:

Probably should have a flag on that

Route 53 South:

Route 53 South

Rest area:

Rest area

Paddler statue:

Paddler

I-35 South:

I-35 South

Flat tire:

Flat tire

Wyoming, Minnesota:

Wyomning, Minnesota

Rest area:

Rest area

Exit to route 610:

Exit to route 610

I-94 West:

I-94 West

Crossover intersection:

Crossover intersection

Arriving at a KOA:

Arriving at a KOA

Guided to our site:

Guided to our site

Completed visiting all contiguous National Parks

With our visit to Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota, we have now visited all 52 of the National Parks in the contiguous US and the US Virgin Islands! Quite an achievement.

The only remaining parks are in Hawaii, Alaska, and American Samoa. Those ones are harder, but we’ll get to them in due course.

Here are the stickers on the side of our coach:

National Park stickers on slide of motorhome