A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 324 miles from Mitchell to Custer, South Dakota.
Author: David
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:
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:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Wind turbines and corn fields:
Dignity of Earth and Sky sculpture at a rest area:
The aforementioned rest area:
Crossing Missouri River:
Fun with zoom:
Sunflowers:
There seems to be a Beetle crawling up that silo:
Paladin reaching out to touch my foot:
Fun with zoom:
Entering Mountain Time Zone:
Stagecoach art:
Rest area:
Narrow roadworks:
Passing Badlands:
More roadworks:
Exit:
Buffalo sculpture:
Interesting rocks:
Arriving at our 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):
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:
An interactive map:
Our site; very narrow, but fine for one night:
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:
Pre-cooking:
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: 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:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Joining I-94 East:
Spotting our coach on traffic cams:
I-35W South:
Barge:
“The Corn is High; Drivers Shouldn’t Be”:
Rest area:
Spotting our coach on traffic cams again:
Owatonna Degner Regional Airport:
“SPAM Museum; Where Hawaiians go on vacation”:
I-90 West:
Three cherry pickers working on a power line:
Rest area:
A wide line on I-90 marking where eastward and westward construction of the freeway met in 1978:
Interesting building:
Wall Drug in 355 miles:
Welcome to South Dakota:
Fuel stop:
Fun with zoom:
Bull and horse sculptures:
Wide load:
Exit:
Arriving at a KOA:
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:
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:
Other sites; we were over there last time:
Dog park and more sites:
Fine for a one night stop. Wouldn’t want to stay here longer.
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:
An interactive map, with potential stops pinned:
Following the coach down the steep road in the campground:
Probably should have a flag on that:
Route 53 South:
Rest area:
Paddler statue:
I-35 South:
Flat tire:
Wyoming, Minnesota:
Rest area:
Exit to route 610:
I-94 West:
Crossover intersection:
Arriving at a KOA:
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:
