Safe and Sound in Plankinton, SD

Well, we finally arrived around 8:15 CST. The Maas' (Larry and Dori Maas own the home whose basement we will occupy for the next 9 nights) are a very nice couple and the accommodations that they have set up for us appear to be excellent. We unpacked only our 'essentials' tonight so we can get to bed soon. We'll get the remainder of our stuff brought-in tomorrow.
We're planning to be out of here by 0630 on Friday morning to spend the day scouting and hopefully we'll run into some birds while we let the dogs stretch their legs at a couple of the spots we want to check out for pheasants.
Aside from the problems with the trailer, the drive was pretty good. Weather was good most of the way, construction wasn't too bad, and traffic was very light. We didn't make nearly as good of time as we thought we would because we quickly saw that anything over 70mph caused our gas mileage to drop like a rock. We're trying to stay on budget for the trip, so we elected to set the cruise at 70 (instead of the pre-planned 75mph) to conserve fuel. Even doing that, we only averaged 10.5mpg. We had planned to get better than that, so we weren't able to hit our planned gas stations, but we were able to adapt and overcome and managed to find other suitable stops for fuel and food. Another highlight of the drive was that I got to listen to the RNC debate, so that helped to pass the time...

Here's a look at our digs. In addition to these rooms, we also have a spacious bath. Apparently, they grow their whitetails big out here - these were 3 that Larry shot that he said weren't big enough to go in his office where his 'good bucks' are located.