The Day the Starlink Took Flight

The Walmart parking lot in Sheridan turned out to be an excellent place to spend the night. No reservation, no bill, and no particular reason to complain. I warmed up the 23U and got moving in the morning, with Apple Maps pointing me toward Gillette. I even got a look at Sheridan’s old mill and the Mill Inn in the early light. The trip odometer was showing 139 miles since I reset it at the Billings fuel stop, a number that will eventually be useful once I have a reliable full-tank-to-full-tank comparison.

I had some flexibility about when to start work, so I aimed for CAM-PLEX Park in Gillette. Starlink is nonnegotiable for a traveling workday, but I’ve learned not to treat every tree as a threat to civilization. It worked fine at Riverfront Park in Billings yesterday, despite the tree cover. The question is whether there’s enough open sky in the particular spot where I park.

Gillette turned into a fairly good example of why I wanted to work from the RV in the first place. There was a workday to get through, food on the counter, and a squirrel near the park path looking as though it had something to say about the arrangement. More importantly, the park had a disc golf course. Naturally, I’d forgotten my discs. A couple of guys were willing to sell me two, so I managed to play a few holes before leaving. Buying replacement equipment on the spot wasn’t the original plan, but it was considerably better than discovering a good course and just looking at it.

I left around five, and then managed a more expensive equipment-related mistake. The Starlink Mini was still on the roof when I got back on the highway. It flew off. For a device whose main job is to stay connected, that was a fairly decisive way to disconnect.

Unfortunately, internet access isn’t an optional accessory on this trip. I still have to work, which meant the evening’s route acquired a new destination: Walmart in Spearfish, South Dakota, for another Starlink Mini. The product page and shopping cart disagreed about when pickup would be possible, with one suggesting nine that evening and the other pushing it to the following day. I did get the replacement in Spearfish that night. I already have an aero-bar mount and a way to run power through the roof vent without drilling another hole. What I don’t yet have is a mounting arrangement that can be trusted to remain attached when the motorhome starts moving. That seems worth addressing before the next workday.

The other continuing project is, of course, water. The plumbing had been winterized before I left Helena, and I’ve been trying to pick the right point on the route to bring it back into service. The overnight forecasts farther east were looking more promising, but I still hadn’t managed to get water in Spearfish. I headed toward Rapid City, planning to make dinner and find somewhere to sleep.

The Pilot stop offered a fairly specific combination of successes and failures. I couldn’t buy gas because the pumps were broken. But a pump technician helped get word from the attendant about where the fresh-water hookup was, and I was finally able to fill up with water. After several days of discussing when and where to do that, it was a satisfying change to have an actual hose connected to the RV. I was also checking whether the PTFE tape I’d found was suitable for the water-heater drain plug. Getting water aboard is progress; it doesn’t, by itself, establish that every part of the plumbing has been brought back into service.

Pilot became the overnight stop, though I looked at Walmart and dispersed camping alternatives before settling on the plan. I was also considering whether I could work somewhere near Mount Rushmore tomorrow and visit Rushmore and Crazy Horse afterward. Then I checked the drive toward the Ozarks and saw an estimate of roughly thirteen hours. The monuments are tempting, but so is making enough progress to have actual time in the Ozarks. I haven’t settled that tradeoff yet.