Day Five: Plans Change and We are in South Dakota...Just Barely

 Sunday, April 23, 2023

After a quiet night we were up just before sunrise. Even though it was only 21 degrees out when we got up inside we were warm and comfortable with the blue flame heater running. With the slides in, we do not put them out in parking lots, there is a lot less space to warm up.  We had our morning coffee and pulled out of the Walmart parking lot at 8:07AM under sunny skies. It was 25 degrees and the wind was barely noticeable. Today's route took us North on US-83 a very scenic route. Translation, there is a picture overload below and this is not even half of what I snapped as we cruised along. 

The lights and the roll have been checked and Tom is waiting
patiently for me to get back in so we can be on our way.
Our spot at the Walmart in McCook, Nebraska

We went down and up quite a few times today.

If you like windmills this is the ride to take. I lost count
of how many we went by, today. No they are not all in this post.

I almost forgot to include a Nebraska Tree...lol

Another long down and up.

I spotted this bird and with a lot of cropping there he or she is.

Coming into North Platte.
After stopping for diesel our directions
took us along the outer edge of the city.

This was my favorite picture of a windmill today.

Wondering what this area of Nebraska was called I decided to do some research.  The area we drove through today is known as the Sandhills. I also found out that Highway US-83 has been called the "The Road to Nowhere" yet it goes from the Mexican Border all the way North to the Canadian Border. It is actually the shortest route between the two countries.

The Sandhills sit atop the massive Ogallala Aquifer; thus both temporary and permanent shallow lakes are common in low-lying valleys between the grass-stabilized dunes prevalent in the Sandhills. Which explains all the areas of water we saw today.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) designated the Sandhills as an ecoregion, distinct from other grasslands of the Great Plains. According to their assessment, as much as 85% of the ecoregion is intact natural habitat, the highest level in the Great Plains. This is chiefly due to the lack of crop production: most of the Sandhills land has never been plowed.

This is just some of the information I found online. We merged on to US-83 in Kansas were it intersected with US-56 and will be leaving it after 22 miles in the morning, The one article I read mentioned that it is one of the most scenic highways in Nebraska and we can see why. 

Tom felt like we mostly went up

but you can see by the pictures there were some downs.

I just liked the look of all the shades of brown going up the
hill plus the brown of the highway.

I missed the Thomas County sign then we turned a corner 
and I was able to snap this picture. In our family there are,
if I include middle names and I am, eight Thomas's.

I do not remember the last time I included a cloud picture.
Does anyone else see Snoopy?

We saw a lot more water today.

We are now riding by the 

Valentine National Wildlife Refuge. 

I could see some birds in the distance.
This is the type of place we would have stopped and visited
but with our Jeep not doing well it was not to be this time.

Then we were going through farmland.

Valentine, Nebraska is just ahead.

I only managed to get a snippet of the Niobrara River.

Valentine, Nebraska and an RV Park there was today's planned destination. Tom had called ahead yesterday and made a reservation and she only took his first name and luckily no payment. She said since we were coming in the next day she would hold it with just his first name; not the first time we have been told this so it sounded good.. When we got to the RV Park the office was closed and there was no reservation package. What there was, was a general note that said pick a site then come back and leave the money in the box. Another words we did not have a reservation. We have stayed overnight at some RV Parks that were less then great but at least the sites were decent enough. Maybe we were being to judgmental to quickly but the one thing we have learned over the years is to trust our first instinct. We looked around and saw there was a way to drive right through and that is exactly what we did.

We stopped out on the road and I did some quick research and found a Casino 11 miles further down US-83. After making a call to find out if we could park there for the night we headed what we thought was that way. As we started moving I was also looking up information about a RV Park we had seen a sign for as we were coming into town. It looked like it was not open so the Casino was the final choice. I do not know when we missed the sign for US-83 all I know for sure was something told me we were not on it. Sometimes, not always, I just sense we are not going in the right direction. Checking google maps I could see we were moving west on US-20. I will just interject here looking for a place to turn around in a 40 foot motorhome while towing a Jeep is not an easy or fun task. Yet here we were doing it for the second day in a row. According to the map we would be coming to Crookston in a few miles and the hope was there would be a place to turn around.

A nice view along US-20
cannot change what is might as well take a picture...😊

Then there was Crookston along with these grain silos
and just past them a road with a large area next to them
that we could turn around in. Life is good.

This was also in Crookston
across the road from where we turned around.

About 24 miles later, to Crookston and back, we were back
on US-83 and I spotted several patches of snow.
This is the only snow we saw this year.

Just before we turned into the Casino I spotted this sign
as Hazel was saying Welcome to South Dakota.

When we pulled in the parking lot we could see a sign for an RV Park so Tom went in to see if they had a dump station and to verify we could park in the parking lot. They had no dump station but the gentleman did tell Tom the RV Park just back about 5 miles back did. So after calling to see about going there to dump we headed back to the Fishberry Campground so Tom could take care of that fun. This was the campground I was checking on when we missed our turn for US-83 in Valentine so even though it said there season started May 1st they were in fact open. Even though it was a nice campground we opted to stay at the casino. 

So we went back across the border in to Nebraska.
This time I almost got the whole Cherry County Sign. 
Bottom picture the Campground from the highway.
It was a nice one.

Ten miles later we are again in the Rosebud Casino parking lot
where we are able to spend the night.
Bottom right insert: We are parked in South Dakota.

After 241 miles we are parked at the edge of the Rosebud Casino parking lot which is located on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Today was another adventure, all part of the fun of traveling from point A to B and a couple of letters in-between. In the scheme of things today's "fun" was not much of a blip on the screen. It amounted to and extra 34 miles give or take a mile and in the end we are safely tucked in for the night. I will get this posted in the morning because now I am heading to bed. It is a lovely 34 degrees and I am missing the warmth we left behind in New Mexico.

We are glad you stopped by!

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