Day 20-July 25, 2017-To Valentine, Nebraska
Drove 239 miles in 5-1/2 hours.
Temp got up to 105. Big storms tonight should cool it off. We hope.
Still driving south on US 83. Cows, crops, hay bales, cows, crops, hay bales, repeat. We’re been in the high plains for a few days now and it’s starkly beautiful. I’ve never seen so many hay bales just sitting in the fields. From what we’ve heard the farmers are shipping some to Texas to get a better price because Texas has had a drought and doesn’t have enough hay for the animals. But they’re waiting to get the best price they can and that’s why the bales just sit and rot. Doesn’t make much sense to me but I’m not a hay farmer. We started a new book on tape. Drove through the outskirts of Pierre, the capital, and then through Fort Pierre National Grasslands, 116,000 acres of grassland. A few black cows sprinkled here and there and a few horses but mostly nothing but grassland. Saw some trees in the distance and then crossed the White River, which really is white and the landscape got a little bit greener. A few more ranches and homesteads. This is the Rosebud Indian Reservation and the Oyate Trail. Got to Murdo, home of the 1880 Town, which is built like a town in 1880. It has props from “Dances with Wolves” and other movies. Also in town is the Pioneer Auto Show with over 275 old cars, some from movies and TV shows. We zipped right on by to the last town in SD, Mission, where the entire road is ripped up and getting a face lift. The construction slowed us down a bit but we’ve been through worse. Our campground is only about 10 miles into Nebraska, called Wacky West RV Park. One of our RV brakes needs adjusting and Dan, the owner, knew a place to look at them. It was only a few blocks over but he made us follow him so we would find it. Nicest guy. He also has a cute little dog, half Maltese and half Shih tzu, named Foxy. I’m sure we’ll see more of her during our stay. There’s a Cowboy Trail next door to the campground that’s the longest stretch of former railroad used for recreation-lots of people walking and biking on it. Set up while the dark clouds were gathering and a bit of lightning and thunder around but managed to get everything up and running (especially the AC-it’s bloody hot!). When the storm came, it came with a vengeance, thunder, lightning and wind enough to rattle the RV and make us bring the slides in. WOW!! But after all was said and done the temperature had gone from 105 at 5PM to 75 at 9PM. We’re right on the eastern side of Central Time and Mountain Time so it’s light out really late. We looked at maps and books again and made a plan for the next few days that’s different from our original plan.