This is how we are traveling............
So far we have spent extended time in St Joseph MO and Onawa IA. We also plan to stay several days here in Rapid City.
We saw some great old buildings in St Joe like the C. C. Hax Home in the Museum Hill Historic District.
This is the city located at the western end of the railroad in 1860 and the eastern end of the Pony Express which only lasted for 19 months starting in April 1860. Riders left St Joe carrying the mail to Sacramento CA riding the 2,000 miles in 10 days. Although overtaken by the arrival of the telegraph it has been indelibly imprinted in American Western Lore. Below is a closeup of the Pony Express Monument.
(continuing)
While we were at Onawa IA (70 miles north of Omaha NE on I-29) we planned for me to put the kayak on the Platte River for a float, but it ended up being too windy, so we just had a picnic lunch on a sandbar. Lily loves exploring. I thought this was the Platte, but it was actually the Elkhorn River, a tributary of the Platte.
This is the Platte River several miles upstream from Omaha NE, where it joins the Missouri River. This river originates in the Colorado Rockies, flows north through a fantastic canyon into Wyoming, before turning east and flowing by Scotts Bluff NE (a landmark of the Oregon Trail pioneers), through the Sand Hills of western Nebraska where it picks up massive loads of sand and becomes a shallow, braided (many channel) stream before emptying into the Missouri River.
On the way to/from the Platte we drove through the little town of Fremont NE (named after another famed western explorer). I loved the Chamber of Commerce building (originally the U. S. Post Office) ....................
...................with its bench out front which was covered in a city map with old and new photos of town landmarks.
Leaving Onawa IA, we headed north on I-29, passing through (but not stopping at) Sioux City IA and Sioux Falls SD before heading west on I-90. We had to stop by Mitchell SD to see the unique Corn Palace which is decorated in murals of local grains with a different theme EVERY year. See this link:
http://www.cornpalace.org/
CLOSEUP -- shows the different varieties of corn used in the murals.
(NOTE: The story below will be repetitious for some of you because we are trying to bring everyone up-to-date and some of you received this story already by email.
I have corrected errors in the original email.)
Three days ago we arrived at Chamberlain, South Dakota (we were actually staying at an RV park in the small town of Oacoma). It is on a lake created by a dam on the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery arrived here about September 16, 1804. Clark saw his first of several animals: the extremely swift pronghorn, the long-leaping jack rabbit (he measured its jumps at 21 feet), a few days before they had encountered their first "barking squirrels" (prairie dogs one of which they went to great lengths to try to catch), they saw their first magpie here, and their first mule deer (I saw a small group of these this evening just after sunset), their first "prairie wolfs" (coyotes), and a large herd of bison, which Clark estimated at 3,000.
This evening while I was waiting for the sun to set, about 8:38 pm, I heard a coyote yipping and then ending with a howl. Then it was answered by another in a different direction. Just a few seconds later another across the Missouri River, at at least 3 miles distant answered loud and clear. I could not believe how far their yips and howling could carry. The wind was blowing in my direction and I was up on a high hill overlooking the river, both of which no doubt played a part. Also today on our drive to this location I saw a beautiful male pheasant taking flight. The bison have of course been replaced with large herds of beef cattle. We are definitely now on the Great Plains with their sweeping vistas and "big sky".
This is where I was standing when I heard the coyote chorus...........
Yesterday we got up at Wall SD, home of the world famous Wall Drug. If you haven't heard of it (like Lynne) just drive I-90 from the east or the west and you will know ALL about it before you get there from the dozens of signboards advertising it along the way. Check out this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_Drug. Lynne wasn't
impressed as I was hoping! (I think she has more fun at Walmart!!)
Driving over from Wall SD yesterday we stopped at a rest area on the banks of the Cheyenne River which is normally dry but was close to flood stage with muddy water. Lily's investigations indicated (by the mud up to her knees) that it had been above flood stage just the day before. After her scientific hunger was sated she settled down for a nap and I pulled out my bike to take a ride back east on the interstate (don't do this when YOU take your next trip, although I highly recommend it) 5 miles to see what the beautiful purple flowers were on the hills adjacent to the road. I saw some very nice surprises along the way. Such as wild turkeys putting on a show..........
Here is what I went back to see. I thought it was a wild prairie flower.
Instead, I found out it was alfalfa in bloom...........
But there were two other wild prairie surprises........possibly a lily............
............and this yellow beauty...........
At about mile-marker 85 on I-90, on the north side of the road, I saw a prairie dog colony with 3 little sentinels standing erect on top of their dirt mounds. I was sorry Lynne missed them. She has not seen them in the wild. This was our first sighting of these cute little prairie creatures. Sorry, no picture yet.
About 35 miles east of Rapid City we caught our first glimpse of the Black Hills. Rapid City lies just east of them.
Today they we are confined to camp because of a heavy fog and mist that has settled in.
