Author: Steve

  South on highway 83.  More sharp tailed grouse along the road.  We loved the wide open spaces of North Dakota and South Dakota.  Northern Nebraska; more of the same.  Rolling grassland.  Rolling cropland.  Lakes.  Ponds.  Swamps.  The occasional forest.  More water than one would expect in Nebraska.  Horses and cows in fields of grass up to their bellies.  Nice place to be.   Stopped at Holiday RV Park in North Platte.  4990 trip miles.   http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00046ff7cac9ae98ff560&z=4    

  A rough weather night last night…. On the weather channel anyway.  A strange looking sky overhead.  Tornado warning from the national weather service.  Heavy thunderstorms to our north.  For us… a quiet night.   South to South Dakota.  East to the Badlands.  Camping in the National Park is primitive.  We didn’t want that so we’re in the KOA right outside.   The sun sets at a more civilized time here.  It was down by 7:30 and dark by a little after 8.   http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00046ff7cac9ae98ff560&z=4   4,735 trip miles.        

  The train track campground last night wasn’t so bad.  I heard one train as we were going to sleep and another as we were waking up.  Far as I know, there weren’t any in-between.  (Judy and Annie might tell a different story though.)  The campground had a lot to offer besides trains.  Afternoon shade.  More robins than we’ve ever seen in one place before.  We sampled the indoor swimming pool, Jacuzzi and Sauna.  And it had mosquitoes.  More mosquitoes than we needed.  I think they’ve had a nice wet summer in Montana.   Continuing east on US Highway 2.  Rolling wheat fields yesterday giving way to rolling grasslands today.  No-traffic two-lane blacktop.  Big sky.  Missouri River to our south.  Tailwind yesterday.  Headwind today.  A weather front traveling faster than us must have passed.   Crossed the Missouri.  Turned right on US 85.  Crossed the Little Missouri.  More dotted lines on the map.  The scenic route.  Crossed into North Dakota; a new state for us.  More rolling grassland.  Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  We went on by.  We stopped at North Park Campground at the edge of Dickinson, North Dakota.  Almost got a new bird today.  We saw a family of sharp-tailed grouse.  Only the second time we’ve ever seen them.   http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107013362562471418011.00046ff7cac9ae98ff560&z=4   4,400 trip miles.