North Platte, Nebraska to Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Another crisp, clear morning, with the temperature right
around the freezing mark. But we stayed
toasty warm in the motorhome. Having an
electric hook-up meant we could use our little portable electric heater, which
is much quieter than the motorhome’s propane heater with its turbojet blower
that wakes me up every time it cycles on during the night.
After a leisurely breakfast of fruit and cereal, we pulled
out of the campground a little before 9:00am.
We stopped for gas going back through North Platte, then headed north up
US Hwy 83 through the sand hills of north central Nebraska. We drove through miles of dune-like hills
covered with fresh green grass, interspersed with tidy ranch houses and barns
surrounded by dense plantings of juniper trees to provide shelter from the
unceasing winds that blow from the northwest.
The pastures were filled with herds of cattle, most of which were
accompanied by this year’s calf crop. I
couldn’t help but think of all that meat on the hoof, and wonder how many of
them already had McDonald’s branded on their backsides. As we drove, I was also keeping my eyes open
for a place to come back to view the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse, the
path of which crosses directly over a wide swath of this portion of the Sate of
Nebraska. There are numerous spots along
here where it looks like one could simply pull off the side of the road and
have an excellent view.
A few miles after crossing into South Dakota, we turned west
on Hwy 44, through the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations to the south
entrance to Badlands National Park, where we’ll spend a couple of nights and do
some hiking in and around this unusual landscape. I’ll post more about that after we actually
do it, but first I want to explain our somewhat round-about way of getting here
since there are more direct routes.
There are actually a couple — maybe even three — reasons. One was to scout the area for eclipse
viewing. Another was simply to drive on
a blue highway that I’d never driven before (goin’ places that we’d never been before), and to get to this
National Park which we’d also never been before. And of course, it’s all on the way of
getting to North Dakota and the plains provinces of Canada so we could check
them off.
(Note: As I post
this, we’re now on Day 4, but I haven’t had time to write our Day 3 at Badlands
National Park and we’re at a spot that has wi-fi, so I’m posting Days 1 and
2. We’re on our way to the Devil’s Tower
in northeast Wyoming right now, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to get caught
up with the blog over the next couple of days.)
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