Western USA 2003
Mina Recreation Area, SD to Geographic Center of USA, KS/NE border
Today drove due south the entire day along Route 281 from the middle of South Dakota through Nebraska to the Kansas border. Left at 9am and arrived 9pm. Scenery changed little. Great Plains.
Stopped at Fort Randall dam and frontier fort that is being restored and took a walk around the old parade grounds swatting biting bugs in the hot sun. Fort Randall was a backwater frontier fort in the late 19th C that to this day is hardly known, in fact as of this writing I can find no reference of it on Google (this website may be the first!). The grounds are well maintained and documented with self-tour signs and the church is being restored.
--Fort Randall
--Fort Randall
Continued on through to the small farming town of Corsica SD for lunch at Cheryl's Café. It is the towns only Café and Cheryl was a delightful hostess for her only late morning patron. She cooked me up a big western omelet with hash browns and toast. She said this was a Dutch town and most towns had mini settlements from the country they came from and you could tell by the flags or names coming into town. She recently took a Harley trip with her husband to Idaho something she had always wanted to do but had lived most of her life around the area. I noticed there was a dusty 4Sale sign in her window she said that had been there a long time and I wonder if she will ever find a buyer. As I was leaving she said she had a niece and to "come back and get yourself a little Dutch girl". Cheryl is a sweet gal.
Most of the population of Nebraska lies along the Route 80 east-west corridor the traditional historic route of the river and railroad. The town of Grand Island was the biggest town in terms of stores and "civilization" I had seen since leaving Portland a week ago.
Further south the town of Hastings is a beautiful historic college town restored to its early 20th C look and feel. Continued on through the night to the Nebraska/Kansas state border where I found a Nature Conservancy plot of 600 acres of "old growth" prairie land untouched by plow just as the prairie had always been. It was dark and not much to see but the smells of wildflowers and weed were strong. A primitive access road ran along the border into the heart of the prairie so I followed that down into a hollow and made camp for the night. Slept 12+ hours and very stiff after the long day. Much warmer last night going due south for an entire day made a big difference in temperature.
--Campsite for the night along the Kansas/Nebraska border in a Nature Conservancy "postage stamp" prairie plot untouched by plow.