I woke this morning with a little different attitude towards Nebraska. After all, it can't be all bad. And I also thought that maybe the woman running the campground was just in unfortunate circumstances. Perhaps her husband died and she was left with that and she didn't know what else to do. We had been joined in the night by some tent campers and other than the train that came through several times, blowing the loudest whistles I have ever heard, I slept reasonably well. I woke before my alarm and thought it was close to 6 so I got up and took a shower. As I was walking back to the camper, I noticed how beautiful the sunrise was and how I had not really seen one on the trip. I wondered how it was that I had seen this one since I had been getting up about the same time. Scott was ready to go when I got back and when he started the FunV and pointed to the clock that said 5:45, and how this was our earliest start yet, I was shocked because I thought I was up after 6.
Scott also wanted me to mention how much joking we did and are still doing about Scottsbluff. For 20 miles before we got there, Scott started making up complete fabrications and would then say "I'm bluffing". He got a real kick out of it, and still is.
We have done most of this day the good old fashioned way, without GPS, using an actual highway map. I am sort of a collector of maps and stop in every state to get one. I also have an atlas but those don't have the same level of detail.
Our first destination was Agate Fossil Beds National Monument. This monument is literally in the middle of nowhere. As you are leaving Mitchell, NE, there is actually a sign that reads no services next 50 miles. We drove for about 45 minutes through cow country and turned off into the monument. There were a couple of roadside exhibits and we stopped to watch some deer in the prairie grasses. Because we left so early, we got to the visitor center and had to wait over an hour for it to open. Scott, Luke and I ate breakfast and at 8 o'clock, we finally had to wake Lorelei up. We went inside, did the junior
ranger program, watched a movie and looked at the fossils. This land once belonged to John Cook who was a hunter, trapper, cowboy and rancher who also happened to be friends with Red Cloud and the Lakota people. Over the years, they had a standing invitaion to his ranch and they brought many historically significant gifts which he collected and are now on display at this museum and others. This land was important for it's fossil finds dating back about 20 million years ago. After the dinosaurs, and before people, this land had been a rich plain, similar to the Sarangheti of today and had animals that were very similar to rhinos, horses, camels, beavers among others. It was very interesting and despite the remoteness, worth the visit. I bought John Cook's biography, published in 1923 and we were headed north and then east by 9:30.
We drove on Nebraska state highway 12, hoping to make it to the Niobrara National River and possibly the Missouri National River visitor centers today. Highway 12 is a 2 lane road that goes from one side of the state to the other in northern Nebraska. Eventually we became the only people on the road other than some farm equipment and the road became so boring that we counted windmills in a 10 mile stretch of road. This went on for 80 miles and I got so bored, I needed a nap about mile 30 and after my 30 minute snooze, Lorelei and Scott had counted over 100 windmills, visible from the road in an 80 mile stretch. We made it to Valentine about 1:30 but we also lost an hour so really it was 2:30 central time. We ate some lunch, got gas and headed over to the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife refuge managed by the US Fish and Wildlife service.
We spent about an hour, getting Lorelei a junior ranger badge (Luke gave up on them after Yellowstone because he just doesn't want to do it). We continued heading east on Hwy 12. We made plans to stay at Niobrara State Park, where the Niobrara and Missouri rivers meet so that we would have a short 30 minute drove to Crofton in the morning to pick up the Missouri river visitor center. Unfortunately, nature has intervened in our vacation plans again and about 30 miles outside of Niobrara we learned that the road ahead was closed due to flooding and we were put on a detour. I quickly made some phone calls and did some map checking and we decided that we would go to a different visitor center closer to Sioux City.
This added about 2 hours to our drive this afternoon. We ended up on another detour for a road closure but we managed to pull into a KOA around 8 o'clock. I honestly have no idea how many miles we covered today but it was a lot of driving and I have no problem supporting Scott's Mountain Dew habit as long as he continues to drive.
Once we were at the KOA, the kids saw the jumping pillow and we all had a good time bouncing. The kids got a good laugh trying to teach me to bounce on my bottom, which I eventually got and they loved it when Scott would bounce so high, it made them fall over. It is very hot and humid here and the Missouri is well over it's banks in some spots. I understand that I-29 is closed somewhere because of it. Luckily we are headed south and away from the flooding. After about 30 minutes of jumping we decided to see how late the pool is open and we had 15 minutes to spare. So we quickly changed and dipped into the pool for a little refresher. The kids were disappointed when we had to get out but everyone was feeling happy with a shower and a little cable TV. I am happy for WiFi. We have no reservations but are hoping to make it back to St. Louis tomorrow.
