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Monday, March 16
It’s not until you actually drive from the southern tip of the US to the far north, that you realize how big this country is. So far, we’re 1100 miles in to the US and have at leat another 1000 mile to go before we hit the Canadian border.
I don’t envy Ramiro, but he loves to drive, so it’s no problem for him.
We’re driving through tornado country. The wide open spaces in states such as Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas are a target for tornados during the summer months. However, it is not unusual for tornados to strike during the months of December or April.
It seems that these flat places are also rich in oil, just like in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The scenery here varies from oilfields to giant cattle ranches.
Because I would like to break up the long driving days a little bit, I entered a few geocaches in the GPS. We have to skip most of them because there just is no place to park our rig along these roads. But today we are in luck. After two hours on the road it is time for a break. There is a giant truck stop at the northern edge of Garden City, where we pull into. Now we need to make a decision. What’s first, the snack or the cache? Well, according to my sister in law, Annemieke, you need to earn the snack first. So the cache gets done first.
It’s not hard to figure out where the cache may be hidden, because the land around the truck stop is all bare and flat. On the corner however, there is a large “Welcome to Garden City” sign and a pine tree. Under the pine tree is a tiny artificial evergreen in a small wooden box, of which the bottom is hollow, so we discover when we lift it up. In the hollow is a pair of garden gloves you;re suppose to use, so when you reach for the cache container, which is hidden inside a PVC pipe under the wooden box, you won’t get your hands dirty. How considerate.
This one definitely makes my list of “most considerate” or “most creative” caches.
We have earned our snack and walk back to the RV through the cool breeze.
The sky is solid blue, but the wind is cold. We’re used to that in Alberta during this time of the year. Actually all the way into June it can be like this.
So we found our cache and had our snack, now it’s back on the lonely road again.
I can’t believe how deserted it is here. In some places there actually used to be the odd home along the road, but I figure that the lady of the house ran out of sugar too many times, and decided to move to the city. because whatever is left of these homes is now an empty shell.
Wherever there is a town, they have done their best to come up with something to attract visitors, by depicting a piece of history. “Cowboys and Indians” come to mind, when I look at this land. Once upon a time the buffalo roamed here and Buffalo Bill was the hero.
Of course every one of these towns also has a museum. But when you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. There is old farm equipment, granny's dress and shoes, the old dentist’s equipment, and if you’re really lucky, you may see a pickled, two headed baby calf in a jar.
Out of boredom, we start pretending that we are driving a bus full with tourists. We talk to our passengers in the Texan brawl, and explain to them all the attractions along the road. We discuss where we will have our next meal, and when we will stop for a bathroom break. Today, even the sign about the Ladies Tea, or who is sponsoring the highway cleanup is worth talking about. The weather station is material for a long discussion about tornados and why there are no houses left along this road.
We’re just having a lot of fun together and it breaks up the day.
At 2:00 pm we still haven’t found the perfect picnic area to stop, but we know it’s out there somewhere.
We keep on trucking, leaving Kansas and entering Nebraska. Then, there it is: The perfect place for lunch and a place to rest and walk: A Nice park with picnic tables and a lake with a fountain. Ramiro puts some fish on the BBQ and after lunch we walk around the lake. Everything is brown and very dry, There is not a leaf on the trees. But who cares with a temperature of TWENTY-FIVE degrees.
We’re in heaven again!!!
We have a bit of a discussion as to how much farther we want to drive. I am ready to stop, but Ramiro wants to keep on driving. I will have to research my books again for a different place to park for the night. In this state we are not allowed to park overnight or stay at one spot longer than five hours. There are no RV parks anywhere along this road, so we will have to take a chance.
While I am busy searching my “Park Your Rig for Free” book, the Good Sam’sCamping Guide and GPS, Ramiro spots a bunch of wild turkeys along the road. Too late for me to take my camera out. But that was neat. There must have been at least a donze of them. Wow, what a good meal that could have been.
We start getting a bit more variation in the landscape: More trees and lots of hills and time is going much faster. Today is the longest we have driven so far: Between yesterday afternoon, when we left Shamrock and today, we have put on a good 650 miles (over 1000 km). We’re lucky to have the extra daylight, as we are running right along the Mountain Time zone. So we actually gain one hour.
But enough is enough. It is starting to get darker and we need to stop. We pass a huge wildlife refuge with several campgrounds, but they are all closed for the season. As we enter the city of Valentine, we keep our eyes open for places to park. Then we see the sign of the Casino. “9 miles north” it reads. At casinos there is always lots of parking available and we have often seen RVs there. They won’t mind if we park there. The sun is just starting to set behind the mountains when we pull into the parking lot of the “Rosebud Sioux Indian Band Casino”. We warm up some soup and figure we might as well go inside and spend some money on the slot machines. As soon as we walk in, we are attacked by cigarette smoke and walk back out within minutes. A walk in the fresh air is a better idea and then straight to bed.
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