Wednesday May 26, 2010 - Lincoln, Nebraska to Hill City, South Dakota

This morning we faced the difficult prospect of leaving Lincoln and a nine-plus hour drive west across Nebraska and then north into South Dakota. While it promises to be a fun part of the trip, it was particularly hard this time (at least for me) to face the long drive. I can't imagine why.

We said our farewells to Michael as he left to make visits to his housebound parishioners. Then it was the open road. Driving through Nebraska is a lot like I expected it to be - relatively flat. But it's greener than I picture in my head. Lots of green particularly along I-80. We left I-80 240+ miles west of Lincoln and headed northwards on US26W. We had lunch in Ogallala, at a pretty poor Mexican restaraunt. However, Gena and I agreed that at least it was a different kind of bad food. As we approach the end of our third month of nomadic life, this begins to mean something.

We passed through Oshkosh, which was nothing to speak of despite it's iconic name in childrens' wear. Eventually we continue straight north on US385. This was pretty uneventful, until I was pulled over just outside of Alliance, NE. I had just come over a hill and was accelerating a bit to regain momentum when our radar-detector lit up. I slowed down and identified the source as a patrol car headed toward me just a few hundred feet away. He quickly pulled off the road and did a U-turn behind me and flipped his lights on.

Fortunately, at this point in time (unlike earlier in our trip!), we have both proof of registration and proof of insurance on hand. The officer was very friendly. I had everything ready and hands in plain view with the window down when he arrived at my doorside. We had also discretely put the radar detector away. We told him where we were headed as he checked our documentation. He indicated only that we were going a "little fast". He eventually let us off with a warning after talking for a few minutes about how beautiful the area we were heading was. I thought it was interesting that neither he nor the printed warning indicated either what the speed limit was (I'm pretty sure it was 65), nor how fast I was going. However, I'm not going to complain since I didn't get a ticket! This is the first time I've been pulled over in almost 10,000 miles. Thanks again to Jim & Dianne for their radar detector!

We grabbed dinner in Hot Springs, SD. The drive up US385 beyond Hot Springs led through Wind Cave National Park, where we saw our first buffalo of the trip! In fact, we nearly hit a group of them that were grazing right alongside the road. In this little park, they roam freely, and Gena has memories of having to stop on family vacations to give the buffalo time to get off the road. There were also a lot of deer grazing, and the kids were definitely very excited at the wildlife.

We arrived at our campsite about 8pm. We were told we were pretty much the only tent-campers in our part of the park - which is huge. We drove out to our designated campsite, only to find the only other tent-campers in the area. In our spot. So back we drove to be reassigned to another spot. It shouldn't be irritating, but it was. However hopefully we won't have any other neighbors during our time here.

KOAs have sure changed a lot since I was a kid, or else this is just a really massive one! We were very grateful to still have daylight in which to put the tent up. Or at least dusklight. Whatever it was, it was adequate. There was a breeze going, but otherwise the temperature was in the mid-60's. This was only the second time we've set up our tent in the last two years, and it took a little bit of figuring out. Then it was time to get everyone pee'd an into pajamas and sleeping bags. We blew up the air mattress for Gena and I and settled in for the night.

The first time we camped, it was on a beachside site in Jalama Beach, California. It was incredibly windy, the kids were two years younger than now, and Gena and I basically got no sleep as the kids took turns waking up freaked out by the noise of the wind and the tent. So we were chagrined when the wind picked up and began blowing in gusts that would not just rattle the tent, but actually cave half of it in. The tension bars just weren't able to handle the strong gusts. While Alec and Mika slept pretty soundly through this, Caedmon was a lot less sure of things - especially when the tent started to get pushed in on top of him. After a great deal of reassurance and what seemed like hours, he fell asleep, only to be reawakened periodically as the winds would pick up and the tent would sway and thrash about.

I got dressed and went back out to adjust the tension on the cords holding the rain cover over the tent. This helped somewhat, but there were still moments when the winds were so strong that half the tent bowed in. However, we were able to sleep, if only fitfully.

I begin to understand better the appeal of fifth-wheels and camper 'camping' to my folks after years of tent-camping practice!