Dakota camping trip

I decided my summer 'vacation' should be toward my goal of seeing all 50 states... having completed it, I now have only one state to go - Montana, I plan to see it in October. By 'seeing' I wanted to at least have done something touristy or memorable in each state, not just driven through. Mostly what I was missing was the mid-west, a huge strip of the country, pretty impractical to see in one go... but I had a conference in Omaha, right in the middle - so I went for it :)

Record breaking heat and horrible flooding didn't stand in my way - and I'm glad I experienced both - I feel more connected to our 'heartland' now... I even encountered tornado damage... I have even more appreciation for Oregon now!

Another major aspect of this trip was for me to camp alone. I used to be afraid to sleep outside, even with friends/family. I have changed a lot with age and have been wanting to go camping with the dogs - I figured this was a great time to start camping alone - especially since i'd be going off the beaten path without much of a pre-planned agenda. I am proud to say I sleep like a baby, even if I have no idea what my campsite looks like - though maybe that's not such a good thing for safety's sake!!

Details:

Wednesday, July 27... Somewhere around Tekamah, Nebraska...

Wednesday night I flew into Omaha, getting my rental car around 11:30 pm. I planned to drive an hour north and camp in a park near the Missouri river. Didn't even occur to me that the flooding would still have loads of things closed... After an hours drive, exhausted, and meandering on back farm roads, I came across a 'road closed' sign. I decided to try for the north entrance of the park, only to come a few feet from driving into a washed out road... I caught the shine of the water on my headlights. At this point I had taken a 20 minute detour on dirt farm roads, and had no place to sleep. I found another park (NOT near the river) and after another 30 mins on dirt roads I found - DONKEYS? Yes,

I took a wrong turn, ended up on someone's farm, waking up the

don

ly to find... IT WAS CLOSED! Yep... not my night. I circled thekeys - they looked quite confused! It was nearly 2am a

t this point, I quietly turned the car around - and found the right road... on

whole park on dirt roads only to find they had just mad

e a new entrance right off the main road... oh well!! Nothing like giving the rental car a good test right off the bat??

Here's a sampling of what the roads were like (yes, that's the intersection of 30, GH, and G...???):

I circled the lake inside the park, unable to find the tent area, so I just pulled the car into a field, and used the high beams to LEARN how to set up my tent... slight oversight - didn't have time to take it out of its packaging before the trip... no problem - it didn't take long, but I thought it seemed a bit small - I learned (in the light) the next night how to get the corners more secure... This was about 2:15 am. I feel fast asleep. At 5am I was awoken by fishermen driving past me to the lake. I rolled over, slept until about 11! Woke up to find myself in a very quiet spot, three fisherman on the lake, no one else around. I freshened up, packed, and got on my way.

THE BEST THING I LIKE ABOUT CAMPING - is the fact that once you pick up the tent there is no trace you were there. No one needs to wash sheets, no wasted electricity, nothing thrown away... just a bit of grass padded down in a small square footprint...

When I drove away in the morning I was quite amused by th

e following "no swimming" sign... a posted rule I have NO trouble following in this case :)

Thursday, July 28 - from Nebraska to North Dakota - back roads:

I have little recollection of Thursday. I remember thinking it would be wise to reach a campground well before dark so I could get this tent pitching thing down, and since I slept until 11am, that didn't leave me with a long day. I found a lovely state park for the night, Beaver lake state park near Wishek, North Dakota. It was a lot of driving and I avoided all main roads... There were some closures of small roads from the flooding, and I had to take a few detour

s... One of my detours stopped looking like a road - it was really quite phenomenal. I think it was supposed to be only access for farm vehicles... but it had a regular street sign - how was I to know my reliable gravel/dirt roads would turn into grassland??

The campsite was delightful - my favorite of the trip. Nice park ranger, nice RV folks, quiet, scenic, very clean. I settled in for the evening, watched a movie on my laptop, read some, and had a great night sleep. This felt like a vacation!