A Great American River

Tim and I had been following the Missouri River for some time, but we still had a lot to learn about the river itself.  We’ve been somewhat surprised with what we’ve seen so far.  For example, I never realized that the river is lined with high bluffs along its banks.  Just north of Chamberlain the bluffs are so high that there is a runaway truck ramp on the descent into town.  

When we left Chamberlain, South Dakota, on October 14, we continued to follow the river and the Lewis and Clark Trail on our way to the Missouri National Recreational River, which is a unit of the National Park Service. This seemed to be a likely place to find out a little more about the “Big Muddy,” the Missouri River’s nickname.

Our route led us past Fort Randall Dam and the historic Fort Randall Military Post, established in 1856.  This historic site features the exposed foundations of many of the original buildings, as well as the partially restored ruins of the chapel.  In 1875 soldiers stationed at Fort Randall built the stone chapel, which also housed a library and Independent Order of Odd Fellows meeting hall.  The chapel became the social and intellectual center of the fort.  It must have been a beautiful building.

The Chapel at Fort Randall Military Post

We settled into a great campground operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Gavins Point Dam just north of Yankton, South Dakota. Once again, we snagged a site directly on the water where we could watch the sunrise, if we ever decided to wake up that early.  

Another Great Campsite at Cottonwood Campground

I Peeked Out the Back Window to Watch the Sunrise - I Didn't Get Up!

The Missouri National Recreational River preserves two free-flowing sections of the Missouri River along the Nebraska-South Dakota border. The National Park Service does not have its own visitor center, but partners with other federal and state agencies to interpret the resource. The visitor center in Ponca State Park in Nebraska was our first stop, and here we really began to understand the history and different facets of the Missouri River.

The Missouri is North America’s longest river and was the original highway to the west.  We were already familiar with the Plains Indian tribes that made their homes along the river, as well as Lewis and Clark, whose mission it was to explore the Missouri River to its source in order to find a northwest passage to the Pacific Ocean.  One of my favorite parts of the Lewis and Clark exhibit was the panel about the plant specimens collected during the journey.  Even Lewis and Clark prepared herbarium sheets.

A River Highway

Has This Herbarium Sheet Been Cataloged?

One Way to Paddle the River

We learned just how wild and unpredictable the Missouri River was during most of its history.  Numerous sandbars, shifting channels and powerful currents that brought trees into the river and caved in riverbanks made navigation of the river difficult.  Yearly floods impacted the communities along the banks.  A series of three devastating floods in 1943 provided the impetus for the passage of the Flood Control Act of 1944.  It was this law that led to the most significant and lasting alteration of the river basin.  

A series of dams was constructed along the Missouri from Montana to South Dakota, and a chain of reservoirs was created.  Indian reservations on both sides of the river were flooded, and families were displaced.  The Missouri ceased to be a wild and untamed river.  The dams and reservoirs have created hydroelectric power generation and flood control, as well as irrigation and navigational support.  Untold recreational opportunities are now available, and Tim and I have enjoyed our campsites along these reservoirs.  However, the taming of this once-mighty river is also sad. Luckily, two free-flowing stretches are protected by the National Park Service, and these remnants of the historic Missouri continue to flow as nature intended.

Gavins Point Dam

Although we didn’t get out on the Missouri, we were able to see what the river may have looked like during the time of Lewis and Clark from the Mulberry Bend Overlook.  

Sculpting the Landscape

Mulberry Bend Overlook

On the way back to our campsite, we stopped in Yankton to walk along the riverfront and see Dakota’s territorial capitol.  We also stopped by the Lewis and Clark Visitor Center at Gavins Point Dam one day, and it was here that we were finally able to find the DVD of Ken Burns’ “Lewis and Clark.”  Finally, I’ll get to watch it.

Dakota Territorial Capitol

Along Yankton's Riverfront

Anniversary Along the Missouri River

You may remember from the last post that we arrived at our “Plan B” location on Friday, October 10.  Our campsite at the American Creek Campground in Chamberlain, South Dakota, was perched at the edge of a bluff overlooking the Missouri River.  There was even a stairway down to the river next to our site.  Beautiful, mature trees provided shade, and we had full hookups, plus cable.  What more could we ask for?  We planned to stay through the weekend so Tim could watch football on Sunday.

This could not have been a more perfect place to spend our fifth wedding anniversary.  It’s hard to believe that Tim and I have been married for five years.  In some respects, it feels like our wedding was just yesterday, yet in others, it feels like we’ve always been married.  It’s been the best time of my life.  

The setting was perfect, and so was the weather, at least for the first two days.  For the first time since we’ve been back on the road, we could even take our chairs out.  It seems that either cold weather or rain or mosquitos always prevented us from enjoying the outdoors during the last month.

It Was Nice to be Able to Fully Enjoy the View from Our Site

Kitty Liked to Spend Time Outdoors

During the days, we continued to explore the Native American Scenic Byway and the Lewis and Clark Trail.  It turns out that the most enlightening site along the byway happened to be located in Chamberlain.  The Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center is a relatively unknown museum that does an amazing job of telling the story of the lives of the Northern Plains Indians, their cultures, traditions, values and history.  The exhibits include not only artifacts, but also beautiful examples of the art of the Lakota people.

Camp Circle - In the Beginning

Fetterman Pictograph Robe

The museum is located on the campus of St. Joseph’s Indian School, which was founded by the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart in 1927.  An exhibit on the history of the school does a good job of presenting the sad history of the attempt to assimilate Indian children into European-American culture by removing them from their parents, stripping them of their native clothing and identities and forbidding them to speak their native language.  St. Joseph’s has come a long way from that model and now incorporates Lakota culture into daily activities at the school.  The museum is a part of this effort to embrace cultural traditions.  Our stop at the museum was most certainly an eye-opening experience.

Chamberlain is also the location of a small Lewis and Clark Information Center, which is noted for its unusual architecture.  A replica of the 55-foot keelboat used by the Corps of Discovery is incorporated into the building, with a portion of the boat actually protruding from the building. This creates a balcony that provides a view of the Missouri River.

Is That a Keelboat?

View from the Balcony

While Tim watched his first Denver Broncos game of the year, I took a day trip to Mitchell, South Dakota, to see the Corn Palace, a great example of folk art.  Mitchell’s first Corn Palace was built in 1892 to provide a canvas for settlers to display their agricultural bounty.  The present Corn Palace is actually the third building to bear the name, and although the front is fenced off because of the current renovation, the charm of the building is still evident.  The façade of the building is literally decorated with ears of corn and other grains.  Each year a new theme is chosen, and the outside of the Corn Palace is striped and redecorated with corn and grains.  Approximately 275,000 ears of corn are cut in half lengthwise and nailed to the building following designs created by local artists.  Most of the murals were completed by the time of my visit, but it was also fun to see the ones that had not yet been started – it really was “corn (not paint)-by-number” decorating.  Other permanent corn murals are located inside this multi-use facility that is the center of community activity.

The World's Only Corn Palace

Murals Decorate the Facade of the Corn Palace

Who Knew You Could Paint with Corn?

"Corn-by-Number" Decorating

Murals Decorate the Interior of the Corn Palace

We enjoyed our stay in Chamberlain so much that we extended our visit. We weren’t quite ready to tear ourselves away from our scenic water view and the dramatic sunsets over the Missouri River. 

Lewis and Clark Likely Witnessed a Sunset Like This

Native American Scenic Byway

Deciding which route to follow after leaving Bismarck on October 8 was quite easy.  We still wanted to follow the Missouri River, but we noticed an intriguing scenic byway when we looked at the South Dakota map.  This byway mostly follows the river, as well as much of the Lewis and Clark Trail, so this seemed like the perfect route for us.

Tim and I love to drive scenic byways.  The traffic is usually light, the countryside is easier to appreciate, and the drive is often more peaceful and relaxing.   Tim and I also like to tour as we drive, which we can easily do with our smaller RV.  We can stop almost anywhere we want, including narrow driveways that would be off-limits to RVs much larger than ours.

The Native American Scenic Byway was a wonderful and thought-provoking drive.  We passed through the reservations of four tribes of Lakota Sioux:  Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Lower Brule and Crow Creek and stopped at most of the memorial markers, monuments, museums and sacred sites along the way.  These sites, which commemorate the heritage of the Sioux Nation, helped us experience the history and culture of the four tribes.

The Native American Scenic Byway Extends for 350 Miles in North and South Dakota

The northern section of the byway travels through the Standing Rock Reservation and is the most developed in terms of interpretation.  Visitor centers, printed guides and an extensive marker system make this section the most rewarding in terms of helping us to gain an understanding of the Sioux.

One of our favorite stops was the tribal visitor center at Fort Yates, North Dakota, on the campus of Sitting Bull College.  Here we enjoyed talking with Jennifer, the visitor coordinator, and listening to her perspective about life on and off the reservation.  She provided a special insight into the history we would be encountering along the byway.

We made our way into the town of Fort Yates, which was established as a military post in 1874.  Here we visited the Standing Rock Monument from which the Standing Rock agency derived its name.  According to the legend inscribed on the monument, the stone is the petrified form of a woman and her child.

Standing Rock Monument

In Fort Yates we also stopped at the original burial site of Sitting Bull, the spiritual leader of the Lakota.  Sitting Bull was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Reservation on December 15, 1890, during an attempt to arrest him.  His grave was subsequently relocated, and we planned to visit that site the next morning.

Burial Site of Sitting Bull in Fort Yates

We stopped for the evening near Mobridge, South Dakota, at The Bay at Grand River Casino, a great campground operated by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.  The campground, which we almost had to ourselves, is nothing like most casino campgrounds.  This one overlooks the Missouri River and provides large spaces underneath mature trees.  Kitty loved it, and so did we.  We were honored to receive the “elder” campsite rate.  It was tempting to stay for several days, but we needed to move on. 

What a Great Campground!

The following morning we visited the second burial site to memorialize Sitting Bull.  The setting here was beautiful, with its view overlooking the Missouri River, but, sadly, the site itself was not well cared for.  This site is marked by a stone bust carved by the famed sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who designed the Crazy Horse memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Also on the site is a monument erected as a tribute to Sacagawea, who died not too far from here.

Memorial to Sitting Bull near Mobridge

The Bluffs Along the Missouri River Provide a Wonderful Setting for the Monument

Monument to Sacagawea

The byway soon turned inland from the Missouri River and into the land of the Cheyenne River Sioux.  Here we encountered a diverse landscape, and not one we were expecting.  Vast prairies and rolling agricultural fields gave way to the high escarpment overlooking the Cheyenne River valley.  This time of year the river appears as a ribbon of green in a sea of gold.  It was a beautiful drive. 

We arrived in Pierre, South Dakota, in the afternoon and settled into a city campground in the middle of town.  Although the campground was not much more than a paved parking lot, it backed up to a lovely park along the Missouri River.  The location was perfect for exploring our own state capital (remember, we are South Dakota residents now).

Kitty Liked the Campground in Pierre

We toured the lovely State Capitol building, which had been restored for the centennial celebration of the State of South Dakota in 1989 and stepped into the Governor’s Reception Room where we learned about the history of the building.  We often fail to make the time to visit the interiors of state capitol buildings, but this visit has reminded us to put these buildings on our must-see list.  We always appreciate the architectural grandeur of these spaces when we do make it a point to open their doors.

South Dakota State Capitol

A Magnificent Interior

Pierre was also our first opportunity to stop at a Walgreens to pick up prescriptions and get our flu shots.  There are no Walgreens in North Dakota, except one in the far eastern corner of the state, so we were happy to find one here.

Our favorite venue in Pierre was the Cultural Heritage Center, which provided an excellent overview of the history of South Dakota.  It was a bit difficult to get to the building, however, since there was no place to park even our small RV.  It seemed a bit odd to us that a state that is so friendly to full-time RVers would not have a place for these residents to park.  Once we finally shuttled to the Cultural Center in the car, we were impressed with what the museum has to offer.

The exhibits begin with the stories of the Native Americans who inhabited South Dakota before it became a state.  Various artifacts helped us understand the Sioux way of life, but we were disappointed that the singular piece of the museum’s collection, the Sioux Horse Effigy, which is a masterpiece of Lakota sculpture, was on tour and not available to view.  The exhibits continued with displays that chronicle the experiences of the homesteaders, military men, miners and statesmen who called South Dakota home.

The People of the Plains

After leaving Pierre, we picked up the Native American Scenic Byway once more and traveled through the Lower Brule Indian Reservation.  Again, we followed the Missouri River, where high bluffs along the river give way to rolling hills and then the vast grasslands of the Great Plains. We kept our eyes peeled for evidence of the bison that live here, but they were nowhere to be seen.

A Diverse Landscape Along the Missouri River

When we crossed the Missouri River, our plan was to stop at an Army Corps of Engineers campground.  We pulled into the campground and were so disappointed to find it closed for the season.  What a shame, since it really looked like a great campground.  OK, now let’s come up with a Plan B.  Luckily, we had internet reception and found a private campground in Chamberlain, just 18 miles away.

"Closed for Season"

We drove through the Crow Creek Indian Reservation, which occupies the east side of the Missouri River, on the way to Chamberlain and pulled into the American Creek Campground and a site directly on the Missouri River.  What a gorgeous location!  I’ll tell you more about it in the next post.

Not Bad for a Plan B

A False Start, But We're Not Complaining

Now that I’ve brought you up-to-date on our summer in Colorado, I’ll pick up from the post of June 12 where I left you hanging so long ago.  As you may recall, Tim and I had just listed our house for sale and had left Estes Park on Tuesday, April 9, to start our full-time RV adventure.  We were planning to head to South Dakota to establish our new domicile and had made plans to drive to Texas after that for Tim’s consulting project at Big Thicket National Preserve.  I closed that post with the following sentence:

Well, you know what they say about those best-laid plans.  I’ll tell you in the next post.

Well, here’s the much-delayed “next post.”

After leaving Colorado, we had a beautiful drive along the western edge of the Sandhills of Nebraska and made a quick stop at Carhenge, an unusual roadside attraction.  Carhenge was designed as a replica of Stonehenge in England.  However, as the name may suggest, old cars painted gray were used instead of the original’s monolithic rock pillars.  I had wanted to visit Carhenge for years, and it was as quirky as I had pictured.

Carhenge, Not Stonehenge

"Do You Have Anything Else on the Back Lot?" 

We arrived in South Dakota and visited our new “home,” a personal mailbox at Americas Mailbox, our mail forwarding service.  We picked up our mail, acquired our new drivers licenses, registered the RV and the car, registered to vote and transferred our insurance.  Everything went smoothly, and we returned to the RV to spend Friday night before our departure the next morning.

We Made It to Our New Home State

Our New Home - A Personal Mailbox

We Are Officially South Dakota Residents

On Saturday morning as Tim and I were eating breakfast, his cell phone rang.  It was our realtor.  “Are you sitting down?” she asked.  She then proceeded to tell us that she had an offer on our house.  Great, we thought.  But, this was not just any offer.  It was a full price, cash, close-in-30-days offer!  Can you say that we were speechless?  As soon as we recovered from the initial shock, we said “Yes!”

I had read blogs of several full-timers who had sold their house within the first day or two of listing it.  I had secretly hoped that something similar would happen to us, but I hadn’t even voiced that wish to Tim.  We knew that the house looked good, and should sell quickly, but in this still-evolving real estate market, you just never know.  

So, we had to quickly rethink our plans.  We were already scheduled to head back to Colorado that day, so we had some time to think while we were driving.  We stopped for the night at Cabela’s in Sidney, Nebraska, where we had stayed on the way up.  A major snowstorm was forecast, and we wanted to be off the road.  We filled the propane tank and planned to wait out the storm.  We were warm and toasty in the RV, but freezing rain and ice caused the water pump to freeze and we had no water.  That’s ok.  Nothing could dampen our spirits.

A Bit of a Weather Adventure

The weather cleared, and we were able to leave the next day.  Although we considered the possibility of finding a nice campground to stay in for a few weeks, we ultimately decided to just head back to the house in Estes Park.  Our new life as full-timers only lasted a week.  But we knew it would just be a temporary delay.  Because it was still winter in Estes Park, we made the decision to have the RV winterized again.  Didn’t we just have it de-winterized?  Better safe than sorry.

We also decided that Tim would fly to Texas for his project.  There was no way we could take the RV there.  I would remain at the house and finish packing and moving those things that were going into storage.  Tim would fly back to Colorado the day before closing, which was scheduled for May 9.  Since we had already downsized and had gotten rid of everything we were not planning to store or give to family, I though this part of the moving process would be fairly easy.  NOT!!  I really do hate moving – I don’t know how people move every few years.  Even with very few possessions, it’s not an easy process.  Packing everything we planned to store in as few boxes as possible to conserve space in the storage unit made things even more challenging.

Moving day finally arrived on May 7, the day before Tim would arrive back in Colorado.  Of course this was the only day that week that it rained.  I had mapped out the storage unit to determine the best way to arrange the boxes and furniture to maximize the use of the space.  It was like completing a 3-D puzzle to cram everything in just so.  With a few modifications, the movers made it work.  The move was over.  The house was empty.  I could relax.  I drove back to Estes Park and moved into the RV.  I was home.