Friday 9-27-24 & Saturday 9-28-24 Two Driving Days

 

 

Having fun driving

 

 

Friday 9-27-24  New State & Ainsworth City Park

 

Welcome to Nebraska

We spent 11 fabulous days in South Dakota and did a lot of hiking, camping and visited amazing places. We camped in three different campground in the Black Hills National Forest and camped a couple of nights in Custer State Park. It's time to move on.

After breakfast we put things away and secured. We weren't in any hurry, we wanted to wait a bit so the traffic for the buffalo roundup died down. 

We left the campsite at 8:15 and drove 12 miles through Custer State Park. We were pleasantly surprised and relieved because there was no traffic jams. As we were driving we saw a lot of turkeys, white-tail deer and a few black-tail prairie dogs. The road was curvy but very nice. 

After leaving Custer State Park we continued our adventure another 250 miles. The roads were two lane highways through the prairies of South Dakota and into the prairies of Nebraska. We saw a lot of ranches and farmland. We drove through a huge Native American Reservation. We saw three coyotes, a few Pronghorns, horses, cattle, sunflower fields and other farmland. The sunflowers look like they were finished with their cycle and were waiting to get harvested. The highways took us through a lot of small towns and by a little bit of the Badlands. We were going to stop to get a picture but there wasn't enough room for the Minnie. The drive was a lot of open land. I was awake most of the drove. We stopped a few times to stretch our legs and to eat lunch. A bit into Nebraska the time zone changed to Central Time so we had to advance our clocks one hour. We were stuck in road construction for 6 minutes about an hour from Ainsworth.

 

Waiting for plot truck

By the time we got to Ainsworth Nebraska it was 3:30, Larry had driven 262 miles. He was ready to call it a day. We stopped and filled the Minnie in Ainsworth. The city park was a half a mile from the gas station. 

Ainsworth City Park is a gorgeous park with a lot of oak trees. It has RV sites with electricity and without. It's $10 for power and $5 without. The RV sites are in a grassy area, some have shade and others don't. We got one with shade. It has old restrooms. The park has a playground, soccer fields, baseball field, football field, a huge area with horseshoe pits (24 pits), basketball hoops and swimming pool. When we went to the bathroom we had to be careful because there was a lot of sand-burs. It's a great place to camp.

 

Falls colors on an oak Sawtooth in the park

 

Camping at Ainsworth

 

Locals playing in the park

Playground

 

Horseshoe pits

 

Because it was 90 degrees we relaxed under the air conditioner. After dinner I walked around the park for an hour (8 laps) to get some steps. By the end of the day I had done 17,000 steps, which put me in 2nd place in my group. 

 

Saturday 9-28-24  Good-bye Nebraska, Hello Kansas

 

Kansas welcome sign

 

We had another day of driving. Larry drove 325 miles. The drive was mainly in Nebraska on two lane highways. As we drove we saw a lot of farmfields with alfalfa, corn and soybeans. There were cattle grazing. We drove through a lot of small towns. Taylor, Nebraska was a cute town with painted silhouettes of people welcoming you to town. A couple miles before Taylor we saw a silhouette of a husband and wife waving. As we drove through Taylor they had other signs throughout the town. One I saw was a mother, daughter and son. The signs were all black and white but very well kept. In Taylor's neighbor town we saw one sign that was in different colors welcoming you. The signs made you smile. We drove through Grand Island, Nebraska. Larry had worked there when he was 19 years old and he remembered how it looked then, Forty + years has changed it a lot. After Grand Island we got on I80 for about 40 miles. Then we were back on two lane highways. We crossed into Kansas about 41 miles from our destination of Concordia where will spend the night at their city park. We started our drive at 7:15 and stopped at 2:30.

We have camped at Concordia City Park before, back in 2017. It's a small RV park and the sites have electric. Water is available but you share it with other campers. They have restrooms with running water but no showers. The restrooms have one stall and no privacy. They have a dump, dog park, playground and disc golf course. It's right next to the airport and Kansas National Guard. Across the highway is a Walmart. The campground is free but they accept donations, you can stay for 7 days but 3 days if you're a tenter. It very pretty with a lot of trees.

 

Kansas National Guard in Concordia

 

Concordia City Park playground

 

 

A carving at the park

 

It was 89 degrees so I had to wait until the sun started down to do my steps. I walked around the park for an hour. By the end of the day I had done 17,000 steps.