Mitchell, SD

After five days, we left Arrow Rock on Monday, May 19. Took I-70W to Kansas City and then I-29N to the Mound City, MO exit. Big Lake State Park is about 10 miles west of the interstate. Checked in at Big Lake for 2 nights. On Tuesday we spent most of the day doing the auto-tour at Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge. We were here in 2006 and it is one of our favorite places. We saw lots and lots of birds, but not as many as 2006. The guy at the Visitor’s Center said they have had a late Spring and a lot of the birds have not arrived yet. They do have one pair of Bald Eagles nesting with two chicks. Here’s a picture of one of the adults.




On Wednesday, May 21 we left Big Lake, hit I-29N through Omaha, NE/Council Bluffs, IA and got to Wilson Island State Park on the Iowa side of Missouri River at the entrance to DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge. Right across the river is Nebraska. In the afternoon we took a ride through the NWR - saw lots of birds and wildlife. Wild Turkeys are the most plentiful - must have seen a couple of hundred. Thursday was a cloudy, rainy day, but we rode through the NWR again early in the AM and also again in the afternoon. We also went to the Visitor’s Center and looked at all their displays. They have a great display of the goods recovered from a paddle wheeler that sunk in the Missouri River very near the Visitor Center in 1865. It was loaded with merchandise destined for the stores in Montana. Judging from the quantity of goods recovered, the “Bertrand” must have been a huge boat.

Today - Friday, May 23 - we left Wilson Island State Park, Hit I-29N through Sioux City, IA and on north to Sioux Falls, SD. There we took I-90W to Mitchell, SD where we stopped for the weekend. Lots of stormy weather - big thunderstorms last night with the works, lightning, thunder, rain, wind, and hail. We drove about 250 miles today and it was cloudy & very windy all the way, but no rain. From looking at the Weather Channel it looks like some more nasty weather may be headed this way tonight and tomorrow. Another reason to sit tight through the weekend.

This part of the mid-west is awesome to drive through - miles and miles and miles of flat farm lands. Some of the corn fields are so huge that you can’t see across them. They’ve had a late season and the corn in the fields is just coming up - rows & rows & rows of corn 2-3 inches tall as far as the eye can see. Also there is a lot of livestock - we’ve seen lots of huge pastures full of horses and dairy cattle, plus feed lots for beef cattle with several hundred head getting fattened up for slaughter.

As mentioned above, we’ll be here in Mitchell through the weekend. We plan on visiting the famous “Corn Palace” tomorrow (Saturday), plus we need a Wal-Mart trip. On Sunday we’ll find a local church to attend - and then be on the road again on Monday.