It's a cool July 4 morning in Clarkson, Nebraska. Upper fifties, on a farm, surrounded by corn.
We drove across the plains like fury on Thursday from Custer State Park, South Dakota to here in Clarkson. It's been a while since I updated you with a map. We are nearly 1,000 miles from Yellowstone now. We've stopped at Medicine Lodge State Archaeological area and over-nighted in the Bighorn National Forest in Wyoming, stayed at Custer State Park in South Dakota and now spent two nights here on the farm in Clarkson, Nebraska. Here's the route map thanks to Google: Yellowstone to Clarkson
I've posted some of the pics along the way. Here's what we learned and can share:
1. If you ever want to see amazing scenery and animals and don't want to go all the way to Yellowstone, try Custer State Park They have amazing geology, impressive terrain and spectacular wildlife (not nightlife... critters)
2. If you want to spend three lost hours of your life that you can never get back, enter I-90 at Rapid City, SD and head east. to... oh.... about.... Reliance, SD. That ought to do it.
3. Inspect your Airstream at every gas stop. We discovered at the second fill up between Custer State Park and Clarkson that a rock had punctured a hole in one of the plexiglass wraparound shields on the Airstream. The good news is that's what it's there for and the glass underneath was totally undamaged. The bad news is its a couple hundred to replace it which we will do upon return to Florida and before hitting the road for our next adventure.
4. Did I tell you they grow corn here in Nebraska? Let me show you:
5. Our hosts Jim and Kim have a classic American farm here in Clarkson. If I had as many outbuilding as they have I'd certainly fill them with the collection of cars, travel trailers, tools and whatnot that they have. Here's a pic:
6. Jim gave me a tour of the area in his '53 Ford yesterday. At one point he observed that there isn't much happening here. Not to be argumentative or hokey, I disagreed. There isn't much obvious activity here compared to... say... New York, or Miami... but places like Clarkson are where everything happens in America. Especially on this July 4 it's meaningful for me to see the basic building block of America's past and present strength... middle America... agriculture... the heartland... impressive.
7. We went through a portion of the Badlands in South Dakota. All I can say is "I've seen worse". I think the Badlands had a good PR agent who promoted their badness beyond what it deserves... kind of like a geographical Justin Bieber.
8. The trip across I-90 in South Dakota and state roads from there into Nebraska gave me a chance to reflect on the easterner's notion that "flyover country" is an undifferentiated, featureless landscape. That's unfair. At its best it is varied and vibrant. At it's worst (e.g.: the three hours of life that slipped through my fingers in central South Dakota) it is a landscape comprised of three alternating forms: 1. Green, treeless, rolling hills 2. Green treeless, slight valleys and 3. Tree lined streams with an occasional farm. Put together these forms repeat for tens of miles in random alternation forming waves on the prairie ocean.
9. Farm architecture has a beauty of form and texture that I had known but forgotten. Let me show you:
That's it for now. Happy 4th of July. For us it's time to press on east... into Iowa.
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