Long Drive Today - Lennox South Dakota

We started off this morning early, on the road by 8 am.  Yes, the sun is just coming up around 8 am, and I am not going to drive in non-sunlight because the Deers are jumpy, and I "HOPE" I have hit my last deer in my lifetime...having hit one between Little Rock and Pine Bluff back in or around 2007.

Indy getting her early morning air again, and again, and again, and late morning air, and early afternoon air...I think you got the picture.

We sure like looking at the trees...fall is in full force in the Dakotas, and soon the cold air will be moving in.  So down south we head.  Nearly a 400 mile drive today to get to Lennox, South Dakota.  Countryside Convenience Motel and Campground was our target, and we pulled in at 3:15. 

Thirty eight camping spots, of which 25-30 seem to live here full-time.  Although it is along I-29, and there is a gas station/convenience store, it is quiet enough that I am sure we will have a good nights sleep.  Last night in Dawson it was very quiet, except for a train or two which passed through the town about 3 blocks away.

Although there is this nice play area, I have yet to see any kids.  I think they need to put a doggie park in instead of a play area.  😁

 

Which reminds me, we stopped at a TA Travel Plaza on I-29, and they had a doggie park.  On left is Indy, and on right is Bubba, and YES, the doggie park was that big and had grass...lots of grass.

We are here for the night, then off to Kansas City area for a 2 night stay at the Blue Springs Lake Campground.  We have to make some decisions because the Gulf has a huge surprise in store...

Hurricane Delta came to life and quickly grew into a Category 4 storm.  Above is the storm's predicted path as to Tuesday night, but a lot can change in the next 24-48 hours.  So we will watch things while in Blue Springs and decide what to do by Friday...which is when the storm is predicted to get close to landfall.

Bubbalo - Theodore Roosevelt National Park - North Unit

 

Hi Folks, Indy here again, I HAVE to tell you about what I saw today...it was a BUBBALO!

INDY!

Yes Dad.

I told you, it is a BUFFALO, not a BUBBALO.

But Dad, it poops as big as Bubba does, it LOOKS like Bubba, and frankly, it looks as stu...

INDY, don't talk about your big brother like that...Bubba is not stu...I mean Bubba is smart, he is just old and a bit slower than he use to be.   Now look, since you are going to act like this, I am taking over...

We got up a little after 7 am, and we were on the road by 7:45 having parked the HHR in the back parking lot of the restaurant near the RV park.  The drive up to the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park was uneventful except for the road construction being done just before and after the entrance...another bridge being replaced...this one over the Little Missouri River, a tributary of the Missouri River which is about 550 miles long.  As you get close to the park, you do see some of the rock formations like we saw yesterday.

Right after the bridge you turn left into the park...which you need to watch for very carefully with the construction because the sign and the left hand turn are together, and the sign informing you of the park entrance blends in with the construction stuff.

At this entrance during this time of year you have to enter the Visitor's Center to show your card...and MASKS are required...even though she looks at the card from 15-20 feet away and you exit.  But like any place that want masks, I am happy to oblige.  For those who don't, I just maintain my distance.

After we came upon the first batch of Bubbaloes, I mean Buffaloes (INDY, Why did you EVER put that into my mind?) we came upon another batch of Buffaloes.  (YES, we KNOW that in America we have BISON, not Buffalo...but why be such a stinker about it?)

After getting these pictures of the Buffaloes, Marcia turns to me and says, "Ok, let's go home!"  But we continued in pursuit of more horses.

We continued with our climb to Oxbow Overlook.  At one of the pullouts along the way, we stopped and I cooked some egg burritos with the last of Arny's wonderful tri-tip he cooked before we left, and our low-carb burritos.  YUM!  We take off and we are still 4-5 miles from Oxbow Overlook where the road ends and you turn around and head back to the front gate. 

Know that we left at 7:45, entered the park around 8:30, I could not understand why it was now 10:30 and we still had 4-5 miles to go to the top.  I asked Marcia if it was possible that we had been in the park for two hours already, and she said "Yes".  WOW, time sure flies when you're having fun!

For nearly 4 miles you drive along the top of a plateau, and can not see down into the canyons below except for an occasional glimpse here and there.

Finally you get to the overlook, but to see anything you have to walk out on this rough pathway, so Marcia stayed in the motorhome.  I found the view a bit anticlimactic, but that is because one naturally compares it to other views they have seen, such as the Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, and numerous other views which just blow you away.  Yes, this was nice...but not a top five view, maybe not a top ten view.

We see more, or the same buffaloes that we saw when we entered the park back at 8:30.  Unfortunately we did not see any more horses, nor any of the Big Horn Sheep.  It is now close to noon.  Wow, time does really fly ...

I take a right headed back to the RV Park 45 miles away through the construction...and I see this sign..."Entering Mountain Standard Time".  WHAT?  When did we leave MST?  Then my phone changes time, the GPS changes time...we got our missing hour back.  YES, we were having fun...but not enough to account for a missing hour.  Who would have known that the Little Missouri River in this area was the boundary for the difference between Central and Mountain Time Zones...so in the park, the South Unit is on Mountain Time, the North Unit is on Central Time.  It also means that in that construction zone, part of the crew is working on Mountain Time, the other part on Central Time.  I can just see a guy in Mountain Time asking his boss what time lunch is.  "Noon" the guy says.  It is only 11:00, so he goes to the other end of the work zone, where it is noon, and has his lunch.  Very confusing situation.

So we got back to the HHR, loaded onto the motorhome, at started down I-94 east.  I took these two pictures about 100 miles apart...yes, not much of a difference, and that sums up the trip to Wolff's Grill & Bar, Dawson, North Dakota where they have a Passport America RV Park behind the Grill/Bar.  

There are around twenty spots, and there is only one RV in the park other than us, and I think he/she might work in the Restaurant/Bar.  For $15 it is a deal.