North to Fargo

By 9:00am Monday morning, Aug 16, we were on I-29 north of Kansas City, MO heading for Fargo, ND. Just Jeff, me, and Kira (on her third birthday). This was our first trip all summer to just travel and sight-see without visiting friends or family members. We sort of had an agenda, but kept it fluid for whatever happens.

A cool front had FINALLY come through the area on Sunday, so the temperature wasn’t unpleasant, but the humidity was climbing. We drove through Council Bluffs, IA (across the Missouri River from Omaha, NE) and on up to Sioux City, IA. Nebraska and South Dakota are separated only by the Missouri River heading west at that spot and both states are west of Iowa. We crossed the Big Sioux River at Sioux City into South Dakota about 2:00pm where it was 85°. We then spent the next four hours driving north through South Dakota. There were gentle hills, lots of “ponds” (possibly from strip mining as we saw lots of gravel piles), plenty of grazing cattle, lush green fields of both corn and soy beans, and lots of recently bailed hay.

It’s still “wheat harvest” time in South Dakota, so I managed to get this shot from the road of dueling combines.

It was a long, hard first day drive, and we didn’t reach Fargo, ND until 7:00pm. But the temperature was a fabulous 72° and dry. It was nearly 8:30pm by the time we got our campsite at Mel Reiman Recreation Area, north of a gorgeous little town called Valley City, ND. The town is literally nestled along a valley out in the prairie. By then, it was 61°.

We had a great campsite (#2) overlooking the lake but the sunset was nearly gone by the time we got set up. And it was such a long day, I didn’t care about getting up early to take any sunrise photos.

Tuesday morning we got back on I-94 heading west. . .to Theodore Roosevelt National Park Badlands, north of Medora, ND.  Lots of farmland and hayfields along the way.