Thursday, June 30, 2011

On the Way to Custer, SD

(NOTE: There was a delay in posting yesterday's entry due to a blogspot problem, but the problem has been solved, and yesterday's entry made it in.)

A combination of increased experienced and weather-related detours has resulted in our doing more traveling off the interstate and on two-lane highways. These points--and the purchase of a GPS system geared for truckers--found us on US 83 heading north from Oakley, KS.













Highway 83 is a two-lane highway that runs from the border with Mexico to the border with Canada, and does so in a relatively straight line.













We left Oakley, KS, and drove through the prairie of western Kansas to Valentine, NE, near the border with South Dakota.













We headed through western Nebraska, surprised at how little traffic there was and how few towns there were along this 240-mile section of 83.












We spent one night in Valentine before beginning the last leg of our travels to Custer, SD. All the photos today were taken during the drive from Mundo, SD, to Custer, SD, along I-90.













Over the past three weeks, we had been in camp-grounds a few days before or after some very severe weather.














From Joplin, Springfield, and St. Louis, Missouri to Springfield, Illinois to Kansas City, Mo and Junction City, KS, we had been very fortunate to miss the most severe impact of weather conditions.













And this destination presented the most recent example of a close call. The night before we arrived in Custer, SD, Rapid City (35 miles to the north) had been hit with hail that was about three-quarters the size of a golf ball.













With this in mind, we were particularly watchful of the clouds we noticed on this drive on I-90 to Custer.














Even this unique billboard for the Firehouse Brewery did not lighten our concern about weather conditions in the Black Hills of South Dakota.













We made it through the thunder-storms with only a brief stopover at a Rest Area and pulled into the Broken Arrow Horse Camp and Campground as the skies cleared, eager to begin our three-week stay in the Black Hills.

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