4th POST - MITCHELL, SD

Friday 4/27, we left Big Lake, MO headed farther north.  We took I-29 N, crossed into Iowa, and went through Council Bluffs to Missouri Valley.  Lots of flat farm country for miles & miles.  We’re getting into corn country, but it is too early for planting – do see some plowing all along.

At Missouri Valley, we took Hwy 30 west and made it to Wilson Island State Recreation Area.  The road out to this park is also through flat farm lands.

This is another campground we have been to a couple of times in past years, but it has really changed.  It also got flooded really bad in the big Missouri River flood of 2011 and was closed for several years.  They have done a lot of renovations, added some extra campsites, and enhanced the electric hookups (previously 30 amps, now all 50 amps).  The campground was almost full over the weekend, but by the time I took this picture Sunday afternoon, it was almost empty.

This park is right on the Missouri River, and next door to the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge.

Part of the NWR is DeSoto Lake.  This is what is called an “oxbow lake” because many, many years ago the Missouri River had a huge bend and during one of the floods, the river channel took a short cut across the bend, cut a new channel, and left the big bend cut off from the river leaving the lake that’s here today.  This phenomena has occurred in several other spots on the Missouri River over the years leaving these ‘oxbow’ lakes – Big Lake that we just left is one of them. You can see from the pictures that the lake is about the same width as the river.

DeSoto NWR, like most NWR’s, has an auto tour loop – this one about 8 miles.  It partly follows the lake, but also goes through some wooded areas, past some huge grassland fields, and by some swampland and ponds.  We took the auto tour on Friday afternoon and then a couple of times on Saturday.

They must have some pretty powerful storms and tornados come through here from time to time.  We saw this twisted and broken Cottonwood tree that had suffered the consequences.

Also, we didn’t find out why, but there is lots of dead standing timber – mostly Cottonwoods.  We were wondering if somehow the big flood had something to do with it.

We didn’t see very many new birds – there was a Spotted Sandpiper by the road and we saw a pair of Bald Eagles on their nest across the lake.

Yesterday (Sunday) we went into Missouri Valley and attended worship service at the Missouri Valley Christian Church.  It was a contemporary type service and was OK, but not the kind of service we’re used to.  Of course, it was geared more toward the youth and there were a lot of young people there – that was great.

Today (Monday 4/30) we got back on I-29 and headed north to Sioux City, IA.  All along, there’s more of the same huge flat fields.

At Sioux City, we crossed into South Dakota, followed I-29 to Sioux Falls, SD, and took I-90 West. Almost got run over by a train!

Lots & lots of wide open spaces in South Dakota!

Today’s drive was mixed from a wind standpoint.  All day there was a 25-30 mph wind out of the South. For the drive up I-29 North it was a tailwind, so it didn’t affect the driving.  However, when we hit I-90 West it became a cross wind and that made it very hard to stay in a straight line.  Big trucks passing didn’t help a whole lot. Thank goodness it was only 65 miles to Mitchell, SD where we stopped for the night.

Question for all you physics majors – what effect does a 25-mph tailwind have when you’re driving 60-mph??

I was going to make this blog post yesterday, but because of very weak internet service at Wilson Island, I couldn’t do it. So here it comes today from Mitchell, SD – you get a day extra for no charge.  Tomorrow we’re headed on across South Dakota to Custer State Park. Later -----------