Day 7

Tuesday, Sept 16

Drove from Yankton to Kennebec, SD, today...about 200 miles.

First half on state roads....corn and hay fields, some silage.    Nice small towns.   Saw one Amish buggy with trotting mare.   Joined Interstate 90 at Mitchell.   Saw the Corn Palace.

Mandatory photo of Corn Palace.

Traveled west on I-90 to Chamberlain, where the Interstate crosses the Missouri.   There's a Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center at the rest stop there.    Cars from all over the USA and plus one van from Spain with folks making a round-the-world trip.   (Yes, Vern, the Center has a full-size replica of the keelboat...)   But the replica keelboat is far too wide...the actual keelboat was only 8 feet in beam.

Interpretive Center on Bluff above Missouri.   (Tepee is not as large as it looks in this photo.)

 

Linda opening one of the storage lockers.   The lids were designed to be bulwarks against tribal arrows, if needed.

Both Lewis and Clark had served in the Northwest Indian Wars, fought in the late 1780s and early 1790s in the Ohio territory.   It is believed that they met at Fort Greenville where Lewis was assigned to serve under Clark.  Clark had seen the disasters that occurred to the poorly prepared expeditions of Harmar and St. Clair.    He then saw the success of the well prepared expedition of Gen. Anthony Wayne that culminated in the victory at Fallen Timbers.   Wayne followed the example of the Roman Legions:  soldiers must be well-drilled and never relax their guard.   Build defenses at every halt.   Good defense helps assure good offense.   Lewis and Clark remembered these lessons and were apparently rarely surprised by the tribal warriors.  They knew it was easier to deal from strength than weakness.   One reason for taking the large keelboat was that it served as a mobile fort (one cannon and two swivel guns) in addition to hauling a huge amount of goods.

 

The storage lockers contained nice reproductions of typical gifts given by L&C to the tribal chiefs:   certificates, silver medals, yard goods, ribbon, fishhooks, mirrors, etc.

I-90 as it crosses the Missouri River going west.

We continued west.    The terrain changes again just west of the Missouri.    Very few row crops.   Mostly just huge hayfields, pasture, and unused prairie.    We settled into our campground and set out to visit the Lower Brule Sioux Buffalo Interpretive Center.   It was closed.   Had an interesting trip, though, on state roads through grasslands near the south bank of the Missouri.

 

 

Found a buffalo herd, our first live buffalo this trip!   We were very happy to see them.

 

Averaging 9 miles per gallon, pulling the trailer at 55-60 mph.   The F150 normally gets only 13 mpg.   Advice:  if you are going to pull a trailer cross the USA, get a diesel F250. 

I listen to lots of local radio.   Starting in Missouri, there are many good local oldies stations, like we used to have in the East.    I also have a lot of mix CDs when the radio fades.

Linda adds:  Here in the plains of South Dakota, one sees only rolling hills.  Be sure to gas up when you can or you may be walking.  Lots of sunflowers growing in the fields.  Beautiful on this sunny day.