Day 12 - Sept. 8, 2011

We were greeted with this sight when we awoke in Valentine, Nebraska...foggy and chilly...not very good weather for kayaking on the Niobrara River. So we shelved our plans for getting on the river.
However, we drove out to the Fort Niobrara Wildlife Refuge to learn about this unique refuge and its history. It is located in the old Fort Niobrara Military Reservation, which was established in 1879 to keep peace between the settlers and the Sioux Indians and to control cattle rustlers and horse thieves. The army closed the fort in 1906, but used it to supply fresh horses for the cavalry until 1911.

In the early 1900s, President Theodore Roosevelt and private conservation organizations were becoming increasingly concerned with the exploitation of wildlife and their habitats on the Great Plains and elsewhere. As a result, an Executive Order was signed on January 11, 1912, establishing Fort Niobrara as a "preserve and breeding ground for native birds." Later that year, the Refuge's purpose was expanded to include the conservation of buffalo and elk herds representative of those that once roamed the Great Plains.
As the fog cleared, we were pleased to see one of the 350 buffalo who live in the refuge. Sid said when the buffalo exhaled, he could see a large cloud of foggy breath. We were disappointed that I didn't capture that in any of my photos as we drove by. We also encountered a flock of turkeys and many different kinds of birds. What a lovely oasis in the midst of the Great Plains.
One of our destinations was Smith Falls State Park, just 18 miles east of Valentine. We met Nicki in the park office. A part-time employee who grew up around the privately-owned park property, Nickie gladly shared information about the unique climate and native trees in the park, including Aspen trees and Paper Bark Birch trees. We hiked to spring-fed Smith Falls, the highest waterfall in the state of Nebraska. In fact, a recent university study of 20 miles of the Niobrara River catalogued nearly 200 waterfalls in the area...all of them spring-fed.
On our way back through picturesque downtown Valentine, I captured this shot of detailed brickwork/carving on the front of the bank building...quite the eye-catcher.
On our way out of Valentine, the road ran parallel to the Cowboy Trail, a trail from rails being developed along 321 miles across the state. This quarter mile bridge is really attractive.
US Highway 83 took us through the famous Nebraska Sandhills, the largest sand dune formation in the Western Hemisphere, spanning nearly 20,000 square miles. Precipitation allowed grassland plants to take root in the shifting sand, eventually stabilizing the dunes and holding them in place. Another unique aspect of the Nebraska Sandhills is that it is resting on one of the largest aquifers in the world. The Ogallala Aquifer consists of 1 billion acre-feet of ground water and comes above the surface at the base of many dunes. Thus the Sandhills is a region of dry and sandy grassland dunes with many thousands of lakes and wetlands scattered between them.
After passing near the geographical center of the continental United States, we arrived at Cawker City, Kansas, home of the World's Largest Ball of Twine! When we first started riding our motorcycle, we promised ourselves that we would stop to see roadside attractions as often as possible, including the world's largerst ball of twine. We were so excited to learn that we would be passing near this famous sight.
Of course, I made reservations for two nights at the "Ball of Twine Inn." The Inn has only one room, a large space with a living room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. This homey little place is in downtown on Highway 24 and has its own courtyard with a pergola and several attractive birdhouses.
Naturally, I had to take a photo of the ball of twine during the golden hour just before sunset. Don't worry, I have more photos to share during Day 13's post. I know you can hardly wait!
Here's a shot of Sid in the courtyard enjoying the evening and our special view of of the ball of twine just across the street! We were in heaven.

Day 11 - Sept. 7, 2011

After eight nights at our cabin in Custer State Park, it was starting to feel like home; so, it's time to move on. We're not exactly sure where we are going to spend the next night, but we know we want to go to the world's largest drug store in Wall, South Dakota, just down Interstate 90. Let's hit the road!

It was 1936. Druggist Ted Hustead owned a struggling store in the town of Wall, South Dakota. The Great Depression gripped the nation, and the Dust Bowl made things doubly bad on the high plains. But Ted and his wife, Dorothy, had a bit of luck on their side. Their town and their little store happened to be about 75 miles east of the place where a man named Gutzon Borglum was carving likenesses of four presidents out of a Black Hills mountain. Dorothy figured tourists would come to see Mount Rushmore, and she figured the trek across the dry, barren plains would make those tourists hot and thirsty. The drug store should offer free ice water and her husband should put up signs along the highway to advertise it.

The dinosaur in the photo above is one of the many unique signs on I-90 advertising the free water at Wall Drug. We saw the first sign about 350 miles from the store, just as we left Iowa and entered South Dakota.

This old photo of the original store hangs in the history gallery of the current store (shown below) which now consists of 76,000-square-feet of fun and shopping. So successful is Wall Drug that the town of Wall, populated by a mere 800 residents, reported gross sales of nearly $37 million in the “retail trade” category in 2007. There is even a lovely little chapel in the store where loyal customers have been married!
After shopping in the store, we headed out to the Backyard, a free, outdoor, park-like area packed full of every kind of western-themed curiosity imaginable. I came face-to-face with a growling, smoking T-Rex who was interested in his feeding time.
Sid managed to take a ride on the world's largest jackalope. The jack nearly bucked him off, but he held on. I think the two of them had a great time. We plan to exchange Christmas cards this year with Sid's new friend.

Out in the parking lot, Sid proudly attached his new Wall Drug bumper sticker to the back of the trailer.



We saw this billboard of a Black Hills postcard in the Wall Drug Backyard, just after Sid's ride on the jackalope.
After leaving Wall Drug, we traveled across South Dakota to US Highway 83, which runs 1,885 miles from the Canadian border just north of Westhope, N.D. to Brownsville, Texas, on the Mexican border. It is one of the last and longest stretches of highway in America and little of it is spoiled by soulless four-lane Interstate. It's a road that passes through communities, by courthouses, diners, schools and family farms. It's the kind of by-way we prefer to travel, providing the opportunity to meet folks and hear their stories. We expect to travel three states via this route.
We stopped for the night in Valentine, Nebraska, at the highly-rated Trade Winds Motel. The nearby Niobrara National Scenic River is one of the top ten rivers for canoeing and kayaking in the US. We are planning to do a little kayaking here tomorrow.