Magnus Goes North With Summer, Day 14

Monday June 9

That was the end of our adventures in Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the start of the long drive back home. But not just a drive—a continuation of the adventure!  I’d chosen a string of state parks and recreation areas, which are basically the same as state parks in South Dakota, plus a COE park.  So no more of this RV park nonsense—we’d be doing real camping as we define it.

Leaving Oleo Acres

 

 

 

 

On the road. Sunny and warm with a small chilly wind.

The first day’s drive was a short jaunt to Shadehill Recreation Area in South Dakota.  It was lovely!  Not the drive—the park.  The drive was kind of suckish because it was supposed to be about two hours, but by the time I rerouted the Google Maps route to avoid dirt roads, it came closer to 2:30 on the map.  It took us a lot longer, because we had a gas stop and also because the rough roads, even when paved, slowed us down. And also because the long, long hills out here wreak havoc with our gas mileage.

For reasons unknown, Ed has been trying to keep our gas mileage to 10 mpg according to the onboard computer.  I’m not sure how accurate that is, but I find it really annoying, because this particular fill-up was going to be a “short” leg (a by-product of my planning too hit as many gas stations on our discount fuel program as possible.)  There was no real reason to conserve gas, but we ended up dropping our speed to under 50mph on the uphills and up to 65 on the downhills. I doubt if this helped the gas mileage overall.

Anyway, we somehow arrived at Shadehill and found that it was big and open and our site was located on the edge of the reservoir.  There were birds all over and we had a very nice view onto the water. The grass was cut low and there were walking trails around the edge of the lake and around into the rest of the park.

 And on the way in, as we stopped at the dump station to fill our water tank, I saw a Horned Lark out the RV’s front windshield!!! New lifer for me! 

When I got out to look closer, he’d disappeared. But now I know what to look for—a very pale, small bird mixed in with the blackbirds on the short grass.  He was a fraction bigger than a sparrow, but not really much. I’d have taken it for a Lark Sparrow except for the distinctive face pattern.

 

LATER

Sunset is 8:30, sunrise 4:57 The sun is almost down now. There’s just something nice about a campsite on the banks of a Lake. Like sunsets.  Slow sunsets, with the exact opposite of the sky showing the full moon rising, to the west. Cool.

Eagle just flew over. Had his white head but he was missing a lot of other feathers. Do eagles molt?