Our final days at Wheatland Reservoir were peaceful and uneventful. We stepped into the water a couple of times, but even though the water was pleasant, the air was cool and there was a breeze, so we both limited our lake exposure mainly to our feet. The last day it was around 65 so we mostly just took walks and hung out in the van enjoying the view and watching people come and go. When I get to stay in a nice place for 4 or 5 days in a row, it is pure bliss for me. No chores, no errands, no driving. I wake up knowing I can do whatever I want to do or do nothing at all. An unexplainable calm washes over me.
On Monday, I woke up before sunrise. It was a travel day and I had planned to go to a truck stop, take a long hot shower and do laundry. I also needed to pick up a few odds and ends at the grocery store before I headed out to BLM land. I forced myself to hang onto some of that peace and calm as I packed things up and locked up the cupboards and secured anything that could fly around the van as I drove. I didn’t feel the need to rush since I was up and going so early, so I made some breakfast and Cosmo and I went for a walk. The grocery store was closer than I thought, and we got there within a half hour. It was locals’ day at the Safeway. Everyone seemed to know everyone. As I walked across the parking lot someone shouted out of a car window “Hello Harriet.” Harriet seemed genuinely happy to see the shouter. She went over to the car and had a long chat with the driver. Inside, I heard the cashiers say hello to several customers by name. There was such a good vibe, like a cross between Mayberry and Cheers (you know, the bar where everybody knows your name.) I swear, prices are going up every week. A few weeks ago at a Safeway outside of Denver, I thought maybe the prices were high because we were near a big city and tourist spots. Then this week I thought maybe it was because it was a small town. I think food is just expensive.
After shopping I went to a truck stop. Well, sort of. It was a Sinclair gas station with a convenience store, a liquor store and an Arby’s. My boondocking app said they had laundry and showers. It looked doubtful. I went in and asked “Do you have showers and laundry?” She said “I do. The shower is in the men’s room and I’ll get Dolores to check to make sure the washer and dryer are empty.” I followed Dolores back to the stock room where there was a washer and dryer. Delores took her clothes out of the washer and put them in a basket and said, “There you go hon, all yours.” It was a dollar to wash and 75 cents to dry. I got the clothes started in the washer and went into the men’s room. It was a little dated, but it was clean and the shower room and shower stall itself was quite large. I turned on the water, and even though it squirted out in unexpected directions, it was steamy hot. It cost $5—a steal, to be sure. I took my time and washed and conditioned my hair and scrubbed my feet with a brush. I was a new man when I exited. I went back out to check on Cosmo, then back in to move clothes from the washer to the dryer, then back out to make lunch and then back in when the clothes were dry.
I drove about an hour and got to Glendo State Park, close to central Wyoming. It is a beautiful park, with lots of peninsulas surrounded by the lake. We were up on a cliff, overlooking a huge area of the lake.
The temps were in the 80’s but the air coming off the lake was cool. The water was so inviting but we were on a cliff. We walked until I found a path on the least steep part and we ventured down. There was no chance of me falling OFF the cliff, but there was a good chance of me falling and sliding down the rocky slope. I was very careful, and we made it without incident. The payoff made it worthwhile. I sat on a big rock, feet dangling in the cool water. Cosmo got in up to his belly. He still doesn’t understand water. He bites at it, and prances in and out of it. He sees the moving reflections of the water on the rocks below and barks at them. He dunks his head, like bobbing for apples and comes up with one in his mouth, tail wagging frantically all the time. I eventually got in up to the bottom of my shorts. We had a good time.
We came back and sat in the sun to dry off, and I laid down on the picnic table at our site and fell asleep. I expected this park to be very crowded; it was empty, or at least my section was. There were no other campers in sight. We sat outside after dinner, watched the sunset, and I fell asleep early.
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NEBRASKA
The next morning we went for a quick dip in the lake. I drove down a “Day Use” road, and parked close to a beach. The short walk to the water was much easier from this side. Cosmo kept putting his snout under water and blowing bubbles. He may learn to snorkel yet. Afterwards, we got in the van and headed to Nebraska. Out goal was Peterson Wildlife Management where Campendium said there was a Scenic Overlook. The drive was long (for me) but easy. When I got there, I was disappointed. There was a tiny gravel lot and a locked gate (which Campendium warned could be locked and to be careful if it was open because if you drove in, you may not be able to get out.) I parked, and started to set up and noticed a dumpster up the hill. It took only a couple seconds for the light bulb to go on…The scenic overlook was just a few yards up the road. I drove up and there was a HUGE parking lot.
I was the only one there. I parked at the lowest side, away from the road. I couldn’t see the road from where I was parked and people driving on that road could not see me. It was blazing hot, but there was a breeze that made it tolerable. The asphalt lot was surrounded by tall grass, so we couldn’t walk much. The asphalt was too hot to walk on (I learned a month or so ago when I had on shoes and Cosmo started hopping in the sand that I need to take my shoes off. If walking on asphalt or sand or dirt is too hot for me, then it’s unsafe for Cosmo as well.) The tall grasses had lots of thorny spines, and Cosmo kept getting them between his pads. So “walks” were limited to “bathroom breaks” until evening. And then the fun began. We went out and Cosmo had his long rope leash on. As we walked he grabbed “my” end and began pulling. It was clear he hadn’t had enough exercise for the day and he started running circles around me, pulling the rope which by now, I had hold of the middle, one end was attached to his collar and he held the other end in his mouth. We played tug for about 10 minutes as he circled, pulled, and did his best to tie me up. At one point I got laughing uncontrollably. Here we were, in the middle of nowhere, up on the highest point, totally alone in a huge parking lot playing. I wish I had drone footage of that scene. In my mind’s eye, I could see us from above, just the two of us romping with not a worry in the world, in the middle of Nebraska. (Think of Julie Andrews in the opening scene of Sound of Music, only with an old man and a dog and you will be on the way to the correct image.) We played for awhile until he burned off some excess energy, then went back inside to get ready for bed.
In the morning we left for South Dakota. We traveled north out of Nebraska and went to Shep’s Canyon. It’s listed as “primitive camping” meaning no hookups…they provide places for you to pull in and park and in this case, each “site” has a fire pit (which you are not allowed to use because there is a fire ban in place throughout the region). I am unclear whether it is state or federal land. When I got there, the main road in was closed and they were bulldozing much of the land. I backed up only a few feet and saw a park ranger pulling up in a golf cart. I got out and we chatted. She said they were completely re-doing the park, but I could still camp by heading down another road and following the curve until I saw “two humps.” She said to pull into either spot and park near one of the fire pits. I pulled into a spot already occupied by one large 5th wheel, parked way over to one side. I pulled to the other side and got leveled up pretty easily. The van was about 20 yards from the lake, and since the weather was blazing hot (broke 100), it was pretty convenient to walk a few feet and get in the cool water. Cosmo gets farther and farther in each time, but still hasn’t allowed his feet to leave the bottom. I’m sure he can swim, I just don’t think he knows it.
My friend Tim texted me to see where I was. I told him, and he said he and Jennie were in Iowa, heading west. They joined me by dinner time. I’d met them in Quartzsite last winter and we’ve kept in touch. They spent the night and the following day with me, before moving on to Washington, where they are camp hosts for the summer. They each have a dog and one of them loves to swim. Cosmo seemed jealous, and wanted to go in after him, but Preston swam out quite a ways. I put Cosmo’s harness on him, which has a “handle” at the top. I threw his ball in and let him go in just a short distance. Each throw took him farther and farther, until he refused to let his feet leave the bottom. So I grabbed the handle and lifted. He seemed panicked, but “swam” (a doggie paddle with his front paws coming out of the water and thrashing for dear life). I turned him around and helped him until he could touch bottom. Lots of praise and clapping and we did it again. It wasn’t long before he would go in over his head, get his ball and swim back. Like his father, it’s not a pretty sight when he swims, but he gets the job done. It was so much fun and very rewarding to see him finally swim (He’ll be 5 years old in two weeks. Old dog, new trick.)
It was too windy to eat outside so Tim and Jennie and I ate dinner in my van. Jennie cooked the first night, I cooked the second. It was a nice reunion.
The next morning, they left for Washington and I headed north and stayed at a campground in Hot Springs, SD. I hadn’t planned this trip well. I was apparently heading into tourist country (near Mt. Rushmore) on 4th of July weekend. I found a spot open at a campground and with my senior discount it was only $9. I looked online for hours trying to find any spot for Saturday night, but absolutely nothing was available.
I plan on going Tuesday, the 5th of July up to Rapid City to get my van tags transferred to SD and get my SD driver’s license. One of the things I need for that is a receipt showing I’ve spent one night in SD. It can be a campground or a motel receipt. I stayed at a campground but booked online and the receipt shows www.recreation.gov and the campground name, but no reference to South Dakota. If I can’t find a campground between now and Tuesday, I may get a motel room. Those too are in high demand and so much more expensive than I thought they’d be. So we are heading off to the BLM land we just left to see if they still have an empty spot. If not, I suspect we’ll end up at a truck stop for the night.
Lessons from the Road: I stopped for gas in Crawford, NE. I try to never let my gas gauge get below half a tank. I’m so often out in the boonies and I don’t ever want to worry that I can’t make it to the next gas station. So when I saw this gas station in the middle of nowhere, I decided to top off, even though I still had nearly ¾ of a tank. The price was $4.79 a gallon, which was on the cheap side for this area. I pulled up next to the pump and got out my credit card. I couldn’t find a card reader on the pump. Did I have to go in to pay first? I removed the nozzle and the pump came to life, resetting to 0.00 gallons. I put it in my tank and squeezed and gas started flowing. I smiled. They trusted me to put $50 worth of gas in my tank and believed I would go inside and pay for it afterwards. That sort of trust is a childhood memory. That’s the way the world used to operate. It was an “old-timey” gas station. There were two big ice chests outside (surprisingly, with no locks) that reminded me of the old Coca-Cola coolers that were ubiquitous outside of service stations back in the day. I went in and a heavy-set young woman with freckles and two front teeth missing smiled. I said “I can’t remember the last time I got gas first and paid afterwards. Crawford must have a pretty low crime rate.” She beamed and said “Yeah, for the most part it’s pretty safe here.” I bought some very expensive ice and snacks and paid for the gas. I wondered where we went wrong. When did people start pumping gas and driving off without paying, causing almost everyone to install credit card readers and “pay first” policies? When did we stop trusting each other? When did we become not WORTHY of that trust? Having been mostly a “city boy” I often mock folks in rural areas as not being sophisticated enough. And yet “in the city” one would never trust that people pumping gas would come inside and pay afterwards. But here in Crawford, they trusted me, a city-boy, stranger-from-the-east, old-hippie to fill my tank and come inside and pay for it. This is the world I want to live in, where people trust a stranger just because they are another human being. And maybe more importantly, other human beings value that trust, and act accordingly.
I’ve found the people in Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota to be absolutely charming. I suspect if the conversation drifted to politics or religion, we might not like each other very much, but so far, we’ve stuck to where is the best place to get propane, where is the nearest grocery store, etc. There is a laid-back hospitality and a friendliness that is often missing in more populated areas. Before I left Delaware, I had some trepidation about this part of the country, fearing being an outsider, being different. I imagined folks saying to me “You ain’t from around here, are you?” Nothing even remotely like that has happened. People are friendly and seem eager to help a stranger. I’m a huge fan of kindness. It encourages me to be more like that.