Heading to Sierra Vista

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 9-5-2021 Sunday

We got an early start today, even after dumping, filling with water, and fueling. We got on the road at 8:15-, heading south on hwy 83. About the only traffic we met on the way into town were pickup trucks pulling boats. We had scoped out the gas stations and Joe picked out the one he thought would be the easiest one to get into, so once he got that job finished, we were on our way.

About 8 miles out of town we saw our first antelope -- 6-- just a few yards before the National Grasslands sign. I immediately started writing down the count, but we only saw 11 and they were all in South Dakota.  But we saw zillions of cattle.  We are definitely in beef country today, especially in Kansas. 

We had our first hundred miles in by 10:00 and crossed into Nebraska at  10:17.   I took a driving shift today for about an hour in Northern Nebraska, rolling hills and cattle were about all of the scenery.                                                                                                                                        

 I think we are in the grain belt too.  We saw some different crops today, maybe canola?

and we think this is milo or sorghum.  Makes a pretty field.

Our road turned in Murdo, S.D. and I caught a photo of this truck/car? on a post.

There was a sign before our turnoff stating that there was construction on hwy 83, part of it was dirt, and we should consider another route.  Well, that didn't really work into our plans, so we just took the risk.  We did run into 11 miles of dirt road, but it was actually smoother than some pavements.  Some of it was just dirt, and some had been oiled.   But it slowed us down a bit. It certainly wasn't as bad as it could have been.  Fortunately, no one was working on the holiday weekend, so we didn’t have that to deal with.  But once we got through it, we had good road again.

We were moving right along today.  We crossed the Kansas state line at 2:40.  We passed a feedlot just north of Oberlin, Kansas that must have had 5,000 to 10,000 head.  Then we saw 4 more feedlots, and at least 2 dairies, besides the hundreds of range cattle we passed.   I'm always interested in the feedlots because the company I worked for in Terre Haute sold our cattle products to them.  A lot of the towns we drive through when we travel are familiar to me because of that work we did with them.

And in Oberlin, we saw this HUGE dump bed — probably more than 20 feet wide — waiting to get the go ahead to travel on.  It’s probably going to a mine somewhere.  It is oversize in every way -- height, width, and length.

Another sight in Kansas was this buffalo/cowboy statue in Oakley -- this was at the Buffalo Bill Cultural Center.  There was a lot of Annie Oakley stuff there too, but I don't know if she was from there.

And we met another wide load -- this one I saw coming and got a picture through the windshield.  Joe moved over a little as we met him.

We made it all the way to Liberal, Kansas today -- 562 miles!!  Joe just kept driving.  When we left Pierre, S.D., this morning it was 56 degrees.  When we stopped 10 1/2 hours later, it had reached 90 degrees.  We parked on a Walmart parking lot since we just needed someplace to park overnight, and ran the generator for a while to cool it down.  We bought a lot of fuel today -- 120 gallons, ranging in price from $2.99 to $3.05.  for a total of $366.91 -- an expensive day.  Tomorrow will probably be similar if he can stay in the seat that long, but we should get to Sierra Vista on Tuesday.  That's our goal.