These Snowbirds Flew South!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. If that is the case, these four pictures say a lot…..

We had planned/hoped to stick around South Dakota for a few more weeks but the weather Gods had other plans. Despite all our efforts to stay thawed, the temperature dipped down into the low teens the other day and we had a water line freeze up again. Actually those efforts were not in vain as we did not freeze up totally as in the past, this time it was just one line. The hot water line to the kitchen. We had water, hot and cold, everywhere else but no hot in the kitchen. I tried tracing it from the hot water heater but it disappears into the frame somewhere so I will have to do it when we have time and much warmer weather.

We were sad to go but we will be back soon enough

So we hit the road on the 5^th and headed south 200 or so miles to Sidney Nebraska where we spent the night in Cabela’s parking lot. We even got out of there without spending any money!
Then it was on to Lamar Colorado for an overnight stay where it got down to 7 degrees and that same waterline froze up.

It has been a long time since we have been on the road. By that I mean traveling to sight see with no real destination. Thinking back it has been since last April. Since then we have had specific long term destinations; South Dakota, The Farm, Pasha Lake, back to The Farm and then our property. Now we are on the road, no real destination in mind other than warmer weather. That hardest part so far is getting used to the noise at night. The other thing different about this trip is that we are traveling together. We left the jeep and 4 wheeler in South Dakota. Since we don't have a specific agenda and we don't plan on staying anywhere long term we decided to leave them both behind.

We were able to get out for one last adventure before we left. Although we were less than 20 minutes from Wind Cave National Park, we have never took the time to tour the caves. So the day before we left, we headed over there to take one of the tours. They offer a limited tour schedule during the winter and for $10 each we had our own personal tour guide. We were the only two on the tour. It was very cool as we took our time and had more of a conversational tour rather than the formal tour on busier days.

Although the sights and formation in the cave was interesting, what we found most interesting was the stories behind the scenes. When asked if the caves were haunted our guide responded “I have stories if you want to hear them”.  She said that the caves seem to have an energy of their own and there are times when the cave “just does not want you there”. She told us stories of voices in the cave when there was no one else around. Shadowy figures following some of the employees around and one story where two employees were walking the cave after hours and the hair on the back of their necks stood up at the same time and they knew something was watching them. Interesting and scary all at the same time!

These box formations were pretty cool

She said these box wafer formations could be up to 8 feet thick

Our ultimate destination for this week is Amarillo. Research showed that there are several potential boondocking spots in the area. We don't want to go any further south at this point as we may have to run back to South Dakota when our shed arrives. 

Checking Passport America we saw one park that was only $13.50 a night so we thought we would stay there for the weekend while we got acclimated to the area and decided where we wanted to stay long term. The AOK RV Park is anything but its namesake but it will do okay for the weekend and at least we are not froze solid!