June 2, 2010 Day 42 We Leave SD and head for Nebraska


Sioux Falls at Falls Park

We get up and out by 8:30 am so we can view Sioux Falls. We have readied the RV so we can make a quick departure when we get back. We drive about 10 minutes down the road and we are there. It is a little cold out this morning, something in the 50’s or so. The falls are quite beautiful as all the rocks around them are pink quartz. The water was churning up and creating a lot of foam on the rocks. In a way it looks like someone cut chunks of rocks and placed them here. PTCC asked me if it was natural or man made. The falls drop about 100 ft over the course of the run in the park and then meander downstream. We walked all along one side and took lots of pictures in the overlooks. As we were walking a train came along the bridge that goes over the river and we waved at the engineer. We then walked back to the visitor’s center. It had just opened at 9 am, the building has an observatory area in the top that you can walk out on and overlook the falls. We walked around the deck and took pictures then went downstairs and looked in the gift shop. CC wanted one more opportunity to take shots of the other side so we walked to the first overlook and then left.

We go back to the KOA and finish disconnecting and head out. We had a very uneventful day of driving. One thing we noticed was that Iowa and Nebraska both tear up their roads completely when they are working on them. In FL they just scrap off a layer or two and repave it. We had many miles of one lane road several times over the day’s drive, because the other side was essentially a dirt road. We paralleled the Missouri River in Iowa for about 80 miles finally crossing into Nebraska closer to Omaha.

Not too long after we passed through Omaha we arrived at Mahoney SP. The first thing they want from you is $$ for a parking pass. We had to pay $30 for both vehicles. The first one was $20 and the second was $10. If we had paid by the day it would have been $72. Either way it is a rip off. Most states only charge you for 1 vehicle since they know you are camping and not driving both. But NE charges you each and every day you stay even if your vehicle never moves. They should just add that cost to the camping fee and be done with it. The park is great though. We only have an electric hookup so we stopped to dump and load water before going to our campsite.

We are in the Lakeside Campground which is supposed to have wi-fi but we can’t get it, so CC is leaving the mi-fi with us. Our site is in full sun which is OK since we have been freezing since we started this trip. We checked out the bathhouses and they look really old with only 2 showers which seems weird since only 5 of the 150 sites have FHU. Pretty much everyone has to use these baths, so there will probably be a wait on the weekend.

We finished setting up and took PTCC over to the theater for a Jr Naturalist photography class. I think she really enjoys taking pictures. AmberLee was the instructor and spoke about how to frame pictures and look for unusual things to capture in the shot. PTCC took about 45 shots and AmberLee loaded them on her I-Pad and told us some of them will make it on the bulleting board or webpage for the park. Then we came back to the RV for a minute and then went to find a grocery store. This was a comedy of errors as CC didn’t want to get the GPS and his phone wasn’t giving good directions today. PTCC refused to let us buy milk at a convenience store because she thought that was yucky for some reason. So we ended up in Gretna at a very small grocery store. We will find a Walmart tomorrow when we take CC to the airport in Omaha.

We get back and make dinner and then go for a bike ride- first down from the campground where there is a small rock garden with a stream and then up to the lodge. It looked like they had a really good buffett. PTCC and I will probably try it since they have theater packages for dinner and a show on the weekend. They have a theater that shows several melodramas over the summer.. They sound like a lot of fun to see. The park also has several playgrounds, water park ,rock climbing, craft house, indoor playground, and a marina.

We all went to get showers and found them really weird. First there were no doors just flimsy curtains that didn’t cover the door openings and then the shower had a button you had to push to start the shower. It would only turn the water on for about a minute or so and you could not adjust the temperature at all. Then as you got out of the shower there was a fan attached to the ceiling that blew on you so you got chilled. We have to use them but I don’t think I’ll like it much. We came back after showers and planned our day for tomorrow. We’re trying to do some things so CC gets to experience something since he has to leave tomorrow.


Leave a Reply