8-8-19 Gettysburg, SD

We have made the transition from, “Jeez, let’s run around naked,” to, “Get out the sweats and mukluks.”  Today’s high was 72F and it is now 67F out there, and raining like a sunuvabitch, too!  Nevertheless, Rob found a restaurant that serves wienerschnitzel and so, in the rain, we’re off to the races.

Our campsite at Pelican Lake State
Recreational Area

We were but 2 nights at Pelican Lake State Recreation Area in Watertown, SD.  Beautiful as it is, the campsites have only electrical service.  No problem, we can camp self-contained for a while but we don’t like the constant vigilance and worry.  For the record, we had booked a spot at a different park, Prairie Pasque, on June 7 but Nikki contacted me later to notify us that she had to cancel our reservation.  She told me she had gotten a better offer, a customer who wanted to book for a month.  Huh!  Imagine that!  She was “sorry for any inconvenience,” though.  So we were high and dry until I found this hidden gem.  We are backed right up to the shoreline and it is as beautiful here as it can be.  There are acres and acres of manicured grass and green trees. 

Are these sites spacious enough?!

It looks like a god-sized golf course.  Our closest neighbor is 35 feet away.  So the rude cancellation turned into a silver lining.  The lake was named by early settlers for the white pelicans that used to hang around here.  The white pelicans are long gone but the lake and its name persevere and we share the space with ducks, great northern geese and gulls.

South Dakota prairie:  flat and straight

Our route this morning takes us to Gettysburg, SD, straight west.  Straight, as in straight.  And flat.  Flat and straight.  You can see Oregon from here.  On either side of us are green fields, some planted with crops of corn, beans, alfalfa, livestock feed crops or sunflowers;  some acreage is ranch land dotted with cattle and horses.  The locals say that this is the sunflower capital of the USA.  Many of the low lands are flooded and the ponds act as an unintended habitat for marsh grass, reeds and thousands of ducks.  The poor farmers are held hostage by Mother Nature, often.  A rugged, isolated, brave way of life;  maybe we don’t much think about that or appreciate it when we drop into the grocery store to buy a bag of frozen peas. 

Sunflowers galore!

We are out on the prairie west of Gettysburg, SD whose motto is, “Where the battle wasn’t.”  At our campground, South Whitlock Recreation Area, the local folks tell us they have to date received 300% of their year’s normal precipitation.  On Tuesday of this week, they had a vicious golf-ball-sized hail storm that beat the piss out of trees, houses, crops, farm machinery, cars and trucks. 

Here, on the edge of Lake Oahe where the Army Corps of Engineers has housing, we saw at least 100 homes with crumbled broken siding and boards covering holes where windows were just last week.  The 65mph wind blew the hail and glass right through the insides of the homes destroying furniture, carpet, bedding and anything else in its path.  Hail storms take no prisoners.  Apparently, we travel with our guardian angels for, once again, the storm missed us by a few days and hours.

This is a bare-bones, rugged little campground far from civilization frequented mostly by hard-core fishermen and 27 trillion black flies.  But there is a restaurant here that serves baskets of crawfish tails and walleye filets cooked up 4 different ways.  Yup, we’ll stay a day or two!  And tonight, we’ll “celebrate” being married to the same person for 30 years in a row!  Jeez.