Without further adieu, the camping adventure….
Our 2006 vacation took us camping in our new used pop up camper to Yankton, SD on Lewis and Clark Lake. We arrived on Sunday night, just in time to get the last camping sight in the ‘first come/first serve’ campground. We ended up staying 7 nights in a beautiful spot amongst the trees and close to a water spigot. While we were there, Samson taught Hardy how to camp quietly, calmly and politely. Hardy tried his best, but continued to pee on the cooking grate, bark at everything that moved, growel at the things that stood still and tangle himself up in each tree.
Among the highlights of our trip, we took a rainy day historical tour of Yankton. Many of the homes in the tour dated back to the 1780’s, and some have a distance connection to fame. An example: the Shannon-Ohlman home was leased to Fed. Judge PC Shannon, who presided over the trail of Jack McCall, convicted killer of Deadwood’s Wild Bill Hickock. Another building, the Frost, Todd & Co building, was the first structure of Yankton. The “Todd” in the name was the cousin of Abraham Lincoln’s wife. Interesting. We also visited the Dakota Territorial Museum Park and looked in the buildings surrounding the museum, including an old school house that was used until the 1970’s. The ‘teacher’s rules’ were still hung in the hallway from 1920. They were very picky on what teachers could and couldn’t do in those days….
We crossed Gavin’s Point Dam, built in 1957 as part of the Pick-Sloan Plan. We checked out the visitor centers in the areas and drove to all of the look out points. We crossed the Meridian Bridge, and looked in the windows of the Territorial Capitol Replica, in Riverside Park. On the weekend, beginning Friday and going through Sunday, Yankton’s biggest summer festival, Riverboat days, was held. There was a big parade on Saturday that we went to. It lasted 2 hours, and had some great floats. We then put the dogs in the blazer, and walked down to Riverside Park, where there were carnival rides, food vendors and a huge art and music festival going on. We tooled around both Saturday and Sunday; there was so much to see. I bought a couple CD’s from the American Indian Rock Opera group, featuring Brule. The soft music put Eden to sleep. Also, I purchased a bracelet of different colored beads. Other hikes we did during the week included the Gavin’s Point Nature Trail, which began at the end of our campground, and looped around. We hiked the Trailhead to Paddlewheel Point. We walked part of the Auld-Brokaw trail on several different days (funded by Tom Brokaw and his wife, Meredith). We picnicked in Fantle Memorial Park and walked the perimeter of that. We walked several of the trails in Lewis and Clark Lake, and we hiked the Corps of Discovery Welcome Center Nature trail. Eden loved the hikes, and the dogs…well, that goes w/o saying.
On Sunday, we attended Concordia Lutheran Church in Vermillion, about 25 miles from Yankton. It was a nice small service, after which, we changed into hiking clothes and took off on a one mile hike up Spirit Mound. (I forgot to pack my socks, it was icky). This historic prairie was known by the Omaha, Oto and Yankton Indian tribes who believed that the mound was occupied by little devils, about 18” in height with enormous heads, who shot any person who came near the mountain. When Lewis and Clark’s expedition came to this area in 1804, the two headed out to this mysterious place to have a look see. They reportedly found sweeping prairie, their first heard of about 800 buffalo, and great flocks of swallows. But there were no devils or little people in sight.
On Monday, the 21st, Al needed to be in Papillion, so we headed down to the much talked about Mahoney State Park in Ashland, stopping to tour the lush Ponca State Park on the way. We made it by dark, set up camp, and took off for Papillion. On Tuesday, we were able to tool around Mahoney to see what there was to see. It was more of a resort for older kids than what we had in mind, but we looked for things to do. There were hiking trails, so we got a map and headed out. Well, that was a bit of a disaster. For starters, the hiking trails no longer exist, except on the map. They had been marked at one time, but the markers were all grown over. And the hiking trail we thought we were on, ended up being a horse trail that we were not supposed to be on. After a couple hours in the fly- humid heat, we found our way out of the bramble and went back to our camp spot to rest in the 100 degree heat.
side note: While setting up camp the second time, Eden was awfully quiet in the camper. When I peeked in, she was happy as a baby who'd found the tupperware of cookies! "who me?"....
Tuesday was Eden’s 1st birthday. Since we didn’t have much in mind to do, we headed into Ashland and found a “Dairy Cone” stand. We brought chocolate muffins and a candle (but forgot a match) and got some vanilla ice cream. The dogs and the three of us celebrated outside this ice cream stand. A whole year of her life has gone by already. We couldn’t think of a gift for her, but she didn’t know the difference. 
On Wednesday, we decided to go for a drive and find a different place to hike. We drove the south side of the Platte River, and found Platte River State Park, in which there was much hiking to do! We took the camera and got some great scenic shots in the park while we hiked the quiet, solitary trail. We then drove to Louisville and across the Platte on the north side and followed it back to Schramm Park to see what there was to see there. On Thursday, we went back to Schramm Park and hiked the 3 mile National trail, before heading back to camp and packing up in the 95 degree heat to head home.
Of course, a vacation wouldn’t be exciting without a few mishaps. Eden had diarrhea for the first full week, we broke a buckle on the car top carrier and had to take apart a camp chair strap to fix it, we shut our spray bottle in the door and broke it, watched a lawn mower run over (and mutilate) Samson’s tie out, chain and clip and Al had 6 people in the hospital while we were gone. But, we managed to have a great time, as usual.
We do love to hike and Eden is the perfect age and weight to do it, so it was great fun. It’s nice just to sit out and look at the stars under a glowing campfire. No TV, no phone or internet, nobody to bug you (except for the bugs themselves). It’s always rejuvenating for mind and spirit, and I appreciate the fact that we were able to go. God continues to be gracious unto us. To Him be the glory forever and ever!
