Friday June 16, 2023 - Excelsior MN to Recharge Lake Recreation Area NE

Good sleeping in the van last night. Christopher made us breakfast and we looked at some of the pictures from back in the late 1950’s. Chris’ father David was an artist and photographer and he took A LOT of pictures. 

We said our good byes and wiggled the back roads out to the highway. We pointed Google Maps to Bisbee and she took us on some wonderful roads today (thanks to “no tolls” setting). All day on smooth back roads for the most part. All the crops are planted and just coming up. Corn, soy and sorghum as I learned later in the day. Snacks in the car so no lunch stop today. Gass dropped from $4 to $3.22 as the day wore on. 

We use the Campendium app to find places to stay at the end of the day. Lots of options and we ended up at Recharge Lake Recreation Area in Nebraska. This is a small reservoir with a couple of docks to swim or fish off of. We got here and there were a half dozen free sites. As the evening wore on the sites were all filled and some folks went begging.

It was 91 degrees when we ended the day, and after a quick swim in the reservoir the cold drinks in the shade went down easy as we watched all the local folks set up their rigs for the weekend. I talked a local guy up and he explained the crop situation. His ancestors came here when they first opened the plains. There was nothing here but grass, no trees at all. Now it’s crops from horizon to horizon.

There was a busy train track we could hear all night. Took me back to summer nights on the farm in Vermont long ago. Early to bed as the temperatures dropped.