Saturday - August 15

Clear sunny skies today and warming up.....so, we left the campground around 9:30 and first stop was "Auntie D's Gifts and Coffee" on the main drag of Valentine (Heart City).    This town of 2820 seems to be doing well as almost all of their buildings are occupied with 3 banks, library, Ford dealer, restaurants, bars, nail and hair salons, etc.    And Auntie D's was really cute with very nice gifts and in the back.....COFFEE!     No one is wearing masks in this town - guess they are not concerned as Cherry County has such low #'s, but we wore ours.    

So, coffees in hand, off to Henderson's IGA on edge of town.....parked Big Red and Mark went inside to get some apple fritters to go......we ate and drank in Big Red and then walked a short jaunt to catch the Cowboy Trail.    A beautiful morning for a walk (had thought about biking, but so glad we didn't as it was very soft gravel and our small bike tires would not have done well nor we riders.)   We walked to the Valentine Bridge that crosses the Niobrara River.    Very scenic.....

                                                                          The Cowboy Trail

                                                                              Down in the valley

                          Standing on the Valentine Bridge overlooking the Niobrara River.    We'll be                                                            driving over the bridge in the distance tomorrow with Flo.

That's the longest we've walked in several weeks and felt really good and glad to "beat the heat" as it got to 91 today.

A first - nice bench to take a break but this one had a canopy to keep off the sun!   Not seen that before! 

                                                                    Nebraska prairieland

We stopped at Frosty's Drive-In for some potato salad-to-go.    Mark had some last night with his Alaskan cod sandwich and it was really good.   So, decided to get a pint.......didn't take long and we were on our way back to the campground.    Came inside, opened the brown sack and what????    They gave us mashed potatoes and gravy..................arghhhhh!    We really wanted that potato salad, so Mark drove back into town.    The young man had written it down correctly, but.....owner came out and apologized and said he was making a fresh batch and could Mark wait 10 minutes or so?     Sure......so, he ended up giving us a quart instead of a pint and off he went - happy campers are we with tuna/egg salad sandwiches and our freshly-made potato salad!

Just seeing the healthy crops here in Nebraska reminds us that when we get to Iowa, it will be a totally different story as they were hit so hard by the derecho last week - over 10 million acres of corn flattened.    And many grain bins destroyed or blown away....Mark has been in touch with his college roommate, Mike, from Cedar Rapids where the damage was really severe.    We plan to get together with Mike next weekend when we are in Coralville AND, also see Drew!

Here at Fishberry Campground, we are just 5 miles south of South Dakota.     We'll be heading there tomorrow as the campgrounds between here and next destination are few and far between.

Went back to town around 4 and you betcha....Frosty's was our destination for ice cream treats (banana split for Mark and hot fudge sundae for me)   Scrumpt-dillicious!!!

Came back to Flo, read our books and then around 6:15, the sky darkened, the wind picked up and our phones said rain starting in 10 minutes.    We went for a short walk to check out the weather, felt a few sprinkles .....but that was it and sure didn't settle the dust!