The catlinite exists in a thin seam, pitched at an 8% angle, under a layer of hard quartzite. The Indians would quarry away the quartzite to get at the catlinite, which can be seen here as the narrow dark layer the the base of the quarry’s back wall:
The loop hike to a few quarry sites was enjoyable:
The kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:
We continued east to reach Minneapolis, where we will be spending Shabbos with the community in St Louis Park, where we lived while I attended graduate school.
Good Shabbos from St Louis Park, Minnesota! See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.
The main attraction here is the housing of the artifacts from the steamboat Bertrand, which sunk here in 1865 and was found in 1968, her cargo still intact:
This vast roam displays a fraction of the 10,000 cubic feet of cargo recovered, supplies for the gold fields in Montana:
The Bertrand’s paddlewheel flange:
This keg of nails rusted together, then the barrel rotted away, leaving the mass of metal behind:
Miners need lots of shovels:
General goofyness at the visitor center:
This poster shows various birds’ wingspans to scale:
This facility manages both DeSoto and Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuges, so the kids completed the joint workbook and received both badges:
Many of the instruments had impressive internal scrollwork:
A carved neck:
The cello on the left has seam lines near the top of the belly, showing the original profile of the instrument, a viola de gamba made by the Stradivari family in the 1730s:
A Stradivarius violin:
This Stradivarius guitar has its maker’s name carved in the neck:
We stayed at the museum until closing, then drove north to overnight at Royal River Casino outside of Flandreau, South Dakota. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.
After nearly two years in the West, it’s amazing how humid it is here. Even though it’s only in the mid 70s at night, the humidity can approach 100%, making everything sticky. Yech.
This morning we left the Walmart of Crete and drove into Lincoln where we visited the National Museum of Roller Skating. As a former USACRS member and competitive speed roller skater, I was interesting in touring the museum:
We spend some time in the lobby area viewing the displays:
To get to the museum, we passed by the offices of USA Rollersports (formerly USACRS):
The kids completed the Junior Ranger workbooks and received their patches:
The Omaha regional office also houses administrative offices for the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom. We had already been working on the Underground Railroad Junior Ranger workbooks, which are not associated with any particular location. The kids were able to able to hand the workbooks in here and receive their badges, which tied in nicely with our visit to Nicodemus National Historic Site yesterday:
From the NPS offices, we walked across a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Missouri River from Nebraska to Iowa:
Views of Omaha:
Welcome to Iowa:
The bridge walkway surface indicates where the border is:
We drove north to overnight at the Walmart of Blair, Nebraska, which puts us in position to visit DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge tomorrow. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.
Today we drove east to Nicodemus, Kansas, the oldest African American-founded community west of the Mississippi and the site of Nicodemus National Historic Site:
The town, once with a population of 700, was decimated by the great depression and today has a population of about 30. The park service leases the township hall and uses it as a visitor center:
The town has a fascinating history and we enjoyed learning the story of post-Civil War African American migration and settlement.
The kids completed the Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:
On our way out of town, we drove by three original buildings, the hotel, a church, and the old school:
Continuing east and north, we reached the town of Crete, Nebraska, where we spent a couple hours visiting with my college friend Steve and his wife Ann. It was so much fun to catch up of the last twenty years and tour their lovely home. Unfortunately, we have no photographs from our visit.
Tonight we’re overnighting at the Walmart of Crete, Nebraska. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.
This morning we unhitched and drove east to Fruita. While I was getting tourist information at the Colorado Welcome Center, Trish and the kids walked across the street to the local Vietnam War Memorial:
The kids finished their Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:
We drove the Rim Drive through the monument and took in the views:
Here a portion of the canyon wall popped off and slid down into the canyon:
This is a hanging canyon, its floor is quite a bit higher than the Colorado River valley beyond:
One of B’s flower photos:
Once we exited the park, we drove via Montrose to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The canyon is one of the deepest in the US. It was dizzying photographing over the edge, and unfortunately the photos below don’t capture the scope of the canyon as it drops over 2,000 feet from the rim to the river below:
The Gunnison River drops 49 feet per mile in the canyon, about 7 times the slope of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon:
The Elk Range is visible in the distance:
B spotted this fellow:
The kids received their Junior Ranger badges:
The kids almost completed the Junior Ranger books for Curecanti NRA, which is adjacent to Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. The ranger gave us the badges to give to the kids when they finish their workbooks:
From there, we resupplied at the Montrose Walmart and returned to the RV around sunset. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.
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