Nebraska - Day 19 - south to Gering

Robidoux RV Park, Gering

Wednesday, 19 October 2022

I was up again before 2:00 this morning - the slope of that campsite was too uncomfortable for me to sleep well.  I took Dext for his first walk at 3:00 and we all had breakfast before 4:00.  We were all ready for lunch by 10:00, so I fed us all before we left Ft. Robinson.

By his 2nd walk this morning, Dext had gotten the runs and I have no idea why.  He threw up this afternoon, and his stools continued to be liquid and had blood in them.  He'd clearly eaten something way wrong, and this time I had no idea what.  All I could do was keep an eye on him and hope his system would work it all out (and be ready for a vet visit if it didn't).

today's route

We got on the road right after "lunch" and headed south.  A road sign warned of "Hills/Winding Road" and that's exactly what we got for much of the drive.

A sign told me I could turn east to go to the town of Marsland.  I thought of several reasons for that name, but the more boring reality is the town was named for a railroad employee named Marsland.

Another sign told me I could turn west to go to the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument.  I didn't go there but understand this is a notable place for 2 reasons: they've found full skeletons of Miocene mammals (such as those found at Ashfall Fossil Beds); and they have extensive artifacts of Lakota history.  Something for another trip to Nebraska.

I started seeing tumbleweeds.  In fact, I got deluged with tumbleweeds.  They started coming so thick and fast that I couldn't dodge them.  I didn't want them hitting the RV and was a little worried about driving over them, worried they might get caught in the undercarriage and cause trouble of some kind.  But there was a very strong crosswind, and the only way I could have avoided the tumbleweeds was to not have left the campground.  It was a little spooky.

I guess this must be cow country because I was seeing vast acres of scrub.  But I also started seeing dead corn and sunflowers, so maybe some of what looked like scrub from a distance was actually land where corn had been harvested.

I saw snow fences and realized I hadn't noticed many so far in Nebraska, which seemed odd.  I mean, it's not like Nebraska doesn't get a lot of snow in the winter, and it certainly has plenty of wind.

I passed several University of Nebraska facilities.  One was labeled "Experimental Range" and "High Plains Feed Lot."  Later I passed one labeled "Experimental Farm" and still another labeled "Research and Extension Service.  This is absolutely an agriculturally oriented state, despite what the various civic leaders say about the importance of manufacturing.

The sign for Scottsbluff County also said it was "Livestock Friendly."  This is a program by the state department of agriculture to recognize counties that support the livestock industry.  I can attest that Scottsbluff has its share of livestock because I passed several feed lots, and the smell proclaimed them for miles on either side.

I've been noticing that even the paved roads in Nebraska aren't so great.  The seams in the road are very rough - and every road has seams every few yards, I think.  Which means every few yards, when I cross a seam, it's like going over a low speed bump.  At any rate of speed, these make for an uncomfortable ride.  Since I've been covering a lot of miles on these roads, I'm getting really tired of it.  Seems to me the University of Nebraska should be able to do some research on how to build roads, which has plenty of application to agriculture since roads are how products get to market and how supplies get to farms.  But I've noticed most county roads are unpaved entirely, so maybe they figure we should all be glad for pavement of any level of quality.

We got to the town of Scottsbluff (no sign), then through town, across the North Platte River  and into Gering (again no sign), arriving in tonight's campground just before noon.  Short drive today, and I used the extra time to start on posts for the month in Nebraska, which I'm already almost 2/3 of the way through, so it's about time.  Maybe it's the really strong wind that hasn't let up, but the campground wifi is no good, so I have to use my hotspot.  Glad I have a backup plan.

I guess the campground was named for early fur trader Joseph Robidoux and his family, who were the earliest white settlers in western Nebraska.  The name, by the way, isn't pronounced ROW-bid-oh, as I expected it to be.  Not around here anyway.  The local pronunciation is RUE-bid-due.  Everybody in town pronounces the name that way.