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Cowpoke and the boys pick-up Cooky and Curtis in Prairie Village at about 7 AM. On account of the supplies in the car, we take a very squished ride north of the river for a 7:30 AM rendezvous at Reynold's place. Coffee there was weak; but, soon we would be having real trail coffee brewed over a smoky fire. Hey, did somebody bring a ball with a long tail to throw, was that thing called a foxtail?
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After some last minute dinking around, we hit Interstate 29 at about 8:30 AM traveling north. We eat lunch at McDonald's somewhere in Iowa. By late afternoon, we're taking a photo opportunity at the Corn Palace (photo) in Mitchell, SD.
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Its dinner time at the roadside visitors center in Chamberlain, South Dakota. Cooky made us some mighty fine fried pork chops with lots of onions, corn-on-the-cob, and other fixins. The meal was the Cowpoke's idea, and it was real, real good if I don't say so myself and we all licked our plates clean and begged for more. That sure was a nice box fer all the cookin' utensils.
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Now, while dinner was simmering, and Cooky and the Cowpoke was checking out the liquid seasoning by the bottle full, the kids was climbing the walls. Mountaineer was supervising the youngins cause it was our understanding that there was to be some serious terrain when it came to crossing the Bighorns. Yessir, right serious terrain now.
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Just before or maybe after dinner (being road-weary, its hard to remember); we took time to run around the bluffs overlooking the Missouri River. The bluffs exhibited badland topography, and there were lots of cedar trees. I think we saw a tick on either Jeremy or Speed Bump. We weren't in the mood for them kind a hitch-hikers.
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We left Chamberlain driving into the setting sun and started reading the road signs looking for a place to camp. We finally got off I-70 at Kadoka, and drove around looking for a camping place. The first place we came to, the lady said the showers were broken, so we tried the next place. This second place was operated by a fella that was living in a trailer. He had built a big porch over the trailer which connected onto a laundro-mat. The porch area had a pool table and I think his dogs liked to sleep on top of it. Seems like it was still pretty early in the tourist season because we had the place to ourselves and it was very reasonable priced. Course the miniature golf course he had looked like it hadn't been working since 1950. An I don't think it would be possible to clean the green scum out of what was 'sposed to be a swimming pool
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That evening, after pitching our tents, we had us a citronella candle bonfire. Cooky had gotten two big ol' citronella candles in buckets painted with American Flags at Wal-Mart, just special for us. Now, seems the Cowpoke, Mountaineer, and Cooky got out the old guitar and a whole bottle of some other kind of liquid food seasoning and proceeded to have a hoot of a time. Cooky got rowdy an told the Cowpoke to quit playing country and startup some Clapton, like maybe play "Bell Bottom Blues". After that things deteriorate and we all head to our tents.
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