We were going to be out and about for Memorial Day and hoping to avoid the crowds. Where to go on one of the busiest outdoor weekends of the year? Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in northern Nevada was on the list and looked like a good candidate. It turned out the be a great place to get away from the crowds see some wildlife and abundant wildflowers and stretch our legs wandering among the sage.
As we left Minnesota we stopped off while crossing the Mississippi River. It was starting to seem like we were really moving west crossing the Mississippi. North Dakota was one big rainstorm, so we kept driving to South Dakota to get through it. Holy Pheasants! It seemed like we were seeing dozens per mile as we crossed the plains. Our next big destination was the Badlands National Park.
We finished off our “East Coast Adventure” in much more of a rush than we had planned. Things were closed for the season, and we had someone expecting us back. Now those pressures were gone. We had time and we didn’t really know where we were headed, except west. This was a luxury we didn’t have when we moved east last August, so we could take some time to wander our way back west. We did have the boat to tow, so that limits our options of adventures a tad bit. We chose a route that took us through northern New York, then through the great lakes region and we were off, westward bound.
Our first night was at a beautiful lake in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. The loons and owls were our only company for the night.