Oct 6 - In Gratitude For America's Free and Cheap Campsites

Night 4 and 5

The Camp Host at Buffalo Bill's

Last night was our most interesting night so far, our second night of camping, this time at Buffalo Bill’s State Park Ranch in North Platte, Nebraska. Nebraska was one huge cattle ranch after another, a bit different from Iowa, which was one huge cornfield after another. To our delight, many ranches and cornfields hosted wind turbines.

See if you can find me...

It felt great to sleep on the earth a couple nights. The first night (day 4), we were the only people at a little park by a river in Macedonia, Iowa. Margo found both the sites from this amazing website that lists free or cheap places to camp all through the US. We were even able to plug in our vehicle and charge our battery at the Iowa site. Both nights we awoke to owls and coyotes, but the second night, at Buffalo Bill's State Park Ranch in Nebraska, we also awoke to a screeching, hissing sound that sounded like it was checking out our tent. Margo thought maybe a bobcat or a lynx, I thought some kind of bird because of how fast the sound moved away when it decided not to eat us ☺

A much ruder awakening came at 4:30am. A muffler-less 4x4 truck stopped by our vehicle - the only one parked on the little dirt road - 100ft from our tent. We heard the country music get louder (a door opening we imagined), then voices talking. After 30 seconds or so of Margo anxiously speculating and me hoping it was a dream so that I didn’t have to get dressed and go out there and use my yellow belt karate skills, the door closed and the truck drove away. Margo went out to see if they had done anything to our vehicle, and they hadn’t. Perhaps it was just the park ranger checking to see if we’d paid our $8 camping fee. …I realize this raises some questions too, but alas, we are moving on.

Waking up in Nebraska we saw our first frost of the year, lining our tent and our vehicle. The night before had been chilly, as you can see by Margo’s attire, and I did my best to warm us up by making grilled cheese sandwiches and soup on our camp stove.

Margo doing the best she could to keep warm with most of our winter stuff packed too deep to access without unloading everything.