Update - the final

     On the final leg of our trip, we stopped at and then crossed the Fort Randall Dam, a hydroelectric dam near the SD/NE border. It was an impressive structure, at least to a person who’s never seen a hydroelectric dam before. We missed the daily tour, but that was OK. You can’t do everything on one trip, right?

    Mom wanted to visit the Happy Jack Chalk Mine so, since it wasn’t too far out of the way and I was curious too, off we went. Chalk is an interesting substance, used in a variety of products from the traditional chalkboard chalk to make-up. The temperature was in the mid-50s in the mine, and the humidity was pretty high. The guide told us that the “dust” we saw hanging in the air was actually the humidity. He also told us about some of the events that had happened in the mine. In the “ballroom,” he said, a group actually held a dance complete with live band. I’m guessing the bats that lived in that cavern weren’t too happy and told everyone to get off their lawn. Or off their chalk. There’s another long corridor that was used for motorcycle races at one time. Yes, actual motorcycle races. I wish pictures existed of that.
    In more recent years, the mine was used as a haunted house, and some of the trappings were still there. It must have been a great site for a haunted house - I could only imagine what it was like. I would NOT have gone through it.
    The guide also showed us outlines of sand dollars and spaces where animals had been in the chalk. Several burrows exist, but what animal made them is not clear, he told us. We were even encouraged to take a piece of chalk with us. So we did.

    The mine was the last stop on this particular trip. We traveled just over 1,400 miles over four days. We crossed the Platte, Niobrara, Missouri and Loup rivers multiple times. We started out with a flour mill and ended with a chalk mine. In between we saw unharvested wheat fields, detasseled corn fields, fields filled with round straw bales and hundreds of cows grazing fields of grass.
    We listened to “All Dressed in White” by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke, the third in the Under Suspicion series. We started “Last Man Standing” by David Baldacci, and, although we didn’t get through all eight CDs in the car, I think we’ll both finish it. I will anyway.
    You know, the thing about visiting places you’ve never been before is that you find places you’d like to go back to. You find really cool spots you never knew existed not far from home. And you have great memories to recall when planning your next trip.