Going Up The Missouri River

Location: Nebraska Tailwaters Campground (Corps of Engineers) just downstream of Gavins Point Dam near Yankton, South Dakota.

I'm halfway breaking one of my rules about NOT camping downstream of a dam. It was my belief and still is, to never put 100% trust in anything built by man. I've passed up many great looking campgrounds over the years because they were located downstream of a dam. Anyway, this campground is alongside the Missouri River and my campsite is about 1/4 mile downstream of the Gavins Point Dam. That's why it is only halfway breaking the rule.

My campsite. I had to set up that far away from the bumper block because the pavement slopes up dramatically over that last part. I still had enough room for Freedom to park. The shade tree provides afternoon shade. If I was more familiar with the campground I would have chosen a different site.

A view of the Gavins Point Dam. That is the electric powerhouse on the left and the gates in the center. It's a really pretty lake in the background. This is a great place for boaters and fisher(wo)men.

 

Unlike some of the other dams I've been too around the country, this one still allows vehicles to drive on the crest of the dam. This picture of the red light is so only one lane of traffic drives over the powerhouse at a time. 

A good view of the gates. They seem to be passing a fair amount of water. 

This is the river in front of my campsite. It is a pretty stretch of the Missouri River. It reminds me of the St. Clair River between Lake Huron and Lake Erie.

This is from across the river looking at Liberty.

This shows the series of dams on this reach of the Missouri. I'm at the first one, Gavins Point. I'll skip the next one and camp at the third one, Big Bend. I'll be there tomorrow for 3 days. 

The dam is the first in a series of hydro-electric dams on the upper reaches of the Missouri River. There is good and bad information about these dams but I need to do some more research before giving my opinion. These dams do not includes locks so navigation is not possible. I think the commercial navigation ends at Sioux City, Iowa. The purpose of the dams are for flood control, recreation and water management. Plus they have some great campgrounds near the dams. This campground is $8.00 per night for electric only. Great deal. Technically, the campground is in Nebraska but Yankton is the largest nearby city and it's in South Dakota.

Yankton is a small city with a population of about 14,000 people. It is a typical northern city with a vibrant and active downtown located in the historical area. It has the big box stores like Walmart, etc., but they are on the north edge of the city in what is clearly a more modern location. I've been very surprised and happy with the liveliness of the downtown areas of not only Yankton, but also two of the last cities where I explored (Onawa, Iowa and Ottawa, Illinois). All three places had music playing through speakers along the downtown streets. Not blaring music, but low volume, easy listening type of songs. Mostly oldies. It is low enough in volume that you can easily talk without needing to raise your voice. It is nice. Good job to all three towns.

I hadn't seen a Rexall Drug store in decades and decades. This one is still open in Yankton.

One picture of downtown Yankton.

Last picture of downtown Yankton. This is just a couple of the blocks that are still very active. 

Liberty's tires will be aging out in about a year or so, so I started looking for tire shops that could replace them while Freedom and Liberty are hitched. I found one in Yankton and paid them a visit. I was looking for a specific Goodyear tire and the salesman told me they may have some in the warehouse but if not they could order them. He took my telephone number and said he would give me a call once he knew for sure. That all sounded good, but I could feel a bad vib coming on as I left. While waiting for his call-back, I went to Menards to pick up some stuff for a future project. While wandering around that store, I kept getting a nagging vib about the tire shop. After finishing my shopping, I called the tire shop and told them never-mind about the tires. The guy on the phone wasn't the guy I talked to in person, but he said OK.  About 30 minutes later, the guy I talked to in person called me. Before he could say anything, I told him I just called the shop and told them "nevermind". Before hanging up, I asked him, out of curiosity, if they had the tires in stock. He said No, but they were getting some brought to them and they would be there in an hour of so. Well, that made me feel a little bad, but they are popular tires for RV's and with the number of RV parks around here, they won't have any trouble selling them. I figured I dodged a bullet and thanked whoever was looking out for me.

As Paul Harvey would say, "now for the rest of the story". While visiting with some campers next door, they brought up the subject about tires on RV's. I thought that was odd after what happened at the tire shop. I told them my story and they agreed I may have dodged a bullet if I had used that tire shop. They then mentioned a tire shop in Sioux City, where they are from, that does excellent work on RV's while hitched up to the tow vehicle. It is a family owned tire shop that has been in business for 100 years and they treat customers right. If I was betting, they probably took care of their workers during the pandemic and have a well experienced work force with many family members working in the business. Although I just passed through Sioux City on my way here and don't have the time to double back, it is on one of my proposed routes back home. I've been trying to figure out my route back south after visiting the National Park. So,,,,,,that was the reason for the bad vibs at the tire shop,,,,, they were leading me to the shop in Sioux City, as well as defining part of my route back to Louisiana. 

Everything happens for a reason.

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll break my rule again by camping downstream of a dam, this time even closer to it. The campground is near Fort Thompson, South Dakota. I'll be there for 3 days. There is supposed to be a great museum about 20 miles away. We will see. I haven't been happy with museums lately. I think I've just gotten burned out on them or maybe just jaded. We will see.

Good morning Sunshine. Sipping coffee and looking out Liberty's door. Nothing better than waking up to this in the mornings, even on a foggy, hazy day. 

 Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.