Across the river, in the town of Chamberlain, we found a little treasure - a Native American center and museum built around the St Joseph School, a school for Indian children that has been in existence for many years. The school has always been focused on teaching only Native American kids, and on emphasizing their culture and history in ways that are glossed over elsewhere. We saw a whole group of the kids, and they seemed so happy, healthy and energetic, and the campus was tranquil as well as beautiful. Likewise the museum. It's called the Akta Lakota Museum, and the collection was great, the layout very well thought out, and they combined historical artifacts with current work, with an emphasis on quality that we really appreciated. We couldn't take pictures, so we can't show the work, but if you ever get here, you should check it out.
At this site, we were mostly doing planning and computer work, and we ran into a problem that is frankly epidemic in these RV parks - that of poor or barely functioning wi-fi service. Time and time again, we get to an RV park that claims that it has wi-fi and internet service, only to find that the service is intermittent, poor, or available only at a few of the sites. Then we have to go through all kinds of rigamarole to get our work done. This site, fortunately, had an arrangement with a motel and resort that was on the same property so that we could use their lobby to set up our computers and go online there. So we spent a lot of time camped in their facility. They had a pool, too, so that was fun sometimes. And there was a nice bike trail nearby, too.
From here, it was on to Nebraska for a couple of stops. On the way, we stopped in Mitchell, South Dakota, to visit the legendary Corn Palace, a large community center in the area that is redecorated with corn cobs in various colors every year. It actually turned out to be a very interesting stop. The history of the building was fascinating, and there were photos from its first iteration in the nineteenth century up to today, And we found some lovely kitschy items to buy for the grandkids and others.
It was in Mitchell that we discovered a Native American archeological site in a very interesting location. There was apparently an Indian village near the river here that existed many thousands of years ago and was discovered recently. The local colleges have cooperated to get a grant to erect a building over the most central part of the site; they have put in a museum nearby and allow tours of the building as well. The building allows them and their volunteers to work on the site year-round, and provides office space and storage for the work, as well as permitting tourists and visitors to observe and tour the site without disturbing it. A very clever piece of work. Ivy and I took the tour and were duly impressed. 
Our stop for the next few days was at the Niobrara State Park, located at the confluence of the Missouri and Niobrara Rivers, on the Nebraska side of the border. The area is magnificent, with huge river plains on all sides, and the park has a tall bluff with great views. There are cabins there that are very luxurious for this type of park, and there's a lot of wildlife all through the park. But we were interested mostly in migratory birds, and that proved quite a disappointment. I've never seen so vast a plain of waters and marshes with so few water birds on it. It was surprising to find so much habitat so scarcely populated. We still are not sure whether the migration was not happening, or whether there was just so much habitat available that the birds had disappeared into it. Local folks were not knowledgeable and didn't have much to say - that's primarily a hunting and fishing area, like many around that part of the world, and birding knowledge is hard to find. So after two or three days of wandering around, we moved on. 
We moved on to Omaha, Nebraska. It was our first really big city stop in several months, and we'd forgotten all about freeway traffic, congestion and smog. But Omaha refreshed our memory. It is a lovely and prosperous city that has largely escaped the Great Recession. Its unemployment rate is about the same as before it all began, so something is going right in this area. It's a big change from all the For Lease signs that we've been seeing everywhere else. Its location, right on the Missouri River, makes it a lovely spot, and the city has built up its riverfront and downtown to take advantage of the situation. Here's the bridge between Iowa and Nebraska. 
I had remembered a visit to their art museum over forty years ago, and being impressed at that time with what it held. We visited the same museum today, and it's even better. A new building has been added to the old one, and a plaza has been constructed with a sculpture park all around the complex. There was an exhibit of a local artist with a big reputation, Kent Bellows by name, who more than lived up to his billing, in our opinion. He produces what are called hyper-realist works, paintings and drawings that are almost like photographs, but with greatly increased drama and intensity. It was fascinating stuff. Here's one done in pencil. The photo doesn't do it justice,
We looked around for a steak restaurant, but most of them either had mediocre reviews or were only open for dinner. So we went to a popular Indian restaurant, Mother of India. It was tiny, but I loved the opportunity to return to a little Indian food after a long hiatus.
After a short stay, we headed out for Missouri. We have updated our itinerary map once again, so refer to that for our planned route through to Florida.
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