Rumford South Dakota and Crawford Nebraska

As you've probably gathered, cell phone contact has been non existant again, so I've got three days to catch up on.

After Bob's rest days at Edgemont Head, he had a 23 mile ride to Rumford on 15 September. The weather was very hot in the high 80's, and the scenery quite desolate, with very few trees. For a lot of the journey, the road he was riding along ran close to a railway line, and at one stage he rode alongside the rail line, as, although he had been told trains went along there every 15 minutes, he had been riding for 4 hours and not seen one! He came across some men working on the line, and they told him it was closed for repairs for six hours, so he managed to ride the rest of his journey alongside it, which cut down his journey somewhat.

He arrived at his stop at Rumford where he met up with Jerry Styles, who had kindly got in hay and grain for the horses, and allowed Bob to sleep in his camper van there. Jerry does not live there, but runs cows on some land down there. My thanks to Jerry for all his help, especially as he went out of his way to go quite a distance to get extra water for Bob for the next day.

After a good night's sleep, Bob was originally riding to a lake some further 20 miles on, but he couldn't find it. I guess either his map was a bit out of date, or it had dried up. He ended up riding for 26 miles, and eventually found a field, where the owner let him rope of a corner for the horses to graze in, and Bob pitched his tent there for the night. Dinner consisted of a can of stew, and luxury of luxuries, cups of tea, as he'd bought some milk the day before!

On 17 September Bob had crossed the border into Nebraska, and was heading for Crawford to stop at Crawford Park. As he rode further yesterday, he only covered 16 miles today, and the weather again was very hot. Unfortunately, even though I couldn't reach him last night, he had forgotten to turn his cell phone off, and because it was searching for a signal, was totally flat. As he was riding along, he met a couple, Dan and Brenda McNeill who were driving along in their camper van. They offered to take his phone and recharge it and meet him in Crawford.

When he arrived in Crawford, they kindly let him take a shower in their camper van (was he smelling horsey ?!?! ). He met Sheriff Karl Dailey at the camp ground who had arranged a corral for the horses as well as feed. Thank you very much , Sheriff Dailey, for your kindness.

When I spoke to Bob tonight, he was just about to go out for a meal with Dan and Brenda, as they had offered to take him out. I'm sure Bob will have already thanked them for helping him out so much, but I'd like to express my appreciation also.

Tomorrow, Bob is heading for Marsland, a ride of 20 miles, and I will be blogging again in a couple of days. I think reception will be poor again, so there may be nothing to report for a few days. Keep watching, folks!