Week 23

Monday, September 02, 2002

Well today is Labor Day. I figured that there would be a parade here in Casper, but No. I heard on TV last night that an RV dealer nearby was having a big Labor Day blow-out sale, so I thought I would go and make believe I was at an RV show. I actually ended up going to 3 different RV dealers, but they were all closed, but I still parked and walked around their lots looking at all their RVs. Then I went to Wal-Mart and spent a couple of hours browsing around there, before heading back to the campground. I want to get an early night’s sleep so I can be at the Chevrolet dealer when they open in the morning.

Tuesday, September 3, 2002

I was up at 6 this morning to get to White’s Mountain Chevrolet by 7 to get my hood release repaired. To my surprise, White’s Mountain Chevrolet Trucks would not work on motor homes. They referred me to Mountain GMC. I went there, they wouldn’t touch it either. They referred me to Smith’s RV. Same here. This makes a total of 6 places that I tried. I give up! I hope I don’t need to open the hood again until I get home. I hit the road. First stop after about 100 miles was the Oregon Trails Ruts State Historic Park. This is an interesting place along the Oregon Trail where, despite 140 years passing, the ruts of the wagon trains over the limestone beds of the area remain pretty much the way they were in 1860. As the wagon trains passed through this area, they left a permanent cut in the limestone base. It was awesome. From there, I went about 3 miles down the road to a place called Register Cliffs. This was a spot along the North Platte River that was a popular camping spot for the pioneers. While they were there, it was the custom to carve their names into the soft limestone cliffs. There still remains hundreds of names and dates from the 1840-1860 period. In addition, there are hundreds more from tourists that added their names over the years until finally the state erected a chain link fence around the area to protect the original engravings. I did not add my name to the cliff. This reminds me of the bricks that people now pay $15-$75 for their name in a sidewalk at DisneyWorld or Columbia or Baltimore. I left the Register Cliffs state historic site and went about 15 miles further down the road to Fort Laramie National Historic site. There I spent a couple of hours going all through the restored fort with an audio guide. It was very interesting. I had planned to stop at a place in Bayard, WY for a chuck wagon dinner. According to AAA, there was an RV park there. I planned on dinner tonight and in the morning I was going to take a covered wagon ride for 3 hours up to Chimney Rock. When I found the place, there wasn’t a single RV parked there and there was absolutely no one around. I decided to forget it. I drove to the Chimney Rock National Historic Site about 5 miles away and arrived about 15 minutes before closing. Chimney Rock is a very impressive rock formation that stands about 500 feet high and looks like a big chimney. It was a major landmark for pioneers on the Oregon Trail because it represented the end of the plains and the beginning of the rougher terrain that was to follow. For me it was the opposite. I started looking for campsites to spend the night, and I found that there was nothing for nearly 100 miles. So I drove that hundred miles to Ogallala, Nebraska. Now I have reached Interstate 80. I checked in at Meyer Camper Court and then went back out again to Country Pride for dinner. I may spend a couple of days here.

Wednesday, September 4, 2002

Last night as I was eating dinner, a lady at the next table started talking to me about all of the things to do here in Ogallala, Nebraska. I figured this was just a country town to spend the night, but I was wrong. This morning I drove into town and saw the western architecture of the town. I learned how Ogallala was a major stop on the cowboy trails driving cattle here from Texas. This is where they met the rail lines. Ogallala was a pretty wild town in its earlier days. I went to a museum called the Petrified Wood Gallery. There I was surprised to see many beautiful works of art by two elderly twins, Harold and Harvey Kenfield. All of their work was done with petrified wood found in the area or with Indian arrowheads. They made miniature street scenes with various pieces of the wood and mosaics made with the arrowheads. The work in this small town art gallery looked like it belonged in the Smithsonian. When I finally tore myself away from this western setting, I drove around for a while and found a beautiful Victorian house with a sign “Mansion on the Hill”. I stopped in and had a private tour of the mansion which was built in 1887 by a wealthy banker for his sweetheart. Unfortunately, his sweetheart married someone else before he finished the house, so he sold it to another wealthy banker at a $1,000 loss. The house was re-furnished with furnishings that reproduced life at the turn of the 20th century, and unlike many other similar houses, things were not worn and thread bear, but sparkling as they would have been at the time. I enjoyed the tour. I also went to Boot Hill Cemetery on the edge of town and saw the graves of such notorious outlaw cowboys as “Rattlesnake Ed”. It was a full day in Ogallala, so after dinner, I returned to Meyer’s Camper Court for another night. Tomorrow, I will proceed east.

Thursday, September 5, 2002

I left Ogallala this morning and for the first time since Memorial Day in San Diego; I spent the entire day on the interstate highway. Meyers Camper Resort was right at the interchange of I-80 in Ogallala and I headed east for nearly 100 miles to the first rest area. I pulled in and called Airstream in Jackson Center, Ohio to see where I could get my hood release repaired. I told them where I was and where I would be for the next two weeks, and they suggested that I call Sherwood RV in Anoka, MN, just outside of Minneapolis. I called them and the soonest appointment that I could get was a week from Monday. So I need to slow down so that I do not have too much time on my hands in Minneapolis. At the rest area, I learned that there was a great horse show in Kearney, NE tomorrow night, one night only. It is a benefit and it is the called “The night of the Friesan Stallions”. The lady at the rest area was so wrapped up in this show, that I decided that I would stop in Kearney (which is pronounced ‘Carney’). This same lady suggested that I camp at the Fort Kearney State Park. It was a good suggestion. It is a beautiful park. I have a very nice campsite on the banks of a beautiful lake. Although it was in the high 90s today, it was very comfortable here. Unlike many state parks, this one at least provides electricity with the site. No water or sewer, but I can get along with the water supply that I have capacity in my storage tanks for several days waste.

Friday, September 06, 2002

Today was a great day. Temperature was in the high 90s, but that’s my kind of weather. First I re-registered for another night at the Fort Kearney State Park, drained my sewer lines and re-filled the water tanks. Then I drove the two miles down the road to the Fort Kearney State Historic Park. This is a re-creation of one of the earliest forts built to protect the pioneers crossing country on the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails. There’s not much left of the original fort, but the museum and film gave a pretty good representation. It was worth the time. Leaving there, I went into the town of Kearney. The single biggest attraction in Kearney is the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument. This was a spectacular museum that is built as an arch right over interstate 80 in the middle of Nebraska. It tells the complete story of the westward movement from the early pioneer trails through the Lincoln highway through the Interstate highways system to the information highway. I really enjoyed this museum. It was very entertaining and interesting. After leaving there, I drove around Kearney to find the fairgrounds for the show that I planned to go to tonight. Then I went to the Kearney library to use their computer for a change. DSL lines sure are faster than phone lines. Stopped for some Cokes at Bob’s Super Store, and then went to Pizza Hut for dinner, then back to the Buffalo County Fairgrounds to see the “Night of the Friesians”. This was a horse show similar to the Lippizan Stallions. There were beautiful dancing horses and I really enjoyed the show. It was for the benefit of the “I believe in Me Ranch” here in Kearney. This is a ranch that takes difficult children and helps to put them on the right track by teaching them to ride horses. The show was really great and it gave me a chance to mingle with the local Cornhuskers. They are great people.

Saturday, September 7, 2002

Today was mainly a travel day. I got kind of a late start but headed West on I-80 for Omaha, Nebraska. As I approached Lincoln, NE., I could see the state capital building which is about the tallest building in Lincoln. Lincoln has a population of 225,000, so it is a good size town. There was a big football game about to start at 6:00 this evening, and the town was jumping with everyone wearing Red, the color of Nebraska. I just drove through town to the capital building, and what do you know, I saw the governor’s wife getting into a car right in front of the Governors mansion. I recognized her from the picture on the state map. I didn’t realize it but Council Bluffs, Iowa is right across the Missouri River from Omaha. I found a nice state park in Council Bluffs called Lake Manawa, and decided to spend a couple of nights there. Tomorrow, I will go back into Omaha and see the city and probably go to the Henry Dooley Zoo which is supposed to be one of the best in the country. Just as I turned off I-80 for the campground, there was the Council Bluffs visitor’s center which also was one more museum about the trails west. At this point, I will be leaving the Mormon. Oregon and California trails. From here, the route heads south toward St. Louis, while I am going east to Des Moines.

Sunday, September 8, 2002

I decided that I wanted another day in Omaha, so I slept in this morning and got up around 10. I drove to Omaha’s number one tourist attraction, The Henry Doorly Zoo. This is not your average zoo. Actually it started out as a little bit of a disappointment, but later in the day as I got to the two biggest pavilions, I was very impressed. The temperature was about 97 degrees, so that made for a lazy day. At lunch time, I stopped into the zoo restaurant. After lunch, I noticed that the restaurant was connected to a very large indoor “rain forest”. This was very interesting walking through the rain forest which consisted of many ramps bridges and paths through a myriad of foliage and animals. It took quite a bit longer to walk through it than you would expect but it was really very nice on a hot day. After that, I went to the biggest attraction at the zoo. It was called the “Desert dome”. This was a very large dome shaped building, and it looked at first like it was going to very hot. But to my surprise, it was very comfortable although it was a re-creation of the various deserts of the world along with its plants and animals. Like the rain forest, it took quite a while to go through it and I really enjoyed it. I was glad that I decided to go to the Henry Doorly Zoo. I returned to the Lake Manawa State park and this time got a campsite with electricity, so I had the air conditioning going all night. This is the first time in quite a while that I have used air conditioning.