From the Prarie to the Western Slope

Our last entry had us arriving in Henderson, Nebraska, about 120 miles West of Omaha on I-80. The campground was actually right off of the interstate and the town was about 4 miles south. The campground was pretty barren, but had full 50 amp hookups and was moderately priced, OK for a three day stay. On Saturday, the 16th of August, we did a little tour through Henderson (Pop. 986) and then drove over to York, Nebraska, a larger town (about 8,000). We visited the York Elks Lodge #1024 and found them to be a pretty friendly group. Later that evening we drove to McCool Junction (great name for a town!) a few miles south of York for the local stock car races at the Junction Motor Speedway. Neither Jackie nor I had been to a local dirt track in many years and when we found that JMS had regular Saturday night races during the summer we thought it would make an entertaining evening out.

The speedway was nothing fancy, but since it was only a couple years old, the grandstands were well constructed aluminum, not the rickety wood one's I remember from when we used to go to the Hales Corners, Wisconsin track when I was a kid in the 50's. The track was dirt with a 3/8 mile oval main track and a 1/8 mile dirt oval in the center. They had four classes of cars, ranging from the four cylinder "starter" cars which raced on the 1/8 mile, up to the NASCAR modifieds which were pretty fast. All except the four cylinder class raced on the larger oval. The format was the same as I remember from 50 years ago - two sets of five to eight lap heats for each class, then an intermission, and then the "features" which ranged from 10 laps for the smaller cars to 25 laps for the modifieds. We noticed that this was very much a family venue with a lot of kids in attendance. Since all the cars from from within a hundred miles of the track there were a lot of family and friend type fans rooting the various racers on. The folks were very friendly and when the announcer found out we were from Nevada, we got introduced to the crowd and they gave me a free t-shirt! All this for $8 admission. All in all we had a great time and may try some other local tracks in our travels.

On Sunday we went caching in the local area which took us around the countryside to some of the other small towns in the area. We found 9 caches. Monday, August 18th, we packed up for the drive to North Platte, Nebraska, about 200 miles West of Henderson. About halfway through the drive we passed under the Great Platte River Road Memorial Archway. This was an interesting sight as it was this huge wooden arch which stretched completely across I-80. Since we were in the coach we didn't stop, but reading about it later we found that it was built as a sort of living history museum with all sorts of exhibits about Indian and frontier life. We also noted that this general area seemed to be the demarcation point between the heavy farming area of the central prairie and the western foothills leading to the continental divide and what we considered to be the "West." Around Henderson we saw the usual miles and miles of corn and bean fields. As we approached Western Nebraska we started seeing fewer fields and more rolling hills and grazing land. We settled into the Holiday RV Park which was a very nice park right off of the interstate at the edge of town.

The next day we did a tour of the area. North Platte is the biggest town in Western Nebraska with a population of about 25,000. We went to the local mall and did some shopping, then went to the movies. We saw Tropic Thunder, the new Ben Stiller movie. While not the best Stiller has done, it was still pretty funny and entertaining. Not Oscar material, but enjoyable if you like this type of comedy, which we do. After the movie we did some caching in town and managed to find 9. We also went by the Elks lodge that was listed in the travel directory and found that the building was now a church. A little later Jackie found a phone book and found a new address listed for the Elks Lodge. When we went by the address we found it to be a house on a residential street. There was a lady working in the yard when we stopped and she came over to chat - turns out she is the Lodge Secretary and the Lodge is in the process of remodeling their new building after selling the old one. The new building happened to be in the back of the mall parking lot where we had gone to the movies. She thought the Lodge would be up and running by the end of summer, so any of you passing through North Platte and wanting to visit the Lodge, go to the mall (only one in town) and look in the back parking lot. That night we went to the Whiskey Creek Steakhouse, just down the street from the RV park, for a nice Nebraska steak dinner. Everyone had told us we had to try Nebraska beef and we were getting close to leaving Nebraska. Had a very nice dinner and the beef was very good.

On Wednesday afternoon we went to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch and then did some more caching in town. We found another nine caches. The lunch was so-so, the Nebraskans seemed to have an odd idea of what Mexican food was. It wasn't the Sonoran we are used to in Arizona and California, wasn't Tex-Mex, and certainly wasn't Sante Fe Mexican. It was tasty, just not what we were used to.

On Thursday we headed West out of Nebraska into Wyoming. Our destination was Cheyenne, about a 220 mile trip. We climbed from 2,800 feet at North Platte up to 6,200 feet in Cheyenne, however, there was never any real grade to climb. It was just a gradual climb up over the whole 200+ miles. We settled into another nice Good Sam park, the A B RV Park, and did some laundry since the park had a nice laundry room just a few yards from where we had parked. The next day we did a tour of Cheyenne, which is the Capitol of Wyoming and then some shopping. On Saturday we went out for some local geocaching and found six more caches. We also went by the Cheyenne Elks Lodge # 660. They were still in their original building right in the heart of downtown which had opened in 1902. The building had been remodeled so it didn't look anything like it did at the turn of the century, but it was still very nice. The lodge room took up the entire third floor of the building and was gorgeous. The people at the lodge were very friendly and one of the trustees took us on a tour. On Monday, the 25th, we went out and found five more local caches and also spent some time in old town Cheyenne walking around and looking at all the old historical buildings. That evening we went to Red Lobster for dinner. I was jonesing for some crab legs and it had been forever since we had been to a Red Lobster.

Tuesday the 26th of August had us packing up again for the trek to Rawlins, Wyoming, about 150 miles West of Cheyenne. We now find ourselves truly back in the front range of the divide. In the 50 miles between Cheyenne and Laramie we went over two passes which were well over 8,500 feet in elevation. Surprisingly, there few long, steep grades - nothing like the grade west out of Denver on I-70. I can see now why I-80 is considered the busiest interstate in the west - it is a very good road. After Laramie the elevation dropped back down to about 6,800 in Rawlins. The worst thing about the trip was the wind. The wind was blowing about 35 MPH for the entire trip which was a little tiring. When we settled into the RV Park (Western Hills) the wind was still blowing, with gusts probably close to 40 or 50. It blew the rest of the afternoon and all night. The next day, the 27th, we took a drive around Rawlins (Pop. 8,500) and did some caching. We had a very successful day with 8 found and no DNFs (did not find). Part of our tour took us to Sinclair, Wyoming, a small town of 400 just to the East of Rawlins. Sinclair was founded as a refinery town back at the turn of the century and was originally known as Parco, named after the company (Petroleum and Refining Corporation) which built the refinery. In the late 30's the company was bought out by Sinclair Oil and the town was renamed Sinclair. The refinery is still active, in fact the company just spent several million dollars enlarging and modernizing the facilities. The town has about five streets and the refinery proper is about five times the size of the residential part of the town.

After Sinclair we drove around Rawlins, which is is a cute little town. We visited the Rawlins Elks Lodge # 609 which, like those in North Platte and Cheyenne, is still in its original downtown building. Like the Cheyenne Lodge, the Rawlins Lodge remodeled the building so it doesn't look like it did in 1908, but the inside still looked pretty original in places. It was a very friendly lodge and we ended up walking out with a couple free drink tokens which we plan to use tomorrow.

That brings us to today, Thursday the 28th of August. We have one more day in Rawlins, then tomorrow we head for Rock Springs, Wyoming, about 110 miles further West. That will be our last stop in Wyoming before we start South into Utah. In about two weeks we will finally be back in our "home" of Pahrump and the summer 2008 journey will be ended. Once we get settled into Pahrump I will post stories of the final leg of the trip. Until then, don't worry, be happy!

Cornstalks As Far As The Eye Can See

We have come to the realization that there is a LOT of corn (and soybeans) in the Midwest! Our last post had us just arriving at Hidden Bluffs RV Resort near Spring Grove, Minnesota. Hidden Bluffs is a private membership park and a part of our Resorts of Distinction (ROD) network. It is a very pretty park that requires travel on 3 miles of gravel road to access. Spring Grove is the nearest town and has a population of 1,020 folks. But there is corn - lots and lots of corn. Most of the land is farmed in either corn or soybeans and it stretches as far as the eye can see. This part of Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa is called the Bluff Country because of the rolling hills and bluffs in the area. The fields have very interesting designs to conform to the rolling hills. Makes for very pretty farmland.

When we arrived at Hidden Bluffs we were surprised to find some friends of ours already staying there. Ed and Carol are also full-time RVers and run a sales business on the road. They are vendors at many of the FMCA rallies and we met them a couple years ago at one of the rallies. We have befriended a number of the vendors because we see them so much at rallies. Carol mostly sells jewelry and they also have flags, windsocks and other decorative stuff. Ed also sells cargo drawers for motorhomes. When we first met them they sold Internet stuff and we bought our T-Mobile aircard, booster amp and antenna from them a couple years ago. They were only at Hidden Bluffs a couple of days while we were there. A couple of days after Ed and Carol left, some other friends of ours, Jan and Charles Alphonso, arrived at the park. Jan and Charles live in Indio and are members of the Indio Elks RV Club.

On Tuesday, the 22nd, we took a drive over to La Crosse, Wisconsin, a river city on the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is by far the largest city in the immediate area. We had lunch, did some touring and geocaching and then headed back to the park. On Thursday, the 24th, we took a tour of the local area, visiting Harmony, Lansboro and Rushford, Minnesota. These are all small farming communities in the area. Harmony has the reputation of being the big Amish community in Southern Minnesota, and was one of the tours available when we were at the Elks International rally in Rochester earlier in the month. We drove and walked around town for a while but didn't see anything Amish except for the shops advertising the Amish Tours. I guess the Amish all live out on the country roads, not around town. We did see one buggy in Lansboro, another small town. Mostly what we saw on our several hour tour was a lot of corn and soybeans.

On Friday, the 25th, the we and the Alphonso's drove down to Decorah, Iowa, only about 30 miles South, for their Nordic Fest. We expected a big festival. They did have the main street closed off, but there were only a few food vendors on the street. We had lunch there, walked main street and checked out the small craft fair at the school, but all in all, there wasn't much there to see. The town had a bit of a Nordic feel to it in the architecture and all the flags, but the festival was a bit of a let-down.

On Saturday the four of us took another road trip to Houston, Minnesota, about 20 miles North of the park. Houston was having their Hoedown Days festival. This one was more of what we expected with a lot of vendors and stuff in the city park, a tractor pull and other festivities. We had a pretty good time at this one. Jan was all excited about seeing a tractor pull - she had never been to one before.

Most of the remainder of our time at Hidden Bluffs were spent vegging or driving into one of the closer towns for shopping or other errands. The Alphonsos left a few days before we did, headed back over to Wisconsin. Our final tour was on Saturday, the 2nd of August, when we headed back up to Lansboro for their Buffalo Bill Days. Lanesboro turned out to be a really interesting town and we spent several hours up there shopping in the old downtown area and walking around the park where they had the various booths and events set up. Had a really good time at this festival, the most fun of the three we went to.

On Sunday the 3rd we packed up and headed South into Iowa to Montezuma, Iowa. This is a little town off of the I-80 in central Iowa, about 180 miles South of where we were in Southern Minnesota. All the way down we saw nothing but corn and beans and then a lot more corn and beans. We were headed for Diamond Lake County Park to meet up with Ray and Anita Purcell, another of our friends from the Indio Elks Lodge. They had come up from Texas because both Ray and Anita were originally from Iowa. They had told us about this great little park near Montezuma, on a lake. We found it to be a great little place to stay. The sites had electric service and there was water in the campground close enough to most of the sites to be able to use to refill tanks as necessary. There were no sewer hookups, but they did have a dump station. The sites were only $15 a night, so who's to complain? I would recommend Diamond Lake County Park to anyone traveling through Iowa on I-80 who is looking for somewhere to spend a relaxing couple of days.

On Monday Ray drove us all to Tama, Iowa to an Indian casino there. Ray's sister, Dorothy, who lives in the area, was also with us. We spent a few hours and a few dollars, but no winners among us. The next day Jackie and I took a drive to Pella, Iowa, about 30 miles West. This is a small Dutch town, complete with windmill and glockenspiel. They had a number of nice shops which we checked out. We also did some geocaching in and around the town. Actually a very cute town and I would recommend a day trip for anyone in the area. On Wednesday, the 6th of August, we all packed into Ray's truck again and headed for the Amana Colonies. These are a group of five or six small towns all grouped together and originally formed by the Mennonites back in the late 1800's. The Mennonites were are communal society and the original towns were basically large communes with everyone sharing work and homes and the "group" owning the property. In the 1930's they ended the true communal life style, but the area still has a very old fashioned look and feel to it. We ate in one of the restaurants that serve family style meals where they just bring big bowls of potatoes and other sides for the table. Great food and fun shopping. And yes, this was where Amana appliances got their start. The appliance business was one of the big successes of the Mennonite group.

On Thursday the 7th we said our goodbyes to Ray and Anita and headed West to the Des Moines, Iowa area. We stayed at a resort called Cutty's. We were there because they were a Passport America park, but it turns out that this is a very large park right in the suburbs of Des Moines that is similar to our own Silent Valley in the way it operates. You buy into the park and get an undivided deeded interest in the park. Then you can stay for 30 days at a dollar a day, and as much time after that as you want for $6.50 a day. Pretty nice park with a lake and other amenities. On Friday we drove North to meet up with Don and Sally Richmond who were staying in a town about 60 miles North of Des Moines. We met Don and Sally at the Elks International rally earlier in the summer and took an instant liking to them. We were also with them at the Monaco International rally in Wilmar, Minnesota. Sally is a Past Supreme President of the Does, which is the top national position in this Elks Ladies group. We learned a lot about the Does and their activities from her.

Saturday the 9th we took a drive to Winterset, Iowa, about 35 miles West of Des Moines. Winterset has the distinction of being the birth place of John Wayne (visited his boyhood home) and also the location for the story of the Bridges of Madison County, the book and the movie. We had lunch in the same cafe where Clint Eastwood and Merle Streep dined in the movie. We also drove around and visited some of the covered bridges in the area which were featured in the book and movie. We also did some geocaching around the area. We had a really good time and enjoyed the town.

On Sunday we did a tour of Des Moines, the Capital of Iowa, and also did some geocaching around the town. Iowa has one of the prettiest state capitol buildings we have seen. The dome is plated in real gold. Monday morning we packed up again and headed West to Shelby, Iowa, about 95 miles West of Des Moines. Another 100 miles of corn fields! Shelby is pretty much in the middle of no where, but it was the closest decent campground to Omaha, Nebraska, which is located on the Missouri River at the border of Iowa and Nebraska. The park we stayed in was very basic, but did have 50 amp and full hookups for $25 a day. We didn't do too much around here except for a little geocaching and a day trip to Omaha. Omaha has a great market area down in the old warehouse district. They have really fixed the area up into a pretty cool shopping and entertainment district. It reminded me a small version of the Gas Lamp District in San Diego. We also were able to visit a couple of Elks Lodges, one in Omaha (Lodge #39) and one in Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across the river. These were the first Elks lodges we had been in for a while since we have been mostly out in the boonies for the last month.

On Friday the 15th we saddled up and headed into Nebraska, planning to stay at an RV park in Henderson. Henderson is another farm town (MORE corn!) in the middle of no where, about 60 miles West of Lincoln, the capitol of Nebraska. We are only here for three days, but it is a very nice park. As usual, we look out the front window of our coach at a corn field. It was interesting to watch the corn during the two months we have spent so far, starting in Southern Minnesota, then Iowa and now Nebraska. It was only about a foot tall when we first went into Minnesota, now it is taller than I am and they won't be harvesting for another six or eight weeks. I guess the corn really does get "as high as an elephant's eye" as they sang in Oklahoma.

Well folks, that's it for now - we are all caught up. We will be continuing our trip West, through Nebraska and Wyoming, then down through Utah to Nevada. We will be back in Pahrump (our nominal "home town") the second week in September. Until the next time, happy travels!