Slow trek across Nebraska into Wyoming

Sat morning was cloudy and drizzly, so we just had breakfast in waiting for it to pass.  We were planning on going into the Old Town Market Square, but when we left at 11:30 it was still drizzling and wet, so we headed off to Council Bluffs, Iowa to the camping world there.  Well, I had maps, my phone and the GPS but still couldn't find it, noticing that there were about 3 streets with the same name and the all ended in bridges or old railroad beds.  So we did the next best thing and stopped for lunch.  It was a decent meal and before we left I call CW, told them where we were and they gave us directions to the store.  We did some shopping and purchased a new rug (our old one was left in Dillsburg), then headed back towards home.  Oh no, a quick turn into a Starbucks, then we decided to try a different way home.  It appears that they continued route 34 straight west and put another bridge over the Missouri river, bringing us in the back way to the CG and not having to go over the narrow toll bridge on 370.  As we headed to the CG we noticed the 'Catfish Lake' restaurant.....maybe we'll give it a try, since it is still cold and rainy.  Back home a couple of walks for Rudy, 2 loads of laundry done and a check in the office about the restaurant.  Both of the people working had been there and the one lady said it's a bit of a dive, but they go about once a month the food was really good....that's all we needed.  We headed back to the restaurant, an appetizer of stuffed mushroom caps and we were both full....but I ordered the sampler plate and Brad ordered the catfish.  Now I will admit most of mine came home along with a baked potato and their flower pot bread, filling 2 big carry out containers.  Wow a lot of really good food.  Back home, Brad complaining he was stuffed (he ate all his), so a walk for Rudy, rain or no rain. 

 

Sunday ended up being sunny and cool, so we packed up, on the road by 10:00 and took the back road out to route 34 and continued traveling that to Grand Island, NE.  It actually is nice being able to stay off the interstates and see what the country side actually looks like, I don't think that I have ever seen so many corn fields in my life, I think they went on for the whole 180 miles we traveled.  We did get on Route 80 for about 10 miles, looking for a rest stop but didn't find one, so we got back on to 34 on the other side of Lincoln.  We were headed through the little town of Seward, when we spotted a grocery store big enough for us to pull into, so a quick turn and we have our break.  There was a little pizza shop in the plaza, so while Brad walked Rudy I went in and ordered a Calzone.  It was a cute little shop, crowded with people and the Calzone was delicious....all in all a nice find.  After that back on the road towards the CG  we even did a little side road to the CG we picked, not a bad place, a little more road noise then we like, but heck, not too bad for not knowing where you are going.  We got parked and set up, a couple of walks for Rudy and back to the office at 3:00, when they opened, to do our check in and get some information about the area.  We didn't go anywhere for the evening, a lot of walks for Rudy and for dinner we ate the fish and bread we brought home the night before...and yes there was still enough for us both to be full.  All in all, not a bad day of travel and a nice evening at the CG.



KOA in Grand Island, NE

Monday we had a quick breakfast at the CG, then headed into Grand Island, looking for Antique Avenue.....and yes we found it.  There were only a couple of stores open (it was Monday after all), but we did some shopping then headed up the street looking for a place to eat lunch, settling on the Coney Island dinner.  Neither of us braved the Coney Island hot dog, but we had a bowl chili and sandwiches, which ended up being pretty good.  After that we headed out to find the Mormon Island State Recreation area and after driving through there, we wondered why we hadn't camped here.  We then stopped at the Stuhr Prairie Museum did a little drive around and decided since it was already 3:00, it was too late to appreciate it, so off to find a grocery store.  We found a Hy-Vee, did our shopping, then headed home to rescue Rudy.  Chicken on the grill and another lazy evening at the CG. 

Tuesday we got up, took our time getting ready and on the road.  We only have 150 mile to North Platte, NE, our next scheduled stop.  Not a bad trip, Brad ended up swinging into a Cabela's distribution center where we parked and had lunch, a nice walk for Rudy, then back on the road.  We traveled Route 30 (the Lincoln Highway) again and were beside the RR tracks the whole way to town.  For about 30-40 miles traveled side by side with a train, he would pass us in the small towns when we had to slow down, but once out of town, lead-foot Brad would hurry up and pass  him.  (ha ha).  We ended up pulling into the CG about 2:30 and the lady checking us in was very pleasant.  We decided to stay 2 nights and check out North Platte while we are here.  We had burgers for dinner and did  a lot of walking Rudy, checking out the showers and the Nebraska shaped swimming pool, pretty cool.  (For a travel day, I just missed 10,000 steps, about double a normal travel day).

Wednesday was breakfast at the CG then we headed out looking for the 'Golden Spike Tower', which gives you a great view of the over 2000 acre Union Pacific railroad yard below.  There were some interesting videos, showing the past and how they fed every  WW-II Military member at a Canteen in North Platte just outside the RR yard, it was a great story.  On the 7th floor there is an open air walk where you can view the RR yard, but the most interesting was on the eighth floor.  It was another viewing area, enclosed where the was a retire RR worker to provide information and answer questions.  We were both impressed with the information that he shared, we learned a about the RR and how the yard worked, both of us walking away with a different perspective of the train yards.  After that we had lunch at the Lincoln Highway Diner, then headed off to the BuffaloBill Cody 'Scout Rest Ranch'.  We got the 2 min spiel, then headed off on our self guided tour.  There were a few pieces of his original furniture in the house and some other artifacts, such as clothing, saddles, and wagons.  We walked around the about 1-1.5 hours, then headed home about 3:30-4:00, stopping to get a 12 pack a beer, 78 degrees just didn't sound like a wine night.  We walked Rudy, discussed going out to dinner, then settled on steak on the grill with salad and garlic bread....Rudy was happy.  A lot of walking again and then settled in about 9:00, and being at the end of the time zone, it was still light outside.

The Rail-Road Yard

Bill Cody's House

Dark Skys rolling in!!

Thursday we managed to get on the road about 9:30, not sure if we are going to travel 130 miles or 220.  We stayed on Route 30 and stopped for a break about 1.5 hours into the trip but it was now only 10:00, since we had crossed into another time zone.  We traveled about another 1 to the Cabela's Headquarters in Sidney, NE, which was our first overnight option.  We settled on lunch then headed back out, hoping to make it to Warren AFB in Cheyenne.  It ended up not being a bad trip, we were checked in and parked by 2:30.  We got all hooked up and set up, just in time for the sky to turn black and chase us inside.   It is now raining, the skys don't look quite so bad, but I guess we'll have the rain the rest of the night.  I guess I'll be making dinner inside.....ugh. 

Diane and Brad




 

 

 

Friendly Visit and on to Omaha!!

Full hook-ups,
and a great view with
5 dogs to entertain us.

Saturday night we stayed in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, which was only about 45 min. from Jim's house.  So we waited until 11:00 to leave, then went out of our way to a Wal-Mart, shopped a little and had a lunch of left overs.  After that we called Jim and finallyarrived about 2:30.  We got parked and set up, then headed down to the house for a visit.  We sat and talked for about an hour, then headed out for a drive and tour of the area, not sure what good that was, since we were both all turned around and thought the one town we were in was east of us and it was on the west.....oh well, back to Jim's for a nice pork chop meal.  We talked 'til about 8:00, then off to the Moho, a little down time and off to bed. 

 

Our Gracious Hosts!!
Great People.

Monday we planned on doing some outdoor things, but the wind was blowing about 20-30 mph, so a lot of driving, a stop at the Coralville Dam visitors center, then we head into Iowa City to the Natural History Museum.  The museum was closed, so our second choice was the old Capitol building, but that was closed as well.  Oh well, a block walk and lunch at the NoDo....pretty good food and enjoyable company.  We had a nice time, then back to the car and some more touring around.  WeKalona, did a little store hopping, a small purchase or two, then it was time to head home.  We almost made it home, but Jim turned down this side road, past a little ice cream shop and asked 2 or 3 times if anybody wanted ice cream.  Now it is already 5:00, but what the heck, nothing wrong with dessert first, so we had their version of the blizzard....much better than Dairy Queen and fabulous flavors.  Now it's time to head home for a steak dinner, which none of us are hungry for, so we sit and talk 'til about 7:00, then we offered up our Hog maw sausages, a side of veggies and a new dinner menu is developed, plenty for us all to eat.  We talked 'til about 9:00, then we headed home and ready for bed pretty quick.. 

finally ended up in a little place called

 

Tuesday we had a quick breakfast (haha), then we hit the road about 10:00, heading for Pella, Iowa, (yes the corporate headquarters for Pella windows and doors is located here).  It was a little over an hour drive, so when we arrived we headed straight to the wind mill.  We had about 90 minutes. until the next tour, so off to lunch, which was pretty good, then back for the tour.  The tour was great, the wind mill had been built in Holland, then removed from there and rebuilt in Pella.  It was huge, what they described as a city wind mill, as the blades had to be high enough to catch the wind above the towns other buildings, Interesting tour and then a trip around the little village behind the wind mill.  After that we walked down the street to a great bakery with a lot of almond paste filled items....it was delicious, so some purchases there, then off to the Dutch sausage shop.  A lot more shopping there, then of course we had to hit the coffee shop, where we all sat out side a talked enjoying the sunshine, and the not so windy day, but about 4:30, it was finally time to head home.  A visit to the Moho to save Rudy, then down to the house for a nice steak, home made coleslaw and baked potato dinner....pretty darn good.  The 3 dogs were happy as well, there was some left over fat and stuff for them.  I did manage to do a load of laundry, but it ended up keeping us at the house til 9:00.....which had us all pretty tired til we headed to the Moho. 

 

Pella, Iowa      Pics

 

 

Wednesday we are heading out, so one more great breakfast at the Mallory house and we still managed to hit the road by 10:00.  We headed back to Mt. Pleasant to do some shopping at Wal-Mart, then off again heading to Osceola, Iowa to the Lake side Casino.  Not a bad place, a full hook-up CG for $20.00 a night, $30.00 for dinner and a break-even night at the casino, making it all fun and worth the stop.  Now the trip wasn't totally uneventful, it was awfully windy, but we were only traveling about 120 miles, so we pushed on, but there was this awful noise from under the Moho when the wind would gust.  We stopped about 3 times, but couldn't find anything, so we pushed on, parked and still couldn't find anything.  So we thought we would see what Thursday would bring.  Off to bed about 11:00, not know what tomorrow would bring. 

 

We both got up fairly early on Thursday, but couldn't decide what we should do, crawl around under the Moho again or just get ready to hit the road.  Well we left, stopped at the Flying J next door, got fuel, propane, then back to the truck parking area at the casino.  We made some coffee, walked Rudy and finally got on the road for real about an hour later.  Not too bad, the Flying J seemed to take forever so the coffee break was a nice relaxing 20 min. for us.  We got on the road, route 34 the whole way, managing to stay off the interstate the whole way.  My phone quit working in the middle of Iowa, and it took a shut down and restart to get it working again, but after that I got through to the Offutt AFB, (at the rest stop about 20 min away).  Lucky for us, they had room and we were parked by 3:30.  Nice CG, not real close to anything but a 30 min drive, lots to do, so we had a nice lazy evening, burgers on the grill and even managed to catch the new Bones. 

 

Friday I laid in bed until 7:30, not much sleep during the night, I'm guessing it's my allergies just driving me nuts.  We sat around all morning, going for a walk or two.  A light breakfast of Yogurt and Oatmeal, long, slow showers and a long walk around the CG,.  Then about noon we decided to head out.  We stopped at a Burger King for a quick lunch, yuck, oh well, next time we'll look for a diner.  After that a drive around town til we found an Ace hardware, AC filter, furnace filter, tips for our outside chairs and some other misc. things that we needed and some we didn't need got purchased.  After that onto the base, first the exchange, another purchase, then the commissary and more purchases.....I think we need to get out of here and save some money.  We headed home, did a long walk with Rudy, worked on the blog, since dinner was in the crock pot, no worries there.  After a bit of discussion, a quick trip to the office and we are now here until Sunday....hoping to head into Omaha tomorrow. 

Diane and Brad

Half way there!!

Wednesday we had intentions of doing a lot of things but we were tired and ended up doing very little.  After a couple of loads of laundry and washing the bugs off of the windshield we called it a day. This base is used for National Guard training  and is very large but empty.  The camp ground host told us they are excepting 6,000 plus troop coming in a week or two.  We are glad we are here now.  We had burgers for dinner and walked around the camp ground a lot.  They are calling for thunderstorms tomorrow so we are going to stay one more night.

 

Thursday it was cloudy and looked like rain but never did.  We headed into town to get Diane a hair

Both in the same building
and served by the same counter
Had to laugh

cut.  First we stopped for lunch, then at an antique store and not just any antique store this one had a map so you could find your way around.  We walked around the outside isle and left before we got lost.  We drove around for quite awhile and finally found a hair dresser but not before finding a Starbucks and Kohl's.  After the hair cut we went straight back via grocery store and stopped for dinner(carry out) at Hickory Hills BBQ which was recommended by MWR at the base and finally made it to the camper.  I started a fire without any fire starters,  split kindling,  made some really small pieces and then shaved off some fine stuff and lit it with a match. It took right off I surprised Diane and myself.  Did we tell you the camp site comes with free firewood?  We started to pack and clean up had the BBQ for dinner and enjoyed the fire.

 

Friday we were up early to get a jump on the day's travel and then I looked outside.  The fog was so thick you couldn't see the end of the campground.  We sat around and finally pulled out about 10:00.

Camp-A-While in the
 middle of Illinois.

I thought we had 180 miles to travel but when Diane fired up the GPS we had 230 miles to go. We headed back on the interstate and traveled that for awhile to make up some time. We needed oil so we stopped at a Pilot fueled up, got oil and then took route 10 and 54  on into the camp ground in Lincoln IL.  It was nothing fancy, but a quiet place to park for the night with water and electric hook-up.  A beautiful evening, burgers on the grill and a couple of strolls around the CG just to move.  We did check out the showers, they were clean and spacious and a  $.10 meter to pay for water....I wonder how old they were. 

Darn road noise

 

 

 

 

Saturday we were up early (ha ha), with the time change and actually managed to get on the road by 9:00(central time).   We had three routes picked out and the deciding factor only one route had a Pilot with RV lanes so that is how we went.  Out route 10 to 136 and over to 27 and up to Mt Pleasant IA. We stopped four or five times to stretch and just walk around. We didn't get on the interstate at all today it was so nice.  We did have one low clearance overpass 13'4" plenty of room for us but it gets your attention. We parked around 2pm and are having steak and mushrooms for dinner.  We are heading to visit with Jim and Julie tomorrow  and will be staying for a few days.

 

Diane and Brad

Dillsburg to Colorado....Trip just started.

Wonderful Site,
need to revisit

We made it to Dillsburg March 27, spent 2 weeks doing what needed done, got through Dad's sale, stayed an extra day so we could see Shane, then on the road again. 

 

We left Sunday April 12, heading to Coopers Rock State Park in Morgantown, WV....what a beautiful place.   But first, we had to stop in Gettysburg, no brake light showing that the car brake was working.  We got that fixed then on to Chambersburg where we stopped for lunch, then yea we finally hit the road, stopping one more time at the Gap visitor center.  We just like that place and it has some beautiful views.  We didn't have a WV map, so our next stop is at the welcome center then finally off to the CG.  The lady at the WC didn't know if it was open, but we chanced it, a very narrow, windy road into the place, but we made it, only running off the side one time (yikes).  We checked in, bought a bag of fire wood

Ours Neighbors Tent
Pretty Cool!!

(small bag) and had a fire and hot dogs that night.  What a beautiful night, no TV, very little cell service and a fire until bed time, a very enjoyable first night on the road again. 

 

Monday we got on the road, sunny and warm, nice day to travel.  We have decided to not use the main routes, so we hit route 50 heading to Chillicothe, Ohio.  It was a nice ride for the most part, windy and hill, but a fairly slow, peaceful ride.  We had a couple of stops, just for breaks and pulled into the CG about 3:30.  Not a bad place, nice enough for a one night stop, but not a destination that I need to got back to.  There was no cable and very little on the antenna, so we suffered with MeTV all night......I can tolerate that channel for a couple of hours, but by the end of the night, I had had enough.  Off to bed listening to the rain on the roof of the Moho.

 

Tuesday we didn't get on the road until 10:30....don't know why, we just weren't moving very fast.  We got hooked up and heading back to the highway, when Brad noticed that the car was not following us, but was off to the side.....not good.  He pulled over(stopped on 2 lane road, 4 ways on, back to the car, where we unhitched, re-hitched and too a little finagling, but we finally got it to work.  We did stop on the ramp to the main road just to double check and again about 20 miles down

Working on the Blog.
Nice Site!!

the road....just to make sure all was fine.....what a scare. We tried another day of two lane roads,  routes 35 in Ohio and 46 and 9 in Indiana, nice driving and we enjoy being off the Interstates.  So now we are heading to the Whitaker Place CG, at the Military base called Camp Atterbury in Edinburgh, IN, as long as I can find a good phone number.  I tried the main number listed, no answer, no machine, I called the second number and left a message.  I did get a return call, but it was a private line and the poor guy had nothing to do with the place.  So back on the internet, looked up the base and just started calling numbers that seemed like they would relate to the CG.  I finally got a hold of the correct place after about 6 wrong numbers.  We decided to spend 2 nights, $20.00 a night and free fire wood....not bad, and it ended up being a nice place.  The CG seems new, no shade trees, but on a cloudy day, who cared.  We parked and I headed up to the office to check in.  Back to the Moho, a little walk in the woods, and 4 ticks pulled off Rudy, so out of the woods, back to the Moho and a fire started.  We are just having sausages, so a little foil on their grates and we'll be good to go.  I'll let you know how tomorrow goes....probably laundry and a day of recovery here at the CG.  We are hoping to visit Jim, our friend we met last year at Utah, on this trip for a couple of days.....hope it all works out.