Sep 21, 2020 - Toadstool Geologic Park

Bridgeport, NE We are back in Nebraska but are only passing through on our way to Colorado. While in the state, we are making a few stops in the Passports and Parks programs. One of our stops is Toadstool Geologic Park. The park is named after its unusual rock formations, many of which resemble toadstools. We set off on the loop trail with a guide book to help us. One of the things we learned is there are many fossils along the trail. We saw a 3/4 mile of trackway that "tells the story of prehistoric migration". Supposedly we could see...

Aug 28, 2020 - Ford

Terrible WiFi and narrow sites. People banging on the door at 8 last night, problem getting awning in so he could open slide. 5th wheel on opposite side left this am, other one looks to be here for the weekend. Went to the Ford dealer for an oil change and got Ray a new battery for the awning remote, now it comes in much better. There is a class c next to us the next night and the awning had to be retracted for it too. Surprised they rent out the patio spot so often nightly . So hot, supposed to be in the 80’s tomorrow and we’ll feel like...

Aug 22, 2020 - Nebraska Crossing and Offutt afb

Today we went back to the outlet mall to get Ray to more T-shirts and to exchange the shorts we bought yesterday. It was different on a Saturday. We stood in a line to get into the under armor store as the number of shoppers was limited. The line went around the building but did move pretty quickly. That’s shopping in 2020. We then drove to Offutt Air Force Base. Very nice base, some older brick buildings, we did go into the exchange and it was pretty quiet so shopping was easy there. Then we drove around to see some planes taking off and...

Aug 21, 2020 - Nebraska crossing

I saw the outlet mall as we were driving to the campground and we went to it today. Unfortunately the kitchen collection shop has closed, I think all of them have. We did go into the under armor store and Eddie Bauer. Ray found T-shirts and a pair of shorts. On the way back we took Highway six instead of I80, missed the turn, drove almost to Lincoln before we could find a way to get back without driving gravel roads. We will have to pay a lot more attention next time. It is warm during the day but nice and cool at night. We see fields of...

Aug 20, 2020 - Summit

We found Summit, drove through some neighborhoods to get there and almost thought we were in the wrong place. Kelly, the CEO, and the owner came out to watch the step cover installation along with a new employee who was being trained. The Bottom cover wasn’t installed flush and they had to take it off and reinstall. Reminds us of the install on the 2006 Eagle where David Knotts had to also redo the steps. very nice job and it really makes a difference in the look of the eagle. We were so warmly received, I think they do truly appreciate our...

Aug 5, 2020 - Home again, home again, jiggity jig

Elkhorn, NE We continue to wend our way home. The landscape is starting to change to crops although there are still areas of ranches and cattle. Our Park Pursuits to day were both at reservoirs - essential but distinctively man-made in appearance unless one is a careful photographer. Our Passports stops were a little frustrating. Two of them were closed - one for their hour-long lunch and one because it had afternoon hours only. We were able, however, to get into the Platte County Museum. It was actually 3 buildings, one of which was an...

Aug 4, 2020 - Passports and Parks

Broken Bow, NE We are continuing our way across Nebraska doing our Passport program and the Park Pursuit and enjoying the scenery and sights as we go. Although not the lakes, mountains and trees we have been enjoying for the last week, the western part of Nebraska with its green, rolling hills is beautiful in its own way. It is certainly nicer scenery than most people see when they travel through Nebraska on the interstate. We made it to Broken Bow which was on the Passport list and decided to stay here for the night. It is a lovely...

Aug 3, 2020 - A fond farewell

North Platte, NE We had packed some of the gear last night in preparation for leaving today. We wanted to use up as much food as we could. We had leftover pancakes. We had leftover ice cream. A perfect combination! We were quite pleased with how well we had done on purchasing the right amount of food overall. We were also very pleased with how the week had gone and with the sights we had seen. We hiked a variety of trails, some easy and some challenging, in temperatures between 46 and 80 degrees and made it up as high as 12,310' above sea...

Jul 26, 2020 - Long day

North Platte, NE We have difficulty simply driving somewhere in a direct line. We should have taken 3 hours and 50 minutes to travel 268 miles to our hotel for the night. Instead we used up 9 1/2 hours and covered 371 miles in the course of the day. We participate in both the Great Park Pursuit and the Nebraska Passport programs. For the Great Park Pursuit, we stopped at 3 of the 20 parks designated. The parks are spread throughout the state so that is not a simple feat. Nor is locating the post with plate for doing the rubbings as the...

Jul 25, 2020 - Out of the heat

Elkhorn, NE Almost packed - the heat index is 105 to 110 so heading to the mountains sounds like a great idea! We will be off in the morning to Colorado. Our sister-in-law rented a condo for a week and invited us to join them. The "them" will consist of our sister-in-law Diana, our niece Elizabeth, our grand-nieces Kayla and Lily and our grand-nephew Sawyer so there will be 7 of us.

Jul 1, 2020 - Odds and ENDs

Elkhorn, NE This was the end of our 10-day stay in Keystone, SD. We were headed out to Scottsbluff in the western end of Nebraska. It seemed like a good idea when we were planning the trip. How were we to know it was going to turn hot? Temperatures all across the plains of Nebraska are in the 90s with high humidity. Then the air conditioning on the car (repaired only 1 month ago) went out. We got nothing but hot air - just like outside. That decided it. We cut things short and headed home. It was a marathon drive for us and was pretty...

Jun 19, 2020 - Water falls

Valentine, NE Water continues to fall from the skies which seemed like a good theme for the day. We scouted out some actual waterfalls. Yes, waterfalls in FLAT Nebraska! During the planning, we expected today to be a short day. It was not. We traveled 244 miles to change to our lodging only 170 miles away. After our extremely abbreviated breakfast of a fruit bar and a bottle of water (since we no longer get a wonderful breakfast buffet, why haven't the prices for the hotels been dropped accordingly?), we discovered that there was a geocache...