Kearney, Nebraska

July 5, 2014

I think the more we do, the behinder I get with the blog.  I am currently at least two entries behind.

Going back to yesterday, and even the day before.

Yesterday we decided to go into Warp’s Pioneer Village.  If you are a 19th and 20th century history buff and love memorabilia this is the place to go.  Everything, and I mean everything from the mid 1800’s to the 1960’s is on display.  I have tons of pictures but can't get them ready to post right now because by the time we got back to the RV park, had our group 4th of July picnic, talked and came inside to go to bed I was totally whipped and way too tired to resize photos and write.  I am currently passing the time on the PC while waiting for Nancy to take her second shower of the morning.  She went for a walk earlier and discovered it was no longer in the 70’s.  We will be seeing more summer-like temperatures the next few days.  At least there is a breeze (more like a steady 35 mph wind).

We have another full day of sightseeing ahead of us and I will do my best to get all the pictures sized, uploaded and text written before we leave Monday morning for our next destination.

 This was DEER CREEK CAMPGROUND back in Topeka, KS.  Note the expansive use of concrete for interior roads and parking pads.  The grass between sites was golf course quality.

Kearney RV Park is not nearly as fancy.  As you can see in the background we are (where else) in the middle of a corn field.  The sites are gravel but also very long, which is what we need for our rigs.

 Driving through Nebraska all you see are corn and wheat fields.  They go on for miles and miles!

 One of the Native American casinos that can be found on reservation lands along the highway.  I believe this one was Kickapoo.

 This is an example of how straight and flat the roads are.  They just disappear off the horizon.  Nancy made this shot while we were traveling NE-70.

Coming into Kearney, NE.  This is the Memorial Arch.  We plan on going there today for one of our stops and touring the exhibits inside.  Kearney is the Sandhill Crane capital of the world.  Every March millions of Sandhill Crane's land in Kearney while on their migration path south.  The protrusions coming out of each tower at the ends of the Arch are bronze castings of Cranes.  Maybe I can get a closer shot today.


The next 3 pics are my attempt at getting some of the fireworks last night recorded.  With the flat land around us we could see fireworks displays many, many miles in the distance.

This is our current travel troupe.  Right to left:  Nancy and me, Wayne and Margaret, Lee and Lea.  We have one more that joined us in Kearney, Chuck and Sue.

I still have photos of the stuff in Pioneer Village from yesterday along with last night's picnic.   Hopefully I can get them added latter today.

July 3, 2014

Topeka Kansas to Kearney Nebraska

I had previously completed two blog postings with pictures and was sure I published them.  But, alas, they did not appear when I opened the blog today.  I’m not sure what happened to them but luckily had written the text in Word so I could retrieve it without having to do a complete re-write.

Deer Creek RV Park in Topeka was a beautiful facility.  All concrete interior roads and site pads with patio, lush green grass between the campsites and all the expected facilities like pool, lounge, dog run, laundry, restaurant, etc.

Our first night was pretty much a do-nothing resting from all the activities in Branson.  The next day we spent some time driving around the city and drove out to a steak house suggested by a member or our group and enjoyed a great meal.

We decided to see what the Topeka Zoo looked like and planned on going to the Brown vs. Board of Education museum site but became so enhanced with thee zoo that it took all our time.  It is a medium size zoo with many different animals - elephants, giraffes, monkeys, bear,  birds, snakes, lions, tigers, rhinos, turtles and everything in-between.  The weather was a near perfect 72 degrees with a light breeze.  That was a real relief from the upper 90's and high humidity in Branson.

We all gathered for a picnic cookout dinner and prepared for our next trip to Kearney, Nebraska.

We pulled out at 8:30 a.m. and followed the highway north.  Lee was in the front, Wane in thee middle and we brought up the rear.  There was not a whole lot of traffic and the roads were in great shape.  It was still cool and a little heat in the cab actually felt good.

Our first stop was at a Native American Casino parking lot.  No, we did not go inside to gamble.  Casino's such as this one are popular on the reservations and undoubtedly bring in a lot of money.

Kansas was fairly flat and had a lot of wheat fields.  There was corn too but wheat and cattle were more prominent.  As wee crossed into Kansas it was one massive corn field after another.  There would bee maybe a mile of corn then a farm house and more corn.  Rather than car dealerships most every corner in the towns we drove through there were tractor and equipment dealers.

I noticed the elevation was around 2000 feet above sea level.  I was kind of surprised that the countryside was so flat for the elevation.

Wee arrived at our park in Kearney about 3:30 p.m.  Wee have full hook-ups and nice long campsites.  It should be no surprise that the park is smack-dab in the middle of a cornfield.  It is an “OK” park – certainly not a resort or long term destination site.  Tomorrow is thee 4th of July and we have our American Flag flying high.  I’m not sure what wee will do/see tomorrow but there are some really interesting places around here.  This is our first trip to Kansas so everything is new. 

Friday, July 4th.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY

Fireworks displays and celebrations were held around Kearney last night (???)  It was really neat to watch them all since the land is so flat.  We did not need to go anywhere to watch – we just hopped up on the flat bed of the Volvo, sat down and could watch the fireworks from not only Kearney but neighboring communities miles away.  I felt like we possibly had one of the best views possible.

I was dead tired last night.  Driving takes the energy out of me.  Part of that is due to the extra driver attention needed for a large vehicle.  Unfortunately, many drivers in small 4-wheel vehicles see you as a nuisance and are determined to get in front of you.  I can’t say I blame them because I find no pleasure following a 8-1/2 foot wide and 13 foot tall solid white wall.  They don’t back off because they are afraid they won’t have room to pass and when the way is clear they will cut back right in front of you and sometimes even slow down below our speed.  You do have to be diligent as you KNOW they are going to do this.

We are trying to decide what we want to see today.   Whatever it is, we are leaving at 11:00 a.m.

June 30, 2014

Topeka Kansas

Deer Creek Valley RV Park

www.deercreekvalleyrvpark.com

We left Branson, MO this morning after 12 fun filled days with our Cedar Creek RV Owner’s Club family.

I have not written anything for the past few days simply because by the time we got back to the RV after whatever activity we were doing I was to dog-gone tired to write or upload any photos.

We went to two shows in Branson.  One was Unbelievable (that’s the name of the show).  It was a mix of on stage magic that was truly unbelievable as Cockatoos and huge Parrots appeared out of nowhere and flew over the audience, and people were made to disappear, fly, and levitate.  Sure, it was all illusion but being in one of the front rows right at the stage was a lot different that watching magic acts on TV.  The second show was The Magnificent Seven.  This was a musical event that started with songs from the 40’s and covered most every year up to the present.  The presenters did over 50 costume changes during the show – the changes were done in seconds.  Overall, we both felt like this was the better show of the two.  It sure did bring back a lot of memories!

I (Randy) learned how to ride a Segway and navigated a little over 6 miles in Table Rock State Park along the lake.  It was sort of scary but there were no crashes so I guess I did OK.

There is a little retro restaurant in Branson called Billy Bob’s Dairy Land.  It is famous for huge burgers.  I ordered a small burger and fries despite the server’s encouragement to make it a triple or more.  They would build any type of burger you wanted and stack it all the way to the ceiling if you wanted.  They had an old-time soda fountain and I ordered a real honest-to-goodness vanilla coke.  It was the first Coke I had drunk since April 2013.  It was good and reminded me of the soda fountain at Pine Valley Drug Store back in Oak Ridge where I spent much of my paper route profits on Vanilla and Cherry Cokes along with root beer sodas.

We spent one day shopping at Tangier Outlets.  Nancy bought me an early birthday present consisting of two really nice knit shirts and a pair of Gore-Tex walking shoes.  They are waterproof yet still allow your feet to breathe.  I believe they will be nice when setting up the RV in the rain.  I bought myself one of those twin counter rotating blade Alligator saws.  This was in a wholesale direct tool store that had mostly Rigid and Ryobi products.  The saw was “blemished” (small scratch on the handle) and was priced at $112 below normal retail.  I like bargains like that.  This thing is suppose to cut anything from stone to tile to steel.  I’ll find out when we bet back home in August.

Nancy spent some additional time with Sandra running around Branson and shopping.  Sandra and Charlie carry a Smart-four2 car sideways on the back of their Volvo truck.  We have talked about doing the same but I am not sure it is really worthwhile for us due to the time it takes to load and unload the little car.  We did not even bring the golf cart with us on this odyssey.  We usually have no trouble taking the Volvo where we want to go.

We spent a considerable amount of time eating.  Our dinners were community pot-luck that was anything but luck.  There was more food than anyone could eat.

Our friends, Gwen and Allan, celebrated their 53 anniversary while in Branson.  We went with them to dinner at Whippersnappers – a seafood restaurant that had all you can eat crab legs and lobster.  As much as I love lobster I could only eat three, along with the same amount of crab leg clusters.  Allan devoured seven lobsters.  I am not sure how many Nancy had but she was still eating long after I stopped.

The weather was HOT (as expected) with a few afternoon thunderstorms.  Thankfully nothing that caused any damage.

We enjoyed a community campfire most every night.  Chuck brought out some sky lanterns that we fired up with hot air and launched.  They are neat and go so high that they literally disappear from sight.  Once the burning wax in the balloon goes out, they gently fall back to earth.

The drive today from Branson to Topeka was uneventful with the exception of a huge boat being moved by a semi-truck that got stuck at our exit off of I-44.  We had to go to the next exit and then backtrack to get on our route.  Kansas is mighty flat and windy.  We had a cross wind all the way that was strong enough to push us around a little bit – nothing dangerous but we could definitely feel the wind.  The speed limit here on the Interstate is 75 mph.  We kept to the left lane and cruised between 62 and 65 mph.  Cars would blast by us as if we were sitting still.  With a 75 mph speed limit, most cars were probably running between 85 and 90 mph.

Deer Creek is a beautiful RV park.  The have concrete interior roads, RV pads & patios, lots of space between RV’s and grass that rivals a putting green on a golf course.  Oscar loves the grass and enjoyed rolling over on his back for a good grass scratching.

I’m not sure what sigh seeing event we will choose tomorrow.  We have numerous places to choose from.  Tomorrow night we have reservations at a local steak house with the friends traveling with us in their RV’s.  Currently we have four other units but the number may increase along the route as others join us.

The weather here is “safe” but some severe storms are happening to our east.  The news reported a small tornado touch down about 3 miles from our RV park last night.  I can’t say that we are sorry we missed it.  The temperature here today was 96 with a heat index of 111.  A cold front will move through tonight and the rest of the week should be in the high 70’s or low 80’s with less humidity.  That will be a nice break.

We are having fun and enjoying all the new sights.  I am especially looking forward to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills.

 The counter at Billy Bob's is right out of the 50's

 This is a SMALL burger.  You may not be able to tell from the photo but it is bigger than a Burger King Whopper.  They will build a burger that is 4, 5, 6 or more patties and buns high!

 This was part of our group that visited Billy Bob's

 Randy has apparently gained some weight and Nancy is a "Skinny Minnie".

 Our all-you-can-eat Lobster fest.  Our lobsters are fighting.  Neither one won as we ate them!