Nebraska – TooBusyForWork

Summer 2023 trip is begun!

There was a lot of prep work to get this trip started. First we had to get the motorhome repaired. We found a guy who does upscale fiberglass boats, and he did a great job with a quick turnaround. He said we were lucky it was before Memorial Day, because he gets busy as soon as people put their boats in the water! Then Kevin ordered the new solar panels, and my lovely son in law Nick helped him put them on the motorhome. They were luckily able to McGyver an approach to use the old mounting hardware on the new panels which saved him having to drill new holes in the roof, always a good thing.

I finished up the quilt I started at the quilt retreat too. It was cut with an Accuquilt Hunter’s Star die. I planned for it to go into my stash of baby quilts for future needs, but a friend I have been camping with for 8 years was diagnosed with cancer, so I sent it to her instead. It is PINK, way more PINK than I anticipated when I bought the fabric. I tried to tone it down with a dark quilting thread, but it didn’t do much for the PINK. I did experiment with my rulers on this quilt, and I like the result.

One thing I did differently on this little quilt was to sandwich it using pool noodles and basting spray. Why did I wait to long? It was so much easier to keep things straight and wrinkle free. I made Kevin buy me an extra set of pool noodles to I can do the bigger quilts I have too.

I also finished quilting 3 quilts for my quilt guild donation program. It is enjoyable, and I get good practice. I am still learning about my quilt regulator table, so practice is needed. I also had time to make a sample block from a new die I bought from Blue Wren, a circle in a square. It is basically a Drunkard’s Path variation where the circles adjoin each other. The fabric is not my favorite! I grabbed two fat quarters I didn’t like, and here is the result. I never would have tried this without the cutter, but I love it!

In preparation for the summer, I cut bunches and bunches of tumblers for a scrap quilt. I also cut 20+ bowl cozy sets out of a variety of fabrics for a class I am going to teach at the FMCA convention in Gillette, WY this August. The class size is 12, but there always seem to be a few extras, and I wanted some variety for the students to choose from.

Another preparation step was to buy a small bread maker. This makes a 1 pound loaf, just the right size for Kevin and me. It is quite easy to use, and we are taking it with us on the trip.

Really nice garlic butter rolls (we ate the others)

We tried to leave on Tuesday, 30 May, but we had to wait for an Amazon package that was late. We did get out on Wednesday, and decided to make it a long day. We drove all the way to Kearney, NE, about 450 miles, in order to sneak through a nasty wind storm forecast. We spent the night in the Cabela’s parking lot there, a place we have stayed in before. Lots of trains coming close by, but I put in foam ear plugs and crashed.

Thursday night we stayed in a fabulous National Forest Service dispersed campsite at Vedauwoo Recreation Area about 20 miles west of Cheyenne, WY. What a fabulous place! It is a popular climbing destination with a small campground but lots of dispersed but designated campsites. The rocks are amazing. We will definitely be coming back with the RZR to ride some of the trails. Absolutely no cell service, but the Starlink was ok with downloads of 8-15MB.

Lots of these rocks looking like giant building blocks

We are in Rock Springs tonight at the Walmart. As usual a bit noisy, but very convenient. Tonight’s dinner is salsa chicken in the Instant Pot and frozen Trader Joe’s Mexican corn. I better get going on it!

Council Bluffs and Omaha

We are at Lake Manawa State Park in Council Bluffs, IA. Fabulous brand new campground with full hookups, concrete parking and patios, big picnic tables, and fire pits. We have a nice view of the small lake, especially since they seem to have decided no campsite needs a tree! This is the true definition of “satellite friendly.” It has been really hot, so we didn’t go to as many places as we wanted.

We did get to the Doorly Zoo, an absolute must-see if anyone is in the area. I have my new mobility scooter, so I can finally be able to get through places that need a lot of walking. It was getting hot even though we were at the zoo by 9:00, so we did the primate area, the desert area, the rain forest, and the aquarium. We didn’t do the large animal exhibit because of the heat and Kevin’s knee. I won’t bore you with all the pictures, but I have to put some of my favorites up.

This mama did a great job of ignoring the humans

Since we came in the morning, many animals were still eating

This is the mai. Big guy in the gorilla group

The penguins swim so quickly that this was the best of many attempts

Not a great picture, but the best I could do

Almost no birds in the rain forest except these two, maybe bird flu?

It was 90 degrees by the time we left the zoo after a lunch around noon.

The next day we drove the Loess Hills National Scenic Byway. Loess (pronounced “Lus” like bus) is glacial debris. On the edge of the Missouri River bottomland is an unusual landform on the Iowa side where the loess formed hills. The erosion is intense, and it was the first part of Iowa that got terraces cut into the farm fields. The hills are really lovely though. You can see the ridge line in the center of the picture along with both the heavy forest on the slopes and the rich farmland at the bottom.

Contrast the Loess Hills with the river bottom of the Missouri River. Flat!

We also just wandered around town. There are some incredible historic areas in Omaha I had never heard of, and they are lovely. We also visited a couple of quilt shops to get fabric for a baby quilt for a soon to arrive great niece. I got it cut out and over half the blocks sewn! I hope to finish the blocks before we leave tomorrow.

Today we went to the Strategic Air Museum. Lots of glorious airplanes! It was even hotter than the previous days so I was glad it was indoors. A small set of the pictures.

Missiles were mostly outside. Compare the size of the missile with the people

I think the ceiling ones are interesting

Not a lot of rotary wings, but they did have some

Today’s high was 102 as read off our weather station on a pole at the motorhome. It was dreadful! We keep the MH cool with both air conditioners going and all the blinds pulled down. Makes for a boring view, but there is so much glass that you have to keep the sun from heating up the inside. It is humid too, with a 66% humidity right now at 87 degrees.

If the weather is so bad, why are we here? We have been waiting on some packages. One is a new Mifi from FMCA. They are phasing out their T-Mobile plan in favor or a plan from AT&T. However it seems like my package got lost at the Post Office! If wasn’t the fault of the USPS though. Whoever shipped the package didn’t put the “General Delivery” on the address! We got it today, and everything seems to work pretty well so far. The other reason we are waiting is for yet another scooter to arrive. It has a more powerful motor so it will go over rougher ground, something that will be handy in Canada and Alaska. It got delayed in shipping, but it should arrive in Cedar Falls tomorrow or Wednesday! Kevin will drive back to pick it up while I work on the baby quilt.

Tomorrow we go to Sioux City, IA. It is actually closer to home, and it has some nice museums. There is a weather front anticipated to cross right over us tomorrow, so we will leave this campground by 3:00. The campground is only 2 hours or less from here, so leaving late will be fine.

Finally made it to Death Valley

We left North Platte on Friday,29 October. We stayed at the KOA in Rawlins, a nice spot, then got to the Salt Lake City KOA late morning on Saturday. We were able to meet up with friends, ate well, but only had the two little kids camped next to us a Trick or Treaters. I gave an entire bag of candy to one of my friends to take into work! We stayed until Tuesday morning, the headed on our way. We spent the night at the Eureka Casino in Mesquite, NV. Very quiet, but we sure had to pull out the leveling blocks!

After we left Mesquite, we started getting check engine lights on the motorhome. The error was low manifold pressure, so we called to Freightliner in Las Vegas to check it out. Turns out a hose had developed a crack and needed replaced. Since it was a formed hose, it had to be ordered from the warehouse in Phoenix. They let us stay overnight next to their lot, and then replaced the hose the next morning. $45 hose, $40 shipping, and the rest of the $600+ bill was labor. Sigh. This is the first non-routine issue we have had in 3 1/2 years and almost 40,000 miles, so I won’t complain too much. Still, it was too bad this didn’t happen at home with $95/hour labor rates instead of the $175/hour in Vegas.

We finally got set up at Death Valley, and we lucked into our favorite site! It is on the east side of the lot with nothing between us and the mountains except a small road. My camera was dead, so I hope you can stand these iPhone photos.

Timbisha Shoshone settlement and headquarters on the left and part of the staff housing for Furnace Creek on the right.

Rather flat light, but the color contrast is still interesting

The mountains at sunset looking a bit south

I can look at those mountains all day! We haven’t had a lot of chance though because Kevin discovered the base plate on the Jeep was loose. This is what attached to the tow bars to tow the Jeep, so loose is a danger! The closest place was Vegas again, this time Indoor RV Center. They came recommended, and so far is seems valid. They saw us on Friday to evaluate and quote the repairs, then on Monday Kevin drove back to get the repair completed. It would have been completed then, but we have discovered the idiots who originally installed it didn’t follow the directions or use the right parts! I am livid. We had to have a complete new baseplate installed plus extra labor to drill out or cut off a bunch of bolts put in wrong. It was so much work that we had to come back today too! Since northern Vegas is a bit over 2 hours from Death Valley, that is an awful lot of driving. We don’t know the final bill, but it will be north of $1500. The shop rate here is even worse than the Freightliner dealer – $189. They do seem to know what they are doing though, and a base plate is a critical piece of safety equipment. We just can’t stand to have an issue with it, and better here than Canada or Alaska next summer!

We have yet to attend a single 49ers activity, but we will start this evening if we get back in time. And we have the funds to pay the bills since we knew this day would come. Hopefully my next post will be much more positive.

On the road again!

Finally! I had my last PT on Monday morning followed by my last orthopedist appointment. I am officially released. I am still not recuperated completely though, and I will need to work on strengthening the unused muscles a lot more. I still get store and stiff, and I have trouble sleeping in the bed, but we are out traveling!

We left on Tuesday afternoon, hoping to beat the “Bomb Cyclone” leftovers headed for the Midwest. We made it to the Cabela’s just south of Omaha Monday night and stayed in their parking lot. A bit noisy, but better than a Walmart. We left early, still trying to get as far ahead of the forecast winds as we could manage. We only made it to North Platte, NE where we have been stuck for 3 nights. Luckily the campground, Holiday RV Park is a reasonable place to stay. They still have water on, and it is nice to have access to electric heat. We had lunch one day at a great place downtown – Good Life on the Bricks. It was mostly a BBQ place, and we both enjoyed it. We also ate at Sonic one night – green chili hamburger!

Here’s a picture of winds that came through. See how narrow the frontal boundary is? And it was right on top of us. There was over an inch of rain dropped, but it was accompanied by hail, thunder, and lots of lightening in addition to 50+ mph gusts. The MH definitely rocked and rolled. The campground has been filling up the last 2 days with other work refugees. Luckily Friday is looking good, and we intend on heading out early in the morning,

Rain forecast. The pink is for wind warnings.

While we are stuck in North Platte, we got groceries and wandered around some. There was one older house that had gone all out for Halloween.

But the one that caught my eye is the house with tan siding next door. This was their sign:

The cats have adjusted pretty well. Luna is still her cuddly self. Minnie hides more so no picture. Minnie is actually on anti-anxiety meds, and they are helping. She probably will always be easy to spook, but it doesn’t seem like she lives in terror of everything. Poor baby!

Kevin went to Golden Spike Tower, a railway museum. North Platte is home to a HUGE rail yard, and he said there were lots of various locomotives on view. I stayed back and got a bit of sewing done. I always like having some bowl cozies around as gifts, and I was completely out. I now have two available if I need them. I used my new edge stitch foot and my roller foot, two feet I bought this summer during Bernina’s 25% off sale. The vintage 830 Record machine I have in the MH doesn’t use the same feet the other Bernina does, so I have been adding to the nice selection that it came with.

Speaking of sewing machines, I almost forgot the lovely vintage 730 Record I picked up a month or so back. I wanted a backup machine, and this was sold by a Bernina store in Minnesota. We drove up, and it was in perfect shape. I should have gotten pictures, but I was so sore when we got back I forgot to take any. Lovely machine, heavy, perfect stitch, all the original accessories, all tucked into a cool green suitcase.

We are leaving here tomorrow morning heading to Rawlings, WY. Hopefully we will make it to Salt Lake on Saturday early enough to see some trick or treaters in the KOA campground. I was told the Mormon Church, pretty strong in the area obviously, had decreed Saturday was Trick or Treat Day so everyone can concentrate on church on Sunday. Sigh. I figure we will be ready both Saturday and Sunday. I am hoping to do some banking, connect with some friends, and do some shopping before we head to Death Valley on Tuesday.

ETA I fixed the typos! I have to improve my proof reading skills.

Christmas with family

We left Utah on 20 December running out in front of a big snow storm. We did pretty good, 660 miles, and we spent the night in North Platte, NE at the the Oak Tree Inn. It was just ok. However the bad news was the forecast changed. We missed the front of the storm by about 100 miles and had to drive through snow and freezing drizzle for a while. After that it was pretty good, and we decided to just head to Cedar Rapids, IA where we stayed for 3 nights at Homewood Suites, a place I really liked. Two separate rooms and a little kitchen made it a lot easier to sleep well and have good coffee. We normally stay with my daughter in Marion, but one of my sons was staying in her spare room until he could move into his newly purchased house. We enjoyed our time with the newest grandson, 11 months old. We like our privacy anyway.

Christmas Eve we went to our oldest son’s house in Cedar Falls, staying until 27 December when we went back to my daughter’s house. My other son had moved into his house by then so her spare room was available. It worked out well because we were needed to babysit one day due to an emergency in her sitter’s family. We left on Friday, 29 December running back to Utah in front of a horrific cold front. We ended up driving to Sidney, staying at the Fairfield Inn. This was also a nice place though expensive. The weather on Saturday was quite interesting. We left Sidney when it was -4 degrees with a bad wind chill. By 40 miles east of Laramie, WY it was 48 degrees! The temperature raised 40 degrees in 20 miles. Back home we have temperatures in the 40s so I hope to not experience low temps again this year.

Christmas itself was great fun. The kids all seemed to like their presents, and so did the grown ups. Of course the grown ups had all given us pretty detailed lists so it was fairly easy LOL! We were also able to pick up our mid-century maple dining room table at a shop in Marion, IA. They refinished it due to some damage it got before I inherited it, perhaps a hot pan a couple of times. The shop also modified the stretchers so it would take an additional leaf, p,us they made a matching left. I can now sit 6 people much more comfortably, and probably 8 in a pinch.

We are now getting an assortment of appointments done before we head off on our next snowbird trip south. Doctors, financial advisors, haircuts, etc. all get done in the next week and a half.

Iowa to Colorado to Utah

After Mark Twain Lake we headed back to Iowa to visit family. We got to have dinner with all the Iowa kids and grandkids and spent some time just wandering around the area. We even went to see a couple of condo/town houses to see what the market point looks like. Eventually we intend on moving back there so the kids can watch our house/condo while we are gone for months at a time LOL!

Leaving Iowa we spent the first night at a Walmart parking lot in Grand Island, NE. I really don’t like staying in parking lots, but I also don’t like spending $30 or more for a few hours sleep. We then headed to Boyd Lake State Park in Loveland, CO. We had hoped for stay 3 nights, visiting Rocky Mountain National Park too. It is a nice campground, but the gate attendant put us in a site only available for two nights. Rather than moving to another spot in the campground, we decided to go on our way. We had a great trip to Rocky, though for only one day. The weather was unseasonably warm and sunny. Trail Ridge road opened up to Rainbow Curve, and we drove up it as far as we could.

2855A5D9-D8B3-4B43-B646-21006FD08B1B The scenery is always gorgeous.

429D7253-5CA7-4045-A84A-773DE39B8349 I particularly liked this rock at the Bear Lake Trailhead.

07B1900F-37DF-4900-AE80-67CFEC285C65 A Gray Jay came by to see if I was sloppy with snacks (I wasn’t). I walked a little of the Bear Lake trail then went to enjoy the sunshine while Kevin walked around the lake.

D5D96B7C-CB19-4A39-8B83-B24F0F51F193 Looking across Horseshoe Park is always lovely.

14ACA446-0C08-447E-B933-A714B43715B4 There was certainly snow in the high country.

After leaving Loveland we headed south on the Peak to Peak Highway. It was slow and lovely, well worth the extra time. We eventually got to I-70 and headed west. We spent Tuesday night at Colorado River State Park in western Colorado. It was lovely and mostly empty this time of year, though I think it would be almost unbearably hot in the summer. The park ranger seemed lonely and was happy to see us! He said the park has sites open all year and even has water in the winter available at the entry office. We will definitely remember this place for spring and fall trips.

23B1E647-5881-4A9E-876B-2E32E432F31E I love the cliffs.

24DD15C9-9520-4384-B3B8-DBD47A3A36EE The cottonwoods were a brilliant gold.

6E9F2108-9669-4ACF-B3E6-B72535A8ACB0 There was a nice path along the the river. We road our bikes around and around the campground and along the river.

We finally got home on Wednesday (yesterday). I love travel, but it sure is nice to be home. Kevin got a bad surprise this morning though. As he was getting the propane tank off the trailer he noticed two shackles were broken on an axle! The RV place couldn’t get us in time, so he found an axle specialist who says it can be done in time for our next trip in a week. I hope!

Running from snow, Central time, and a closed campground

We had a great time with friends from the Wasatch Mountain Club this weekend at Antelope Island State Park. I led a paddling activity with 3 tandem canoes, two inflatable kayaks, and a white water kayak. The 9 of us had a good time. A few pictures taken by someone else:

FullSizeRender

Obviously the day was a bit rainy, but the significant rainfall held off until we were all safely back at camp. We even ended up with a gorgeous double rainbow!

This also was taken by someone else using a panorama mode on their camera. Impressive!

We left on Sunday morning to head to Iowa. As we got farther into Wyoming there were warnings about a winter snowstorm headed our way. Instead of stopping for our normal night in Laramie, we decided to run ahead of the storm. We ended up in Sydney, NE at the Cabela’s parking lot. Nice place and free. We set our clocks to Central time and decided to just stay on that for the next few weeks.

We were up and out early, planning to overnight at Adventure Land park in Des Moines where we stayed last year in mid October. We got there, and they had closed the campground to prepare for some Halloween activity! Even though it was after 6:00 pm we decided to drive the remaining 125 miles to the town our daughter lives in. We are now comfortably established in at Squaw Creek county park in Marion where we will stay until Wednesday. One of the cats doesn’t seem well so we are taking her to the vet too. Sigh. It is a laundry day too. We get to see our daughter, her husband, and our grandson tonight too, a real win.

Nebraska, I wronged you

I generally travel across Nebraska on I-80. With the exception of the hills along the Missouri River and the Sand Hills area, I have always found it pretty boring. This trip we are traveling across Hwy 20, and until the middle of the afternoon today, my beliefs seemed justified. This we came into the area around Ft. Robinson State Park, and it is gorgeous. Badlands, rolling hills with pine trees, incredible broad meadows with bison and longhorns grazing, pronghorn, and deer. Wow!

Looking along the Smiley Canyon Scenic Drive

They have a lovely campground. An electric site was $20, but there was an additional daily Parks Pass fee of $8 for an out of state resident. The fort itself is wonderfully preserved. There are many original buildings and a number of reconstructed ones. The old officers quarters have been converted into rental units. They are full many weekends, but not during the week. We road our bikes all over the main part of the fort. Of course we also included the University of Nebraska museum with a lot of fossils. I hadn’t realized just how close this place is to the southern Black Hills. I definitely am going to plan a longer trip that will include the wonderful southern Black Hills plus this area. There are a number of National Monuments and Historic sites.

I wish I could post an audio recording of the campsite as I sit outside on a warm summer evening. Lots of birds (including a mourning dove) plus a small babbling brook at the edge of our site. Quite nice!

Into Nebraska

We left Iowa this morning. Yesterday’s baptism went really well. Darling Clay slept through much of the service, but he woke up when the pastor poured the water over his head! Isn’t he adorable?

You can see the long skirt that buttons onto a romper. There are actually three sets of pintucks, each 7 rows.

The romper has 13 sets of pintucks down the front.

Regarding Iowa, I said I would post some wildflower pictures.

To give some help with scale, the yellow rockets are higher than my waist.

These pictures were taken on the bike path at Pinicon Ridge County Park, but Squaw Creek (where we camped) was the same.

We decided to head toward Gros Ventre campground in Grand Teton National Park. We also decided to not head out on I-80 but instead take Hwy 20. I must admit it is not the scenic path, but at least it has the advantage of newness. We are now camped at Carney City Park in O’Neill, NE. What a lovely little place!

Shade, concrete pad, electricity, and water.

There are quite a few sites available. It is on a voluntary donation system, so we left 10 dollars. We won’t use any facilities except the electricity so it seemed fair.

A change of plans

We headed out of Iowa a little after 9:00 am, planning on going to Oklahoma. Then we saw a huge flock of pelicans in Nebraska. When I say huge, it was at least 1000 birds, some wheeling in the air and even more on the ground. Amazing! I remembered how I had been in the middle of the great bird migration in early March almost 5 years ago while on I-80 in Nebraska. Ummm. It was almost March. Was it possible the migration was starting early? There is a bubble of deliciously warm air over the Great Plains, so we turned north to I-80 instead of Oklahoma. We aren’t in the middle of the main migration, but we did see a lot of birds. Take a look at this picture. All that almost solid white are birds completely covering a borrow pit along the side of the highway.

As usual, it isn’t the best of pictures, but it shows how thick the geese were. These were mostly Snow Geese with a few other geese and even some ducks stuck in the middle of them. During the main migration, this kind of scene occurs in fields and ponds for well over 100 miles. Sadly we only saw the geese and ducks, no sandhill cranes.

We are spending the night in North Platte, Nebraska at Holiday RV Park. Definitely some traffic noise, but it is convenient and pretty cheap for electric, wifi, and cable. Central water, and there is a sewer hookup we don’t need yet. Normally they are full hookups (we have stayed here a few times before), but they are leaving the water off for the season. Since today’s high temperature was in the 70’s, it doesn’t seem reasonable, but it is still February. From here we plan on heading to Colorado, probably Loveland. I’d like to see Rocky Mountain National Park in the winter, but I sure don’t want to camp there. Lowland camping with electricity and cable sounds a lot more enjoyable. Then again, we may change our minds!

Oh, and I have picked up a rotten head cold. I am coughing a lot, and I have a sore throats from the drainage. Ugh.