Luci visits Lincoln

 E.R. Visits Luci at CampAway Campground in Lincoln

CampAway is just north of downtown at Superior and I 180. Friendly folks, clean if cramped campground with all services, good showers, bison burgers Friday nights and pancakes on Saturday morning. We were here during Memorial Day weekend.

Grandpa and Bonnie live at Legacy Estates in Lincoln and our kids live in Fallbrook. None had seen Bambi Luci in person. She was parked in Fallbrook briefly during a Memorial Day cookout for neighborhood folk that Jennifer and Matt hosted. Grandpa and Bonnie got the tour in the campground.

The next few days we shifted to Mahoney State Park. 

Daniel and Katie visited us at Mahoney. We climbed the World Herald tower to see the mighty Platte river with both grand kids. Daniel introduced us to the Wave Pool. "Be the wave, grandma" was his advice. Grandma Mary cannot remember ever having so much fun in a swimming pool. Thanks, Daniel!

Katie played Scrabble and Blue Dog (card game), hiked with us and paddleboated. We were a few days early for the melodrama which would have been more fun than Scrabble by a long way.

Katie and Grandma paddled about Owen Marina looking at the many Canada geese and their many, many goslings. These geese were habituated to paddle boaters and seemed to believe that we may have food handouts for them. We were mobbed! 

Mahoney State Park is a nice place to camp. Most RV sites have electricity and picnic table, paved pad and fire ring. Showers and flush toilets were fairly clean. The pads were separated by green space but we would have liked more privacy with bushes for screening. A plus were beautiful mature trees and many birds including turkey, cardinals and orioles. Mahoney is spread over many acres on the bluffs overlooking the Platte river and many activities are available for all family members. You need a car or bikes to get from place to place or lots of time and good legs.

On our last night at Mahoney, we went to Omaha to see our friends. See the next blog for details.

On Bone Creek

Keller Park State Recreation area is a gem. It is located in northern Brown County just off Highway 183 north of Ainsworth NE in the valley along Bone Creek. There are picnic areas with grills, tables, water and restrooms. The RV sites have electricity, water nearby, tables, grills and fire rings. The pads are sandy and not especially level but all are scenic with trees and shrubs. Tent camping is along the creek and near fishing ponds. Decent pit toilets serve all areas. A campground host arrived soon after we did so he is an information resource.  Cell service is not available in the campground but is can be accessed on higher ground. On a grocery trip to Ainsworth, we used the wi-fi at the library. Fast and friendly!

An unique and memorable site marker is a cattle ear tag seen in the foreground here.

Being in this area in middle May is a wonderful time to watch birds. Many songbirds are migrating through and scant leaf cover on the trees makes them easier to spot. A Spotted Towhee's persistent song mystified me until I was able to get my binoculars on him.  Tiny song sparrows and chipping sparrows, goldfinches and wrens, robins and grosbeaks, pewees and flycatchers. Down by the fishing ponds are yellowthroats and an abundance of red winged blackbirds. A blue heron surprised us by flapping off a perch with a disgusted croak sounding call. Many swallows are busy along the creek and in the air above us. Also in the air are vultures and crows. 

Dave pointed out five deer crossing the campground before breakfast this morning. We see bunnies and turkeys and surmise that their predators are about but out of sight. Two roosts for bats show evidence of use. We will watch for them to fly at dusk. So far there have been very few bugs so sitting outside has been a joy.

This has been a great place to camp. It is a little out of the way but well worth the effort. 

Next stop Springview NE and the Kenaston Jamboree. Yippee!!

Sandra's Garage sale

Onward and eastward we travel from Crawford, NE through Sandhills terrain on Highway 20. Farming, ranching and agriculture related businesses dominate this area. Sub-irrigated meadows produce beautiful cattle here. Valentine is the biggest town in the area and is in the largest county of the 93 counties in Nebraska. The Bunkhouse cafe is our lunch stop.

Our destination is Atkinson where both Dave and I graduated high school. Sister Sandy is having a garage sale and we are going to help. 

We set up camp at Mill Race Park on the west edge of the town. The park sports a nice fishing pond complete with a Canada Goose pair and two goslings. Birdwatching is good here. A local man built bluebird nest boxes and stationed the boxes along an easily walkable trail. A few benches provide rest and quiet birdwatching.

Also nearby is a golf course easily accessible from the camping area. Dave played one day, his first round of the year, new clubs, plenty of excuses. He pronounced the course more challenging than he remembered. 

The next few days were filled with garage sale busyness. Brother Robb and Dave carted a storage shed full of possessions to a three car garage. Tables and more tables with boxes and boxes of things to sort and display. We filled up the garages and spilled over onto the apron with household goods and furniture.

After two long days of selling, boxing up and rearranging, remarking and more selling, the sale was over, a success! What was left could fit into a sixth of the original space and will be part of another sale in June. A relief for all of us. 

Memorial Day flower baskets were made from bedding flowers purchased at the Atkinson Garden Greenhouse. Sandy will care for the baskets until Memorial Day when she and Robb will put them on the graves of our loved ones. Mother Helen died just a year ago. She is often in our minds and we all recounted memories of her and laughed when we found ourselves doing things Mom's way.

Family, it's a good thing.

Our first Big Trip

Fort Robinson State Park in Nebraska is our destination.

We start out on a beautiful spring day in Laramie heading north out of town. We appreciate the green of the high prairie, the full Laramie River and multitudes of antelope grazing and lazing in the pastures. Our path takes us on the Sybille Canyon highway over Morton Pass and down into the Sybille Creek drainage. The scenery is spectacular. We stop at a convenient turnout next to the Sybille Wildlife Preserve to see elk, buffalo, big horn sheep and even a glimpse of a moose, maybe.

Up and out of the canyon, through the newly planted cornfields near Wheatland WY and on to Gurnsey  for a convenient gas/restroom stop. Coal trains from the Powder River mines intersect on the east side of town with the National Guard training station, a busy place in the summer. We turn north onto a narrow, twisty but scenic highway through ranching country.  The tiny mining town of Hartville is east of the road. Some of my ancestors came here in the mining days when land became scarce in Nebraska and their families remained in Wyoming becoming ranchers. Their families are scattered throughout the west. 

We turn onto Highway 20 at Manville heading east to Lusk WY. A handy rest area just west of Lusk, one of a very few in Wyoming, offers us a place for lunch and to stretch our legs.  A memorial to the Cheyenne to Deadwood Stage lines offers some insight into the history of the region.

Continuing east on US 20 we pass into Nebraska. This highway is named Bridges to Buttes Highway here and we soon see white sandy looking buttes as we near Crawford NE. There is evidence of a fire some time ago along these former pine forested ridges, now grassed over.  Down into the Soldier Creek drainage and into the Fort Robinson State Park.  We find a pretty paved and mostly level site near the shower house. The park has paved sites with picnic tables and fire rings, most with electricity and some with full hookups. There is a quiet, out of the way spot for tent campers along the creek.

Fort Robinson was an Army fort protecting settlers and wagon trains as the west was settled. It became a cavalry training base for the Army after WWI and later was repurposed as a meat animal research center for the University of Nebraska. The Fort was repurposed again as a State Park when the research facility was relocated to central Nebraska. 

There are wonderful historical buildings and recreated educational buildings telling of the western migration, the Indian wars and the sad final days of the Cheyenne Chief Crazy Horse.  MNy of the former barracks, officers quarters an other fort buildings can be rented for family reunions and vacations. Equestrian facilities are available with stable rental for horses and a dedicated campground for equestrian events. A lodge on the grounds has rooms and a restaurant and summer events include the Post Playhouse where musical theater is presented. Horseback trail rides, stagecoach rides and a chuck wagon cookout are also summer fare. 

We enjoyed the beautiful weather this first evening with an eye on the weather forecast. Sure enough, we woke up to snow the next day.

North Platte Nebraska Country Bluegrass Show

Our first trip with Bambi Luci began with a long pull up Telephone Canyon from the Laramie valley through the 8600 foot elevation; Interstate 80's highest pass. Our Toyota Tacoma did a fine job handling the hill and the tow.  

We turned off the interstate highway in favor of the Lincoln Highway at Lodgepole, Nebraska. With a tailwind we were happy with our 15mpg mileage stopping for gas at Sutherland, Nebraska at an easy in and out station along Hwy 30. 

Lunching at Ole's Big Game Lodge in Paxton. Not to be missed with big game mounts on the walls, spacious booths and friendly servers. 

Our destination was the Lincoln County Fairgrounds at North Platte NE where we found a good campsite on a cement pad near the animal barns. Our Kearney, NE friends, the Metzgers, joined us. Picking and grinning ensued.

After lots of fun music and a visit by my sister Sandy, we left the festival early to beat a late spring snow storm back to Laramie.

Making Progress

We are making progress toward being ready for camping.  We have new batteries in the trailer, new tires, and the bearings have been packed.  And of course now there is snow in the forecast for tomorrow!  We hope to be set up for a short excursion next weekend and then a trip to the bluegrass festival later in the month.

Is it Spring yet?

The calendar says March 28 so we should be having some spring-like days here in Laramie WY but like much of the northern part of the USA, it still feels like winter. Bummer!

That doesn't mean to say that Dave hasn't been busy getting ready for camping season. The Airstream manuals have been out and poured over; notes have been made; orders for goods sent on the internet; thoughts of Spring camping abound. 

A weight equalizing hitch should be delivered today. Interstate batteries will be recycled and new ones installed and we'll see if our battery hook-up diagram is accurate. Then Luci will be hitched and pulled into the driveway for loving ministrations involving cleaning and lubeing and preparing for our first outing of 2014. Oh boy, we can hardly wait!