We continue our trip through Nebraska…

We spent day 18 moving from Mitchell to North Platte. Along the way we stopped at Scotts Bluff National Monument. A great sandstone bluff and a badlands area blocked the path of the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail as they followed the Platte River and its fresh water. A narrow gap in the bluff allowed passage with just a short detour. There is a winding drive to the summit of the bluff that gives a great view of the gap and of the valley in all directions.

At North Platte we turned our attention to one of Greg’s favorite subjects: railroads. The Golden Spike Tower lets you see into one of the most amazing beehives of activity, the Union Pacific’s Bailey Yard. This huge place directs the path of rail cars as they travel east/west, services both cars and locomotives, and generally serves as the hub of the transcontinental railway. We also visited Cody Park, where a Challenger steam locomotive, a diesel locomotive, and a baggage car and mail car are displayed. It always amazes Greg just how big steam locomotives are.

Day 19 took us to Grand Island, where we will stay for three nights. On the way we stopped in Kearney and visited The Archway, a really cool museum that stretches across I-80. It tells the story of the various people groups that have travelled through the Platte River Valley over time and of how they travel, starting with Native Americans, to the Oregon/California/Mormon trails, to the Pony Express, to the railroads, and finally to the Lincoln Highway and I-80. There were some really moving stories of pioneer life.

The two days ahead are going to be great fun…more next time.

One last note about Gillette before we move on: the convention grounds had hosted the National High School Rodeo championships 10 days before we got there, and a large hog sale seven days before. All well and good, except for the flies that were left behind. The day we arrived was hot, and we were dry camping that first day, so no air conditioning. We put the canopy out and were trying to have lunch in the shade, except for the swarms of flies. At one point there must have been 20 on Leila’s foot…we got an appreciation for how the Egyptians must have felt during the Biblical plagues.

Today’s drive was, for now, the last of our mountain driving (at least until we head for home). The roads were easy to drive, but we found ourselves in the midst of thunderstorms…literally. There was lightning in every direction. The rain wasn’t too hard until it was, and no hail thankfully. While “enjoying’ the weather one windshield wiper came unmoored; fortunately it did not break or fly away, but we were able to stop and get it remounted.

Tonight we are parked at a Harvest Host site just outside of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Our host has a farm growing vegetables for farmer’s markets; we bought some fresh veggies that will taste pretty good over the next few days. There’s more lightning tonight, but now that’s calmed down.

Tomorrow takes us first to Scotts Bluff National Monument, then to North Platt for the night. More then…

Welcome back! Our time here in Gillette is coming to an end, and we hit the road tomorrow. The Family Motor Coach convention went well; we learned a lot, met a bunch of really nice people, and got new ideas for future trips.

We’ll need to explore Gillette more thoroughly next time through here, but we did see the local laundromat twice…it got a score of 4 out of 5. We drove up to Devils Tower today; it was a great drive and a nice hike. No wildlife today except for prairie dogs…

As previously reported, Leila spent her first few days here driving around in a golf cart, surviving 95 degree weather. She volunteered to help make sure attendees received their welcome bags as they arrived. Over the course of three days the team welcomed 800 RV’s and their occupants. Busy, they were.

As for Greg, he stayed busy. He served as a seminar monitor four times, and played the clarinet in a group called the Frustrated Maestros…the group entertained during the coffee/donut hour. We had lots of fun with both, and have the “silence your personal devices” speech down.

Sunday begins the drive towards Nebraska…more details soon!

We have arrived in Gillette, and have gotten settled into our parking place for the next week. One or two more thoughts about Cody first:

The shuttle bus driver was talking about the school system in Cody. It says something about the population of Wyoming that a town of 10,000 people (roughly) has the 9th biggest student body. I think he said that the district has 6 grade schools, the smallest of which is out in the mountains with 5 or so students. During hunting season their teacher equips them with safety vests and with bear spray. They grow them tough around there!

The drive from Cody to Gillette yesterday had lots of variety. The first sixty miles or so was straight road through arid country. We then turned into farming country with a smattering of oil wells. Having up to this point been between 4 and 5,000 feet, US 16 led us on to some real mountain driving, topping out at the Powder River Pass at 9,666 feet. The mountains were truly pretty, but i was glad to be down the mountain.

It’s hot here (as it is at home!), and we had to dry camp last night…no air conditioning for us. This inconvenience was so that we could take a course today, building our skills at backing up the motorhome. We camped in a field last night so the RV would be available to use in the course today. Things went well, and we’re now in our site that comes complete with electricity and water. Huzzah!

Leila is already hard at work helping; she volunteered to work with the crew welcoming attendees to the convention. I’ll be proctoring some seminar sessions, and playing clarinet in a little band that entertains in the morning during donut time. No, I can’t eat donuts and play at the same time…

No pictures today, and entries may be a little short over the next couple of days…we don’t leave here until the 27th. I’ll write when I have time (and have something that needs to be said!).

Cody is certainly an interesting place, made more interesting by its founder. Buffalo Bill Cody was in turns heroic and a scoundrel, and one of the most interesting people we’ve learned about in a long time.

We started the day back at the Buffalo Bill Center, and spent our morning enjoying their art gallery and the Buffalo Bill exhibit. The art was an awful lot of fun…the paintings and sculptures were great. It’s always interesting to see how artists interpret the things they see. There was a nice comparison of two paintings showing the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

The Buffalo Bill gallery was really interesting, describing the many facets of a very interesting man. He made a fortune, and lost a fortune in just a short number of years. Cody became friends with an amazing cross-section of notable people in the late 1800’s. It was intriguing enough that we found a bookstore and looked for a biography. It’s now on my nightstand, along with a history of early Yellowstone NP.

We took a drive over to a very nice quilt shop (this may be an ongoing theme on this trip), then back downtown for a one hour trolley ride around town. The tour gave us some really interesting facts; for instance, the red light district was conveniently located between the train station and the hotel/saloons.

Last we went back to the Irma Hotel to watch a shootout in the street. It was an interesting performance, and we were glad we had a front row seat to history (that repeats nightly at 6 PM).

So tomorrow is a travel day, we leave for Gillette, Wyoming to get ready for the Family Motorcoach Assocation convention. We take a RV backing class on Saturday, then Leila gets busy helping with welcoming folks on their way in. More later…

We’re deep in the heart of the mountain west now, with our faithful steed (the RV) tied up in Cody, Wyoming. This town of about 10,000 is remarkable in part because it seems mandatory for restaurants and highway motels to have “Buffalo Bill” in their names.

We started the day driving through Yellowstone NP one more time, mostly because that’s where US 20 goes on its way east. Everything east of Fishing Bridge was new to us. The pass you go over leaving the park is breathtaking (and a little nervous. It includes a downhill run of 6% or so for better than 5 miles. The driver was not amused).

You then get to enjoy the Shoshone River valley, some really interesting rock formations, and then a dam that seems to have been built out of a pre-existing rock wall. All of this was great!

We got checked in at the Cody KOA, then went over to the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, having discovered that our tickets would be good for two days. The Center has five museums in a single complex, and we toured two today; the first was a giant collection of firearms, the second a fine museum of the native Americans of the plains. We’ll go back tomorrow to see the other three.

After dinner we took a shuttle bus to see the Cody Night Rodeo. It’s amazing that such a small town can put on a two hour rodeo every night from June 1 to August 31. It had a little of everything, roping, bull riding, barrel racing, pretty much anything you’d expect in a rodeo.

The stay in Cody will be brief; we leave on Friday morning. But we have an exciting day planned for tomorrow…stay tuned.

Tuesday was spent sleeping in a bit, getting some chores done around the motorhome, and window shopping downtown. We saved some energy for going to Grand Prismatic Spring and doing some night photography. This is our last day in West Yellowstone; taking a break before driving day is always welcome. Some thoughts:

It continues to be amazing how long a traffic backup can result from a wildlife sighting. Tonight we saw a traffic tangle that went for at least two miles as drivers queued up to take pictures of a bison. Fortunately for us the tie up was in the opposite direction.

It was a busy week for fans of the hated Big 10 conference. We saw Ohio State, Purdue, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota gear. On an ironic note PAC 12 fans were not to be seen, other than a couple of Utah fans and one Oregon fan who gave me a good-natured hard time about my OSU cap (but wasn’t brave enough to wear Ducks stuff himself).

One more bit of amazement: the weird and wonderful places people choose to take a selfie. So very many people posing in front of a cloud of steam (with nothing else visible behind them). Then there was the group of seven people making the walking loop beyond Old Faithful setting up a group photo at every geyser/hot spring/mudpot they passed. It’s a good thing digital photos are cheap; if they had to process that much film they’d need a bank loan.

I should not be surprised at how many t-shirt shops there are in a tourist rich location, but how in the world do they all survive? And where do all the huckleberries come from to make all those jams, jellies, etc.?

We’re not in Idaho anymore: drive-through liquor stores!

We’re on the road tomorrow to Cody, Wyoming. We’ve never been out the east entrance to Yellowstone or on US 20 that direction. It’s gonna be a good day.

The sun continued to shine on our trip, and maybe was a little warmer. We headed for the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River and went for a walk.

Well, it was more of a hike…3.5 miles out, 3.5 miles back. There were more special things to be seen; God’s creation is indeed pretty special. This canyon takes your breath away. Later in the day we drove by Yellowstone Lake. The lake feeds the river, and you have wonder how the water feels after being able to laze around for a while only to be thrown by gravity over two huge abysses. Surprised maybe?

I have to admit that the hike did me in, particularly the steep uphill grades in the last mile. Leila is in much better shape! It was a wonderful time, and I’m paying the price now.

One more day here in West Yellowstone, and we plan to catch up a little with RV chores and preparing for the next leg of the trip. Weather permitting I want to do some night photography too…more next time.

It was a sunny day in Yellowstone NP, and we took advantage of it. Leila pointed the car south for a day of walking boardwalks around geysers, mud pots, and various hot water. It was all beautiful, and splendid to spend it with my wife of 46 years.

Our anniversary was spent enjoying God’s creation. We saw colors, both in the sky above and the pools below that dazzled the eyes. Our timing worked out, we saw a number of geysers pumping heaven only knows just how much water into the sky.

Later we had a nice dinner at the Old Faithful Inn dining room. The building is a lovely lodge style, and the dining room went right along with that style. It must be late in the season; we asked for a glass of wine and were informed that the hotel was completely out. Ah well, the dinner was good.

So, tomorrow will take us to more corners of the park. We’ll see water in a lot of different forms…

This trip has been in planning for a very long time, and has finally started. We have 70 days of travel ahead, and the plan is to see 15 states over that period We’re off to a good start…

We arrived in West Yellowstone, MT yesterday afternoon, set up camp, had a light dinner and then walked over to downtown. There are certainly a lot of t-shirts for sale, not to mention more items made with huckleberries than you could store.

Today saw us drive into the national park, heading north. We had a great time walking around the Norris geyser area, then moved up to Mammoth Hot Springs. The weather was splendid, and according to Leila we put in about 22,000 steps.

Traffic was pretty normal, slowing down every time someone thought they saw an animal. At least twice they were right, although that bear was trying its best to avoid eye contact.

We plan to spend day three looking at more geysers, hot springs, and mud pots in the Old Faithful area. More on that tomorrow…