Here we are, on the road: We’re in Elm Creek, Nebraska

June 15, 2013 Lorraine’s report

So another week has passed and we are in Nebraska, about 17 miles from Kearney, Nebraska. Chuck found a passport America park for us to stay in and while it is not much, it is okay-we have 50 amp, water and sewer.

My goodness did we have a big storm last night. We got home from being out, and the radio we use started going off about all the rain, thunder and lightening storms we were in for. We sat in the rig and watched the lightening going off all around us. It was pretty awesome, with the lightening cracking down in front of the rig in the open field in front of us. The radio said the storm would end about 9:15 pm, and about 9:20, it stopped. It started again about 11 pm, but we had gone to bed by then. Another evening earlier in the week, we were awaken by the crack of the thunder going off over us at 2:45 am. These people here in Kansas/Nebraska sure are a hardy bunch of people, with storms going off all the time. I don't know how they manage with this wild weather.

This week found us out and about, checking out different areas we have stayed in. One day we went to Salina, Kansas, it is so flat, but lots of character and charm. The next day we went over to Abilene, Kansas and toured Dwight D. Eisenhower's Presidential Library, Museum and Boyhood home. Now that was exciting to me and I was happy to put that Bucket List wish over to the already completed list. There are 13 presidential libraries in the US and we have now been to Ike's library.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was one of 5 boys, all raised in Abilene. He went to West Point and rose through ranks. He was the Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces during WWII. There was one exhibit in the museum that held all his medals from all over Europe and Africa. He was one decorated Hero. He came home to a lot of people liking him and wanting him to run for president of this country. He did and the rest is history. Dwight D. Eisenhower's library told the story of our country and its battle with the rest of the world, in WWII. We could have spent many more hours at this library, it was so fascinating to me.

We stayed several days in Lindsborg, Kansas; it is a Swedish town. It was settled by the Swedes in the late 19 century. A lot of charm and history are evident throughout that area. Lindsborg is home to the Dala Horses, and you will find a herd of 31 roaming the streets. The areas all have one or two horses on each block through put town.

The Dala Horse is a popular Swedish handicraft and souvenir. Most popular are the red-orange horses from the village of Nusnas, near Mora. Since the Viking times, the horse has been considered a Holy animal. They are red/orange in color and most have been carved into children's toys. They represent the town of Lindsborg, Kansas.

Another day we went up to Coronado Heights. Coronado Heights acquired it's name honoring Francisco Vasquer De Coronado who visited central Kansas in 1541. It is a fort that was made of stone. It had a sleeping area, cooking and eating area and was on top of a small hill.

From there we went to the Hoglund Dugout. Gustof and Maria Hoglund, a young couple from Fernebo, Sweden came and they made a tiny 6' by 12' home in the summer of 1868. They used the wagon as a roof; boy is it tiny, don't know how they fared.

We are now in Nebraska and went touring yesterday. We went to the Art Museum in Kearney, went to the big arch over the freeway and toured that area. From there we went to look at the Ft. Kearney Museum, then over to the FT. Kearney State Park, I was kind of tired today.

We leave tomorrow so that is why we are doing the blog today.

I want to wish all the Dads out there a very happy Father's Day. Tomorrow would have been may daddy's 105th birthday. I surely do miss him!!! Until next time...

Lorraine

6/15/13 Chuck’s report

First off, Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Hope you have an awesome day!!

We are still crossing the middle of the county, stopping whenever and where ever, trying to use our campground memberships if possible. Currently we are staying at a Passport America park about 15 miles West of Kearney, NE. (locals pronounce it Car-knee) just off I-80.

Last Sunday we drove into Wichita for a short tour of the town area. We wanted to explore on a weekend VS weekday because of traffic. Only problem with that was almost everything was closed on the weekend, go figure.

Monday we loaded up the coach and headed North a bit more, this time we stopped South of Salina at a campground in Lindsborg, KS. We wanted to see Salina and this was the closest Passport America place to the town. After we got set up and washed the bugs off the front, we headed into Salina for a sort tour. Can’t say we found anything really amazing but it is a nice town.

Next morning we wanted to head into Abilene, KS., where Buffalo Bill was marshal during the Wild days. Our main objective was to see our first Presidential Library. Dwight David Eisenhower was born and grew up here, left when he got an appointment to West Point. As most of you may remember, he was the Supreme Commander of all the troops in Europe during WW2 and made the final decision of when/where for D Day. After the war he was president of Columbia College before he was elected as President of the United States. He was president through some of the best times this country has had, no wars and lots of prosperity across the country. He also started our freeway system that crosses America. I read somewhere that over 90% of citizens of the US live within an hour’s drive of one of the freeways.

Like I said, this was our first Presidential Library and we really liked it. The actual library is now mostly research offices and all the Presidential stuff is mostly in boxes with a small portion in the museum across the park. We managed to spend almost 4 hours touring the grounds and museum and could have returned for another day if we had wanted to read all the info available. There was lots of information about him as a child, military officer, the war and his presidency. We liked it enough that we will now probably go out of our way to visit the other presidential libraries. In fact, we almost changed our travel plans so we could see Harry Truman’s Library in Independence, Missouri but we figured we would save that for another trip.

Wednesday we needed to stop by Wal-Mart so we headed South to visit the town of McPherson. Again, we found it to be a nice, small, mid-American town that we enjoyed touring. Later, after we dropped the stuff off at the coach and took the dog out for a walk, we headed out to see Coronado Heights. This is a 1700’ hill a few miles NW of town where the Spanish Conquistador Coronado had been back in the 1540s. There is a small building on the hill and it’s a good lookout in all directions. Hard to imagine almost 500 years ago the first white folks came into the area, it was all Native Americans up to that point.

Later, we toured Lindsborg again. This town is known as "Little Sweden" because it was settled by Swedish Immigrants in the late 19th century. They have decorated DALA horses on most street corners downtown and a nice Swedish store with lots of different sized DALA horses for sale, in fact, this store sells more DALA horses than any place outside Sweden. It was just by happenstance that we stopped here but it is a real nice little town, glad we stayed there.

Thursday we left Lindsborg and continue our trip North, this time we stopped here near Elm Grove. Kearney has built an Archway across I-80 with a museum attached. After we got set up and washed the bugs off the front once again, we headed into Kearney to see the Arch. Unfortunately, by the time we toured town a bit, the Archway Museum was about to close for the day. So we left, stopped for dinner and made plans to return on Friday.

Friday we did make it back to the Archway Museum. They have the Museum inside the Arch, above the highway. They cover history from the early settlers through the gold rush period when there was so many folks just going through, the pony express and wagon trains going through, the railroads, the early days when the roads were just getting going all the way through to when the freeways were built. In fact, the area will be celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the Lincoln Highway (I-80) this year. They are using so many resources for this celebration that they are not doing some of the yearly pageants and such this year. It promises to be a big deal, too bad we won’t be here when it’s going on later this year.

There is also a sod house on the grounds that we toured, in fact there was a guide inside giving information about how they lived back then. Pretty tough life, to be sure, but lots of folks lived that way as there just aren’t many trees around here. In fact, they told us that the trees we now see didn’t exist around here until after the buffalo were all killed off back in the late 1800s.

After the Archway, we stopped by to see the Fort Kearney museum and state park. Once again, lots of information abut the area and people. The state park didn’t have much other than camping sites situated around 8 lakes, really nice.

This morning we wanted to see the town of Elm Grove, found a very small town of about 1000 folks, with one stop light. Sure not much to see/do there so we continued on to Kearney once again to get some stuff from Wal-Mart. Of course, Lorraine wanted to stop at the mall to check out a couple of stores too.

The weather hasn’t been quite as hot here in NE as it was in KS. The day time temperatures are getting to the low 90s and cooling off into the low 70s at night. We had one thunderstorm while we were in Lindsborg one night, we pulled in the slide outs and just rode it out. There was lots of rain, thunder and lightening and some winds, I think we saw winds in the low 50 mph range with that storm.

We’ve spent two nights here at Elm Grove and have had two thunderstorms. The first was at night, we had pulled in the slides before we went to bed so that one didn’t bother us too much. Yesterday afternoon as we were returning to our campground, the skies kept looking worse and worse. Shortly after we got back, the winds picked up enough that we made the decision to pull in the slides on the South side of the coach, just in case. Within a few minutes, the weather radio went off with thunderstorm warnings in the area. It wasn’t long until the lightening was all around us, loud thunder going with the lightening too. Then the winds picked up and the rains started. We actually lost TV reception with the satellite because of the clouds and rain. The winds got up to about 60 mph and the rain was just running off the roof of the coach. We ended being in the middle of large pool of water about 5 inches deep by the time it was over. But we were fine, watched a DVD movie and enjoyed watching the storm. There is a storm shelter here at the park but we never were worried enough to head over to it but it’s nice to know it is there if we need it.

I guess my impression of the three states we’ve just crossed, Oklahoma, Kansas and now Nebraska, would be positive. We like the green, don’t care for the hot temperatures and high humidity, really don’t like the thunderstorms and the weather that goes with them, miss seeing any mountains, there are only rolling hills here and we know it gets way too cold for us during the winter. We won’t be adding any place in these three states to our possible stopping points when we decided to stop full time motor homing but sure have enjoyed touring them and learning more about their history.

We are planning on heading out tomorrow morning, hoping to stay near Omaha, NE. We usually don’t make reservations and the place where we are planning on staying doesn’t take reservations. But the problem we have with that, the College Baseball World Series is played there every year and it starts this weekend. So if we get there and the park is full, we will look for other arrangements nearby, even in Iowa which is just across the Missouri river. We probably will stay in the area for a few days, checking things out before we move on.

It’s time to go through the pictures Lorraine took this week and pick out which ones to add here. I know she took over 200 pictures at the Eisenhower Museum alone, but I won’t add that many. NOTE: I just added the pictures and couldn’t decide which ones to add of the Eisenhower Library so I didn’t add hardly any. I could have easily added 50 or more with no problem.

Wichita, KS.

Lindsborg with some of the decorated DALA horses.

Abilene, KS and the Eisenhower Library and Museum.

Inside the house where he and his 6 brothers grew up.

On the right are the crypts he and his wife, Mamie, are buried.

Coronado Heights and the structure on the hill.

Views in all directions.

This is an old homestead, they dug a hole in the ground, lined it with rocks and used their wagon as a roof. Tough life, tough people.

Leaving Kansas, entering Nebraska. Still lots of flat land and lots of wheat and corn fields.

That’s the Platt River, not much to see but it was a major destination for the folks traveling in the wagon trains. It was here that the major emigrant trails, including the Oregon, California, Mormon, Bozeman and such separated and went their own ways.