Transportation stations -- Sun., Aug. 26

Today is about travel...train travel; in particular, the moving of products around our country.

We took it easy this morning and had a great breakfast of turkey bacon, blueberry pancakes with cinnamon applesauce, and fried eggs. 

Our destination to learn about trains? The Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center, a must see for train aficionados. The eight-story tower overlooks the Bailey Yards of Union Pacific railroad. 

The yards comprise repair buildings, administrative offices, switching yards, storage yards and hump tracks. Hump tracks are elevated tracks where outgoing train cars are sorted electronically and sent down a hill to the outgoing train they will be attached to. The whole set up is fascinating to watch from the tower. It's like looking down on a child's toy train diorama, but it's real.

Eastbound yards.

Repair facility.

Looking east at admin building and corn maze.

Stats

Map of Bailey Yard

 

Look at all those engines!

From North Platte we had a long travel day (just kidding) of 82 miles to Elm Creek, Nebraska where we stayed at Sunny Meadows Campground (another Passport America park). Again, no "it" factor, just gravel pull-through sites. Two different people who worked at the campground told us they had free wi-fi and it worked best in the sites next to the laundry. We had the site adjacent to the laundry building and no wi-fi at all. False advertising in my opinion. We needed to do a couple loads of laundry so at least we were close to that. If any of you plan on staying in Elm Creek, we do not recommend Sunny Meadows. If you plan to use the showers on site, I'd recommend making another plan. There is one shower in the women's room and one shower in the men's room. You get to the restrooms through the laundry room. The restrooms/showers are old and dirty. To be specific, the bathrooms had no soap, no paper towels, the sink had old toothpaste and soap bits in it, the showers had cement floors, and the shower heads looked like they had never been replaced. Yuck. The laundry room was neat and clean, however. (See below for a campground in the area we DO recommend.)

Since we had a short travel day today, we had daylight left. We decided to make the best use of it we could. We took the truck and drove to Kearney, Nebraska to see The Great Platte River Road Monument which spans both lanes of I-80. I thought it was only a pretty bridge, but come to find out it's an attraction with two stories of history of the Great Platte River Road. We arrived at 6:10 p.m. It had closed for the day at 6:00 p.m., so we walked across the suspension bridge to view the outdoor exhibits of an earthen house and a sod house. I was able to take some pretty pictures in the light of the late afternoon sun.

The Great Platte River Road Monument.

Artwork on top of the monument.

 

Suspension bridge.

Earthen house.

Inside the earthen house--it's a lot bigger than it looked from the outside.

Bob at the sod house.

When we finished our walk around the grounds, we took a drive into the town of Kearney and were amazed by how big it is. We drove and drove. At a Booggarts grocery store, we stopped for a couple of items.

We headed south to Ft. Kearny (pronounced Car-knee) State Historical Park. It, too, was closed. We walked around the park in the faltering light.

After our walk around the old fort parade grounds, we drove two miles down the road and checked out Ft. Kearny State Park Campground. This is a very nice campground with electrical hook-ups, water at the site, but no sewer hook-ups. The park has about six small lakes and lots of trees. If we stayed in the area again, we would choose this campground.

So, our day devoted to transportation came to an end as we transported ourselves back to our campground. We started our laundry, then made tostados for dinner, finished up the laundry and read for a bit before snoozing.

Tomorrow will be another big travel day. We expect to be back in San Antonio by Friday or Saturday.

Good night.

The Oregon Trail -- Sat., Aug. 25

Today we were up bright and early for a long drive to North Platte, Nebraska. After picking up our cinnamon rolls at the campground cafe, we started out at 8:00 a.m.

Here's some helpful information if you want to drive to Spokane Creek Campground in a motor home or pulling a trailer and you're arriving in The Black Hills from the east or the south. There are some very steep grades, small tunnels and sharp curves on some routes so know where you're going. 

When we entered Custer State Park from the south, we came up US 385/SD Hwy 89 to Custer City, then headed east on Hwy 16A. At the entrance gate to Custer State Park, we asked about the best way to get to Spokane Creek Campground and we were told to take 16A to Route 87 (Playhouse Road) north to Iron Mountain Road then turn south about a mile to the campground. That was a pretty good road to take, but narrow with a couple of "iffy"-looking wood bridges. We made it over the bridges and through the road by driving slowly and carefully.

When it was time to leave the campground today and head east out of the park, we knew we didn't want to take Hwy 40 east because it had a 15% grade for about 3/4 mile going down the hill. We decided to go south on Iron Mountain Road through Custer State Park, then east on Hwy 36. That was a good way to go. It was necessary to go slow on Iron Mountain Road because of the narrow road with a hairpin turn and wildlife, but Hwy 36 was a great road from Iron Mountain Road to Hermosa. The grades were gradual, the road was good and the curves were wide and sweeping. Hwy 36 west of Iron Mountain Road had steeper grades, but we had bypassed those.

Onward south we traveled to Scotts Bluff, Nebraska where we joined The Oregon Trail in our modern covered wagon. Oh what the pioneers would have given to ride with us in luxury. This day was devoted to The Oregon Trail, The Mormon Pioneer Trail, The California Trail and the Pony Express Route. (Also following much of this route was the Lewis & Clark Trail.)

Our first stop on the trail was the Scotts Bluff National Monument at the site where the pioneers crossed through the bluff west of town. The slide show in the Visitor Center and the museum showed the hardships the pioneers endured--disease, heat, violent winds, buffalo stampedes, quicksand, unpredictable weather, robbers, worn out shoes, and, if they didn't start early enough in the year, they were crippled by winter storms. Only rarely were they attacked by Indians. Wagons were falling apart, people were throwing supplies off the wagons to make them lighter for the oxen pulling the wagon. This was the ultimate adventure of a lifetime. Either you were healthy and tough enough to make it or you died and were buried by the side of the trail. 

Gehring is the town just east of Scotts Bluff.

Scotts Bluff

Scotts Bluff.

There were four types of wagons used by those crossing the country:

1. The Mormons had been persecuted and driven from their home in Nauvoo, Illinois. Most of them left with very few belongings and couldn't afford a covered wagon. They pulled these handcarts with the few possessions they had left.

A Mormon handcart.

2. A Murphy wagon.

Murphy wagon.

3. A Conestoga wagon. Not used very often as they were too big and cumbersome for the twists and turns of the trail.

Conestoga wagon.

 4. A Studebaker wagon.

Studebaker wagon.

Can you imagine moving all your belongings across the country in one of these wagons while you walked alongside it? That's a lot of miles and that's why people's shoes wore out. At Scotts Bluff a third of the trail was behind them.

From Scotts Bluff we followed the trail east to Chimney Rock, a well-known landmark along the Oregon, California, and Mormon Pioneer Trails and Pony Express route. We saw the video at the Visitor Center and read accounts of the people who passed by. They were in awe of Chimney Rock after weeks crossing the flat plains. Chimney Rock was a geographic place marker that could be seen from 40 miles away.

Chimney Rock

Another place we wanted to learn about was Ash Hollow. Time was not our friend, however, as the Visitor Center closed at 4:00 p.m. on a Saturday and we arrived at 4:45 p.m. I did a take a picture of the history marker, however.

Our travels for the day ended at 8:00 p.m. at Lakeside Camping (a Passport America park) in North Platte, Nebraska. This park has no "it" factor. You get a gravel pull-through with full hook-ups, no wi-fi, no cable TV. There is a lake on the property but we were nowhere near it. Still, it was way better than what the Oregon Trail pioneers had! 

When you factor in the time change, our travel time was 11 hours. It didn't feel like it, though, because we stopped so many times to get out, stretch and learn.

We're safe and sound. Thank you for reading. 

Travel Bug out.