June 3, 2010 Day 43 CC Leaves Again and We See O/CB or Are we in NE or IA?

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Today CC is flying home again, but before he goes we are going to sightsee a little since he has a late afternoon flight. So we cross back over to Iowa to the Western Historic Trails Center. This is an Iowa Visitor Center that has a movie and a lot of displays on everything that has happened in Iowa in history. The displays were very unique; they were all made of metal sculpture and were vignettes. The movie was very funny. It was the story of the pioneers be it Indians, Plains peoples, or Mormons. But it was overlaid with a 1970’s family traveling in their VW van across the country. I’ll just say you do need to stop here to see it. It was very worth it.

After that stop we traveled on to the Lewis and Clark Monument above the bluffs on the Missouri River. This is the place where L& C counciled with the local Indian tribes by the order of President Jefferson before journeying on. It is also how it got the name Council Bluffs. There is a monument wall here no statues though. There is a great view of the river and nearby airport. You can also see downtown Omaha very clearly.

Our last stop was supposed to be the Mormon Historic Trail Center. This is a smaller version of what PTCC and I saw in SLC. CC wasn’t with us then so he didn’t get to experience it. We were greeted when we entered by Sister Bertrand, who was from Washington State and doing her 18 months of missionary work. We were not allowed to tour by ourselves but were asked to see a movie of the history of the travels of the Mormon people to get to SLC and Zion. Most of it was cut from the longer movie PTCC and I had seen before. The original version was over an hour this one was only 15 minutes. Then Sister Bretrand was our tour guide as we walked around the small museum that told the story of their journey. It was a shame they don’t let you tour by yourself because a lot of it didn’t make as large an impact on us since we weren’t allowed to see it in our own way. She skipped quite a few displays that looked interesting to us. And we were being evangelized in almost every breath. This was after telling her several times we were quite happy in our faith. We only had 45 minutes for this stop so we brought it to an end and left.

Then we had spied a small pocket park around the corner so we stopped to have lunch and figure out if we wanted to do anything else. I voted for President Ford’s boyhood home but CC wanted to see a naval museum. As we were leaving in the car an animal that was quite large and cinnamon colored ran in front of us and up the hill into the woods. PTCC and I found out later it was a badger.

As we were driving to the naval museum we passed the airport and it is small. No problem getting lost here. We turn down the road to get to the museum and see a sign that says “Welcome Back to Nebraska” It seems like every time you drive a mile you keep changing states here.

We arrive at the museum and find out it is a park with many large aircraft and ships, subs, anchors, chains, and propellers displayed. It really looked like someone collected these at a surplus sale and gave them to the city and they had to display them somewhere. It is the first time I have seen a full size destroyer and a submarine up on land. Usually they are cut outs since they are so large. We walked among all the equipment and then left to take CC to the airport. It was an easy drop off but a long trip home since it is about 30 miles from where we are staying and you have to drive through downtown Omaha on the I-80.

We got back and rested for awhile and then PTCC wanted to do an Animal Tracks seminar at the craft center. This was very interesting as I did not know they had such an array of animals in Nebraska. Hopefully soon we will go to the Wildlife Safari Park that is next door and see them up close. The instructor’s name was Matt and he told the kids about tomorrow’s class which is reptiles. The great thing about that he said was that it will be feeding day and they eat weird things that the kids get to feed to them. So PTCC is all in for that. After the kids made rubber stamp tracks we climbed the observatory tower and looked all around the area. It is about 80 ft tall and was very windy up there.

We came back to the RV and decided we wanted a fire tonight so we walked over to the marina to get firewood and ice creams, taking pictures of the baby Canada Geese while there. PTCC wanted to prove how strong she was so she carried the bundle of wood back to the RV almost all the way. Now I can’t say she is a weakling.

June 4, 2010 Day 44 We are Having a Busy Day in the Park

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It rained all night so when we get up there is a huge puddle that is under our RV again. I get up early and eat PTCC’s donuts that we bought yesterday at Walmart. Then I get myself ready and drive down to the administration building to pay for horse trail rides ($15 each). I sign up for the 10 am ride hoping it won’t be too hot by then. Then I head back to make sure PTCC is up and having breakfast. She wants to go to the reptile encounter at 9 am so she needs to be awake. When I get back she is and we are on time for the seminar. It is held at the conservatory which has a butterfly garden outside and a koi pond and a stream inside with a lot of plants. The reptiles are in a small foyer area. They are not supposed to be an attraction here. People find them and give them to the rangers so they are housing them hoping to put them back in the wild. The first set we look at are bearded dragons, a male and female, that were given to the park. PTCC and the other kids get to feed them their mealworms today. Then we move on to the snapping turtle, who gets to eat shrimp. Then a box turtle who ate some soy stuff. Then the highlight, a bull snake, who eats live mice. The ranger fed her one and we got to see what happens. First she constricts it and then swallows it whole. Then we moved on to 2 bull frogs, who ate live crickets. Then finally the koi, who ate some kind of pellets.

After that excitement we walk across the road to the stables for our trail ride. This was different from Yosemite because today is hot. I’m sure our hands won’t freeze. Also, unlike Yosemite, we aren’t getting a private ride. There are 10 others going with us as well as 4 helpers. This ride was basically going up a slope behind the barn and turning a circle and walking back to the barn. Each horse had its nose in the tail of the other. Not very exciting and no landmarks or other animals to see either. So I won’t recommend this activity.

After that we got dressed in our swimsuits and headed to the pool only to find out that it doesn’t open until 12 pm. So we went back to the RV and had lunch and tried again. The pool area is pretty basic here. 2 twisty high slides, 1 slide that lets you fall about 4 feet above the water, a diving board, a wave pool, and a kids water play area. You can rent tubes for the wave pool if you want. Our original plan was to stay until 3 pm but PTCC liked it enough to stay until 4 pm. It was plenty hot enough today so it was very refreshing. I chose the quieter side to sit and finish a book I was reading. Whenever the lifeguards needed a break they would shut down the wave pool and PTCC would come and get me and we would ride the slides.

After 4 hours of hot sun we were done in and went and got showers because tonight we are also doing the dinner and a show. At 5:30 pm we went to the lodge for dinner, tonight specialties were BBQ ribs and shrimp. We had a nice view in the dining room of the park and river.

After dinner we came back to the RV where PTCC got on her computer to talk to her buds and I went to take a walk in the Little Creek campground area. I’m glad we aren’t leaving on Sunday because there will be a mad exodus from all the check out slips I saw with 6-6 on them. I think only 1 group was staying until 6-8 in that campground. In ours we had a couple of tenters show up today that will be here through the week but I think that’s it. It will be a ghost town during the week.

We are going to see a melodrama called The Villain’s Secret. During the summer a theater company puts on 4 shows rotating through them during the week. While we are here they are doing 3 different ones. If tonight’s is good we will see the others as well.

Well we went to see the Villain’s Secret. Just like most theater companies this one seems to have time management problems. The show started about 10 minutes late but in the end was decent. At first the audience didn’t understand how a melodrama works. It needs audience participation so the stage manager at the beginning had told us what to do when the villain, the hero, and the heroine came on stage. They even encouraged the throwing of popcorn at him. So the audience was slow to get into it but once they did it was fun. Some of the actors had a hard time not laughing and sometimes they failed and forgot their lines. It just made it funnier when they did that. I asked PTCC if she wanted to see more and she did, so I guess we’ll be going back.

June 5, 2010 Day 45 Homesteading and Capitols

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We were woken up at 2:30 am with a severe thunderstorm warning from our weather radio. They said there could be winds in excess of 60 mph and large hail until 2:45 pm. I certainly hoped not after our ordeal in AZ with those winds. I don’t want to be in an RV with high winds like that again.

The thunderstorm warning was extended to 11 am but we get going at 10:15 am to south of Lincoln. We are going to Homestead National Monument. We stopped at the Heritage center first. PTCC got her Jr Ranger book and started working on it and I watched the movie. They had 2 floors of displays of the story of people moving onto the plains areas and working the land and raising their families. The center was about homesteading in general as well. There was a man who homesteaded in Alaska in the 1970’s that they have on film. 2 years after he staked his claim the statues ran out and there was no more homesteading. After we checked out the displays PTCC was finished with her book and received her badge and we walked outside to the Freeman cabin and grave sites. The cabin was moved here from ¼ mile away and set up like it was back when it was being lived in by 15 family members for over 12 years. When you looked back at the visitors center, if you were outside, they designed it to look like a plow that tills the earth like the homesteaders used.

After we ate our lunch on the back porch we went down the road to the education center which had displays of the Central Pacific and Union Pacific RR meeting in Promontory. It also had spring wagons and carts the settlers used to get here. Lots of farm implements were here as well. Then we moved on to the third site which was the Freeman School. This schoolhouse was used from 1872 until 1967. They have rolls of all the children that attended. Some years there were only 10 kids and some up to 42 children enrolled. It is a one room school house with 2 outhouses in the yard. The last class in 1967 consisted of 5 kids of various ages.

After leaving we stopped at the Walmart in Beatrice (said like BEE-AT-Trice) to get PTCC some shorts as she had only packed 1 pair (after being told by LCC to pack for all kinds of weather).It has finally gotten hot here and I think she will need them more now. She bought 2 more pair and we traveled on to Lincoln to see the NE State Capitol building.

We arrive in Lincoln and find parking right on the street in front of the capitol. It helps to come on a Saturday as well as when they are not in session. There was a tour going on when we got there so we joined up with them to find out more about the building. NE is a unichamberial state, which means they do not have a senate and a house just one chamber because they only have one party. They used to have 2 but dissolved the other in the early 1930’s. They are the only state like this now. The more I learned about it the more I thought we should go back to this system. The members can only serve 2 terms of a total of 8 years (If they are re-elected after 4 years), there are no republicans, democrats, independents, etc. On odd years they serve from Jan-June for 5 months, and in even years Jan-Apr for a 90 day term. They are only paid $12,000 a year because it is supposed to be a part time job. They must have other jobs to support themselves the rest of the year.

This is our 5th capitol city and the third one we have toured. SO far FL is losing in the beautiful capitol buildings category. So far we have the ugliest one built in the 1970’s and it looks it. Just like a federal penitentiary.

We are getting tired and it is nearly 4:30 now so we head home to have some dinner and to see if the mi-fi works yet. Either we have used it up again or it is broken. If it is we will trek up to the lodge and used their wi-fi there.

June 6, 2010 Day 46 Shopping and Another Play

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After getting a good night’s sleep last night, I woke up very refreshed. I let PTCC sleep as late as she wanted to since we didn’t really have too much planned for today. Our big thing is to get out of the park until after 2 pm when all the campers are leaving. SO we eventually move down the road to the Western Trails center again so I can put the real stamps in my book and then since PTCC noticed a JCPenney across the street the other day we stop in and go shopping. This is her new favorite store. They must have just opened it because it’s not completely stocked yet. She browsed around and found some tops and shorts and I get a purse since mine is literally peeling apart by now. Probably comes from shoving all my and everyone else’s stuff in it.

After JCP we need gas so we head back to the Walmart/Sam’s Club we found the other day and fill up. Gasp! We did not go in. PTCC wanted to go in Sam’s for the food samples but I said no we need to move on.

We set the GPS for the Golden Spike Monument. I can’t believe CC didn’t want to stop here the other day. It took all of 5 minutes to see when we finally got there. It sits across form a neighborhood in a patch of grass with a small sign board in front of it. I really thought it would have gold paint but it was just yellow paint. It’s about 56 ft tall and shaped like a RR spike made out of concrete. Kinda looks like one of those roadside attractions, but in the middle of nowhere. If you don’t know where to look you won’t find it. Well we’ve had enough of going back and forth from NE to IA today so we head back to Mahoney.

We get there in time for PTCC to finish up her Jr Naturalist with a class on horses and one on mammals. She’s then awarded her Jr Naturalist badge and her picture is hung in the craft center. There are still other classes she might take later in the week if we don’t have anything else to do. We have bought tickets to the 3 pm show of Miss Twain’s Train Troubles at the theater. So we get there a few minutes early and PTCC goes to the playground next door. Her greatest joy right now is to find someone who will push the merry-go-round until she is dizzy. I’m not that person so she finds someone else.

At 3 pm we go in to see the melodrama. The audience is very different this time. Last time it was young families and a GS troop. Today it is senior citizens mostly. They don’t yell nearly as loud as the kids do but we still have fun during the show. The last one we can see is on Tuesday so hopefully we can make that one as well.

We come back and cook dinner then hit the showers and walk over to the marina for ice cream and to feed the turtles, fish and geese our old bread. Then up to the lodge to use the wi-fi since the one in the campground and ours don’t work.

There are only 5 others camping in our loop and only 2 of them are staying as long as we are, so hopefully it will be a quiet week for us when we are there.

June 7, 2010 Day 47 Drive Thru Animals and Spacecraft

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The weather forecasters said it would be raining early in the morning. They were wrong, it waited until 9 am to rain. We had a nice fire last night and burned all the wood that had been left by a previous camper. We even sent a picture to CC so he wouldn’t feel left out. PTCC called her grandparents and talked to them for a long time. She says she isn’t homesick anymore and wants to continue traveling. I don’t think I will go with her. It’s almost time to go home. We have a few stops left to make and then we’ll be there.

So the plan for today was to go to the wildlife safari. We waited until about 10:30 am to go and most of the rain had blown over by then. The safari had most of the animals we had already seen except for the wolves. We get there and pull up to the window to pay. For both of us it was $10. We aren’t allowed out of the car until we get to the wolf section and then again at the end, where the visitor center is located.

We start on our trek at 7 mph and the first thing we get to see is the elk. There are a few standing right next to the road but the funny ones were the elk laying in the grass. The grass is so high that you can only see their antlers. It makes it look like branches laying in the grass. They all had large racks with fuzzy antlers.

Our next adventure is with the white tailed deer. We come across a doe with her fawn. Since it had rained the doe was giving the fawn a bath. Another deer was down from them feeding and across the road the rest were congregating around the creek. Then we crossed the grate into the wetland area. This area has pelicans hanging around in a greenish swamp. Then we come to the wolf and bear habitat. We can get out here and walk a trail around their cages. After we cross a bridge we come to some owls on the side of the path. It was too hard to get pictures of them because the camera kept focusing on the wet chain link fence. The camera kept focusing on the drops of water instead of the animals.

Next we came to the American Black Bear. We only saw 1 in the cage and it didn’t want to walk closer to us so we got pictures of it cleaning itself in the corner. The habitat was actually pretty large so there could have been others hiding in the woods. We keep walking and come to the wolf habitat.

At first we didn’t see anything but then a wolf darts out from the treeline and comes closer to us. The first one we see is carrying either bones or sticks in its mouth. Then we see another one following the first, it looks like it has yellowish eyes and grey fur. We are standing on a platform above them so they walk right under us and come out on the other side. We then take a path and find another wolf laying right next to the fence like it’s sleeping but its eyes are blinking. I remember reading about the pecking order of wolves in West Yellowstone so this might be a beta wolf. It looks like the lowest of the pecking order, since it is by itself and not with the pack.

We then walk the path and since it has rained it is very muddy. This mud is like wet clay, not like mud in FL. This kind tries to suck the shoes off of your feet each time you try to take a step. Also the path is steep so we’re sliding at the same time as slipping in the mud. It is sticking to our shoes and we’re kind of hydroplaning over it. Finally we see the parking lot again and scrap the mud off of our shoes and get into the car to see the back side of the wetlands. This time we see swans, Canadian geese, and the smallest sandhill cranes I’ve ever seen. Ours in FL are sometimes as tall as an adult. These looked like babies and when I asked in the visitor center I was told they are adults. They just seemed SO small. We also saw some kind of small duck with babies swimming in the pond.

Our next path leads to 2 pronghorn antelope. These were the only 2 we saw in the park. If they have more they must have been hiding in the woods because we never saw any more. The last animals to see were the bison. They were all laying down under a grove of trees trying to stay out of the rain. Since we’ve seen so many on this trip we didn’t linger here. We drive back to the visitor center where they have toads, frogs, turtles, and many varieties of snakes inside. Then we walked around outside and saw a bobcat, bald eagles, and a swift fox. It had started to rain again so we headed back to the car and Mahoney park for lunch.

After eating lunch we head out again to the Strategic Air Command center. It is next door to Mahoney State Park. When I asked the cashier why it was here he told me the aircraft used to be about 30 miles away at an Air Force base but they were deteriorating outside and the government said they would remove them and send them elsewhere if they weren’t kept inside. So the locals raised $30 million to house the exhibits, and now most are inside. This wasn’t as exciting for PTCC and myself because we’ve been to Cape Kennedy many times but more than that: CC is from Pensacola so every time we visit he drags us to the PNS Naval air station and their museum which is very nice. As well as we have visited the Smithsonian Museum in DC. So this is not the highlight of our trip but we go and take pictures and video for CC so he can enjoy seeing it too. It is about f1/4 of the size of PNAS so we finish in about an hour. I can’t tell you what the highlights are because to tell the truth, I don’t care. They had some really large aircraft with wingspans that went from one side of the building to the other. But you couldn’t go into any of them and could only see the bomb bay on one of them. Most were too high in the air from the ground level to be able to see the pilot’s areas if they were clear. They also had a restoration area where they were working on 2 aircraft.

After finishing at SAC we go back to the park to take a rest and the sun is finally coming out. We drive through all the campgrounds and see most of the sites are empty. The Little Creek campground looks like they will lose most of their people on Wednesday. We still have the same 5 campers and we will lose 1 today.

Our site is covered in water and mud. We can’t get into the bins unless we step in slimy mud. Every site in this park is unlevel with a lot of water standing in them.

For the rest of the day we have no plans. I think we will go up to the lodge to check emails and play on the computers later but that is probably all we will do for the rest of the day. I asked PTCC if she wanted to do any Jr Naturalist stuff and she told me no.

Well we ended up at the indoor playground around 4 pm. This place smells like dirty shoes. I guess because they do ice skating in the winter so they have all those stinky boots to store the rest of the year. Also in the indoor playground you can’t wear shoes just socks so more smelly feet. This is a huge gerbil tube thing that kids crawl around in with ball pits and slides and rope ladders. We stay an hour and while there CC calls us. He got the campfire pic last night after he was asleep so he looked at it this morning and wished he were here with us. I told him he probably didn’t since I almost bought it this morning when I steeped off the RV stairs into slick mud nearly falling and busting my hip. So he agreed then it was better at home for now.

They also have a conveyor belt rock climbing machine. I’ve never seen one of these before. It looks like a moving sidewalk turned upward with handholds built into it. They charge by the minute to use it. I asked PTCC if she wanted to try it and she looked at me like I was stupid or something. So I guess not.

We go back and eat dinner, then feed the fish our leftover bread and take showers. After that we have ended up at the lodge to work on Spanish and general computer stuff. Tomorrow is supposed to be wet so I don’t know what our plans will be.

June 8, 2010 Day 48 We Take a Bike Ride

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It would be so nice if anyone who reads this blog would actually post a comment now and then. Even if they just post to dish me. That way I would know if anyone out there is actually reading it.

Well today we sleep a little late. It started storming at 3 am and didn’t finish until 7 am. So our site is once again under water (well, mud really). PTCC didn’t want to do any of the early Jr Naturalist programs so we waited until almost 11 am to go to the slingshot class. This time we decided to ride our bikes there. We aren’t used to riding up and down hills so much so we were really working to get there. But we made it in time. We got a new girl that had never taught one of the classes before. She usually works at the stables. It wasn’t much of a class, she gave us the slingshots and some beans and hung up the targets on a fence and told us to go at it. So we did for about 15 minutes.. I made a bet with PTCC that whoever hit the target first, the other would buy the ice cream. I won after a few minutes but PTCC wouldn’t admit it. She really is a poor sport.

After we finished with the slingshots we biked some more to get to the miniature golf course. They have a really nice course, as well as a driving range for real golfers. We didn’t keep score but PTCC was getting frustrated because I hit 2 holes in one during the game and she was having a hard time getting the ball into the hole. She kept chipping it off the tee pad into the grass. She improved during the game and finally got a hole in 1 on the last hole but her attitude didn’t improve.

We biked back and had lunch and then she went off to the lodge to do Spanish and surf the web while I sat outside and read a book. After an hour she came back and just watched TV until dinner. I think one of her friends is supposed to call her this afternoon, so if that happens she’ll be OK for awhile.

After dinner we take our last showers in the bath house. Tomorrow we will shower in the RV to load grey water. After the shower we sat on the marina dock and had our ice creams. It really is nice this time of day to sit here and watch the geese swim by. After that it’s off to the lodge to post this and let PTCC surf the web. I think I will try to have a fire when I get back to the RV. We won’t be able to have one tomorrow because we will be seeing the last play, and on Thursday CC comes back at night and we have to fetch him home. So I think I will take advantage of the nice weather tonight to have our last fire here.

June 9, 2010 Day 49 A Lazy Day For Us

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Last night we saw fireflies. They were magical seeing their green bodies lighting up. PTCC tried to video them but I don’t think she got anything that can be seen.

Today was a lazy day, this morning I biked up to the admin building to buy our tickets for the last play. Then we pretty much did nothing until lunchtime when we went to the water park again. Today is supposed to be the nicest weather day so it’s the one we picked to go on. We spent about 3.5 hours there and then went back to the RV took showers and had dinner. Then up to the lodge for computer time and off to the last play. Not much else going on. We’re supposed to get more rain tonight so it will be soggy and muddy again tomorrow I’m sure.

June 10, 2010 Day 50 We Get Ready To Leave NE

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I got up early after the Weather Radio went off at 6:45 am. Thunderstorms are coming. So I got up and had breakfast and my coffee, then got dressed and started putting everything away that was outside. I grabbed our name sign and put it into the bin and stored my chair. Then I had to clean off the outside lights from the mud and store them. The only thing left is the bikes, but I will let CC handle them.

PTCC gets up early since the weather radio was on her side of the bed she was sharing with me and I made her turn it off. I must have sat wrong in my reading chair the other day because my upper back is really sore right now, it feels like I pulled something but I know I didn’t.

Right around 10 am it starts to pour so it looks like an inside day for us for awhile. PTCC wants to watch a movie so I said sure. Only she wants to watch one we’ve seen before but I veto that and suggest a new one. SO we end up watching Because of Winn Dixie. It was the perfect length because when it was finished the rain had stopped and we had lunch. PTCC then took off for the lodge and computer time and I finished cleaning up and getting stuff ready for us to leave tomorrow.

When I was done I took a walk around the 2 campgrounds and noticed that a lot of the sites have standing water (mud) in them. There were only 5 rigs in the reserved section of Little Creek. I tried to talk to the host over there but he brushed me off. So much for Mid western hospitality. The host in our campground has never said boo to us either.

When I got back PTCC was sitting on the picnic table waiting for me. I told her I was going to the lodge to check my email but she wanted to stay and watch TV, so I left without her.

About 4 pm we leave to go to Cabelas to check it out. We have Bass Pro but not a Cabelas at home so I wanted to see the difference. They had a nice animal display in the center but it was much smaller than Bass Pro. Very nice aquariums though. Prices pretty similar too. While there CC texted me that he was sitting on the plane and ready to go.

Then we left to go to Camping World. CC wanted to try a new fan in the RV bath and had found one in Council Bluffs. I had also looked up an awning screen that I wanted and it looked like they had it there.

I was able to find the fan. There was only 1 and the box looked like it was open so I wanted to make sure I could return it in Orlando if everything wasn’t there. I asked about the awning screen but they don’t carry the size Ii want, I will have to order it online. When checking out I asked the cashier where we could eat and she told me near Lake Manawa which is where we need to go next anyway.

So we end up at Cracker Barrel and have the sugar cured ham which is mine and PTCC’s favorite meal. After eating and browsing we drive over to Walmart to do our shopping before we need to pick up CC at the airport.

We finish up our shopping and while checking out CC has texted he made it to STL but they don’t have a gate for them so they are sitting on the tarmac waiting for another plane to push back. We finish paying and load our stuff into the car and head to the airport. We get there about 7:56 pm and CC has texted that he has just left the gate in STL so he will be late. That’s ok the airport is supposed to have wifi so PTCC will be happy.

We get inside the terminal and find out that they roll the sidewalks up at 7:30 pm. Nothing but a bakery shop is still open. Everyone except security and a couple of gate agents have gone home. SO we grab some seats where we can see the arriving passengers and wait. It takes the board about 30 minutes to update with the right time. CC’s plane was supposed to be in at 8:40 pm but now will arrive at 9:10 pm. PTCC entertains herself by playing with her Ipod and listening to music.

Finally about 9:20 pm CC is walking up the hallway. He was first off the flight. We get into the car and head out but he takes a wrong turn somehow and we can’t get on the road we need, so we are driving around downtown Omaha in the dark. Nothing is going on down here at all. No nightlife. After driving around for 15-20 min we finally get on the Interstate going back to Mahoney SP.

It takes us about 30 minutes to get there. We unload CC’s stuff and the groceries and get ready for bed. CC goes out to load the bikes since it is supposed to rain tonight like all the others. So we should be ready to go as soon as we get up in the morning.

June 11,2010 Day 51…We Visit Truman’s NHS and Babler SP

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I could not sleep because of my back hurting so I got up to write yesterday’s blog. It started raining about 4:30 am and the wind was blowing hard. We haven’t seen hail yet and I hope we don’t. Bad weather is supposed to go on all day today. Hopefully it will stop soon.

We get everything ready and move out for St Louis and our next stop. On our way out we discovered that CC forgot to get the thermometer and so he probably ran over it since it was sitting on the RV tire. He says he has a plan for the next one. I don’t think we’ll really need it for the rest of the trip since it is now hot and humid mostly everyday.

We got to a toll bridge after going through Plattsmoth,That we had to cross in order to go over the Missouri River. This bridge was very low and not too wide and cost $2.25 for us to cross. We waited until the other vehicles had crossed then went down the center of the road as we thought we might scrape the mirrors if we didn’t. Then once again we end up in Iowa. Then about 30 minutes later we cross into Missouri, our 16th state on this trip. We continue on down the road into Independence, MO where President Truman lived.

We make a wrong turn into his Presidential Library (where I wish we could have visited) and finally found his historic site in Fire Station #1. CC was starting to get testy because of the small streets and having to maneuver the RV through them so it was good when we finally came across it. We parked across the street and went inside. PTCC of course did the Jr Ranger and we watched the film. You can get tickets to see the house but we had no time to do this on this trip. The site is very small and has a few displays so it did not take too long. We went back to the RV and had lunch, reset the car and moved on down the road. The rest of Missouri went by slowly, maybe because my back was in such pain. I tried sleeping for awhile but ended back up front talking to CC. I guess that was good because he was getting sleepy and was bored as well.

We finally pull into Babler SP in Wildwood, MO at 5:30 pm. Here you don’t check in, you go right to your site and the host will be around later to check you in. They only sell firewood from 6-6:30 pm every night. Our site is very nice though. It is shady and very wide with concrete and is level. Even the picnic table is on concrete. We have a water hook up next to us but only electric at the site. We’re tired so we watch the movie The Blind Side and hit the beds since tomorrow we have to be up early to go to visit the Arch.

June 12, 2010 Day 52 We See the Arch and Grant’s Home

Posted on by June 30, 2016
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We get up early and start downtown to see the Westward Expansion Arch. We hope we don’t run into too much traffic because there is a Susan Koman Run for the Cure going on today downtown at 9 am. They predict 70, 000 people at the event and have closed several exits on the interstate down there.

We make it OK and park in the garage. Our tickets we have bought are for 9:20 am but when we get there and through security we ask about going earlier and are told we can go now on the south tram. So we walk down there and have our pictures taken like on a cruise. Then we wait for the tram to come back. It runs every 10 minutes. The cars are tiny with 5 hard plastic seats in them but they let more than 5 people in them. Our car had 7 people. There was a family of 4 with kids as old as 5 that had to sit on their parents laps while we went up. It was a tight fit since the walls are curved. But it only lasted about 3 minutes to get to the viewing level. We got out and were able to look out the windows over St Louis and the Mississippi River. We took video and lots of pictures. The Old Courthouse was easy to see. After 10 minutes we caught the next car going down the north leg. This time we rode by ourselves. Then we looked around the Westward Expansion museum and PTCC worked on her Jr Ranger badge. They have several movies and a riverboat cruise as well as the tram tour. We finished up in the museum and PTCC received her badge then we walked across the street to the Old Courthouse where Dred Scott started his case about slavery here and went all the way to the Supreme Court with it. We took a ranger led tour here and then walked around the bottom and 2nd, and 3rd floors. You could not get to the cupola level though. PTCC worked on another Jr Ranger but received the same badge as across the street.

After finishing here we drive a few miles and go to the home of Ulysses S Grant called White Haven. This was his home after marrying Julia Dent, whose family owned the property, until they lived in the White House. We took another ranger led tour here. They let you wander around the house because nothing here is from the Grants. They had put their furniture in storage while in the White House and where they had it stored had a fire and everything was lost.

The part of the story that is interesting is that Grant was a staunch anti slavery person but he married into a very pro slavery family. He even owned at least one slave which he set free. His own father would not visit him at White Haven because of the slavery issue.

PTCC worked on another Jr Ranger and we watched the movie and toured the house as well as the museum that was set up in the horse barn that Grant built to start a horse breeding business after the Presidency. Unfortunately none of that happened and they ended up moving to New York and living there.

Next door is the Busch Wildlife area that has the house that Grant built called Hardscrabble that they only lived in for 3 months. The park is free to visit but you must pay a steep parking fee ($11 car). It looked interesting with different animals as well as the Clydesdale that Budweiser uses. We didn’t visit since it was getting late.

We drive back to Babler and check out the Visitor Center in the park. They have a great center with several displays of the animals that are native to the area. They also have a snake video but I declined to see that. When we got there a volunteer was teaching some kids about the animals in the area, I think they were working on their naturalist badge. PTCC doesn’t have enough time to work on this since we were gone so long today. We took a drive around the park and saw the area that the Olympic pool is in. The pool has been closed permanently since they could not afford to do the maintenance and upkeep on it.

We went back to the site and all of us took naps. It is very humid here and we were tired from the sun and getting up early. After we get up CC replaces our bath fan that PTCC and I bought the other day at Camping World. I am working on catching up our on blog and photos. Don’t know what PTCC is doing.

We’re trying to cookout tonight but the rain keeps coming. We have a 15 minute break before the next group of storms roll through. CC is grilling under the awning right now hopefully we will have cooked food to eat. I guess we’ll see soon.

We eat then take a walk, the rain has mostly stopped though we are still hitting pockets of it. We see a bunny on our walk near the edge of the woods. We come back and try to have a fire. The whole fire ring is wet though. We get a small flame going enough to have a couple of smores and roasted marshmellows then we quit and go inside. We need to be up early tomorrow to make it to Kentucky.