9-28-19 - (Day 66 - Cody Park)

We relocated 167 miles in a southerly direction to Cody Park in North Platte, Nebraska.  We are staying in a city park, along the North Platte River with no hookups for $5 a night.  We have pretty green grass, a great view, restrooms and water spigots if needed.

Ferny Kat gave her approval right off the bat.  She had to come outside and walk around as soon as we would let her.

It has been quite a dreary day with clouds, a little bit of rain, and temps in the 50's.  We bundled up and took about a 4 mile walk around the park.

This park has a campground, animals in a fenced area, ponds, horseshoe fields, tennis courts, disc golf, ball fields, a train museum, a wild west memorial, carnival rides, and a concession stand.  The grounds of this place are meticulously kept.

We saw plenty of birds, waterfowl, squirrels, insects, peacocks, and pretty flowers along our walk.  We saw the buffalo, an elk, deer, llamas, and donkeys in the fenced wildlife area.  The elk was continuously bugling.

We were able to go inside the trains at the train museum.  Lauren has always loved trains being his daddy was a switchman for the GM&O railroad in Bogalusa. He was gleaming when he sat in the engineer's seat of the train, reminiscing about his childhood days of sitting in the engineer's lap, driving the train, and blowing the horn.

They have a really pretty carousel at the amusement park.

The concession stand is known for it's good ice cream.  We made a stop for ice cream and a milk shake.  The ice cream lived up to it's reputation.

We came back to camp and turned on the heater.  We are in for the night.

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9-27-19 - (Day 65 - Scotts Bluff National Monument/North Platte NWR)

We decided to leave Amber in the camper garage and take a ride in the truck to Scotts Bluff National Monument and North Platte Wildlife Refuge.

We rode by Chimney Rock and took some pictures.  We can see Chimney Rock from our campsite.

We checked out the temporary visitor's center at Scotts Bluff National Park then took a hike on the Oregon Trail.  It was a short, easy hike for us.  It was nothing like those pioneers that traveled on this trail for miles in rough terrain and harsh weather conditions.

We drove up Summit Road from the visitor center.  The only three tunnels in Nebraska are on this road.  We had some more beautiful views on this ride.

We made it to the top and hiked the South and North Overlook Trail.  When we hiked the South Overlook Trail we saw a  tunnel across the way that got our attention.

While we were hiking the North Overlook Trail, we came to the Saddle Rock Trailhead.  This trail goes to the tunnel that we saw on the South Overlook Trail.  We decided to walk it for a little ways.

We kept going downhill on the trail, then realized it was not much further to the tunnel.  We debated if we should continue on, or turn around.  Lauren was sure if we went further that I would whine about coming back up the steep incline.  He was also sure if we didn't go, I would whine that we were that close and didn't walk through the tunnel.  A no brainer. we walked through the tunnel.

The walk back up was not that bad.  I only stopped a couple of times to catch my breath.  And no, there was no whining!!

We continued on the North Overlook Trail.  Again taking in the gorgeous views.

After hiking about 5 miles and 39 flights of stairs, we were ready for lunch.  We drove to Riverside Park on the North Platte River and ate lunch sitting on a bench watching the water rush by.  Another great picnic spot.

We drove on the dusty, dirt, roads in the North Platte NWR.  Our decision to leave the asphalt queen in the garage was a good one.

We saw a bunch of Doves, Sparrows, Finches,  a couple of American Kestrels, a Great Blue Heron, a few Ducks,  lots of Geese, a couple of Belted Kingfishers, Robins,  and a couple of Swainson's Hawks.

We got back to camp before the rain started.  Tomorrow we relocate.


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9-26-19 - (Day 64 - Bayard City Park, Nebraska)

Our camper, our clothes, and us, left Southern RV Park a lot cleaner than when we arrived a few days ago.  We relocated 185 miles south today.  We are camped for a couple of nights at Bayard City RV Park in Nebraska.  There are 3 campsites here with water and electricity.  We got the last site when we got here around 3 pm.

Ferny Kat was not a happy cat today.  She fussed for quite a while.  Lauren mocked her meows making her much more vocal.  She deserted her co-captain post for the box in the back seat.  We finally figured out she didn't want us talking or the country music playing.  She is definitely a rock and roll kind of cat and there were no rock and roll radio stations to be found.   We turned off the radio and talked in low voices to quieten the wrath of the Ferny Kat!  It worked.  She curled up on the box and went to sleep.

We made a stop along the way at Carhenge to check out the car art.  It is a pretty unique place.  A good place to stretch your legs and kill a half hour.

We made it to the Bayard City RV Park, took a walk around looking for birds and such, then bird watched from the comforts of our lawn chairs.  We saw plenty of buzzards, sparrows, doves, and flickers.

We saw what we thought were big turnips in the pasture next to the park.  We later found out it is sugar beets.

It has been quite noisy here.  The campground is in the middle of neighborhoods, there is a well traveled road right in front of it, and the trains are nearby.  By the time we went to bed, all was quiet.  Free with electricity is awesome!

BTW, we have another Ferny Kat approved campground.

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9-25-19 - (Day 63 - Custer State Park Wildlife Loop)

We spent this cloudy, rainy morning going to Rapid City to stock up.  All for the weather prediction of 0% chance of rain today.

We ate lunch and I mopped the camper, waiting for the skies to clear.  The light rain was on and off with the temperature 55.  We decided, what the heck, we have the riding gear for this weather.  We leathered up and loaded up.

We rode through Custer State Park Wildlife Loop.  It was actually a pleasant ride.  We saw lots of buffalo and the burros on the drive through.  The buffalo were off the road thankfully, cause they were pretty frisky on this cool day.

Several of the burros were eating from cars.  Further down the road two of them were standing in the middle of the road.  They did not budge as we drove by them.  I think we were supposed to feed them in order to travel past.

We went by and visited Cathy and Carlos at Elm Creek Campground at Wind Cave NP for a while.  Then rode back through the Wildlife Loop.  We saw turkeys as we entered the NP.  The buffalo had moved further away on the hill and the burros were no where in sight.  We saw plenty of deer.

By the time we got back to camp, we were cold.  It was heater huddle time.


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9-24-19 - (Day 62 - Iron Mountain and Needles Highway)

We lazed around this morning, then took off on Amber around noon.  It was 82 degrees and sunny.  Another perfect day to ride.

We rode Iron Mountain Highway and Needles Highway.  Two beautiful, curvy, rides.  We enjoyed the views of Mt. Rushmore from Iron Mountain Highway, especially through the tunnel.  The temperatures dropped as we climbed in elevation. 

We usually ride the Needles Highway and see the Eye of the Needle at the end of the ride.  Today we changed direction and it was at the beginning of the ride.

There were a lot less people here than when we were here two years ago.  We like vacationing in shoulder season.

We stopped and ate a snack at Grace Coolidge Creek Picnic area, took a few pictures of a snake and such, then headed back to camp.  It was way past time to wash clothes.

Lauren grilled chicken and let Ferny Kat out.  Ferny Kat went rabbit hunting when a cute bunny came over to eat grass at our campsite.

We watched a little TV then headed to bed.  It seems like all the sudden, it is getting dark about an hour earlier.  The days are definitely getting shorter.


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