IOWA
It was still raining on the morning of our departure. So we carefully and slowly drove through the rest of Indiana and into Illinois on Interstate 74. Upon entering Illinois, we entered the Central Time Zone and we lost an hour. Now we are two hours ahead of home time. The rain had stopped, but the skies remained overcast and it was cold.
We continued driving on Interstate 74 through Illinois and at Galesburg we left the interstate and drove onto state roads through the rest of Illinois into Iowa.
We have visited and explored Iowa in a previous trip. This trip we will just be staying overnight will drive into Nebraska the next morning. After 5 hours and 283 miles we arrived at Crossroads RV Park in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa.
CROSSROADS RV PARK
This is what an RV Park is supposed to look like. This place was small (less than 50 sites) and was laid out in even rows. It is a clean, well maintained RV park. All the sites are identical and are pull-thrus. Interior roads were dirt as well as the site pads with a lush, manicured lawn on both sides of the pad. A big rig along with a car could fit into any site. The sites are spacious, but if each site had a big rig, it could feel crowded. Smaller trailers could pull up or down on the site and not have to look into the neighboring RV. This RV park would have been perfect if it had not been so close to the highway or had the constant noise from the train yard nearby.
NEBRASKA
The day started out bright and sunny. But it was so cold. We woke up to a temperature of 34 degrees. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.... We continued on state roads through Iowa and at Des Moines we got onto Interstate 80 and stayed on 80 into Nebraska. Just outside of Nebraska we stopped for lunch at our last Cracker Barrel. After Nebraska we will no longer see our dependable road side eatery and our favorite stop on the Interstates. Cracker Barrel does not do business in any of the lower parts of the central western states.
This will be our very first visit to Nebraska, and our first visit with the trailer; 11 down and none to go. This means we have trailer traveled through every state in the United States of America!!...except, of course, Hawaii.
Unfortunately, because we are out of time, we will not being doing any real exploring of Nebraska. We will be staying one night each in two different cities. And because of long hours on the road, there will be no time for exploring. The exploring will have to wait for a future cross country trip.
After 6 hours and 307 miles we arrived at West Omaha KOA in Omaha, Nebraska.
WEST OMAHA KOA
This is a small RV Park with about 40+ sites. They sites are laid out in neat rows and are mostly pull thrus, but they are narrow and too close to the neighboring sites. The park was pretty full during our stay, but a lot of the trailers were seasonal and empty. There are trees on most of the sites but do not provide a lot of shade. The sites have dirt pads and dying grass between the trailers. The park was fairly neat and maintained. I did not see a lot of junk lying around.
Omaha is a big city and I wish we had time to explore it. Because this is an overnight stay, we did not unhitch the trailer.
Early the next day we continued on Interstate 80 across Nebraska and entered Mountain Time Zone. We lost an hour and we are now one hour ahead of California time. After 6 hours and 307 miles we arrived at Country View Campground in Ogalala, Nebraska.
COUNTRY VIEW CAMPGROUND
This is a highway RV park and was empty when we arrived. By late evening, there were five other trailers that pulled in for the night. The RV park is okay with 44 sites that are in even rows and level ground. Most of the sites are spacious pull thrus. They are long but a bit narrow. It would feel real crowded if there was a big rig in each site.
OGALALA
Ogalala is a very small cowboy town. From 1875 to 1885The town reignedas Nebraska’s “Queen of the Cowtowns”, as it was the end of the Texas trail drives. We decided to unhitch the trailer and go into town to check it out. It took about two minutes to see the whole town. There is not much to see.
I had a craving for a good piece of steak for dinner, so we looked for a beef place and in this town it was not hard to find one. We found Front Street Steakhouse & Crystal Palace Saloon; “Nebraska’s finest western and historical attraction”, yeah right.
Actually this place is probably a fun attraction during the summer. There is a free museum and there is a nightly revue at the Crystal Palace Saloon during the summer. And apparently there is an annual cattle drive down Front Street during the summer as well. The place was pretty dead when we visited it so we did not go into the Saloon or the museum. But I had a delicious steak dinner in the Café.
COLORADO
Our last stop in Central US will be Colorado. This will be the longest drive in one day that we have done on this trip. We got an early start and at 6:00am it was still dark outside, and very cold. We continued on Interstate 80 through Nebraska into Colorado and at Denver we got on Interstate 70 and drove through the rest of Colorado to Grand Junction, a few miles from the border of Utah.
Interstate 70 goes through some barren country with desert landscapes and high cliffs. Then we started climbing the Rocky Mountains and saw snow on the ground and views of snow capped mountains. We saw Aspen and Cottonwood trees in full color. A beautiful bright yellow. It was a pretty drive with lots of scenery.
After 8.5 hours and 456 miles, we arrived at Grand Junction KOA in Grand Junction, Colorado.
GRAND JUNCTION KOA
This is a nice RV park. There are several permanent trailers, but it is not a junky RV Park. There are about 75 sites. Most of the sites are pull thru and long enough for a big rig and car. There is space between trailers, but it could be crowded if there are big rigs side by side. The interior roads are gravel and the sites have gravel pads and grass on both sides. It near the highway, but not close enough to have traffic noise.
GRAND JUNCTION
We settled into our campsite and unhooked the trailer. We drove a few miles to downtown Grand Junction to find a place for dinner.
This is a nice city and a fairly large one. We drove down Main Street where all the nice shops and restaurants are. Unfortunately, being a Sunday, and late afternoon, everything was closed, including most of the restaurants. We did find one place (which was recommended to us) that was open; Rockslide Brewery. It had a nice atmosphere and the food was good. Main Street is nicely landscaped and an inviting area to stroll around, which we did after dinner. There are several statues and sculptures on exhibit. This is an annual exhibit of outdoor sculptures that has been managed by the Downtown Development Authority since 1984.
John Otto - Man with a monumental vision
Chrome on the Range
The exhibit is called “Art on the Corner”. Some of the sculptures are permanent structures; others were on temporary exhibit for this year and are for sale.
Charm ($50,000)
Shamon ($10,500)
The next day we head for the central western states for the last portion of our cross country trip. Six more days to HOME SWEET HOME!
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