In My Old Backyard

We have spent the weekend here in Central Nebraska visiting with family and friends. We are staying at the Windmill State Recreation Area, right off of I 80 at the Gibbon NE. exit. It is very nice here, the drive in sites are right along the roads, pretty narrow roads, but paved and adequate. We only have Electic hook up and will have to visit the dump before we leave here this morning. Got to watch the first Nationally broadcast Nebraska Football Game yesterday, way to go Huskers! 3-0 now. We had a nice visit this morning with a friend of ours, who works for the same company that DH retired from and is contemplating retirement this next year and getting into the RV lifestyle on some level. I love showing our coach off and sharing what ever information that I can to help by sharing our experiences, both good and bad. Had a call from a couple that has wintered with us in AZ. They were heading to Casper Wy from Gilette in their motorhome, towing a pick up yesterday,and a Chevy Cobalt crossed two lanes of traffic and took out the whole drivers side of the motorhome. They weren't hurt, but the other driver was life flighted to a hospital. Totaled their pick up and coach, so they are now shopping. Every time you enter that highway you take a great risk, and you may be robbed of a safe trip through no fault of your own. I thank god they are o.k.
No plans for this afternoon and the family was busy, so we drove into Kearney and had lunch at Culvers, then went to tour the Nebraska Firefighters Museum and Education Center, which is along the interstate right before the Great Platte River Road Archway that spans Interstate 80 just east of the city of Kearney.
The Fire Museum is new and just opened this past year, and since DH is a fire fighter, having over 30 years in the Oxford Volunteer Fire Dept.so I knew he'd enjoy this. Although this is a small museum, theres a lot of history from many departments. Nebraska is lucky to be the home to Smeals Fire Apparatus Manufacturing plant. We enjoyed seeing the collection of fire fighting equipment and fire safety education displays.
This spring several Native American Tribes from surrounding states met for an annual Pow Wow at the Archway.
It went so well last year they have decided to make it an Annual Event.
This May on some adjacent ground to the Arch, they built an Earth Lodge by hand and some Shade supports, a garden of Sun Flowers and Corn.
The local paper did a big story on this and I read about it, but wanted to visit it in person, so today was the day. It's pretty cool. Nick and Terry Russell also visited the Arch this summer and the story is in this month's Gypsy Journal. All of these things are about an hour from where I used to live. It's always nice to return here and see the changes. We will be heading south into Kansas tomorrow.