From the Prarie to the Western Slope

Our last entry had us arriving in Henderson, Nebraska, about 120 miles West of Omaha on I-80. The campground was actually right off of the interstate and the town was about 4 miles south. The campground was pretty barren, but had full 50 amp hookups and was moderately priced, OK for a three day stay. On Saturday, the 16th of August, we did a little tour through Henderson (Pop. 986) and then drove over to York, Nebraska, a larger town (about 8,000). We visited the York Elks Lodge #1024 and found them to be a pretty friendly group. Later that evening we drove to McCool Junction (great name for a town!) a few miles south of York for the local stock car races at the Junction Motor Speedway. Neither Jackie nor I had been to a local dirt track in many years and when we found that JMS had regular Saturday night races during the summer we thought it would make an entertaining evening out.

The speedway was nothing fancy, but since it was only a couple years old, the grandstands were well constructed aluminum, not the rickety wood one's I remember from when we used to go to the Hales Corners, Wisconsin track when I was a kid in the 50's. The track was dirt with a 3/8 mile oval main track and a 1/8 mile dirt oval in the center. They had four classes of cars, ranging from the four cylinder "starter" cars which raced on the 1/8 mile, up to the NASCAR modifieds which were pretty fast. All except the four cylinder class raced on the larger oval. The format was the same as I remember from 50 years ago - two sets of five to eight lap heats for each class, then an intermission, and then the "features" which ranged from 10 laps for the smaller cars to 25 laps for the modifieds. We noticed that this was very much a family venue with a lot of kids in attendance. Since all the cars from from within a hundred miles of the track there were a lot of family and friend type fans rooting the various racers on. The folks were very friendly and when the announcer found out we were from Nevada, we got introduced to the crowd and they gave me a free t-shirt! All this for $8 admission. All in all we had a great time and may try some other local tracks in our travels.

On Sunday we went caching in the local area which took us around the countryside to some of the other small towns in the area. We found 9 caches. Monday, August 18th, we packed up for the drive to North Platte, Nebraska, about 200 miles West of Henderson. About halfway through the drive we passed under the Great Platte River Road Memorial Archway. This was an interesting sight as it was this huge wooden arch which stretched completely across I-80. Since we were in the coach we didn't stop, but reading about it later we found that it was built as a sort of living history museum with all sorts of exhibits about Indian and frontier life. We also noted that this general area seemed to be the demarcation point between the heavy farming area of the central prairie and the western foothills leading to the continental divide and what we considered to be the "West." Around Henderson we saw the usual miles and miles of corn and bean fields. As we approached Western Nebraska we started seeing fewer fields and more rolling hills and grazing land. We settled into the Holiday RV Park which was a very nice park right off of the interstate at the edge of town.

The next day we did a tour of the area. North Platte is the biggest town in Western Nebraska with a population of about 25,000. We went to the local mall and did some shopping, then went to the movies. We saw Tropic Thunder, the new Ben Stiller movie. While not the best Stiller has done, it was still pretty funny and entertaining. Not Oscar material, but enjoyable if you like this type of comedy, which we do. After the movie we did some caching in town and managed to find 9. We also went by the Elks lodge that was listed in the travel directory and found that the building was now a church. A little later Jackie found a phone book and found a new address listed for the Elks Lodge. When we went by the address we found it to be a house on a residential street. There was a lady working in the yard when we stopped and she came over to chat - turns out she is the Lodge Secretary and the Lodge is in the process of remodeling their new building after selling the old one. The new building happened to be in the back of the mall parking lot where we had gone to the movies. She thought the Lodge would be up and running by the end of summer, so any of you passing through North Platte and wanting to visit the Lodge, go to the mall (only one in town) and look in the back parking lot. That night we went to the Whiskey Creek Steakhouse, just down the street from the RV park, for a nice Nebraska steak dinner. Everyone had told us we had to try Nebraska beef and we were getting close to leaving Nebraska. Had a very nice dinner and the beef was very good.

On Wednesday afternoon we went to a local Mexican restaurant for lunch and then did some more caching in town. We found another nine caches. The lunch was so-so, the Nebraskans seemed to have an odd idea of what Mexican food was. It wasn't the Sonoran we are used to in Arizona and California, wasn't Tex-Mex, and certainly wasn't Sante Fe Mexican. It was tasty, just not what we were used to.

On Thursday we headed West out of Nebraska into Wyoming. Our destination was Cheyenne, about a 220 mile trip. We climbed from 2,800 feet at North Platte up to 6,200 feet in Cheyenne, however, there was never any real grade to climb. It was just a gradual climb up over the whole 200+ miles. We settled into another nice Good Sam park, the A B RV Park, and did some laundry since the park had a nice laundry room just a few yards from where we had parked. The next day we did a tour of Cheyenne, which is the Capitol of Wyoming and then some shopping. On Saturday we went out for some local geocaching and found six more caches. We also went by the Cheyenne Elks Lodge # 660. They were still in their original building right in the heart of downtown which had opened in 1902. The building had been remodeled so it didn't look anything like it did at the turn of the century, but it was still very nice. The lodge room took up the entire third floor of the building and was gorgeous. The people at the lodge were very friendly and one of the trustees took us on a tour. On Monday, the 25th, we went out and found five more local caches and also spent some time in old town Cheyenne walking around and looking at all the old historical buildings. That evening we went to Red Lobster for dinner. I was jonesing for some crab legs and it had been forever since we had been to a Red Lobster.

Tuesday the 26th of August had us packing up again for the trek to Rawlins, Wyoming, about 150 miles West of Cheyenne. We now find ourselves truly back in the front range of the divide. In the 50 miles between Cheyenne and Laramie we went over two passes which were well over 8,500 feet in elevation. Surprisingly, there few long, steep grades - nothing like the grade west out of Denver on I-70. I can see now why I-80 is considered the busiest interstate in the west - it is a very good road. After Laramie the elevation dropped back down to about 6,800 in Rawlins. The worst thing about the trip was the wind. The wind was blowing about 35 MPH for the entire trip which was a little tiring. When we settled into the RV Park (Western Hills) the wind was still blowing, with gusts probably close to 40 or 50. It blew the rest of the afternoon and all night. The next day, the 27th, we took a drive around Rawlins (Pop. 8,500) and did some caching. We had a very successful day with 8 found and no DNFs (did not find). Part of our tour took us to Sinclair, Wyoming, a small town of 400 just to the East of Rawlins. Sinclair was founded as a refinery town back at the turn of the century and was originally known as Parco, named after the company (Petroleum and Refining Corporation) which built the refinery. In the late 30's the company was bought out by Sinclair Oil and the town was renamed Sinclair. The refinery is still active, in fact the company just spent several million dollars enlarging and modernizing the facilities. The town has about five streets and the refinery proper is about five times the size of the residential part of the town.

After Sinclair we drove around Rawlins, which is is a cute little town. We visited the Rawlins Elks Lodge # 609 which, like those in North Platte and Cheyenne, is still in its original downtown building. Like the Cheyenne Lodge, the Rawlins Lodge remodeled the building so it doesn't look like it did in 1908, but the inside still looked pretty original in places. It was a very friendly lodge and we ended up walking out with a couple free drink tokens which we plan to use tomorrow.

That brings us to today, Thursday the 28th of August. We have one more day in Rawlins, then tomorrow we head for Rock Springs, Wyoming, about 110 miles further West. That will be our last stop in Wyoming before we start South into Utah. In about two weeks we will finally be back in our "home" of Pahrump and the summer 2008 journey will be ended. Once we get settled into Pahrump I will post stories of the final leg of the trip. Until then, don't worry, be happy!