Skip to main content

Eclipse Trip - August 2017 - Nebraska

We started our eclipse trip on Thursday evening.  We left town about 6:00pm and drove as far as we could - Norman, OK.  We decided to boon-dock in the Wal-mart parking lot because it was so late and we wanted an early start.

Friday morning, we started bright and early.  Our destination: Gothenburg, Nebraska.  Interesting things we learned on our trip: Kansas is filled with corn field and interstates with tolls.  The corn scenery is so repetitive that we missed the sign coming into Nebraska because we grew tired of looking at the corn.


Nebraska was interesting.  We saw a bridge spanning the high way, a beautifully carved train on a downtown building, and we saw "Dusty" out dusting the crops.




We made it to Gothenburg with enough time to visit the Pony Express Museum.  The museum and old station is located in one of the town parks.  It is surrounded by a sampling of trees and has a playground.

 



 

One tree sample we found is an Austria Pine; Austria is where my great-grandfather immigrated from.   I love all the "Christmas Trees" in the area and further north too.  How cool would it be to have a Christmas tree in your front yard?

 

Unfortunately, we missed the open hours on the Sod House Museum so we were only able to view it from outside the fence.








We stayed overnight in the Blue Heron Campground.  The grounds themselves were nice; the water smelled awful in the bathrooms (even with full hookups and in RV shower, it's usually more efficient to visit the campground showers, when available).



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Texas History Tour - Texas Independence - Washington on the Brazos

 Because of all the construction on I35, it was recommended to us to travel across Central TX and use I45 instead.  So, on our trip down to San Antonio, we went north of College Station.  We decided on the way home, to go south of BCS and stop at one last history spot - Washington on the Brazos, where Texas Independence was declared.  (It's was also a nice distance from Goliad and a great stopping point for lunch) The original monument next to Independence Hall This state historic site also incorporates the etched windows.  Probably because of all the trees, these etched windows are easier to see.  We walked down the side streets of town and went down to the Brazos River.  There were lots of pretty flowers and some wild grapes along the trail. Our first glimpse of the Brazos River Here's the area where traders along the river would land and bring their cargo/passengers. Pecan tree that was here during the Texas Revolution We enjoyed the break from ridi...

Texas History Tour - Spanish influence - Mission San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo

 After a late lunch, we decided to visit the middle mission - San Jose y San Miguel de Aguayo .  It was the largest mission and the one that is most well preserved, being designed a work area for the WPA in the 1930's.  They have done a wonderful job of recreating ruins and painting original colors.  There were also some architecture dig sites this summer.  Unfortunately, being a Sunday, we didn't get to meet any of the student workers.  We did however, get to visit with the park rangers, who had just recently returned to work and the park store was open as well. Mission San Jose was founded in 1720 along the San Antonio River.  It came to be the largest mission on the area with roughly 300 Indians living on the grounds.   "it's a giant turtle with a hole in the back" It's really an outdoor oven. It's a very pretty mission setting. We also saw several wells and cisterns and lots of arches, angles, and other geometric shapes.  Love the c...

Texas History Tour - Spanish influence - Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga

 On the grounds of Goliad State Park is Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga o.  For this visit and our visit to Presidio la Bahia, we deviated from normal Texas afternoon behavior and visited both - in the heat!  Why?  Because mosquitoes aren't as numerous in the heat of the afternoon! Mission Espiritu Santo was where the CCC applied all they learned at the visitors center across the road.  Most of the buildings have been restored/reconstructed and several are used as museums.   The brickwork that we saw from the visitors center and many samples of the colors they re-created.  Spanish culture was very vibrant! We also saw many examples of geometric shapes - shaped windows, rolled arches, built-in wall basins with rounded fronts. "Pirates lived here!" ~ R This mission had many textile operations here - weaving, dying, basket making.... Looks like the window seat we saw at the visitors center. This appears to be ruins of a building....