Thursday, May 1, 2014

Off The Road For Two Nights

We drove about 320 miles today, saying goodbye to Bill and Jan this morning as we both pulled out of Liberal about 1/2 hour apart. I drove the first 110 miles, then Don drove until lunchtime. We stopped at a small city park, put our driver side slide out and had a peaceful lunch.

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He continued to drive until about 50 miles from our destination, then I took the last leg.

Although we changed direction several times, going northeast then north, back to northeast, etc. with the last 24 miles almost due east, it seemed like we always had a crosswind! But it was mild compared to the previous several days.

Here’s what our view looked like on Tuesday just before we got off the road.

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Here’s one of today’s views. The road wasn’t in the greatest shape (construction ahead), but look at that blue sky with puffy white clouds!

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Now we can take the time to play for a day. We’re parked at the Pioneer Village Campground in Minden, Nebraska, home of Pioneer Village aka “Authentic Americana.” We’ll see the museum, historic buildings, and the rest of the complex tomorrow. For now, it’s just nice to kick back and relax.

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While we were disconnecting the car before pulling into our site, two women stopped their car in the road beside us, welcomed us to Minden and recommended the Mexican restaurant in town. How nice to be in a small midwest town with friendly people!

We only have one neighbor in the campground. It’s refreshing to be somewhere without long-term RVs with a lot of junk around their rigs and accompanied by noisy kids and dogs.

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Along with our campground stay we got one free ticket to the complex, so our total cost is reasonable.

After setting up we discovered a surprise in our closet – I guess that bump we hit going into a fuel station was a little bigger than we thought!

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It didn’t take long to put everything back on the rod, and nothing was damaged.

On our way to dinner, we drove around downtown. It’s sure pretty here, and we’re loving the calm breezes and clear blue skies. Here’s the courthouse.

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Hostetler’s opera house 1891.

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Probably a hotel from 1886, now a health club and tanning parlor.

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We took the recommendation to have dinner at El Agave. Both our dinners were excellent! Don had the chile verde and said it was as *almost* as good as what I make (what a guy)! I had a chile relleno stuffed with chicken and cheese.

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Margarita happy hour is on Thursday and Saturday, so of course I had to have one. It was good, too.

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Tomorrow we’ll be tourists.

4 comments:

  1. We love the story of how Pioneer Village came to be and the dedication of its founder Harold Warp. Hope you get some of those details. Check out the school room and the book display under glass at the podium.

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  2. When we went last year, I'd been there almost 30 years ago. It hadn't changed a bit. I'd take the two days to see it. The car museum in Kearney in the Cabela's warehouse is really interesting.

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  3. That is a great museum. It does that 2 days to see it all. If you remember it was the Expo Center at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds the the tornado struck and distroyed the building we were staying IN 3 days before. They have rebuilt it and we always stay there. Great staff. If you haven't been to the Great Platte River Road Museum, it is worth the stop. Glad you weather has cleared up. Safe travels.

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  4. Sharon, I had hoped to catch up with you in Liberal but couldn't manage timing. Glad you are having a good time. My family are from Franklin south of Minden. Lot of unusual fun places to visit in that area.

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