Living Our Dream

Nebraska City, NE, Part I: Arbor Day Farm

From Hastings, it was about a three-hour drive to our next stop in Nebraska City, NE, which is right on the Iowa state line. In Nebraska City, we stayed at Victorian Acres Campground. Victorian Acres has both pull-throughs and back-ins, and both full-hookup and water and electric only sites. Some sites are 50-amp only, and some are 30-amp. There is free Wi-Fi.

The roads are dusty gravel, and the pads are grassy gravel. The row of pull-through sites we were in was the only row that had shared, side-by-side hookups. The side-by-side sites were very long, but a little close together. Fortunately, the campground wasn't full and they didn't have to use more than every other side by side site. We even had extra room because they didn't use the site next to us due to the location of a utility pole and transformer interfering with access to the hookups on that site. The photo below shows our site at Victorian Acres.

The next photo is a view down the row behind our site.

 

There is a little traffic noise from 4-lane Nebraska State Route 2 that passes the campground. It was hot and humid while we were in Nebraska City, and we ran the air 24 hours a day. Therefore, we didn't notice the traffic noise much, especially since it died down at night.

Nebraska City was the home of Julius Sterling Morton, who was the founder of Arbor Day. J. Sterling Morton moved to Nebraska in 1854 before it had even been organized as a territory. Morton became editor of the local newspaper.

Morton and his fellow pioneers living on the nearly treeless plains of Nebraska missed their trees from back east. Recognizing the trees would also play an important role as windbreaks, Morton began experimenting with growing different kinds of trees. He even imported trees from around the world to determine which would grow best in Nebraska. He published articles in his paper encouraging both individuals and civic groups to plant trees.

J. Sterling Morton first proposed a tree-planting holiday in 1872. In 1874, the Nebraska governor officially proclaimed April 10, 1874 as Arbor Day. Arbor Day is now celebrated nationally and around the world. Today, Arbor Day is most commonly celebrated on the last Friday in April. However, the date in some locations varies to take advantage of the best time for planting trees.

We arrived in Nebraska City on Friday, so we relaxed over the weekend and left the sightseeing to the weekend warriors. It was a little cloudy Monday morning, so we put off sightseeing for another day and drove north to Omaha to run some errands. On Tuesday, we drove about 10 minutes from the campground to Arbor Day Farm. Arbor Day Farm is a 260-acre working tree farm that includes orchards, greenhouses, an agro-forestry field that combines trees and farming, and research facilities. The farm, which was once part of the J. Sterling Morton estate, is operated by the Arbor Day Foundation.

The Tree Adventure is an educational part of Arbor Day Farm that is open to the public. The entrance to the Tree Adventure shown in the next photo.

There are a lot of hands-on displays that are aimed at kids, but which are also interesting for adults. Inside, there is a small museum that has displays stressing the importance of trees. There are computers with touch screens that guide you through a tree identification game. There is a fun movie about trees in the movies. In the next photo, Paul is checking out an exhibit that shows the names of different parts of a tree.

Outside, there is a .5-mile, paved walking trail and a .7-mile wood-chip loop that branches off the main, paved trail. The next photo shows us at the start of the paved trail.

The trails have numerous exhibits that touch all your senses. One interesting display had pictures of various birds. You could press a button and hear recordings of the birds' songs. You could also press another button to record and play back your own attempt to imitate the bird songs.

 There was another display that consisted of a series of wooden boxes with forest smells. There were things like the fragrance of various blossoms (we liked honeysuckle), different types of wood (these were a little faint and hard to make out), and deer musk (yuck!).

Hearing is important for woodland animals. Another display had cones to amplify sound so you could experience the sounds that some animals hear. The next photos show us trying out the hearing exhibit. We thought we could also use as personal hearing aids, but there's not enough room for them in the motor home.

Animal footprints were pressed into the concrete of the walkway at various intervals.

After you follow the footprints for a while, there is a marker that identifies the animal that made the tracks. We were able to identify quite a few of them.

At the Nature Explore Club Cabin there are nature displays that include animal bones, antlers, a beehive with real bees and a glass cover so you can see inside, wood samples, butterflies and insects, and more. In the photo below, Margery is checking out tree bark specimens.

Next to the nature cabin is a 50-foot treehouse where you can look out over the forest canopy.

Along the wood-chip trail, we came to three chairs we decided to try out. Notice the sign. Paul had to really hustle to get up into the chair before the camera timer went off. It took three tries.

A little farther along, there was a sculpture made up of copper silhouettes of birds. If you'd put something like that out in the woods back in Pennsylvania where we come from, they'd be full of bullet holes.

Near the end of the walking trail is a kids' play area. Fortunately, big kids can play there, too. Paul enjoyed banging on the extra-large wooden marimba.

When we finished the walking trails, we stopped into the greenhouse...

...which was full of hazelnut seedlings. Notice the nut at the base of the seedling.

As we said, the Arbor Day Tree Farm is a working tree farm, and they pack and ship trees to most states, except a few states that have agricultural restrictions. They also ship gift trees for company promotions, wedding favors, fundraisers, etc. The fellow in the next photo is getting plastic tubes ready to receive seedlings for shipping.

 

The stop at the greenhouse concluded our visit at the Arbor Day Tree Farm. We still have a couple of other things we want to see while we are in Nebraska, so stay tuned.

 

Hastings, NE, Part II: Stuhr Museum

Our second sightseeing outing while staying in Hastings, NE, was Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer. As we said, there were a lot of pioneer museums and pioneer villages to choose from around Hastings. We chose the Stuhr Museum because it features an 1890s-era living history village. Stuhr Museum is located about 20 miles north of Hastings in Grand Island, NE.

The museum is named for Leo Stuhr who was the son of German immigrants that owned a farm in Grand Island. Leo Stuhr served in the Nebraska House of Representatives and went on to become the state's first Secretary of Agriculture. He was appointed to the Federal Farm Board in 1930. In 1960, Leo Stuhr donated 35 acres of land and funds to build a county museum.

Along the parking lot is a railroad display that includes the 1901 Union Pacific engine 437, an 1871 passenger car and a 1912 Union Pacific caboose.

The main museum building has displays of local photos and artifacts that follow the history of pioneers and early settlers.

 

Unfortunately, photography wasn't permitted inside the museum, but the displays were well done, and artifacts were well marked.

On the other side of the parking lot is the Gus Fonner Memorial Rotunda that features a collection of Native American and old west memorabilia. Photography wasn't permitted in the rotunda either, but we did stop for a photo of ourselves on the way there.

After checking out the old west memorabilia in the rotunda, we walked over the the 1890s village they call Railroad Town. The Union Pacific Railroad came through this area in 1866, and once the transcontinental railroad was opened in 1869, towns like Grand Island grew up along the route. Railroad Town is a collection of buildings from the late 1800s that have been relocated from other areas, mostly from elsewhere in Grand Island.

From the parking lot at the museum building we walked through the arboretum to Railroad Town. The arboretum has a picnic area, several small flower gardens, a rose garden, and a pond.

 

The first house we came to was the Lesher House. Built in 1883, this house was originally located in the residential section of Grand Island. The cupola appears to be decorative, but it is part of the house's natural air conditioning. By opening windows in the cupola it would act as a chimney and draw warm air out of the house. Apparently, they didn't have the cupola windows open when we were there because the house was hot and stuffy inside.

 

Across the street is the Milisen House, which is the town's largest house. This two-story home was built in 1879 and belonged to Charles Milisen who was one of the town's earliest settlers and a respected civic leader.

Grand Island's best-known resident was actor Henry Fonda. The house where he was born in 1905 was relocated to Railroad Town in 1966.

 

At the far end of town is the Stolley House that was originally near Grand Island. You can tell from the windmill, the water tank and the garden this house was located in a little more rural area.

Railroad Town has a collection of stores and shops, many of which have interpreters demonstrating crafts such as spinning, leather working, tinsmithing and blacksmithing.

It was around lunchtime, so some of the shops were closed. We weren't real anxious to spend a lot of time inside anyway because the temperature was around 90, and the old buildings were all hot, stuffy and a bit musty. We previously mentioned the increase in humidity we were noticing as we traveled east. In fact, it rained the morning we went to the Stuhr Museum, which made the humidity shoot up even more.

 We were so uncomfortable because of the humidity we skipped some parts of the village that were located away from Railroad Town. There was a group of log cabins, a 1900s farmstead, a one-room school, a church and a ranch that we didn't see. There is also a building that houses a collection of antique farm equipment and automobiles. We would have gone to see that, but it is only open from 10:00 to 11:00 AM and from 2:00 to 3:00 PM each day in summer. We arrived just about 11:00, so it was too late to see it the morning. By the time we were finished seeing the other things we wanted to see it was only 1:00. We were hot, thirsty and hungry, so we chose not to wait around until 2:00.
 

We both have been hungry for Chinese food lately, so Margery did some research and found a restaurant in Grand Island that got good reviews. Since it was our 42nd wedding anniversary, we decided to stop for a late lunch to celebrate.

Hunan Chinese Restaurant is in a little strip mall about 10 minutes from Stuhr Museum. Most lunches are priced at around $6, which includes soup and appetizer. They have an extensive lunch menu, but we didn't see our favorite - General Tso's chicken. The waitress assured us that #18 on the menu was the same thing as General Tso's chicken, so that's what we ordered. Paul also ordered hot and spicy soup and crab rangoon for an appetizer, while Margery got egg drop soup and an egg roll. Crab rangoon is a deep-fried dumpling stuffed with cream cheese and crab meat. The soups and appetizers, especially the crab rangoon, were delish.

When our lunches arrived, we paused for an ice-water toast to our anniversary before digging in.

The dish we ordered wasn't exactly the same as the General Tso's chicken we were used to, so we were a little disappointed. It was still good, but it wasn't what we were hungry for. Oh well, that's just another excuse to eat out again soon.

We scheduled a whole week at Hastings Campground, and since we decided to be fairly selective and slow down our sightseeing, we had plenty of time to relax. Paul got the overhead cabinet rearranged and got the Wii game console hooked up in its permanent location. We both got haircuts, and we also caught up on laundry and other chores. From Hastings, we continued our way east. We'll have more info about where we end up in our next post.

North Platte, NE

We left Gering and drove about 3 hours southeast to North Platte, NE, where we stayed at Holiday RV Park. Holiday RV Park has some full hookup sites with 30-amp electric and some with 30/50-amp electric. They also have some sites with water and 30-amp electric only. Holiday RV also has cable and free Wi-Fi. There are several rows of pull-throughs down the center with back-ins around the perimeter. The roads and pads are gravel, and there is grass between the sites. Site width is pretty good for a private campground. The photo below shows our site at Holiday RV...

...and the next photo is looking down our row.

Holiday RV is located right off I-80 and there is a good bit of traffic noise day and night. It was hot when we were there, so we ran the air. We usually like to turn off the AC when it cools down at night, but we just ran it the whole time to help cover up the traffic noise.

The campground itself is pretty nice, but we thought it was a little expensive for being in an area that isn't much of a tourist town. The price was almost $33 a night AFTER the 10% Good Sam discount and AFTER an additional 5% discount for paying cash. On the other hand, you have to consider they have a pool, cable and free Wi-Fi. Even though those things aren't important to us, they do add to the cost.

Normally, North Platte would have been a one-night stopover, but we wanted to take time to see the Golden Spike Tower which overlooks the Bailey Yard of the Union Pacific Railroad, so we scheduled two nights. The Bailey Yard, which was named for former Union Pacific President Edd Bailey, is the largest rail yard in the world. The yard is 8 miles long and about 2 miles wide. There are approximately 2,600 employees that handle 10,000 rail cars a day. On average, there are 500 to 700 locomotives and 15,000 to 18,000 rail cars in the yard at any given time. Bailey Yard contains 315 miles of track and 985 switches.

An 8-story tower has an enclosed, 360-degree observation platform on the top floor. On the opposite side of the tower there is an open deck facing the yard on the 7th floor.

The photo below is a panoramic view looking west and north.

On the 8th floor there were a couple of railroad retirees who served as hosts. They had a wealth of information about the yard and about the trains, and they were able to answer any question you could come up with.

The white building on the left in the next photo is the locomotive repair facility. They repair over 750 locomotives a year.

The white silos to the right of the repair shop are where sand is stored. Locomotives can drop sand onto the rails in front of the driving wheels for traction, and this is the area where the locomotives are refilled with sand.

The fueling facility at Bailey Yard goes through 14 million gallons of diesel fuel a month. Although they are commonly called diesel locomotives, the more accurate name is diesel-electric. The diesel engines drive electric generators, which in turn provide power to electric motors to drive the locomotive wheels.

North Platte is centrally located and has always been a natural location for a rail yard. The early yard at North Platte was a flat-switched yard with 20 tracks. In 1948, the first hump yard was built with 42 tracks. A hump yard has the advantage of being able to use gravity to help sort rail cars and make up trains rather than using switch engines to do all the work. A switch engine can bring a random string of cars to the crest of the hump. Bar codes are used today to automate the identification process for the next car in line. The car is then uncoupled and allowed to roll downhill. The track branches out in an array of switches to different tracks where individual trains to various locations are being made up. There are sections of track that apply pressure to the wheels of the rail cars to slow the cars where necessary. In 1968, a second hump yard with 64 tracks was added. Baily Yard humps 3,000 cars a day.

Once a train is ready to go, a remote-control switch engine will take it to a siding where locomotives and a crew will pick up the train to take it to its destination. The three locomotives in the next photo are headed out into the yard to couple onto a train that is waiting there. Most trains have 90 to 110 cars, depending on cargo and weight, with two locomotives in front and one in back.

The Golden Spike Tower was our main reason for spending an extra day in North Platte; but when we left there it was only around noon, so we decided to also stop at William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody's ranch, which was only about 10 minutes away.

We learned a lot about "Buffalo Bill" when we visited Cody, WY, back in 2008. Click here to read about that visit to Cody and to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

Of course, Buffalo Bill is known for Buffalo Bill's Wild West that began in 1883 near North Platte. Profits from the show enabled Buffalo Bill to buy a 4,000-acre ranch in North Platte in 1886. The ranch, which he named Scout's Rest, was primarily intended for winter storage of the show's livestock.

Today, the 18-room house and livestock barn are owned by the state and are open for tours. The photo below shows the house...

...and the next photo shows the livestock barn.

Photography wasn't permitted inside the house, but we did get a few shots in the barn where they had several old wagons and a sleigh, and displays of saddles and tools.

 

The barn also had a number of old photos of William Cody's family and of the show, as well as several colorful posters from the show.

There were also several bison in a corral beside the barn.

We left the ranch and headed back to the motor home to relax a while. Less than 1/4 mile from the entrance to the campground was Penny's Diner. Since it was so close and since the campground handout map had a coupon for 10% off your entire meal, we headed over to Penny's a little later for an early dinner.

Penny's menu isn't real extensive. Paul was hoping for some diner favorites like a hot roast beef sandwich or meatloaf, but they had mostly burgers and sandwiches. However, the waitress pointed out the rib eye sandwich, which was one of the specials for only $7.95, so Paul decided to have that. Margery chose a Philly cheese steak. In the end, we decided to share our sandwiches. They were both delish!

The next morning we left North Platte and continued on our way east.

Scotts Bluff

Scotts Bluff was yet another landmark for early pioneers on the Platte River Road section of the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails. We could see Scotts Bluff from the campground, so it was definitely something we planned to see while we were in the area. Scotts Bluff was named for Hiram Scott who was a fur trader who died near the bluff in 1828. Today, Scotts Bluff National Monument preserves the area around Scotts Bluff.

The night before, our friends Alan and Marilyn pulled into the campground. They had sent us an email a few days earlier to let us know they were heading our way and were planning to stop and spend some time in Gering.

 The four of us went to Scotts Bluff, and Alan was kind enough to drive. As usual, we started by watching the movie and viewing the displays in the visitor center to get oriented. Margery also took time to model a pioneer bonnet in the visitor center gift shop.

From the visitor center, we followed the trail up through Mitchell Pass where the pioneer trail used to run. Sentinel Rock is on the left and Eagle Rock is on the Right.

We decided to walk the half-mile (each way) trail up to the crest of the pass. In the 1840s, the pioneer trails went about 8 miles north and east of here through Robidoux Pass because of steep-walled ravines here at Scotts Bluff. Robidoux Pass was named for Antoine Robidoux who had a trading post at Robidoux Pass. In 1851, the U. S. Army Engineers opened a road through Mitchell Pass, and the pioneers started using the new route. The next photo is the view west from Mitchell Pass.

 

Although the pioneer trail wasn't as distinctly visible as it was at Wagon Ruts Historic Site where it had carved its way into the soft sandstone, we could see the depression in the earth in several places where the trail ran. The Oregon and California Trails and the Pony Express route ran through Mitchell Pass. Although the Mormon Trail runs concurrent with the Oregon and California Trails in many places all the way to Fort Bridger, here it ran on the other side of the North Platte River. The trails were marked with wooden posts.

 

The trail runs through the depression that starts in the lower left of the next photo. The white arrows show the locations of trail markers.

There is a 1.6-mile hiking trail (each way) to the top of Scotts Bluff. There is also a road. Since the trail looked steep at the end (the summit is a climb of about 435 feet and most of the climb is in the last mile) and since it was close to noon and it was quite hot, we drove to the top. From the top, you can get great views to the north, to the east and to the south. The next photo is looking east with Saddle Rock in the center of the picture.

We could just make out Chimney Rock about 20 miles away on the horizon. The photo below is a telephoto shot. Chimney Rock is on the horizon right near the center.

The next photo is a view to the south from the top of the bluff. The visitor center is toward the left. The hiking trail to the top of the bluff runs from the visitor center toward the lower left, and the semi-circular road is the road to the top. It goes through a tunnel and then runs along the north side of Mitchell Pass and loops up around the far side of the bluff.

 

On our way back down we got a glimpse of where we hiked along the pioneer trail earlier. The dotted white line shows the approximate location of the trail.

We had a good time with Alan and Marilyn. In addition to going to Scotts Bluff together, we went over to their rig several evenings to play Wii. As you may know, Wii is an electronic game that is a little more physical than most while still being fairly low impact. Wii comes with a couple of sports games that include bowling, golf, tennis and baseball. It's not nearly as strenuous as the real thing, but it gets you up off the couch and moving around. You play the games while holding the remote like a bowling ball, golf club, tennis racket, etc. We may have to look into getting a Wii for those times when we're not sightseeing and hiking and are tempted to be more sedentary.

On our last night in Gering the four of us went to Rosita's. Rosita's is a small Mexican restaurant which doesn't seem to have a web site, but they were written up on the web site roadfood.com.

 

Paul liked the metal sculptures on the roof and in the parking lot.

Rosita's specializes in deep-fried corn chips that are delish! Dinners run around $8, but on Tuesday (which is when we happened to be there) they have a special that includes two dinners, two soft drinks and an appetizer for only $20. We had beef nachos for our appetizers. The fried chips were smothered with cheese, ground taco meat, guacamole and jalapenos.

For dinner, we had chili rellenos that were great. We ended up taking half our meals back to the motor home with us. Alan and Marilyn had enchiladas that they also said were good.

We had a hard time deciding on dessert, but Marilyn and Alan ended up ordering churros that were like biscuits covered with cinnamon and sugar with honey on the side. Rosita's has a different name (we can't remember what it was) for what we are used to calling a sopaipilla, which is a fried tortilla served with cinnamon, sugar, butter and honey on it. The waitress brought not only what we call a sopaipilla, but also a sample of what they call a sopaipllia, which is more like a rectangle of fried bread dough covered with powdered sugar served with honey on the side. We all shared the desserts and they were all yummy. The best part was they didn't even charge us for the desserts! We left an extra-big tip.

The next morning, Marilyn had a yummy breakfast casserole and hot biscuits for us that we enjoyed along with more good conversation. After breakfast, we said our "good-byes," hooked up the toad and hit the road. We continued on our way east.