Vacation 2009 - On the Way to Glacier

This is the third page of our vacation 2009 blog. The first page is here.

Denver

After dry camping in Eastern Colorado, it was a short drive to our next destination. We arrived around midday, found a campground near where the motorhome work was to be done tomorrow, and did a quick drive-by to be sure we could find it in the morning. Then we headed to Ted's house for the rest of the afternoon and evening. It was a great visit - Dianna fixed a wonderful dinner, and Richard & Jennifer were both able to stop by as well.

This is just a sculpture at a shopping center near Brighton, but we could see it from the highway, and it piqued our curiosity, so we drive by to see what it was. Pretty cool display for a shopping center. Also found a geocache there, so it was a good stop.

Awning Repairs

Up bright and early today, so we can be second in line at the shop. We couldn't be first, because when we drove by yesterday, we saw someone was already parked at the gate. The bad news is that they cannot fix it today. The good news is that they can pull the broken awning off the slideout so we can use the slide until we are able to get the awning fixed. The bad news is that we need a place to put the broken awning until we get home. It won't go in the basement, and there is no way to attach it to the roof, so the only place is down the middle of the floor where we can trip on it. We know this, because we have been living with the cap to the big awning all this time. So we lay that awning inside the cap and we are ready to go. We are back on the road by noon.

Northward Bound

Believe it or not, it is at least as far from Denver to West Glacier as it is from Decatur to Denver. So from midday Tuesday to Thursday afternoon, we are mostly driving. You can tell it is already getting toward off-season here. Tuesday night we stopped at a campground in Wyoming where there wasn't even anyone minding the store. You just dropped your money in a milk can on the porch by the office. Wednesday was almost as bad. The driveway was partially blocked because they were pouring new concrete, and some guy took 20 bucks from us (cash) and pointed us to a site. He said the wagon blocking the road would be gone by morning, but he wouldn't be around cuz he was going hunting.

Fetterman Massacre

We did make one stop in Wyoming. I didn't plan to do much geocaching on the trip, since Dale isn't much interested in it, but I did want to find at least one in every state we passed through. So far, this has bee fairly easy, as I have managed to find something near most of our rest stops. But we started to get near the Montana border, and still had not found anything, so we took a detour to find something. This led us to the Fetterman Monument, built to memorialize an Indian massacre of some settlers.

There was an interesting story about the monument on this plaque. You should be able to read it by clicking on the picture to get a bigger image.

Destination: Glacier

Thursday afternoon we arrived in West Glacier and checked into a campground near the entrance, where we will stay the next several days. We make a quick trip into the park to get our bearings, and to pick up my Senior Pass, and then settle in at the campsite to prepare for some serious sightseeing tomorrow.

Next Page: Glacier National Park

Vacation 2009 - First Stop Nebraska

This is the second page of our vacation 2009 blog. The first page is here.

North Platte

When you are from the Midwest, you don't really feel like you are on vacation until you cross a good portion of the Great Plains. North Platte isn't all the way across the plains, but it was our first real stop. It is home to Bailey Yard, the largest railroad hump yard in the world. It was also home to Buffalo Bill, but we saw that site a couple years ago. This time we were here for the new observation tower near the yard, and a park with a railroad display that we couldn't get into before. (Motorhome exceeded the weight limit, and at that time we had no other transportation.)

Cody Park

First stop was Cody Park, where the steam engine Challenger was on display.

Here are some vital statistics about this beast

I got to play engineer...

The museum also had a DDA40X Centennial diesel engine on display. This was one of only a few dozen eight-axle diesels ever made. There are only about 10 or 11 remaining, all in museums now.

Many of the cars were open inside, including a caboose, and a railway post office. There were also a few artifacts on display inside the depot building.

City Park

Another little park was nearby, with a display of a smaller steam engine, the 480. This one is a bit smaller than the Challenger.

Golden Spike Tower

This tower was built to allow visitors and railroad aficianados the opportunity to view the yard in action. Bailey Yard is the world's largest classification yard. According to the tower's website, they handle 10,000 cars through this yard every day, 3,000 of which are sorted in this yard - the rest of them just pass through as is. It was a little hazy the day we were there, so the pictures aren't great, but here they are:

Entering Colorado

After spending most of the day in North Platte, we continued our journey west into Colorado. I grabbed a couple pictures at the "Welcome to Colorado" rest area on I-76, as a reminder that not all of Colorado is mountainous.

This is the part of Colorado that I always thought should have been still Kansas. Or in this case, Nebraska.

Are these sunflowers, or black-eyed susans? I think sunflowers, but they're kind of puny, even for wild ones.

We spent Sunday night at a Wal-Mart parking lot somewhere in Eastern Colorado. It was a little way off the highway, but it was getting late, and we were ready to stop. Monday is not only Labor Day, it is also Dale's birthday. So while there, we picked up a birthday cake, and also some dried-out chicken from the deli that had probably been there since supper time. It didn't look that bad in the case. Oh well.

Next page: On the Way to Glacier