7/7/16 - Junction City, KS

Today we drove to Junction City, Kansas.  We got a site on Milford Lake C.O.E., West Rolling Hills campground.  Our friend Melanie is a volunteer work camper for the summer.  She is working at the main Corps office here on the lake.  After setting up we went to the American Legion in town while we waited for Melanie to get off work.  She went to her Casita and picked up her dog Roo and then came out to visit us.  We sat outside to talk and then I cooked supper.

7/8/16 - Abiline, Ks

Jim and I went to Abilene today to visit the Eisenhower Museum and boyhood home.  At this site is a great visitors center with a movie and museum, library and a beautiful church where Ike and Mamie are interred.  We asked Melanie to go with us but she had to work today.  We went on a tour of Ike’s boyhood home (which is still on it’s original site) and walked through the library and museum.  Ike always said he was born in Tyler, Texas (Jim’s home town) but Denison claims that he was born there.  We have now been to all 13 Presidential libraries and museums.

Then we drove to Salina, Kansas and had a beer at Blue Skye Brewing.  Then we met up with Melanie at Farnum  Creek campground on the lake and visited with some other work campers.  Melanie left Roo with them and we went to The Cove to have a drink and appetizers.  Then we sat awhile in the entrance booth with her friends and talked.  We went back to camp and finally got our 10,000 steps at 9 pm.  We have to wait until the sun goes down around 8 pm to start walking when it gets a little cooler.

7/9/16 - Manhattan, KS

We picked up Melanie from Farnum Creek park and drove into Manhattan.  She left her dog with the park attendants.  She had already been fishing this morning with some of her friends and they had caught their limit for the day.  In Manhattan we went to Little Apple Brewing and Tallgrass Brewing where we ate lunch.  Melanie wanted to get a Fitbit activity tracker so we took her to Best Buy.  Back at Farnum Creek we sat with the park attendants for a while before returning back to our camp in West Rolling Hills park.

7/10/16 - Lincoln, NE

We left Junction City, Kansas today and drove to Lincoln, Nebraska. We got a nice campsite at Pawnee Lake State Recreation Area.  On the way we stopped by Homestead National Monument of America in Beatrice, Nebraska.  This is the first homestead granted under the Homestead Act of 1862.  When we walked in, the lady at the desk wanted to know where we were from.  We told her Texas, and she said her husband was from Tyler, Texas.  When we let her know that Jim was born in Tyler, she went to get her husband who was the National Park Service Ranger.  When he came out they knew each other and had common friends from school.  They both graduated in 1962 from Robert E. Lee High School.  It was such a surprise to see Richard Austin for Jim. We looked at the exhibits displaying homesteader life.  One was a goat powered washing machine.  In the evening we drove in to Lincoln and went to four breweries.  At Blue Blood Brewing there were five stools leaned up against the bar with the names of the five police officers who were killed in Dallas.  Blue Blood Brewing is owned by former police officers.

7/11/16 - O'Neill, NE

Today we drove from Lincoln to O’Neill.  We got a site at Carney Park.  This is a city park with a rodeo arena, playground, pavilions, horseshoes, baseball fields and nice little fishing pond.  One can stay here for three nights for free.  The campground has electric hookups, a few water spigots here and there and a dump station.  There is also a bathroom with showers.  A Scamp came into camp this afternoon, too.

7/12/16 - Valentine, NE

Today we drove to Valentine, Nebraska and went to Niobrara National Scenic River and Niobrara National Refuge.  We stopped at a refuge overlook and then drove to see Smith Falls, the tallest waterfall in Nebraska.  Then we drove through the Sand Hills to Snake River Falls, the widest waterfall in Nebraska.  We have now seen every National Park, National Historic Site, National Monument, National Scenic River and National Battlefield west of the Mississippi except for one in California. I guess we will have to make another trip to the West Coast and go by there to see it.

It was really cool this morning but it ended up being hot again today.  We went to the Vets Club in downtown Valentine for a beer.  I cooked supper and Jim washed our sheets.  At 9 pm we went for a walk to downtown after the sun started setting and it was cool enough for us to do it.  We walked on part of the Cowboy Trail that goes right by our campground.  This trail is a multi use trail for bikes, horses and walking.  It will be 321 miles long when finished.  It is now 195 miles long and is complete from Norfolk to Valentine.  Most of it is gravel but parts are concrete like the part in the town of Valentine.

7/13/16 - Fort Morgan, CO

We drove 314 miles to Fort Morgan, Colorado today and got a campsite at Riverside Park, a city park.  They only have 20 amp hookups but it’s free for 4 days.  It was 90 today but it usually gets cooler at night.  We don’t have enough power to run the air conditioner but we are using the attic fan.

7/14/16 - Longmont, CO

When we got up at 7 a.m. everybody but us had left the campground. We had breakfast and then hooked up to leave.  Yesterday we walked across the Rainbow Arch Bridge at the city park.  I went back this morning to take a picture. We drove to Longmont, Colorado today and got a site at the Boulder County Fairgrounds.  We can stay here 14 days and then the park is reserved for the county fair.  After setting up and paying for our site we drove to Left Hand Brewing, 300 Suns Brewing and Wibby Brewing, all in Longmont.  We went for a walk in the fairground park to get in our 10,000 steps. There is an Osprey nest on a platform showing the parents tending immature birds near the campground.  There is a live webcam of the nest here.

 

7/15/16 - Longmont, CO

We woke up early this morning and went for a long walk along the St. Vrain Greenway.  This is a hiking and biking trail.  There were a lot of pretty flowers along the trail.  One neat thing we saw here was a bicycle repair station including various tools and an air pump.  We got 11,000 steps before returning back to the Casita and having breakfast.  Several people told us that Celestial Seasonings Tea has a really nice tour at their factory so we drove to Boulder and went there.  They give you a tour time that has the name of one of their teas and then give you that package of tea for your ticket.  We had the Sleepy Time Tour at 12:30.  Sleepy Time tea is their number one seller.  They give you a cup and while you are waiting for your tour you can try samples of their tea.  They had 6 urns full of tea on the counter, 4 were hot and 2 were cold.  If you want a sample of tea that isn’t already made they will make you a cup of any of their other flavors.  The tour is free and was really nice. We had to wear hair nets when we went into the plant where no pictures were allowed.  In the gift shop I bought a birthday present for a friend and they fixed it up real pretty for me.

After drinking all the tea we could hold, we went to Avery Brewing and Asher Brewing which were very close by.  We had been to both of these when we were here before.  Then we went to Vindication Brewing and Finkle & Garf Brewing.  Then we met friends of ours, Stewart and Sandy, at Boot Strap Brewing, and accompanied them to two more breweries, Powder Keg Brewing and Vision Quest Brewing.  On the way home we saw another brewery, Skeye Brewing, on the corner by our campground so we stopped there and had one last beer.  Eight breweries in one day may be a new record for us, and we didn’t even get started until 2 PM.  For the most part we drink small glasses of beer at each place.

7/16/16 - Longmont, CO

On Saturday there is a great farmer’s market here at the fairgrounds.  The veggies were beautiful!  They also had breads, a coffee bar, sweet rolls, soaps, dips and salsas, smoked salmon and other things.  There was a booth with breakfast burritos, green chili and tamales.  Next Saturday we will buy some things before we leave Boulder on the Monday or Tuesday afterward.  We got some coffee and then went to walk on the St. Vrain Greenway in the direction of Longmont’s Main Street.

We walked past Left Hand Brewing but it wasn’t open at 11 am.  A little way down the trail we saw Shoes & Brews and since it was open we went in for a beer.  This is an upscale running shoe store that has a micro brewery in the back of the store.  We continued on and had breakfast at McDonalds and then walked over to Grosen and Bart, another brewery that opened at noon.  We walked back to the Casita and on the way stopped at the Habitat for Humanity store and Jim bought a couple of used music CDs.  We ended up walking 12,000 steps in all.  In the evening we met Sandy and Stuart for the Hop Barley and  Alers homebrew club picnic and campout.  This year's beer competition for the campout was dessert beers.  Stuart won first place with his Peanut Butter Stout.  Second place was a Raspberry Tiramisu.  We left at 9 pm and returned to our campground.