Papillion to Rock Springs

We don't like long drives with our motorhome since driving a big rig and towing a car is a lot more taxing than driving a car. Since we are retired, we have no deadlines to meet (except for camping reservations).  Therefore we broke up the 12 hours of driving to Rock Springs with three overnight stops. These 3-4 hour segments allow and unhurried trip with plenty of time to stop for lunch.  And the early afternoon arrival allows time to sit outside in the late afternoon/evening  hours to enjoy perhaps a BBQ and an adult beverage. 

Our first stop was Kearney NE.  We considered overnighting in the parking lot for Great Platte River Road Archway Monument.  After briefly touring the monument and gift shop, we decided that the parking lot had too much road noise from I-80.

Studying our camping apps, we found that Kearny’s Buffalo County Fairgrounds allows camping. The fairgounds "campground" is a large gravel parking lot with 30amp electric outlets attached to the half-dozen street light posts scattered around the lot.

Although barren, the lot was very quiet and the electric hookups provided all-night air conditioning. It was a good bargain at $15. 

The next day, we exited Nebraska and stopped at the Pine Bluffs RV park.  We had planned to use a free camp site near Kimball NE.  The summer heat wave however, convinced us to pay for a commercial campground.  Unfortunately the Pine Bluffs park raised it's nighly rate to $60 (from the previously reported price of $30).  The park host claimed that it was because of July's rodeo season.  The $60 dollar rate was resort caliber pricing.  The park had full hookups, but was certainly not a resort with no amenities other than showers and laundry. We would not stay here again.  

Traveling west from Pine Bluffs we found a rest area just east of Laramie WY that is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.  This section of I-80 was part of the original coast-to-coast Lincoln highway.  

 

The location was also on the route of the first telephone line across Wyoming.

The rest area was one of the better ones we have stopped at.

Our next stop was Rawlins, WY.  I had made reservations at the Red Desert Rose campground.  It was an impressively maintained park.  It was not a resort with somewhat narrow pull-thru full hookup sites.  However, amenities included showers, laundry, minature golf, kids playground, a fairly large dog park, and surprisingly, a free loaner car available for shopping trips.  Quite a bargain at $28.00.  No rodeo pricing here.  We would definitely stay again.

On July 18th we made our final leg of the trip to the Escapees Rally at Rock Springs. 

 

Mammoth Caverns to Pella Iowa

 From the Diamond Caverns Thousand Trails park, we traveled northwest to central Indiana where we stayed for three days at the Horseshoe Lakes Thousand Trails park near Clinton. We needed a few days break from traveling.  Aside from shopping for groceries and doing some laundry, we stayed in the park.  

 

The motorhome generator would run for only a few minutes and then could not be restarted.  Since it generated electric power and otherwise ran normally, lack of fuel appeared to be the problem.  I had wisely bought a replacement fuel pump and filter before our Alaska trip.  I needed only to buy a new fuel line and a couple of clamps from the nearby Advance auto.  

 

After two hours of work the genset was again running normally.

 

On July 9th, we continued northwest to the Iowa border where we checked into a very nice Army Core of Engineers (COE) park on the Illinois side of the Mississippi river, Fishermans Corner.  A paved waterfront site with electric was only $20 per day with the Senior pass. We stayed two nights.

On July 12th we left Fishermans Corner and traveled only a couple of hours west to Pella Iowa.  

 

The nearby Wallashuck COE park was a very nice campground with spacious paved sites with 30 amp electric.

 

Pella Iowa was founded by Dutch settlers and the downtown area includes several original buildings with the whole town reflecting Dutch style architecture.

Unfortunately we toured the town on a Sunday.  Nearly all of the tourist attractions were closed.

We did get a few interesting pictures of the various buildings.

 After a two day stay at Pella, IA, we made the three hour drive to Papillion, NE.

 

Papillion Nebraska

  

Traveling from Pella IA we arrived at Papillion's Walnut Creek city park on July 12th.  The park, which does not take reservations, had several sites available.  We picked the only remaining site with 50amp electric hookup. 

 None of the sites have sewer connections.  However. there is a dump site available and there are a number of fresh water hydrants where you can top off your tanks. The park is a bargain at $16 per day.

Since Papillion had been our home for nearly ten years, Ina and I had a number of friends we wanted to visit.  So we stayed for several days; had dinner with friends and drove by our old house.

 

We were amazed at the changes to the area, since we had not visited the Omaha in over ten years.  After a very nice stay of three days we broke camp and headed west on July 15th.
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Forest Lake to Mammoth Caverns

Douglas Dam on the French Broad River, Kodak, TN

Spending only two days at Lynchburg, VA, we traveled to the Forest Lake Thousand Trails at Advance, NC for a single overnight stay. We have stayed at this park twice before for simple overnight visits.

Forest Lake is a very nice park with a pool swimming beach on a medium sized lake;  miniture golf course, swimming pool, and clubhouse.  It is well worth a longer stay.

Forced to unhitch when sent down a deadend road by the GPS ;(

After being mis-routed by the GPS, we checked into a very nice campsite (with 30amp electric and water).

View from the high dam overlook.

We had not planned to  visit any of the tourist attractions.  However, we did take a drive through Pidgeon Forge past the Dollywood entrance and the many other tourist attractions.

The campground is on river bank on the downstream side of the Douglas Dam.  There is also another Douglas Dam campground on the upstream side of the dam.  Although we did not visit the other campground, it appears to be equally attractive. 

                                                

We had time to fly the drone and get a little video of the camp area. The Douglas Dam campgrounds are a good place to use for extended stay for the Dollywood area.

                                           

We checked out of the campground and stopped for an overnight at the Beanpot campground near Crossville, TN.  We had stayed at Beanpot 3 yrs ago, but did not take any pictures of the campground which is heavily wooded.  We got a very unlevel site.  We left for the Diamond Caverns Thousand Trails near Mammoth Cave National Park.

Diamond Cavern Visitor Center

Train Museum, Bowling Green, TN

We picked the Diamond Caverns park as it was convenient to our route through Indiana to the Iowa border.  We had already visited and toured Mammoth cave three years ago.