Today we traveled to Kearney, NE, about 50 miles away. Since the drive was so short we avoided the interstate and traveled west on Hwy 30. We arrived in Kearney at about 11:45 am. We parked on a side street and had a little lunch, then we pulled out, arriving at the RV Park at about 12:15. The sites are relatively nice, all pull-thrus, with full hook-ups…
At 3:00 pm we all drove the two miles to “The Archway.”..
The Great Platte River Road Archway Monument is a monument on Interstate 80 located three miles east of Kearney, Nebraska. Opened in July 2000, it houses a historical experience that tells the story of Nebraska and the Platte River Valley in the development of America. The monument spans more than 300 feet above Interstate 80.
Since prehistoric times, the trail along the Platte River through Nebraska, which came to be known as the Great Platte River Road, has been a thoroughfare for travel across the continent. The Archway museum details the stories of the pioneers, adventurers, and innovators who have traveled the trail since the mid-1800s and helped to build America. The exhibit starts at Fort Kearny in 1848 and features sections on the Oregon Trail, California Trail, and Mormon Trail that converged at the nearby Fort Kearny before heading west. As visitors progress through the exhibit, the displays of different time periods feature a prairie schooner wagon on the Oregon Trail, a buffalo stampede, the Mormon Handcart Expedition, a 49er’s campsite, the Pony Express (including a video of a rider arriving at a relay station, transferring the mail to a fresh horse, and galloping off…), the Transcontinental Telegraph (which, of course, killed the Pony Express…), a stagecoach, the Transcontinental Railroad (which, of course, ended the wagon trains…), the first transcontinental highway, the Lincoln Highway, and today’s transcontinental highway, I-80 (which, of course, killed thousands of small towns across the country and ended the livelihoods of millions of people…). The exhibit ends with a replica drive-in and 1950s-style café with windows providing views over the interstate. The exhibits are featured in chronological order and reflect the historical developments that occurred on the Great Platte River Road.
The art and exhibits were very interesting, and there were audio devices so we could each hear the story behind each exhibit as we walked through…
(I remember roadside cabins and motels like this when I traveled with my family across the country in 1961…)
There is a window from the exhibit of a roadside diner overlooking the 80. There is also a radar gun so we can see who is exceeding the posted speed limit of 75 mph.
It was a great exhibit – highly recommended…
We returned to the Villa. Tonight we had another GAM where we met four new couples. We had a little happy hour and sandwiches for dinner.
We have a free day today in Grand Island. We can do nothing, or we can choose to see some of the local attractions…
But, first, we wanted to add one more sticker to our map of states we have pulled the Villa through. Welcome, Nebraska!
For our local excursion today we visited the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, located right here in Grand Island. It is dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Pioneers who settled the plains of central Nebraska in the late 19th century. It features a living history village called Railroad Town, designed to evoke an 1890s-era prairie village and made up of many original period structures moved to the museum. The main museum building, shown below, was designed by the renowned modernist architect Edward Durell Stone. The museum is named after Leo Stuhr, a local farmer and politician whose family were among the area’s pioneer settlers. He donated land, money, and numerous artifacts that served as the foundation of the museum.
Among the structures in Railroad Town is the house where actor Henry Fonda was born in 1905. Movies filmed at the museum include Sarah, Plain and Tall (1991) and My Antonia (1995).
The Stuhr Building is located, of course, on an island…
We toured the main exhibit space that had, predictably, artifacts and photographs of the pioneer period of the late 1800s and early 1900s… Very interesting exhibits, and a very beautiful building… I generally dislike museums, but this one was clearly an exception.
After the museum we walked around the grounds. First up are the ruts of the Overland Trail. In this part of the country the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, and the Mormon Trail all shared this general road. Contrary to popular movies and TV shows, the wagons did not travel single file. They generally spread out over a 1-1/2 mile wide swath of land…
There is a Pawnee Lodge – a dirt-covered structure used by several families as living quarters…
The perimeter is lined with beds, and holes in the floor were used for food storage. As many as 30-50 people lived in this space. (It is about 38′ in diameter…)
We walked on. Lynda wanted to show the scale and size of these hay bales…
This view of the prairie grass here represents what the area would have looked like as the pioneers traveled through. It is about 3′-4′ tall… The wagon trails just passed through. But when the farmers arrived, imagine what it must have been like to plow this land!
The Pioneer village contains several buildings from around 1890 – 1910. These buildings have been donated by local families and moved onto the property. Interestingly, as we drive through the countryside, we see buildings like this that are still occupied and being used.
Over in Railroad Town there are more buildings that have been moved here. This is a 5 block town, complete with railroad depot, blacksmith shop, livery stable, and many houses and stores.
We had noticed that the adjacent stretch of highway 30 through Grand Island is called, “Henry Fonda Memorial Parkway”.. We Googled to see why and found that he had been born here in Grand Island. Here in Railroad Town is his birthplace home:
The Fonda family moved away when he was about one year old, so it is doubtful that he remembered the house, but he did visit here after it was moved onto the museum ground and restored…
After we toured Railroad Town we checked out the log cabins…
We returned to the Villa. This evening we have a pot-luck dinner and a Drivers Meeting, where tomorrow’s travel plans are discussed. Finally we had our first GAM – a Get-Acquainted-Meeting; we were host tonight. Four other couples joined us and we introduced ourselves to each other. These are usually a lot of fun.
Today we visited a few attractions in St. Joseph. We began at Western Missouri State College, where they have the Walter Cronkite Memorial…
Walter Cronkite lived 1916 to 2009. He was a reporter during WW II and began leading the news on CBS TV in 1953 until his retirement in 1981. He was an eye witness to all major news stories in the second half of the 20th century.
The exhibit has photos, videos, and memorabilia. It was a very interesting place…
The have a reproduction of his TV news studio…
There was also an interesting but rather bizarre piece of art commemorating Apollo 11 and the space program in general…
The Kennedy assassination…
Famous news stories… Can you find Patty Hearst?
And that’s the way it was…
We then went to the well-visited Stetson Hat Outlet… No, I didn’t buy a cowboy hat. Never wore one, never will..
In downtown St. Joseph we visited the Patee House Hotel.
When John Patee opened his luxurious four-story brick hotel in 1858, he knew it was an innovation for its time, but little did he suspect that 134 years later it would still be attracting visitors from across the United States.
Patee built it as a hotel, a role that was not to be because of its location more than a mile from downtown St. Joseph. Yet it was a hotel three times, a girl’s college twice, and finally a shirt factory for more than 80 years.
I’m always fascinated by these old hotels, exactly because they so rarely last very long. The Patee House was built in 1858. It housed the headquarters of the Pony express in 1860. Then the Civil war came and the army moved in; we had the industrial evolution, and all the “modern” innovations rendered the building obsolete.
This was the grand ballroom, furnished as it was in 1860…
The Dining Room in one of the suites…
The Bridal Suite…
Another suite…
We saw typical bedrooms, bathrooms as renovated in the 1920s, and lots of other historic memorabilia. I would have loved to see more. But we had to gather for the obligatory group photo… Yes, the women are all wearing period-appropriate bonnets…
We toured the Pony Express Museum…
The Pony Express was a mail service delivering messages, newspapers, and mail using relays of horse-mounted riders that operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California.
The Pony Express was not a mail service of the USPS. It was owned and operated by the Central Overland California and Pikes Peak Express Company. It was of great financial importance to the U.S. During its 18 months of operation it reduced the time for messages to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about 10 days. It became the West’s most direct means of east-west communication before the transcontinental telegraph was established in October, 1861. It was vital for tying the new U.S. state of California with the rest of the United States.
The Pony Express was not a financial success and went bankrupt in 18 months, when faster telegraph service was established. Nevertheless, it demonstrated that a unified transcontinental system of communications could be established and operated year-round. When replaced by the telegraph, the Pony Express quickly became romanticized and became part of the lore of the American West. All of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West shows featured information on the Pony Express. Its reliance on the ability and endurance of individual young, hardy riders and fast horses was seen as evidence of rugged American individualism of the frontier times. As we are finding out on this caravan, every small town along the route today has a Pony Express Museum…
Many people don’t know that the Pony Express only ran for 18 months, and, in fact, it was doomed from the start. The construction of the transcontinental telegraph also began in 1860, The founders of the Pony Express must have known this… Very odd…
So our caravan begins here, at the eastern terminus of the Pony Express. The Oregon Trail follows the west-bound path of the Pony Express for the first few hundred miles…
We are here at the Pony Express RV Park. Today is the official start of the caravan. It is miserably hot and humid, so most of us stayed inside our Airstreams most of the day. Lynda and I walked early to avoid some of the heat. It didn’t help…
We gathered to meet our fellow caravaners and enjoyed a little pizza at the café in the RV Park…
We did manage to spend a little time sitting outside in the evening, chatting with old friends and new, and watching a thunderstorm pass by just to the north of us
Tomorrow we visit a Pony Express museum and other attractions in St. Joseph.
We left the RV park in Wichita mid morning… Did I mention it was hot and humid?
But Kansas is beautiful everywhere we look…
Finally we crossed the wide Missouri…
Missouri is not all that different than Kansas…
At the appointed hour we arrived at our rendezvous point for the caravan: The Pont Express RV Park, outside Maysville, MO. We are about 30 miles east of St. Joseph, which is on the border with Kansas, on the Missouri River. While most of the wagon trains left from Independence, MO, many did leave from St. Joseph. However, the Pony Express was headquartered in St. Joseph, and all the west-bound riders left from St. Joseph. A we soon discovered, the Pony Express and the Oregon trail follow pretty much the same route from Missouri across Kansas and Nebraska…
This is a very nice park, with fishing lakes, farm animals, and lots of open space…
The only downside is that they parked all of us at the bottom of the hill, where it is hotter, more humid, and there is no satellite TV service!
We met the caravan leaders and received our caravan books; we have 21 Airstreams, including the two leaders. As usual, there are many from Texas, Florida, and South Caroline, only one from Israel, and even two from Missouri!
Since it was still too hot and humid to sit outside we turned in early… The adventure begins tomorrow! And an enjoyable time was had by all…
We left Liberal, KS, at about 9:30 am. We will be in Kansas all day today!
Kansas looks a lot like Oklahoma. At least the part of Oklahoma we saw yesterday…
They do have windmills here. We saw many more under construction…
Here is a windmill blade being transported on a truck. They are over 110 feet long!
Our first stop of the day is Dodge City! and the Boot Hill Museum… We parked the Villa to check out the town.
Dodge City was named after nearby Fort Dodge. The city is famous in American culture for its history as a wild frontier town of the Old West. Its population was 27,340 in 2011.
The US Army built several forts in this area, starting in 1847 (When this area was still Mexico) and ending in1865, when Fort Dodge was built to provide protection for travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. Fort Dodge remained in operation until 1882.
The town of Dodge City can trace its origins to 1871, when rancher Henry J. Sitler built a sod house west of Fort Dodge to oversee his cattle operations in the region, conveniently located near the Santa Fe Trail and Arkansas River, and Sitler’s house quickly became a stopping point for travelers. Others saw the commercial potential of the region with the Santa Fe Railroad rapidly approaching from the east. In 1872, Dodge City was staked out on the 100th meridian and the legal western boundary of the Fort Dodge reservation. The town site was platted and George M. Hoover opened the commercial establishment – a bar.
The railroad arrived in September to find a town ready and waiting for business. The early settlers in Dodge City traded in buffalo bones and hides and provided a civilian community for Fort Dodge. However, with the arrival of the railroad, Dodge City soon became involved in the cattle trade. Deputies Bat Masterson Wyatt Earp both served in Dodge City.
In 1866, the first Texas cattle started arriving in Baxter Springs in southeastern Kansas by way of the Shawnee Trail. However, Texas Longhorn cattle carried a tick that spread Texas cattle fever among other breeds of cattle. Alarmed Kansas farmers persuaded the Kansas State Legislature to establish a quarantine line in central Kansas. The quarantine prohibited Texas Longhorns from the heavily settled, eastern portion of the state.
With the cattle trade forced west, Texas Longhorns began moving north along the Chisholm Trail. In 1867, the main cowtown was Abilene, Kansas. Profits were high, and other towns quickly joined in the cattle boom. However, in 1876, the Kansas State Legislature responded to pressure from farmers settling in central Kansas and once again shifted the quarantine line westward, which essentially eliminated Abilene and the other cowtowns from the cattle trade. With no place else to go, Dodge City suddenly became the “queen of the cow towns.”
A new route known as the Great Western Cattle Trail or Western Trail branched off from the Chisholm Trail to lead cattle into Dodge City. Dodge City became a boomtown, with thousands of cattle passing annually through its stockyards. The peak years of the cattle trade in Dodge City were from 1883 to 1884, and during that time the town grew tremendously.
Dodge City became famous because no town could match its reputation as a true frontier settlement of the Old West. Dodge City had more famous (and infamous) gunfighters working at one time or another than any other town in the West, many of whom participated in the Dodge City War of 1883. It boasted also the usual array of saloons, gambling halls, and brothels, including the famous Long Branch Saloon and China Doll brothel. For a time in 1884, Dodge City even had a bullfighting ring where Mexican bullfighters would put on a show with specially chosen Longhorn bulls.
As more agricultural settlers moved into western Kansas, pressure increased on the Kansas State Legislature to do something about splenic fever, known today as anthrax. Consequently, in 1885, the quarantine line was extended across the state and the Western Trail was all but shut down. By 1886, the cowboys, saloon keepers, gamblers, and brothel owners moved west to greener pastures, and Dodge City became a sleepy little town much like other communities in western Kansas.
Today the Boot Hill Museum showcases ancient artifacts, stages gunfights daily, and offers other tourist attractions…
Apparently there is a festival coming up. We’re not sure what it is, and we’re not sticking around to find out…
But we do like old towns. We explored the town of Dodge City… There are historic, old west restaurants right next to the museum..
But seriously folks, there is a nice section of the old town that has been restored…
I like to see details of how new construction technology is uses to preserve old buildings…
Across the street from the town is the Santa Fe Depot…
So we enjoyed some history in Dodge City, then we were back on the road, heading to Wichita… Kansas is quite lovely from one end to the other…
We arrived in Wichita to the Air Capital RV Park. Nice clean sites. Again, good power is a must. It is 97 degrees, and 86% humidity. It is not suitable for man or beast…
At 6:00 pm we called Uber, and we were driven into “downtown” Wichita, to George’s Bistro. We had some time before our reservation, so we walked for about 20 minutes. (Note to self: avoid walking in this kind of weather!)
But we did find the Allen house, completed in 1918, and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. We were here in 2019 and had the full tour… See photos in the Blog archives: Search “Allen House”.
Back at George’s Bistro we went in to cool off. We sat at the bar and ordered Old Fashioneds, made with Boot Hill Distillery’s Bourbon. Drink Local!
We had a lovely dinner of French Onion Soup, Steak Tartare, Pomme Frites, and Crepes with smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, and Arugala. I had brought with us a 2005 Cht Clerc Milon, a tasty Bordeaux…
Dear long-time reader: If you think you’ve seen this photo before, you’re almost right…
This was taken at the same restaurant in June, 2019…
We Ubered back to the Villa. An enjoyable time was had by all…
The RV park in Tucumcari (a KOA) is mostly for overnight stays – it’s not exactly a vacation resort. By the time we poked our heads out of the Villa at about 9:00 am all the other RVs were gone… It’s a strange feeling, and an odd sight to see…
So we headed out at about 9:15 and we pointed the truck roughly Northeast. Today we will drive though portions of four states!
We soon left New Mexico and entered the Texas Panhandle. Lynda almost shot a photo of the Welcome to Texas sign…
Around 10:30 am we arrived the cute little town of Dalhart, TX, population 8,400. We have driven through many small towns on our various trips, and most of them are decrepit and derelict. Not Dalhart! It is a thriving town with many nice residential neighborhoods
It also has train tracks right through the center of town…
So we stopped and waited. And waited… Finally we pulled off the road and parked. There was a very nice Family Dollar store here, so we went in a bought a few trinket’s
Finally the train moved on. (It had been moving slowly, back and forth – adding or subtracting cars somewhere along the line…)
We continued on, and soon entered the panhandle of Oklahoma. We spent about 100 miles in Texas and about 50 miles in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma looks a lot like Texas around here…
And it looks a lot like this, too…
Yhe GPS on the dash was pretty accurate…
We see signs of civilization now and then…
We see these everywhere… Anyone know what the small yellow pipes are doing connecting with the yellow tower in the background?
We finally arrived in Kansas – our fourth State of the day… We turned off onto the old highway…
We found our RV park for the night…
This is on the outskirts of Liberal, Kansas, in the far southwest corner of the State. The park is Very primitive, but they have good 50 amp power hookups. We were set for the night. Did we mention it is HOT here? We quickly turned on both ACs and enjoyable time was had by all…
We awoke in the Villa in the early morning, we quickly readied ourselves to depart, and we pulled out of the alley onto Main Street. We stopped briefly for coffee and breakfast sandwiches, and we were on the freeway again. These cross country trips are quite utilitarian, and we don’t do much sight-seeing.
We had an uneventful trip. We had more rain – enough to wash off all the mud we picked up whilst parking in the alley behind the winery. We stopped for fuel, as we do each day. We also stopped at a Rest Stop to eat lunch in the Airstream, and to walk around a bit to get our exercise…
At a little before noon we arrived way too early to check-in to the KOA RV Park in Tucumcari.
But we spent some time walking and we were finally shown to a very nice parking spot…
We spent the afternoon relaxing and enjoying the AC – it’s 90 degrees here – the warmest day so far, but we anticipate our next two stops in Kansas will be hotter…
Dinner was our massive quantities of left-over pasta from Moscato on Friday evening. And some nice California Pinot Noir…Always good movies on TCM, and good books to read. I finally finished David Rockefeller’s “Memoir”, and I have started Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories”… Lynda is reading an eclectic mix of novels she picks up at used bookstores and thrift shops. We enjoyed a pleasant evening and an enjoyable time was had by all…
We had a fairly leisurely morning. We enjoyed a walk around the RV park, and eventually got around to packing up and heading out. We drove north towards Flagstaff. About 20 minutes into the trip I realized that I had failed to attach the electrical umbilical cord. We stopped as soon as it was safe. Indeed, it was dangling off the tongue , and dragging on the pavement. It was a bit worn…
But I was able to reconnect it and everything (lights, brakes, etc.) were all working again. And we were off again.
At Flagstaff we turned east and proceeded across more desert. We entered New Mexico…
We had more rain around Gallup, and lots of traffic after that. The roads in Arizona are abysmal, even though they are constantly under reconstruction. Today we came to a “detour” without any warning, and without posting an alternate route. We lost about an hour of time, poking along at about 5 mph. But we had plenty of time.
We even stopped to be tourists for a few minutes. We stopped at The Petrified Forest National Park; but we didn’t go in – we just stopped at the gift shop. We bought some representative sample of petrified wood for the Grandchildren. They really are interested in gems and minerals these days; we think petrified wood will interest them.
We finally arrived in Grants, NM. As we were exiting the freeway we received a telephone call from our host for the evening – The Uranium City Winery. She talked us in, and we parked around the back. The Uranium City Winery is a member of Harvest Hosts, as are we. We can “camp” at the various business members locations – wineries, orchards, museums, and the like. The Uranium City Winery isn’t much to look at, and the town is not exactly a bustling metropolis, but we had fun!
We were directed to park around the back, about six feet from the winery’s back door. Did I mention that it was still raining?
We went inside to enjoy some wine tasting. Some of the wines were even made with grapes! Unfortunately, their best seller, Cabernet Sauvignon, has sold out. But we tasted a muscat (pretty good), a mead (not a fan), a plum wine (quite good), a cherry wine (not so good) and a sangria (very good). We had a great time chatting with the owner, who grew up in Grants in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was a boom town, supporting the booming uranium mining industry. But in 1975 the federal government stopped subsidizing uranium mining and started to allow the importation of uranium. Within a few years Grants was a ghost town, and it is pretty much unchanged since then. The family moved to Moab, Utah, which continued prospering for a few more years. Then she moved to Texas, finally coming home to Grants 30 years later. With the wine and great conversation, we had a great time. We returned to the Villa, ate some leftovers from Moscato for a simple supper, and turned in early. (Boondocking like this we don’t have TV, internet, or a microwave oven, and we skimp on the lights…)
Adventures in the Villa 
