Thursday, October 15, 2015

HERE'S AN UPDATE

Not much to report which is good because I've been suffering with writers block. We left the Dakotas behind and continued south into Nebraska and a stop near Omaha in the town of Papillion.  They have a really nice city park and campground, where we have stayed several times before.  Great bike paths in the area which I took advantage of.  Also there is a Trader Joe's in Omaha, our first since Boise, as I was running low of Two Buck Chuck.


After a couple of days we continued south into Kansas sticking to the secondary roads avoiding the interstate where possible.  We have never really explored Kansas before and things looked ok in the eastern part of the state, but the western half was mainly devoid of anything to look at.  The highlight of our Kansas excursion was the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene.  On the site is Eisenhower's boyhood home, a museum, library and a chapel where he and Mamie are buried.  We took the tour of the home which is located on the original site and all of it's contents are original.  Eisenhower had 5 brothers and they shared two bedrooms in the small home.




Most of the Museum covered Eisenhower's involvement in WWII and only about 25% of it to his presidency.  Still a very interesting visit.


We continued west across western Kansas as fast as we could, killing a large population of grasshoppers, butterfly's, and misc bugs along the way.  We stopped for a couple of days at a forest service camp just outside of Colorado Springs.  We did a little exploring and then took the drive to the top of Pikes Peak.  After paying the toll, we drove to the top on a sometimes scary road.  Actually the road it's self is really nice, it's the drop-offs on the edge of the road that make you pucker.  At 14,115 feet in elevation, it was our first "fourteener", even if we did opt to drive rather than hike.




We also made a stop at the Garden of the Gods, a Colorado Springs City park which is quite spectacular. 


Well, that's it for this post.  We continue west into the Rocky's and Utah before ending this adventure.









4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Via E-mail

America is so amazing. Thanks for telling us about your travels. We are so blessed to live here in freedom. So blessed. I think the Eisenhower home is beautiful. I get it was cramped, but it was a home. And those places up in the clouds, well we don't get to experience that anytime.
Maybe a movie you might be interested in: Everest. True story. Ultimately not a good ending at all. Makes you think though.
Please continue to inform us. We cannot take these adventures yet. Happy travels, Fiona.

Anonymous said...

Via E-mail

Glad you are enjoying the road and that writer's block is cured.
Betts

Dibb Family said...

How'd the truck do at that altitude? Are you diesel or gas?

Dana Gassaway said...

Dibb Family,

It's a diesel, so it was not a problem