SLOWING DOWN

 We pushed it to Denver crossing the Rockies on I-70 which is not a Blue Highway.  We would have skipped Denver altogether, but a visit with my sister and getting together with an old colleague was in store.  Denver was a good place to actually start our Blue Highway journey.  So after a couple of nights, we pushed off heading north on I-25 a few miles to hookup with Colorado Hwy 14 heading east.  Transversing the Pawnee National Grasslands, passing through small towns that mostly support the ranching and farming folks and on into Nebraska.

We saw very few cars, but those that passed the opposite direction would wave.  Most drivers would raise their hand slightly off the steering wheel and hold it up until we passed.  Then there is the one finger wave.  Usually a pickup truck with a guy wearing a cowboy hat in the driver’s seat. He would raise just his index finger while not taking his hand off the wheel and perhaps a nod.  And then there is the driver that just nods.  It’s nice to see these friendly folks and I am sure that if I had a flat, they are to ones who would stop and help. I discovered that those that wave is some fashion are men. Women don’t wave.

The land we travel through is mostly farms are open range.  Corn and soybeans are the prevalent crops, interspersed with cattle.  The towns we past through a small with just a few hundred in population.  One main street just a couple blocks long, most seem to have fallen on hard times.  The land is beautiful though, with its changing colors of browns and greens.  Every so often a lesser road of gravel intersects the highway.  We are sometimes forewarned of the crossing dirt road from some distance away.  Far off a speeding pickup truck, or a semi hauling grain, can be seen approaching on a collision course with us identified by its long dusty contrail.

We pulled into North Platte in the late afternoon and found a spot in the city park.  Almost every town we pass through support a park with campsites.  Some just parking on the grass, others with full hookups.  Cost varies from free to $25 depending on the amenities.  Most county fair grounds have spots for RV’s.  North Platte’s offerings in a large city park, offer a spot on the grass with a table.  The park also boasts a small zoo, ball fields, and a railroad museum.  All the more reason to stop here.

North Platte sits at the confluence of the North and South Platte Rivers and was founded in 1866 when the Union Pacific Railroad reached here.  The railroad plays a big part in the city today with its Bailey Yards, the world’s largest rail yard.  It is here where trains heading in all directions come together and the rail cars are separated and put back together into new trains, depending on where the car has to go.  Also there is a major maintenance facility here. The yard encompasses more than 2800 acres, is 8 miles long and employs over 2000.  You can view the yards from the Gold Spike Tower, a 8 story viewing platform.

Keeping in the train vane, we checked out the small train display and museum in the park.  Small is relative when speaking of trains.  Only two engines, but as train engines go these were big.  The Challenger was delivered to the to the Union Pacific in 1943. It was one of 105 built and one of two that survive today.  It was designed to haul both haul and passenger trains and capable of obtaining speeds up to 80 MPH. Its tender is 47 feet long, held 28 tons of coal and 25,000 gallons of water. It was inservice until till 1961.  Also on display was a diesel electric locomotive similar to those in service today.  This locomotive is different from those in service today is that it has two power plants.  We were given a personal tour of both trains and the small museum by John, a docent who use to work for Union Pacific in the Bailey Yards.

After two nights in North Platte, we continued east stopping overnight at another city park in Ainsworth, Nebraska.  $10 for a spot with electricity and the bonus of a junior high football game.  The home team was getting slaughtered.  We are now in Norfolk, Nebraska for a couple of nights in hopes of getting a couple of bike rides in.  This is the eastern terminus of the Cowboy Trail, a 321 mile multi use trail on an abandoned railroad.

I will close with this observation; driving on Blue Highways beats the hell out of the Interstate.