Making Hay Bales

Did you ever wonder how they make the hay bales? We enjoyed watching this operation. First the tractor raked the cut hay into long piles. Next the baler drives along and rolls the bales and then stops and dumps them! Next the truck loads the bales and moves the bales to the collection area and dumps them off - all pretty cool!

North Platte's Bailey Yard

Yesterday we departed Lincoln and headed to Sidney, NE with a long stop in North Platte, NE to visit Bailey Yard which is the largest railroad yard in the world. We enjoyed the humping of the railroad cars (both east and west bound) to form new trains and the moving around of the engines. Their locomotive repair facility can handle around 85 engines for routine maintenance or rebuilding at once. A retired employee of Union Pacific was in the tower answering all the questions of the visitors. The yard is 8 1/2 miles long and 2 1/2 miles wide.

Lincoln, Nebraska

We arrived yesterday and we are parked at the State Fairgrounds Park with full hook-ups which has enabled us to tackle the laundry. We had to head to the car wash and get the Land Rover cleaned up - it was fifthy from being towed in the rain behind the coach.
Today is a beautiful sunny day with the wind blowing and we have used the day for sightseeing and shopping. We visited the Home Depot for more Gorilla Tape and restocked the food at a local grocery. This is one of the fun ways to see the local people and they are most helpful and extremely friendly - just as we have found all people we have ever met from Nebraska. Outstanding people!!!
The State Capital is most impressive and of course Bill checked out the U. of Nebraska Stadium! The campus is very pretty (at this time of year). At the book store they were selling foot warming booties, mittens, and all sorts of cold weather gear!

Independence, MO

Today's plan was to visit downtown Kansas City in the morning then to head over to the Truman Library at noon. Guess all good plans are for changing your plans for the morning brought very heavy rains and thunder that went on for long periods. The new plan of the day was to sleep-in and read. By noon the heavy rain had mostly stopped although we did get wet getting into the Truman Library. We were at the library for several hours and then headed to the Trails Museum. To go West you generally headed to St. Louis and then went by steamboat to Independence, MO. Here is where the California Trail, Oregon Trail, Santa Fe Trail, and the Mormon Trails all started. Before departing Independence all the provisions needed to be purchased and loaded, wagons obtained, and animals obtained as well as scouts to lead the way. Our great prairies start here and you do not need to cross the Missouri since it turns north. The railroad eventually came here as well and replaced the wagon trains.
I wonder how many of current day Americans would have the strength of character to attempt this trip. I am reading the book Oregon Trail as we travel and it is amazing what people accomplished along the way.

Hot Springs to Independence, MO

Yesterday was a day of rain on and off as was today, and this empty log truck ran into a little bit of trouble! After the State Trooper arrived h was able to back up a number of vehicles and then the truck was able to head uphill. We think he originally was going the opposite direction. No question about it - you need to go slower in wet weather! Only damage was to the front fender of the flatbed truck. We had a great vantage point to safely watch.

The only really impressive part of Arkansas is the NW section and once again we enjoyed the trip up the road through there.

We arrived at the Moose Club in Independence and settled in and then headed out to explore Independence. How do you like the steeple of this break-away Morman Church? It was most impressive.

We visited the Visitors Center and checked out downtown where Truman walked every day after he had retired back home to Independence.

Hot Springs Bathhouse Row

Hot Springs used to be all about the hot spring and people came from around the world to bathe in the waters to cure all sorts of ailments before there were medicines to do it. The US Government purchased a 4 square mile area around the Springs to protect the area as a National Treasure and it became a National Park while Woodrow Wilson was President. People came by horse back and waggons and then the trains arrived in 1875.
We headed to the Buckstaff Bathhouse, paid our money, and theroughly enjoyed the next hour and a half! First was a soak for twenty minutes in a private bathtub with ets, then a sitz bath tub, a short time in a steam cabinet, cooling down on a table with icey towel aroound my head and a hot towel on my knee. Then off to the needle shower and finally the massage! They were experts in keeping you modestly covered with sheets and towels and given lots of cold ice water to drink. This might be one of the few things the government has done correctly!

A Day in Hot Springs

Here is the Elks Lodge, and to the left is where we are camped with 30 amp electric and water.
The water leaves the ground in multiple springs (mostly protected) at 145 degrees and is so pure that many travel to the filling stations around around the downtown historic district. The water is free and we watched many people with a large amount of containers getting the pure water for drinking. We purchased two plastic jugs for our own supply. Great tasting and no chlorine.