Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Fort Kearney RA, NE - 08/21/13

Wednesday - August 21, 2013

We departed Lake Anita State Park in Anita, Iowa at 10:00 a.m. Our destination today is The Great Platte River Archway in Kearney, Nebraska. We discovered this location while researching interesting places to visit in Nebraska. It is featured in the book "1,000 Places to See Before You Die." After our visit here, that will leave only 900 plus more to go. Time is running out on us, hope we make it!

We arrived in Kearney, Nebraska at 3:00 p.m. and paid a visit to the local Walmart to exchange a pair of shoes and purchase a few items. While in the checkout line, Sharon discovered her driver’s license, credit card, bankcard and Medicare card were missing. She carries these documents in a separate wallet and carries the wallet in her purse. This was the first time Sharon had her purse outside of our trailer since we had left home on Monday, August 19, 2013. Prior to our leaving home, Sharon had gone to our local Walmart to pick up a few items and took just her wallet with her. When she arrived home she was sure she had put her wallet in her purse. What a horrible situation we are faced with. What to do? Here we are over 600 miles from home. Do we return home to see if her wallet is there, or, do we roll the dice and take the chance that she forgot to put her wallet in her purse? We decided we would sleep on it. Decision time tomorrow, stay tuned folks!

In the meantime, we visited The Great Platte River Archway. The Archway spans Interstate 80, similar to the Oasis rest areas on the Illinois Tollway. A fee is required to go up into the Archway. It was $10.00 each for Senior Citizens. We decided not to go on this leg of our trip since it was 4:45 p.m. and they close at 6:00 p.m. We did not feel there would be enough time to see all of the exhibits.

The Archway offers free dry camping for RV’s. Unfortunately, a warm front with high humidity came through the area, so dry camping is not an option. We need a camping site for the night with an electric hookup to run our air conditioner. We found the perfect campground at Fort Kearney Recreation Area. This is a very nice campground with plenty of campsites with shade. The recreation area comprises 186 acres dotted with seven water-filled sandpits. These sandpits offer anglers everything from largemouth bass and bluegill to trophy channel catfish and wiper.

The Fort Kearney Recreation Area has 110 camping sites, 75 with 30/50 amp hookups, modern restrooms with showers and a dump station. The showers are coin-operated; $0.75 for the first three minutes and $0.25 for each additional minute. There is a fishing pier, nonpower boating, nine-hole disc-golf course, nature trail and a 1.8-mile hike/bike trail.

Camping Fees:

$18.00 per night plus a $5.00 daily non-resident permit fee.

We found the perfect campsite at site #55, or so we thought! It was a shaded campsite with plenty of privacy and very quiet. Shortly after we were set up at this lovely campsite, I heard what I thought was a farmer’s tractor that just started up. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a generator pumping water to farmland that runs adjacent to the campground. Thankfully, the sound from our air conditioner drowned out the noise coming from the generator, so we elected not to move to another site.

Internet access was not available at this campground through our T-Mobile service provider. Nebraska rest areas do not offer WiFi service as Iowa rest areas do.

Total miles traveled today: 279

Tomorrow another adventure begins.

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