IKEA

Hey Robin and Kim, I finally found an IKEA to go to. We hadn't planned on going near Chicago, but Larry changed our route so I we'd go near an IKEA.

I had a blast looking at all the designer rooms and all the gadgets. I didn't buy a lot, only spent about $30.00 but did get some great ideas. I'd love to have my office ( and Larry's) in the cabin dont over in IKEA. Steve could design it for us. He's good at that.

Larry took several pictures of me as I was checking things out. I'm only going to include one.

After shopping at IKEA we found an RV park just over into Indiana. In the morning as we were leaving we found these neat looking towers. .

On our way Sunday morning (just 30 miles) to Shipshewana, Indiana, where Larry wants to go to the Hudson Museum there Monday morning we'll shop there in the Amish stores, head East in the afternoon, hopefully getting close to the Pennsylvania border. Then Tuesday morning "Heading for the barn". May stop to Sue's if we are in need of an over night break. We're taking route 20 home.

IOWA

.....rolling hills, neat farms, huge fields ready to be planted, windmills, green meadows, cattle grazing, dirt roads and windy.

Here is a rest area I thought was unusual. IOWA is in huge calligraphy letters on the building and this humongous pen nib.


It rained all day, so picture isn't very clear, but you can see some farm buildings in the background.

One of thousands of fields ready for planting.

Crossing the Mississippi in Iowa

One of the nicest campsites we've stayed in, reminded me more of NY. It was a state park, beautiful little lake with some geese swimming around. Electricity and water and nice showers provided and for only $11. a night. We picked our site and left the money in an envelope.

On to Illinois today.

Pioneer Village Con't

This post is a continuation of the previous post. Be sure and look at that one first. This first picture is a 1939 motor home. Looks like real siding, with brick look alike around the bottom. The inside was very roomy, had a kitchen, bedrooms and living area. It looked very clutsey though.

Thought of the Canary's when I took this picture. There were twice this many.

These pictures are for Shari. Larry/Dad said....these remind me of Shari's toy and games , Shari should see this.

I talked to Shari on FB and she said she knows of the game. It's an English Pub game. She also said she should make one.

Pony Express Log Cabin. There was a bed in it, stove, table, dishes and one of Buffalo Bill's saddles. It's an authentic relay station that was moved to the museum.

I thought the corners/log ends were unique. Very roughly hewn and pointed

This was in one of the handout papers in the museum. I loved it. Read it, you'll enjoy it. (You can click on it to make it larger)

One of the displays was about the many different ways of weather forcasting.

PIONEER VILLAGE, Minden, Nebraska

AMAZING MUSEUM The brochure states:

" The Story of America and How it Grew More than 50,000 items from every Field of Human Endeavor. 28 buildings on 20 acres..Authentic Originals arranged in their order of Development..All Mechanical Items in Operating Condition."

This is the most amazing museum we've ever seen. It literally didn't leave anything out. Farm machinery, a country church, 350 antique autos, bicycles, covered wagons, thousands of collections of every item you can think of. We kept saying "this is amazing"

The oldest cars and numerous air planes were over head.

Several steroscopes of 3 D pictures of pictures depicting the old west, old cars, etc

This was in the Bloomington Land Office. It was moved to the museum. It actually served pioneers filling theri homestead clains. It contains early maps, and old land records. Read this old Homestead Act of 1862 which was posted on the wall.

There were a number of large buildings containing the collections, but in the center was a circular area with the church, log cabin, school house, China house, Firehouse, general store, small fortress, all around a large grassy area with picnic table, flowers and flowering trees such as this magnolia tree.

The display of old records and recording machines. There were two long rows of them.

One area had room after room showing old stores and businesses. Here's part of the drugstore.

You wouldn't think there'd be antique computers in a musuem but some of them are history. Larry saw some of the first card machines that he worked with in the late 50's with the 330th DPU, his army data processing unit, like the key punch, sorter, collator, and accounting machine, and a System 35 he helped convert to the System 38 in IBM in the mid 70s.

There was a 34 and 35 Terraplane, a couple of Essex, a 24 and a 25 Hudson and a 49 Hudson Super Six, as well as Brushes, Moons, Packards, Stars, Cords etc. LPC


To be continued......

NORTH PLATT, NEB.

TO MINDEN, NEBRASKA
April 20 and 21

Around the corner from our campsite was this fort. It was really a museum.
There were a lot of gift items but also lots of history about Buffalo Bill. They had a replica of the Wild West Show that he traveled with. It was in miniature, hand carved, over 20,000 animated pieces. It was fascinating!

Bill Cody "Buffalo Bill"

Who's that Red Neck?

Two peas in a pod.

Union Pacific's Bailey Yard...The World's Largest Train Yard. It's where east meets west on the U.P. line, and where 10,000 cars are handled each day, stretching out eight miles.

This is the tower. We took the elevator to the top ( 8 floors) where we could look out over the whole freight yard. We must have been up there for nearly an hour. Larry got to talking to the guide. He was very knowledgable and interesting, but then the converstion went to cars...then Hudson's. I'm going to get Larry/Dad a button to wear that says..."Warning, do not push this man's button". The man did enjoy talking to Larry...was very interested in the extra Hudson truck that Larry has. He liked the business card, said he wanted to keep it. A picture of one of the big train engines will appear here when Larry uploads his pictures.

When we left North Platt we took a road that paralled route 80. so we could see some of the country.. Was it just coincidence that we came upon this huge junk yard? Of course we turned around and went back to it. Larry took lots of pictures, he said there had to be over 500 cars there. I don't think he saw one Hudson though.

I finally was able to get a snapshot of a real working windmill. Almost every farm had one. I think I noticed and commented on everyone that I saw.

These grain elevators are everywhere along the way. They are huge.

The Great Platte River Road Archway. We drove under it, but now wish we'd taken the time to stop and visit it. Apparently it pays tribute to the pioneers that cross our great country. Go to
www.archway.org/About/default.aspx

Tom and Ginger better stop there on your way east or on your way back.

Cheyenne, Wyo to Platt, NB.

We don't like to travel on Sunday so stayed here in Cheyenne, Wyo.  over Sunday.  They conduct a Cowboy Church here. They belong to Christian Cowboys International.

The folks that were camped next to us had these two dogs. The Shih Tsu is 9 mo old.  What a sweatheart.  Made us want another Shih Tzu for sure. The other little dog was nice too and took to me, jumped up on my lap.  They said he doesn't ever go to anyone but them.  These folks are thinking of getting a MH, so we invited them in to see ours.  They thought it perfect for two people.  Asked us all kinds of questions.

We left the campground around 9 a.m. and went to breakfast at Shari's restaurant.  Sure wish they had them out east.  They're a chain out here.  Anyway, they are known for their good pies so we bought one. That's what we had for lunch. Just pie!! It's so nice to do what we want to do, parents can't tell us that we can't just have pie.  Hehehe

Nebraska Country

All along the way we saw the old kind of  windmills. I tried and tried to get a picture as we sped by at 65 miles an hour.  When we got into town I found this one. It was where they build them. 

We happened onto Cabela's store.  It's their main store. We must have spent an hour in there.  Saw lots of neat stuff.  We get their catalog and I drool everytime I look at it. I only bought a few things.

This statue was outside Cabela's.  Two elk fighting.

They had a section of live looking animals, along with the largest display of camping equipment, cabin/home section, fishing, hunting, clothes and miscellanious.

FROM WIDDLETOWN TO WADDLETOWN

it's 15 miles. From Waddletown to Widdletown it's 15 miles".....U. J

But in this case, "From Evanton to Laramie Wyo it was 305 miles"...a long day

The terrain in Wyo was somewhat the same but always a little different on down the road. There were straight roads with not much to see other than the flats, then all of a sudden we'd come into mountain canyons.

By the time we reached Laramie it was raining with some sleet. (Saturday April 17)

We crossed the Continental Divide here in Wyo. We also saw the C. D. from the kitchen window at Alan and Laura Kested's in Colorado.
.

Now, you've heard of Blood Hounds that can sniff out people and drugs. Well did you know that some people have that same ability but not for the same things the blood hounds do. We were about 200 miles into our trip through Wyo, when Larry said he thought we needed a break, so he pulled over to a little town (just a break, right?) The first thing he saw on a back street was this Union Pacific RR Engine. How nice . Then going down another back street (sniff sniff) what do we see? Of course.....a Hudson. Now there were other towns we could have taken a break in but of course there wasn't any signals in them. Anyway, Larry thought it was neat and couldn't believe he came across this '49 Hudson.