T&C Southwest Adventure 2021

We found an Internet connection at the Little Jerusalem State Park, so I’ll catch up with what we have been doing the last day and a half.

As I mentioned, yesterday was a strange day, driving 485 miles out of Nebraska and across most of Kansas before turning south to the Lake Scott State Park. For almost the entire day, our view was similar to the photo above — prairie with fields of corn, soybeans and sorghum. It was 95 degrees and very blustery, pushing our Roadtrek around on the 75-mph interstate.

After seeing so much of the open prairie, we figured we would be camping in a wide open expanse of wind-swept land. But much to our surprise, almost out of nowhere, we drove into a valley of canyons and craggy bluffs with Lake Scott at the center. It was an amazing spring-fed lake surrounded by groves of cedar, elm, ash, walnut, hackberry and cottonwood trees. This would be our camp site for the next two nights.

This oasis in the prairie was discovered by Herbert Steele in 1888. Previously it had been the home of Taos Indians fleeing Spanish rule. In 1664 they constructed pueblos. It is the northernmost pueblo in the United States.

Near the site of what remains of the pueblos, we came across a herd of American bison.

Before I forget, we made a slight detour while heading across I-70, going into Wamego, Kansas and visiting the Wizard of Oz Museum. Lots of interesting memoribila and worth the break from a straight line drive to the west.

Without much ambient light at our campground, I was looking forward to a night sky filled with stars. The bright moon, however, took away much of what I wanted to see, but when the moon set, I got up at 4 a.m. and here’s what I saw:

A weather front moved through overnight and instead of the 90s from yesterday, it was heavy overcast and only in the low 60s. We still visited what we came here to see — the Little Jerusalem State Park. It would have been more spectacular with direct sunlight and dramatic shadows, but we still enjoyed the 2-plus mile walk around the rim. It is so named because people in the late 19th century said it looked like the ancient walled city of Jerusalem.

Tommorow it’s on to Colorado, our campground in Estes Park and a late afternoon visit to the Rocky Mountain National Park. No more prairie!

It was a very strange day, 485 miles coming out of Nebraska and crossing Kansas with views limited to thousands of acres of corn, soybeans, sorghum, a stiff breeze blowing across the prairie and 95-degree temperatures.

Unfortunately, because of very weak internet service here at our Lake Scott Campground in the western part of Kansas, I am unable to upload photos and I’m not even sure this will go through. We are here again tomorrow, exploring Little Jerusalem in a Badlands-type landscape, and we likely won’t be able to do a full post until Saturday when we arrive in Estes Park, Colorado.

Compared to yesterday in Hannibal, not much happening today except travel. We crossed Missouri with its expanse of corn and soy bean fields and long stretches of wind turbines.

We crossed into Nebraska — our first time there — and arrived at the Indian Cave State Park, where we’ll be camping tonight. Beautiful, large park with wooded sites. The only disappointment was the Indian Cave Trail was closed because recent rains washed out portions of the boardwalk leading along the rock walls. We were looking forward to this because of the presence of many Native American petroglyphs. With a telephoto lens I took the below photo from the closed entrance of the trail, thinking it might have been a petroglyph — not so sure it is.

We hiked up one of the trails toward an overlook above the Missouri River, but it was steep and we didn’t make it all the way. Too buggy and we were too tired. On the way down we met this older woman (below), trail name of Tortoise, who was hiking up to spend the night under the starry sky. She is from Omaha, and said she was heading to Tennessee this fall to do another section of the Appalachian Trail. (Note to Kevin Cullen: I remember meeting a Tortoise when we hiked the AT near the New Hampshire-Maine border in 2005, but I don’t think it possibly could be the same one).

Coming back down the trail, we took the time to watch this soldier beetle. I thought it was a lightning bug, but Carol’s phone identified it otherwise.

We enjoyed a beautiful sunset while eating our dinner outside and then watched the darkness grow and the stars make their beautiful appearance.

I’m practicing my night photography for when we’re in the Utah national parks and the Grand Canyon. (Note to Melissa: the remote works great!).

Tomorrow is a longer travel day, leaving Nebraska and heading through Kansas to the Lake Scott State Park.

It was a day of museums and tours, in Hannibal, starting with the Mark Twain Museum and the history of Samuel Clemens growing up in Hannibal while making friends who would become the characters in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. We learned about Clemens later moving his family to Hartford, Connecticut, and writing most of his best-known books in Elmira, New York, where his wife’s family lived and where Clemens and his family spent their summers.

The museums included the homes of the boy Clemens would use as his Huck Finn character and the girl he would use as his Becky Thatcher character. There were many interesting interactive displays and videos, providing the foundation and drive that would make Clemens the Great American Author.

After lunch we toured the Mark Twain Cave in which Clemens would go exploring as a boy and ended up being significant parts of both the Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn books.

In the evening, we took a dinner cruise on the Mississippi River on the Mark Twain riverboat. It had been in the upper 80s during the day, but very pleasant on the water.

Very interesting day and a half in Hannibal. Tomorrow it’s on to Shubert, Nebraska, and the Indian Cave State Park.

Farewell to Mark Twain!

Pretty much a travel day from Indianapolis to Hannibal, Missouri, crossing Illinois with its end-of-season corn and soy bean crops and large wind turbines outside Springfield. Did a walk around downtown Hannibal and visited the Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn statue at the end of town. The Mark Twain Cave, in which many of Tom Sawyer’s adventures emerged, is in the campground where we’re staying. We’ll take a tour tomorrow.

Final day with Kevin’s family in Greenwood, Indiana — some cornhole, barbeque dinner, watching some NFL, ice cream from Handel’s, and a family marathon card game of Pennies from Heaven, a variation of canasta. A good visit that went all to quickly, particularily when realizing how fast the grandkids are growing up. It was amazing to see them do sophisticated (and difficult) homework on I-Pads.

Tomorrow it’s on to Hannibal, Missouri a for a day and a half of visiting Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Company.

A relaxing day in Indiana with Kevin and his family, starting with go-cart racing on a track at which granddaughter Abbi works.

Carol was very competitive, particularly when racing against Kevin’s mother-in-law.

Afterward we went to the Fujiyama Steak House to celebrate Kevin’s birthday.

During the morning while watching remembrances of 9-11, I talked to some of the older grandchildren about what they were being told in school about what happened on September 11th. They said it was part of some history lessons, including a book that had been written by a man whose college roommate had been one of the victims. The more I listened, the more I realized it was the same way of learning about an event in history, the way I learned about the attack on Pearl Harbor on its 20th anniversary. I was 12, about the same age of some our grandkids. It was a strange way to think of the two events.

Just before we left the Erie, Pa. campground this morning, we were treated to a rainbow. A brief thunderstorm followed, but it was clear sailing afterward for 411 miles to our son’s home in Greenwood, Indiana. We’ll be spending the weekend with Kevin and family before moving onto Hannibal, Missouri on Monday. We listened to a Books on Tape of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” during our drive yesterday and we’ll listen to “Huckleberry Finn” on Monday prior to our arrival in Hannibal. We’ll be ready for all Mark Twain has to offer, including a dinner cruise on the Mississippi.

The trip is under way. First stop is the KOA in Erie, Pennsylvania, 658 miles and 10 hours, 45 minutes after leaving home at 7:15 this morning. Heavy rain and thunderstorms coming off Lake Erie in the final hour.

It was a later start this morning than planned by almost an hour. The basement door wasn’t shut tight last night and with a strong wind blowing, it cracked open. Chloe, our strictly indoor cat, decided to venture out into the darkness without us knowing it. When we discovered the door was open, I closed and locked it, not realizing Chloe was outside. She spent the night under the back porch and this morning refused to come out. I had to crawl through the dirt and a sea of cob webs trying to coax her out. She kept retreating to the far corner under the porch, snarling and hissing every time I got close. We pulled up the lattice that surrounds the bottom of the porch and she finally ran into the basement, but not before giving me an assortment of scratches and bites. I took a hot shower and scrubbed the dirt out of all the scratches and bites, putting us farther behind.

Thank you to Bruce and Sue for going over to the house to check on Chloe. She was back to normal and even was missing all the cob webs that covered her head when we left.

But that aside, the trip went fairly well. This is the most miles we will drive in one day for the entire trip. On to Kevin’s house near Indianapolis tomorrow, about 422 miles.

We look forward to you following our adventures.

After our 2019 adventure of driving to Alaska, we’ll be on the road again this fall, traveling to the Rocky Mountain and Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, the Zion, Canyonlands, Bryce, and Zion National Parks in Utah, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, visits with family in Texas and Florida, New Orleans, the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and many stops in between.

We hope to post photos from this adventure every day Wifi is available.

We leave Maine on Sept. 9.