4/26/2011 Headin’ to NEBRASKA!

Nebraska! The 37th state to join the union.

We are so excited about our month long stay here in Chadron State Park. This is my first time to Nebraska and if Bob has been here before it was because he was driving through. So we’re glad to spend several weeks here so we can explore the northwest corner of the CORNHUSKER state.

We were on the road a little after nine and it didn’t take us too long before we reached the state line.

Most of the day we pretty much had the road to ourselves.

It was a great day to play “What Do You See in the Clouds?” as the miles rolled underneath our wheels. I saw a seahorse, a bear cub laying on its back playing with a perfectly round snowball, a puppy running with ears flying back in the wind, a dinosaur and a dragon. Of course it helps have a good imagination too. Do you see the airplane? (Double click to enlarge if you need to)

I bet in these parts directions call for phrases like, “go past the barn with the red roof”.

We passed through this one stretch of Nebraska and they were all about tractors! New ones, old ones, red ones, green ones and tons and tons of parts.

I wonder what a good stiff wind would do to this building?

The earth is definitely NOT flat! In fact, its rather bumpy.

I seem to have garnered a fascination with trains, the longer the better.

We started seeing dark clouds accumulate and we ran through very brief showers.

We made it to Chadron State Park with no problems.

Our first impression was…..WOW! It was so green, truly a site to behold for our eyes.

As soon as we pulled into the park we got a glimpse of a pond to our right.

We each said to the other, “This is a beautiful park.”

Bob stayed with the truck while I went inside to let them know we were there and to find out where we should go. Here’s where it started.

The lady behind the desk did manage to get out a hello to me and proceeded to dig for a set of keys to give me, pulling sheets of info for me and not saying a darn thing to me. Had it been me I would have made some small talk while gathering things. You know, “How was your trip?” “Looks like rain doesn’t it?” SOMETHNG

She proceeded to give me instructions on what the job entailed and our duties and I had to interrupt her. I asked if this part could wait until tomorrow because we would really like to get set up before the rain hits here. She then really looked at me and could see the outside behind me and said, “Of course, I’m sure you want to get settled.”

She gave me a map of the campground and showed me the road to follow.

Back in the truck I directed Bob on where to go and the whole time we were just soaking everything in. When we got to the campground we were just so impressed with the layout, the spacing of the sites and sheer beauty of it all. This park is very, very well taken care of.

I got him backed in with no problem and we’re just grinning from ear to ear that we get to spend the next thirty days in this green garden- like setting.

I walked to the driver’s side of the rig and our whole happy moment fell apart. I yelled for Bob to come to the side of the rig and when he did I said, “Bob, there’s no water, there’s no sewer, just a 30 amp electric box.” He looked at me dumbfounded. We looked around at other campsites and sure enough, just electric. Bob said to me that there must be another campground within this park and they sent us to the wrong one. So we pulled out of the space and went back to the office. On the way Bob said, “There has to be another campground Snook, full hookups is the first thing we ask about.” It is.

So we get to the office and I walked in (Bob was getting the truck/rig repositioned to go back in the park) and asked if there was another campground that this site didn’t have full hookups. She looked at me like I had crawled out from a rock and said, “No, there’s no other campground and we don’t have full hookups.” I told her that is the first thing we ask because that is something that is important to us. She went on to tell me that the dump station is at the bottom of the hill and that we can get water seven sites up from the camp host site. “Uh, well, um, I’m sorry but that doesn’t fly with us.” She looked out the window and said something about the size of our rig but I didn’t quite catch it. I think she was saying something about people who camp host usually have smaller rigs. Hmmmmm….not where I come from. Usually, camp hosts are full timers and have sizable rigs because the rigs are in fact home. Regardless, moving our rig every 4 or 5 days to empty tanks and take on more water is not something we are willing to do. Could we stretch it longer? Sure if we were very frugal with water usage, but quite frankly, that just isn’t us. Not that we are blatantly wasteful, just that we are not ones to wet out toothbrushes, shut the water off, brush, turn the water on to rinse toothbrush, shut it off….well, you get the idea. With us, the water runs the whole time and that’s just how it is. So it would mean for us to pack up the rig and move it at least once a week. Uh-uh, not happening. I told her it was a beautiful park but I’m afraid this just isn’t a good fit. She said that was fine and out the door I went. From her demeanor I’m betting we aren’t the first ones to get there, find out there weren’t full hookups and leave on the same day. Bob is going to go through his emails to see if he can find something in writing that said there was full hookups or if the person from the Park Service just gave us bad info by mistake.

Anyways, we spent less than an hour where we were supposed to spend the whole month of May.

Now we had to find someplace to spend the night. Out came our trusty campground books and we found a place right up the road.

We’ll figure out our next move in the morning.