As we have in the past, we went to Mongaup pond for a 3-day weekend.  This time, we were able to get a site right on the water.

We had some great fishing.  I caught an 18.5” Chain Pickerel:

B caught a 19” Chain Pickerel with her Barbie fishing pole.  She was surprised!

We did a bit of kayaking:

Trailmanor in the distance:

Lots of frogs near the shore:

M caught an 18” Chain Pickerel:

We all went for a 3.5 bike ride:

I then went for a longer bike ride (my cycle computer ran out of batteries half way through):

On the ride, I came across a part of the trail that was supposed to have a little stream across it, but now is a pond thanks to a busy beaver:

We hiked down to Mongaup falls:

Some things go without saying:

Pulling out.  Another great weekend at Mongaup!

We went down to Assateague for Thanksgiving weekend.  We did quite well, and were able to leave Wednesday in the early evening.  We had dinner in Philadelphia at the Holy Land Grill, and arrived at Assateague a bit after midnight.  This was quite the improvement over last time, when we didn’t leave home until 2AM!

Thusday was chilly, but we ventured out looking for shells:

We went skating too.  I didn’t want to bring the bikes, because of the hassle of putting them on the RV:

After dark, we did the Life of the Forest trail.  Spooky!

On Friday, it rained, then cleared.  It a bit warmer, which was nice.

We did the Life of the Dunes trail.  Here’s a fragment of Baltimore Boulevard, a road built in the 50s as the arterial for a 15-mile long housing development on the island that never materialized:

Saturday was quite cold (the high was in the high 40s).  Saturday night, we had a campfire on the beach:

Sunday was warmer, which was a shame since we had to be back home in the early evening, so we left Assateague at 10AM.  We did one more quick look for shells on our way out:

Trish found a nice sized Whelk shell, our first on Assateague!

Our visit was short, but well worth it!

We got up early Friday morning, as we had a long day ahead of us.  We were supposed to stay in Hannibal, Missouri last night, but stopped 230 miles sooner due to the tire problems we had.  We were scheduled to spend Shabbos in Indianapolis, so on Friday we drove 540 miles:

Shabbos in Indianapolis was nice.  It was odd being back in civilization again.  The roof A/C dripped into the cabin, so that’s something else for me to fix when we get home.

On Sunday, we drove 738 miles without any sightseeing:

What a great trip!

Before leaving Walmart, we bought an industrial-grade fan and stuck it between the two front seats, facing forward.  Hopefully the increased air circulation will add a degree or comfort, as the air conditioning still isn’t working.

We drove to the visitor center at the North Platte’s Bailey train yard, the largest rail classification station in the world:

Hey, there we are!

Flags of the states with Union Pacific rail:

An adjacent corn maze:

The black freight car is rolling down one of two “humps” in the yard.  The cars are rolled down the hump, and their inertia carries them through the switched rails until they hitch on to the appropriate train:

We left North Platt and stopped near Kearney, Nebraska at Fort Kearney (not to be confused with Fort Phil Kearney, which we visited on day 7):

We are definitely going the wrong way:

We then headed East towards our next destination.  We increased our speed to 70 so we would make it, something we had not done since our tire failure in Toledo.  Just outside Beatrice, someone motioned us off the road.  Looks like one of the RV tires was beginning to fail.  Thankfully, we were right near another Tractor Supply:

We lashed the failing tire to the roof, bought another wheel, and swapped the spare that we bought at the Tractor Supply in Toledo with the remaining good tire.  We now were running on the two new Tractor Supply tires, had the good original tire as a spare, and the faulty tire on the roof.  This is really getting old.

Of course, we completely missed getting into the visitor center of our next stop, Homestead National Monument outside of Beatrice:

The “holes” in the states indicate how much of the state’s land was given away using the homestead act:

Beautiful sunset:

M and B sporting their hats from Tractor Supply:

Heading South, we rolled into Wymore, the town founded by Sam Wymore:

Wymore isn’t what it used to be, I guess:

It was late, so there wasn’t much more to see.  We headed South and East where we spent the night at the Walmart of Hiawatha, Kansas.

We drove 362 miles today.  The map indicates our intermediate stops at Fort Kearney (B), Homestead NM (C), and Wymore (D):

I got up early and went outside.  It was totally silent in the desert.  No birds, no leaves rustling, nothing.  It was a little creepy, and beautiful too:

We drove up a side “road” to a trail that led to a rock face with Indian Petroglyphs:

The rock must pretty soft, because it had a very interesting erosion patterns.  A bird nest is on the rock face in the upper left:

We climbed up on top of the mesa:

We were quite alone out there:

Boar’s Tusk in the distance:

We packed up and got back on the interstate before 9am.  We drove east to Rawlins, Wyoming, where the state prison was located from 1901 to 1981.  The complex is now a privately run museum.  We took the tour, which was very sensationalistic and generally distasteful.  We felt some parts were not appropriate for children.  The guide asked us if we wanted to sit in the gas chamber.  Um, thanks no.

From Rawlins, we drove east to Laramie, Wyoming, site of the previous state prison, which operated from 1872 to 1901.  It’s a state-run facility, and was quite well done:

The guard “tower”, which overlooks the cell block below:

The prisoners made brooms to support the prison and to earn improved rations, etc.:

There are a number of other structures at the site, including a one room schoolhouse:

From Laramie, we continued East to North Platte, Nebraska, where we spent the night in the Walmart parking lot.

We drove about 500 miles today: