Driving cross country through the great states of Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska, we have now arrived at the Rockies! Don't say that the drive is boring or monotonous, as there are good things to see along the way. Note this trailer spotted in Iowa......
In Lincoln, Nebraska we stopped at the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. In the late 1800s, 100s of thousands of Germans who had originally been settled in Russia along the Volga river when Catherine the Great invited them with free land in the late 1700s, started emigrating to the the US and in particular to the Lincoln area. The AHSGR has become the clearing house for many of these families. Ruthie's parents were both born in Russia in these German settlements and emigrated to Lincoln for her dad, and Okeene OK for her mom. AHSGR has exhibits of these emigrants with there possessions brought from their Russian homes, their customs, and a large geneology area for research. We enjoyed the tour including finding out that John (Deutchdorfer) Denver was a member.
Following, we spent the night at Pawnee State Recreation Area. Another great sunset over the lake, and a nice campsite to relax after the drive.
The next morning we woke up to excitement, as we realized that today is our day to go to the Kool-Aid museum in Hastings, NE. Morey had been there 5 years ago while doing some nearby Home Depot work . We toured the museum which also included some great diaramas from the 30's.
But there was more....Drove to Ft. Kearney where the Oregon Trail started. During the peak, over 1,000 pioneers passed the Fort a day, on the way to the West. There is a recreated stockade and a number of buildings. Then we drove to Buffalo Bills Ranch where we were going to tour and camp for the night, but it was closed and we realized that if we didnt drive another 200 miles.........
But the flooding in Colorado was traveling down the South Platte River and was to arrive this night, which meant that we could be stuck at our campsite, unable to travel to Denver. We saw sandbags in all the stores as we drove through a town, and decided to keep moving. So we spent the night just northeast of Denver and saw the mountains for our first time.
Now we're in Leadville for the night. A "western" town that boomed in the late 1800s with silver mines, with a population of 30,000. We toured the Healy House and Dexter Cabin, and then stopped at the Pastime Saloon for some local Avalanche beer.
We arrived to check out Glenwood Canyon. Camped at Glenwood Canyon RV Resort (always love it when they use the RV Resort moniker). With BIW at the Colorado River's edge, we set up and planned our biking and hiking adventures.
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We set out on our first day here, on part of the concrete 20 mile bike trail which was built along with the Interstate 70 construction through the canyon. The highway was designed to have minimal environmental impact, so the highway is hidden along the outside walls with many tunnels. Biked 14 miles and marveled at the engineering (At least Morey did).
Day 2 we set out on an all day adventure. Biked 11 miles east along the Glen Canyon bike trail, had lunch at a rest stop, then headed back part way to hike the Hanging Lake Trail. The 1.2 mile trail climbs over 1000 feet to the drop dead gorgeous Hangin Lake. Pictures can't describe how incredible the destination is. Following the hike, we mounted our bikes and headed back to the Resort. On arrival, we relaxed with a nice bottle of wine and sat along the Colorado and enjoyed the sunshine.
