LATITUDES' JOURNEY: Rumbling across the States

Thank goodness we have finally made it to the flat states! Bouncing along in the RV is infinitely better than bouncing around as you struggle up and down steep mountain roads. And it is flat here in
Nebraska.

We were in Ogallala, NE, last night, our 4^th Wal-Mart in 4 days. I’m ready for a park. Wal-Marts are actually great places to stop – free, right off of the interstate, lots of parking, and of course, you can buy any thing your little heart or RV desire. But you are also sharing them with the big rig trucks. They run their engines for hours and often park closer than we would like. Out of courtesy, RV’s and semi’s always park at the far end of the parking lot so as to not inconvenience customers parking. This guy was close enough, with just enough room for us to slip past him the next morning. But last night, someone parked along side of us with no more than 3 feet between us. The parking lot was crowded so we couldn’t really move, and he did turn off his engine quickly, but he also blocked our breeze and slipped into our perception of our personal space. Oh, well, tonight we’ll be in a state park!

Saw “stuff” the past two days as we traveled. Like this hot air balloon rising from the flat land!

Ok, so it turned out to be the town water tower. Beautiful!

I love this winged alien….

AKA the lead jumble of wires and tubing that control the long watering machines found in lots of the farms. This are gets their water for farming from deep underground water tables.

Iowa has the perfect rolling hills and wind direction (NW) for wind turbines. There are hundreds and hundreds. You can’t truly appreciate their size unless you stop at this particular rest area on I-80. The turbine manufacturer, Siemens, donated this 143 foot blade to the State. Just one blade weighs 123,000 pounds and is made out of epoxy and balsa. A complete wind turbine stands 400 ft tall.

On Saturday, we arrived earlier than usual at our Wal-Mart of choice, so we unhooked the car and did a little sight-seeing. Within 10 miles is the beautiful Lake McConaughy. A hydro-electric lake created in the mid 1940’s, the lake supplies 50,000 kilowatts of power. The lake itself is 22 miles long.

The spillway usually just allows overflow water by 12 wicket gates. Not today! The water spewed in splender!

Turns out that the lake s 98% full from recent rains. Plus, during the summer, more water is released to create better aeration for the fish in the lake – a big draw. The fish aren’t the only thing filling the lake – as Nebrascas biggest vacation draw, the park had 100,000 visitors today. They were jammed, packed, and squeezed in every possible corner! This can’t begin to give you the idea of how crowded the park was. There were fields of tents, all touching each other. At $5 admission and only $10 for a tent site, no wonder everyone was there. We plan to go back when we leave CO in about a week – we were assured that it would be a lot quieter then!