We woke up to another day of wind and temps in the single digits. The wind chill was slightly below zero at sunrise. At 10AM the “real feel” temp was still only 3F. We moved the van from the RV park over to the McDonald’s on 3rd Street. The McDonald’s here is open 24 hours and there is a large, gravel RV and truck parking lot on the south side of the building and drive through lanes. There is also what appears to be an abandoned Big K (Kmart) here so there is plenty of parking and a 24-hour bathroom at the McDonald’s. It seems like a likely place to Boondock.
We drove up to Laing Park on the north side of town after catching up on coffee, work, and email. It is located at Burnham and Box Butte. I’m not sure if you could boondock here. Several signs say the park closes at 10PM. There are seasonal restrooms here, and they were still closed. The Park itself has a small lake with a walking path around it and a covered bridge across the narrowest part. Sanni enjoyed the walk despite the cold wind and was enthusiastic about watching all the ducks, geese, and robins around the lake. There is a frisbee golf course here if you’re into that. A locomotive with a caboose and single car in the middle sits on the southeast corner of the park along Box Butte Avenue. Train geeks will appreciate the history and being able to check it out.
Just down the street to the south is a high school. Across the street from the high school is “Wiggly Park”, an off-leash dog park that is completely fenced in. This is good to know about if you’re traveling with the pup. After this brief foray at Laing Park, we moved back to the McDonald’s where the internet signal seemed to be better. One thing that surprised me about Alliance is that they have Bird Scooters all around town. We saw many at Laing Park and all along Box Butte Ave. and 3rd St. It is an option for exploring this town on a day where the wind wouldn’t knock you over.
Several of my calls were cancelled, and my day freed up earlier than expected. We decided to take Sanni back to Wiggly Field, which we’d seen earlier and let her run and chase tennis balls. Another local dog, Pepper, was there. They played together intermittently but mostly Sanni wanted to run with Ro and I and have us throw tennis balls for her. Wiggly Park is spacious and covered with grass. Often, dog parks are mostly dirt in our experience. Having the grass base makes it nice to take your dog. Even if it was a bit wet or had rained the night before as they’d not get too muddy on grass. It is one of the nicest dog parks we’ve ever been to. It had no less than 3 water stations, a small obstacle course, and a shaded gazebo for human participants on those sunnier days. Around the perimeter of the dog park there were numerous fire hydrants painted like dogs. It was Sanni’s first dog park experience, and she wasn’t disappointed.
From Wiggly we made the 3-mile drive to Carhenge north of town. It is free to enter and there is a donation “tube” in the parking lot if you feel so inclined. We were the only people there. We were able to walk around and take pictures without having to wait for others to clear the way. It is really a fun little place. The man that imagined and built it had spent about 10 years in England. He re-created Stonehenge with cars. It is oriented exactly like Stonehenge and to scale. On the solstice, the light even shines through openings in the cars just like it does at the real Stonehenge. To our dismay, the gift shop on site was still closed for the season. The sign said to go to the Alliance Knight Museum for souvenirs. I was disappointed because the Carhenge gift shop was said to have a Pressed Penny machine inside, and I really wanted to get those 51 cent souvenirs. It should be noted that Jeske’s Over the Hill campground is directly north and adjacent to Carhenge. It looked like it would be a decent place to stay, but we didn’t go there. It is right off a relatively busy Hwy 385 and outside of Carhenge, there isn’t much to see here. I’d probably rather try to boondock in town somewhere close to bars, restaurants, etc.
The Alliance Knight Museum was a short stop but an enjoyable one. They have a nice gift shop and the pressed penny machine from Carhenge was residing there for the winter. In addition, they had another pressed penny machine and pressed penny ancillary products such as key chains, wristbands and passport books. We briefly walked the museum, which is free. It is neat to see all the local relics, fossils, and history. Who knew the Alliance area was known for growing potatoes. The museum is also the mecca for regional genealogy. They have an office dedicated to it.
They know everything there is to know about Carhenge at the Alliance Knight Museum. The makes and models of the cars in the art installation are mapped out. Gremlins, Chevilles, and (for a hot minute) some foreign cars. For whatever reason 3 foreign autos were used in the original construction of Carhenge. This was not intended, but they remained in place for some time. Ultimately, the creator got his wish, and the cars were replaced with American models. In my mind, this was a publicity stunt to some degree. The town mourned the loss of the cars and when they were removed and replaced, the cars were put on trailers and pulled through town in a funeral procession. Their final resting place was back at Carhenge. They were buried and another car was used as a headstone to memorialize them.
Highway 2 from Alliance to Hazard is a long drive through the Sandhills. The first section just east of Alliance, say the Antioch area, is riddled with saline prairie potholes filled with shorebirds and waterfowl. It pained me to drive by without stopping to look but we had a lot of ground to cover and once again we were being assaulted by strong winds. It was just time to put both hands on the wheel and get the drive done. We made a quick stop in Halsey, NE to take a picture next to some hay bales that were decorated for Easter.
Other than that, I deliberated about stopping at Kinkaider Brewery https://www.kinkaider.com/ in Broken Bow to grab some beer for the RV refrigerator, but ultimately, we didn’t stop. We made it to Kearney and had the intent to stay in the parking lot at Planet Fitness. Ro had done a lot of research and found that lots of #vanlife folks have Planet Fitness memberships so they can get in a workout and a shower in over 2000+ United States locations. It’s less than 20 bucks per month per person for unlimited access to all clubs and well worth the money if you’re traveling a lot.
We boondocked at Kea State Wildlife Area (SWA) after thinking the Planet Fitness parking lot was not very quaint. We ate our meals in the van this evening. I’m still wondering why a SWA in central Nebraska is named after a parrot endemic to New Zealand (the Kea). I’ll get around to googling that someday.
After rising the next morning and having some coffee, we drove back up to Planet Fitness where we showered. There is also a remarkable HyVee grocery store just to the north of here. It is enormous and clean with a Wahlburgers inside. I picked up a few essentials for the van and some fresh fish for dinner the next evening. After this we decided to journey over to another off-leash dog park to let Sanni run and play.
North Meadowlark Dog Park was terrible. It was in a nice place, but no one picks up after their dogs and I don’t recall seeing a sign that said you had to. Sanni was a bit obsessed with all the poop and I don’t think it is a place where healthy dogs should go and walk. Why would I walk in a dog shit mine field? By comparison, Wiggly Park in Alliance was still great and is standing out more and more.
We headed back to Kea SWA where we spent the majority of the day. It is close to the interstate but still surprisingly quiet. It is a great place to walk a dog that is under voice and sight control. It is almost exactly one mile around the lake. Note: If you park at the SWA itself you will be confronted with an endless barrage of “No” signs. “No boats” “no overnight parking” “No alcohol” “No vehicles beyond this point” “No fun” etc. But if you park at the event center parking lot, you aren’t subjected to it, and it is not SWA property. Just be smart and respectful and don’t blow it for others. Be better. Leave it better. #leaveitbetter
We had a late lunch at a desperate-feeling Old Chicago. Once a fairly mighty casual dining concept, they now seem to be a barely hanger-on. They had trivia, they had beer, but the beer was flat-ish and no one was playing Buzztime trivia. I did this all the time about 15 years ago and was excited, but I couldn’t even get the app on my phone to recognize the location.
We ordered the boneless buffalo wings with Firehouse sauce. It was very clear that the wings themselves were merely chicken nuggets and the sauce was no longer spicy and had been farmed out to a commissary. The Sicilian Eggrolls were pretty damned good, and I could eat a few of them most days. That hasn’t changed much since the early 2000’s.
After Old Chicago we went to the Archway National Monument where we just ran out of time to see it. It is a giant bronzy archway that stretches across both lanes of I-80. I would say it isn’t spectacular as much as it is off-putting. It is a man-made behemoth that just beckons you to stop and say, “what the fuck is that?”
And when you go inside it, it gets weirder. Stuffed pioneers on an escalator Oregon trail and very friendly folks beckoning you to buy “the ticket” that takes you over the Interstate and back. They have a spacious gift shop with (honestly) good things to consider purchasing and best off all, a pressed penny machine for cheap souvenirs to commemorate your trip there.
After the archway it was an unspectacular and uneventful ride to Superior, Nebraska. We blew by Pioneer Village in Minden and several unincorporated towns in the windy PM hours.
We spent the night in my parent’s driveway where we ran out of battery and thusly the heat shut off. Unless it’s user error, you need battery to keep the gas valve open and the master controls powered on. The next morning, we had to rally to Lincoln Park to plug in and recharge. My parents do not have a good shore power source that our RV would accept. The house was built in the early 1900’s and not surprisingly when we tried to plug our RV in, we’d get a message on the display saying, “Faulty shore power source.”
If you want to slow life down, don’t get a campervan. Life happens fast with wheels.
More on the rest of the trip in a few days.