Fort Kearny State Recreation Area, Nebraska

We decided to stay at Fort Kearny State Recreation Area for one more night in the Escape, even though we were only about three hours from home. Our immediate goal was to delay the end of our vacation a little bit, but this would also be a great place to stay during the migration of the sandhill cranes in the spring, which is special enough to draw people from all over the world.

We were clearly back in farm country. As the evening progressed, a foul wind carried livestock odors into the area, and although the farmers call this “the smell of money,” Great Husband said, “I didn’t want to camp in a feedlot.” To suit him, we nearly decided to pull out and head for home, but instead we first took some time to look at all the photos we had taken during this trip. By the time we had relived our trip this way, the weather had changed, the bad smell had disappeared, and there was an astounding, continuous lightning show in the northwest sky which we watched for two hours or more. We have never seen anything like it! Nebraska may not have mountains, enormous waterfalls, and sequoia trees, but it does have weather.

p.s. Our entire trip turned out to be 5215 miles, and the cheapest gas to be had anywhere was back home in good ol' Nebraska.