Honka if you like Ponca/Bill and Meri Revisited

 

The day I left Eugene T. Mahoney the sun came out. That was OK as I was travelling just a few miles down the road to Louisville SRA. A very busy week was ahead of me.

In fact, I was so excited to see that star that I made a batch of food. Nope, not tacos (thanks for asking Danny), but sandwiches.

The key to making yourself think that the sandwiches are big is to add lots of lettuce.

It’s all good.

Yummy. Louisville SRA is only about 12 miles SW of Omaha where the Oracle lives. Or at least where he resides some of the time. I am talking about Warren Buffet. The local paper even has a column devoted to his activities. His son Jimmy is quite the singer as well.

I am still staying in the trailer as I don’t trust the weather enough to pitch my tent.

The campground is on the banks of the Platte River, but mainly spread around five sandpit lakes. I still do not know what that means, the sandpit part. Did someone dig a hole in the sand that just filled in?

Here is a photo of the river.

There are several fishing areas on the lakes.

This is a big place with 236 developed campsites and a bunch of primitive tent spots. It even has a cafe/bait shop. Just don’t get confused with your order.

The sites are nice and big and just looked good in the sun. The trees were starting to bud. Maybe spring will start soon.

Nope, a storm showed up.

Yep.

Rained that night and continued as I drove across the Missouri River to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

I planned on staying here.

Piece of $#@*&. No maintenance done in the last century, derelict vehicles, etc. I continued onward. Took the scenic route.

Which wasn’t the best choice. I had also planned on staying at Wilson Island.

But there was major flooding in 2011 on the Missouri River. I have proof. And I would have known that the campground was still under repair if I had taken Interstate 29. There were signs on the freeway. The first sign I saw was this one.

I checked it out anyway, the persistent guy that I am. Nope. Nothing good here.

I found out later that the whole place was under six feet of water for three months. Killed a lot of trees and swept the campground away.

So I am 0 for 2 in Iowa. Continued driving north to Lewis and Clark State Park.

Very nice campground.

In 1804 Bill and Meri stopped here for two nights, August 9th and 10th. I looked up the distance to Astoria Oregon and Cape Disappointment Washington. About 1400 miles on roads, probably over 2000 the way they went.

The skies started to clear Wednesday night.

Followed by rain on Thursday.

Alrighty then. I continued north to Sioux City, Iowa and stopped briefly at Stone State Park. It has coolest campground sign I have seen yet.

There are only 30 campsites and plenty of hiking trails. Also a nature center next door.

No, you are not getting the bird. But it looks like it.

I stayed two nights at Ponca State Park back in Nebraska.

Yeah, I am doing a slight western swing along the Missouri River. Blame it on the weather. I’m ahead of my schedule.

Spring might of finally sprung because I finally broke out the camp kitchen. Not the tent yet, but soon.

Situated along the Missouri River Bluffs, Ponca is the eastern gateway to The Missouri National Recreational River. There are 73 sites here with power, half of them being reservable. And five double handfuls of primitive tent sites.

There is also a really old oak tree.

There are cabins as well as something called mini-lodges. For $250 per night you get four bedrooms and a little lake. Quite a few of these are scattered around the park. Some without the lake.

If you do not mind heights there is an overlook that you can check out.

I dislike heights so this view is all you get.

Squint and you can see Nebraska, South Dakota, and Iowa. Well, Iowa is off to the right. Squint harder and pretend.

I took a bizarre sunrise photo here. All chromatic aberration. Look it up on Google.

Oh, there is also a golf course and a neat Education Center.

Here is the the proof about the flooding in 2011.

It pretty much decimated lowland areas from Yankton to Omaha. I was in the mountains of Colorado and really did not notice it.

From Ponca I continued west to Lewis and Clark Lake.

This is the Big Kahuna recreation area for the Great Plains. 100’s of campsites on both sides of the lake. Nebraska and South Dakota. After another slight westward detour to Niobrara, I will visit the South Dakota side. Which is on the northern side of the lake.

That will be in the next blog post. But here is a sunrise photo from this morning on the Nebraska side.

I get up early. 3:30am California time.

Regards,

Greg

Two out of Three Ain’t Bad

 

To recap from my last post, I stayed three nights at Fremont SRA in Nebraska.

April 30th looked like this when I arrived.

May 1st looked like this.

The wind was blowing from the north at about 30 mph so I spent the day reading in my car. Miserable.

By the next morning the winds had stopped so I was able to check out the campground. There are 20 sand pit lakes here that provide a myriad of fun options.You can power boat in three of the lakes and fish and paddle in all of them. Swimming is allowed in four.

You can barely make out my trailer sitting all by it’s lonesome in the middle of the photo. Here is a closer look.

Crowds were not a problem. I imagine when it warms up they will appear because there are 168 campsites here, many on the water.

Just picture in your mind the green leaves on the trees, the blue sky, and kids frolicking on the beach while the coals get hot for a nice summer dinner.

Reality is the muddy roads I encountered leaving.

And I mean muddy!

I sure hope Glenn does not see this picture…

I arrived at Eugene T. Mahoney State Park as the sun broke through the clouds.

Which dried the mud on the trailer so it did not look as a bad.

With the weather being so unpredictable and it being temporarily sunny, I walked the 149 campsites. Which was a good thing as I never saw the sun again while I camped there. There are two campgrounds here, Little Creek and Lakeside. I really liked #52 at Little Creek, which is non-reservable.

The Ranger said that wildlife abounds behind the campsite.

The best reservable site is #129 at Lakeside.

Right behind the campsite is a little inlet so you basically have a whole peninsula to yourself. I camped on the other side of the inlet, another great spot, #110.

You see that building on the right? That is one of the amenities that they have here, a marina with paddle boat rental. And that is not the only one.

This is Nebraska’s premium campground, with a gazillion things to see and do. I will take you on a brief tour, heading counter-clockwise from my campsite.

Owen Marina on Baright Lake has a convenience store, ice cream parlor, fast food service, and an outdoor eating area in addition to the boat rentals.

And birds.

Next stop is Century Link Lake.

This is the main fishing area, a ten acre lake with two piers.

Nearby is the Peter Kiewit Lodge.

It has 40 guest rooms, a restaurant (which has a breakfast buffet Mon-Sat and brunch on Sunday), a gift shop, and a game room. It also has free wifi which I put to good use.

Then comes the Aquatic Center, complete with a giant pool and waterslide.

That’s not the waterslide, this is.

I drove past a playground,

A theater,

And an observation tower.

Continuing on I passed the stables.

They have both trail rides and pony rides available.

If you would rather swing some clubs or practice putting you can do that as well.

Last up is the Activity Center.

That giant open area contains the ice rink in the winter. They dismantled it because, well, it is supposed to be Spring by now.Inside is Valentino’s, which offers pizza and lasagna, and a rock climbing wall among other things.

Did I miss anything? Well, they also have tennis courts, a softball diamond, hiking and biking trails, an arts and crafts center, disc golf, and a sand volleyball court.

Oh, and if you are not into camping and the lodge isn’t your style, they offer 54 cabins as well.

Back at the campground there is a neat waterfall trail just across the road.

Pretty impressive, huh? Not your everyday State Park. But what impressed me the most was the delivery service. Valentino’s will deliver pizza to your campsite. I had to verify that so I gave them a call.

Let’s see:

Pizza? Check.

Heater borrowed from neighbor? Check.

Netflix on tablet? No check. Signal to weak.

But hey, two out of three ain’t bad.

Regards,

Greg