Up and on the road by 10:00 this morning. For some reason it took a little longer to put stuff away and get the trailer hooked up, not sure why though. Sometimes I think it might be nice to get one of those little 'back-up' camera's they have out there to make lining the hitch ball up with the receiver a lot easier. But most days it takes me less than 5-6 tries to get it all lined up and ready to go. I think today it may have been closer to 8, but I really wasn't counting. It was finally all hooked up and ready to go over to the dump site even though it seemed strange to be packing up and leaving just as everyone else was coming in and setting up. The campground still wasn't totally full when I left, but it might be as of this evening.
Got all of the tanks dumped and everything stowed away and hit the road south out of Chadron. Emma kept saying that the fastest way to Scott's Bluff was to go due south until you had nearly reached the highway along the North Platte River and then turn west. So that is what we indeed did. A very pleasant drive down passing through some of the sand hills with their miles and miles of pasture land and then all of the fields of corn along certain areas of the highway. Once down along the Platte River Valley you could add sugar beets to the list of crops being grown as well as some other grains of various kinds and even a couple of small truck farms growing some different kinds of veggies. All very pretty and all very American looking on this anniversary of our country's founding.
Pulled into the Riverside Campground around 1:00 pm this afternoon. Easy enough to find as it is right next door to the Scott's Bluff zoo, so I'll have to go wander around there at least once while I am in this area. Got all set up again and opened the trailer back up as much as I could. I have a nice enough spot here in the campground, but I don't have any trees around me at this site, so it is likely to get quite warm here during the day. It seems to be okay as long as I have the two portable fans going at least... must of been okay anyway, as I did manage to go in and fall asleep for a very nice nap after grabbing something quick to eat for lunch.
Was awoken when my nephew Luke gave me a call late this afternoon. He invited me over to their house for some dinner and a chance to go watch fireworks with them all later on. Couldn't refuse an invitation like that in any case. Only one problem though, after unhitching the trailer here at camp I moved it forward a couple feet to avoid the trailer receiver, just as I always do, but this time I forgot to take the key out of the ignition. Not only that, but when I grabbed the iPod out of the truck, I failed to switch the button that brought the regular radio stations back on line, so even though the radio was on you weren't hearing any static or other noise because it was still on the station the iPod uses.
Long story... short, the radio was left on and I ran the battery down yet again. This was the 2nd time in the past two months that I have managed to do this. Otherwise it has been a couple of years since I was last such an idiot. So I could of taken one of the trailer batteries off and used it to jump the truck, or used the trailer hook up to recharge the battery, but it was much easier to call Luke up and have him drive down and give me a jump. So that is what I did.
Got to see his and Kristen's new home they have been in for less than a year. Very nice tri-level in the town of Mitchell. Also good to see their kids again also. Aubree I saw about a week ago when she came up and went to the play with us all, but I hadn't seen Rykin since last August so it was nice to see the changes in him. Now at 14 months old he is up and walking, or should I say running, cuz that is what he seems to do most. Both very cute kids and both well behaved and very lovable.
We had a nice dinner of home made enchilada's with rice and beans. Oh how I love all foods Mexican and spicy. We visited together, and with some of their neighbors, for a while before loading up the vehicles to head into Scott's Bluff for the fire works display at the local collage. Turns out that the place to watch them from is the parking lot for the Kmart in town. It was already pretty full when we got there about 40 mins before dark, but people kept arriving and setting up lawn chairs or sitting on their cars. There was one heck of a good fire works show going on all around us as we sat there waiting for the main event. Turns out that lots of people load up on their own fireworks and then bring them all along and set them off in various area's of the parking lot. Many weren't all that great, but there were several groups there that had to have spent in the hundreds of dollars on some of the ones they were shooting off. It was quite spectacular at times, very loud at times and of course there was that little bit of insecurity and fear you felt when some of these things were going off essentially right above you. It was great!
The collage finally started shooting theirs off about 40 mins after dark. It was a good show over all, but it was somewhat overshadowed by some of the ones going off around us, plus all the lights in the Kmart parking lot were still on, so they didn't show up to there maximum best. It was still worth it though, and it kind of made me happy to look around at all of these people that were there all having such a good time.
It was finally over around 10:00 though, and that was enough for me. I'm back at the trailer right now and there are still fireworks going off all around me. It is going to be a very noisy night until at least midnight I think. Lot's of stuff to do around here starting tomorrow. Want to go out to Chimney Rock monument and the park at Scott's Bluff of course. There is also the lake out at Minatare SP and the 'lighthouse' they have out there to see. The zoo and what ever other museums and site's I can dig up. It will be a very fun couple of days I think.
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