Places revisited

Evening, Campers! It's Silver Cliche' here with you. You may remember that this trip combines stops at new places (like Rocky Mountain National Park) with a bunch of return visits to places we've stopped before (like our niece's in Del Norte, Colorado).  Well, tonight we are at one of those spots we've been before... the home of one of Mrs. C's former coworkers and her husband in Clarkson, Nebraska.

Clarkson is a town of,about 650 population located an hour and a half drive northwest of Omaha and about the same southwest of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It's principal product is without a doubt corn. Second to that is hospitality. Our host and hostess greeted us with a great Nebraska day, a fantastic spot to relax with lemonade, lawnchairs and laughter and a great dinner followed by more lawnchair time. Now  we are relaxing in our own guest house (that's what we call the Airstream when it's parked in someone else's driveway) and getting ready to turn in.

We drove a bit over 4 hours east from North Platte with a mix of Interstate (I-80 eastbound) and State roads. The last time we were in Nebraska it was July and the corn was as high as an elephant's forehead. All day long we saw farmers planting the corn that will be that tall this July. They take their farming seriously here. Fields the size of eastern US cities are criss-crossed by tractors as big as locomotives pulling all variety of plows, sowing machines and 

spreaders. While we did see some feed lots today we were blessed by that fact that all were downwind.

The most striking aspect of today's trip was the fact that a long stretch of secondary road (US 30) became an exercise in navigating from beacon to beacon as we moved from Grand Island toward our destination. Here on the plains of Nebraska the beacons are not lighthouses, they are grain elevators. For about an hour we traveled bone-straight US 30 moving northeast. As we rolled along we would pass a grain elevator and about the time we passed one the next one would appear on the horizon. Like lighthouses in the prairie, these mammoth structures provided assurance that we were heading in the right direction. We stopped in the shadow of one of the monsters to make lunch in the trailer. Here's a pic of us parked in East Bugtumble, Nebraska in the parking lot of the "Pump and Pantry" (loved the pantry, didn't try the pump):

 

So I'm taking a day off tomorrow. I hope to locate and assess the leak in the fresh water system. I was hoping to repair the leak, but after consultation with the Airstream community my expectation of that are extremely slim. We'll try to limp home leaving a trail of water drops like Hansel and Gretel with their breadcrumbs and tackle the tank replacement when time and tools permit. I should be back online on Wednesday.

Later...

SC'