Tuesday September 26th
I got off to a bit later start than usual that day. There wasn’t so much to see, and I was driving east, right into the rising sun, so I wanted it to be a bit further above the horizon. The first stop wasn’t far along, in Lincoln, the capital of Nebraska, but quite a small city for a capital, only about 300,000. My destination was the Sunken Gardens. I turned off I-80, drove over quite a long bridge where the highway went over some industrial/commercial areas, then past the Capitol building and some other city buildings near the city centre, before getting to the gardens around 10.
The gardens were fairly small, and there wasn’t a lot of fanfare about them, just a sign and a fairly small parking lot. I had read about these gardens while researching what there was to see along this part of the route.
There weren’t many people there, which was surprising, as the gardens were spectacular, with huge plantings of impatiens and begonias, as well as other flowers. It always amazed me seeing some of these plants sitting in the open in full sun. In one spot there was a patio paved with a lot of bricks, many of which had people’s names on them, perhaps people who had supported or funded the park.
I left about 11.15, and went in search of some supplies. I needed bread, and I think some tomatoes and perhaps lettuce for sandwich-making. I saw on the map that there was a grocery store within walking distance, so rather than navigate the roads to get there, I just walked over. It was the strangest place, which had nothing I was looking for. I think it was probably an Asian grocery. I asked if they had bread, and they didn’t even have that! It was getting toward lunchtime, so I kept driving on, looking for somewhere to eat. I thought I would try the small town of Waverly, just a little way out of Lincoln.
I drove out of Lincoln along a lesser highway, and stopped at a parking lot on the outskirts of Waverly, and got my groceries at a market there. There was a nice girl on the checkout, and I mentioned my drive across Nebraska, I think she asked me what I thought of Nebraska, and I said, flat with corn fields, and she agreed! As I left, she said, “God bless”, which was lovely. I don’t think I can remember anyone ever saying that here, without knowing I was a Christian. Back in the parking lot, there was a McDonalds (which were absolutely everywhere, even in smallish towns), and a bar and grill type of place. I wasn’t keen on either, and I had a look on the map and found a diner that seemed to be well spoken of, just a couple of minutes away.
It took me a while to actually find it. I drove by it a couple of times and circled around, I think it looked so small, almost like some utility building, without really having a sign in front of it. I parked on the street near it, and located it eventually, and went inside, Vike’s Corner it was called. There were quite a few people inside the small place, and a few people waiting, who indicated that they were ahead of me in the queue. When I got to order, I noticed that you could order some things as either burgers or “phillys”. I asked what a philly was, and how it was different from a burger, and the lady explained something along the lines that it was on a roll, rather than a burger bun. I ordered a philly cheesesteak, which was a kind of iconic item.
I found a park nearby, and sat under a shelter to eat it. It was pretty nice, a large amount of steak, definitely a decent meal. From there I joined I-80 again and not long afterwards came to Eugene T Mahoney State Park. Americans seem to like naming things after people. This was on the Platte River, which the I-80 had followed for all of the previous days’ drive pretty much, since coming out of Denver. Eventually it started winding around as the highway went straight, and this park was one of the places where the river crossed the highway again.
I paid for entry into the park had a look around. There were quite a lot of different areas, including a couple of lakes, a zip line (I’m not sure it was in operation), some kind of adventure centre, and stables. I think the road around the park was one way, and I circled around then went back in, and found a lookout tower (the Walter Scott Jr observation tower, more names!) which I climbed. There were wasps which had taken residence at the top, so I had to be careful. The views were beautiful over the river, which was quite large. As I was coming down, a park official was coming up to spray the wasps.
There was a little track heading off into some forest nearby which I followed for a while. There wasn’t any way through to the river. A train line ran on the edge of one of the branches of the river, and the main river was further off, across that branch. After passing through the city of Omaha on the highway, I entered Iowa, where the speed limit was lower, 70mph. There were well-appointed rest stops at regular intervals along the highway all through I-80 and other highways. The fanciest of them had a service station, a restaurant or two, and maybe a few shops, as well as toilets. Most of them had at least toilets (in a nice building), and vending machines if there were no food outlets, and seats outside to sit and eat.
A couple of hours or so later I turned off before the centre of Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, to my campground, called Bob Shelter campground, on the northern outskirts of the city. I passed some kind of military establishment which as I recall had a plane or some other impressive piece of military hardware at the carpark. The campground was next to a large reservoir, with a large steep embankment shoring it up. It was below the embankment, which towered above the road, and water poured down a channel at the bottom of the wall, along a canal, which I think then became a river. It was clearly a popular fishing spot, with a few people fishing there as I went by, and a couple of parking lots.
The entry hut didn’t seem to be staffed and there was a number to ring which I tried, and it didn’t answer, and as I was doing that, a park person came along and told me where I needed to go, and what was where. My camp site was not in the main area, but a little area next to the water channel, backing onto it. The down side was that the toilet nearest to that area was just a pit toilet. Though the sites were fairly open, it was quite a peaceful spot, even though the channel didn’t look very natural!
There was some kind of longish grass between my spot and the channel, and I had a bit of a walk around, and climbed up the embankment to have a look at the reservoir itself, which was quite pretty. From the top you could look down along the channel and see some tall buildings which were probably central Des Moines, in the far distance. I ate dinner, and went for another walk, across the channel this time. There was another toilet block about 10 minutes walk away, and I found they were more civilised with washbasins and things, but it wasn’t worth going all the way across there to brush my teeth.
As usual I lay on my bed with my clothes on before going to bed – it warmed the bed up, and was fairly comfortable to upload photos and post things on social media. But I must have picked up a spider or something, because I got bites on my legs that night, and the next night or two. I eventually sprayed the sheets with insect spray, which sorted out the problem.
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