Diablo was back on the road as we headed to Lathrop State Park. The park’s outside of Walsenburg, Colorado. We were here sometime last year and found it works as a good stopping point on our way north.
We started hiking the next morning on the Hogback Trail. We did this trail when last year and thought it was a decent little loop trail. This time Will somehow got off onto another trail and there we were yet again trying to find out where we went wrong. Well, we wanted to get another mile or so in anyway, right? Eventually, we found our way back to the right trail. The hike was a much more enjoyable hiking it in October than it was in July the year before as it was much cooler.
We had read the fall colors were peaking in the nearby town of Cuchara. The ski resort of Cuchara was started in the 1980’s and was in operation for almost 20 years. Once it ceased operations people would come, hike up and ski down the former ski trails. In 2017 the county bought the base area and is still in the process of bringing back lift service. They have a cafe there where we had a nice lunch and yes, the fall colors were gorgeous.
We continued our trip to the Denver area the next morning. This time staying at the Bear Creek Lake Park. It’s a city run park that is over 2,400 acres. Some of the amenities include camping, swimming, fishing, and bike trails. The main issue we found with this park is the water fill. There is only one place to fill RV tanks with fresh water and it was really slow. We got set-up and made our way to visit the granddaughters. It was great to see them even if it was only for a couple of hours.
We brought our bikes and decided to check out the park’s bike trails the following day. With us not having ridden our bikes in quite some time, the hills and the elevation did us in. We were dead after our little ride.
For dinner that night, Will had invited another couple over for steaks. We met them at the water fill, and they seemed to be fun. We had a blast with Mark and Jewelyn. They are full timing in their RV and have been on the road a little over a year. He plays guitar and she sings so we even got some entertainment. It was a fun evening.
We had a long drive the next day as our stop was Kearney, Nebraska. Got to our campsite at the Kearney State Recreation Area and Will noticed that one of our toilets had a slight leak. We got lucky that there’s was an RV parts store in Kearney and even better they had the part we needed.
We then drove over to the Archway Museum. This museum actually goes over I-80. The museum opened in 2000 and spans I-80. Kearney has been an important crossroads where the Oregon Trail, California Trail, and the Mormon trail converge before heading west. Route 30 (Lincoln Highway) also ran through Kearney. Route 30 was the first transcontinental highway. It ran from New York all the way to San Francisco. The museum was interesting as it went through the various westward migrations and the birth of traveling cross country via automobile.
From the arch we headed to the GW Frank Museum. Frank was a businessman from Iowa that purchased land from the Union Pacific Railroad in Kearney. Years later he and his wife decided to put down roots and build a mansion in Kearney. It was the first house in the area with all the modern amenities in the 1890’s hot and cold running water, electricity, and plumbing among others. The mansion was built by his son a Harvard educated architect. There was an economic crisis in 1893 that caused George to sell all his land holdings including eventually his house. The house became a sanitarium, and at one point a Nebraska State tuberculous hospital. Later it was finally sold to the University of Nebraska at Kearney as a Historic Home and Museum.
We headed out the next morning to our next stop the Thomas Mitchell Park. A county park outside Des Moines, Iowa. This park is only about 200 acres and has a small campground. We only had one night there and as we got there late in the day; we just had enough time to check out part of one of the park’s hiking trails.
We moved on to the Hollywood Casino in Joliet, Illinois. And according to them the only casino in the mid-west with an RV park. We thought. It was pricey for just a water and electric lookup, but there aren’t too many options for RV parks in the Chicago metro area. We went to visit my brother and his family that evening. It’s been a few years since we’ve seen them, and it was nice to catch up.
The city of Joliet was once known as the “City of Stone and Steel”. This was due to the steel mills and limestone quarries in the area. The city has even created a hiking/biking trail area that goes around some of the remnants of one of the former steel mills. So, we drove over to walk the path and learn more about what it was like to work in one of those factories in the mid to late 1800’s. Joliet at that time had immigrants from many countries. Those that could not speak English did the more dangerous jobs for little money. 150 years later and not much has changed.
Joliet is the home to two casinos and since we were staying at one, we figured we’d try our luck. I came out about $80 dollars ahead and Will lost his money pretty quickly.
We were off the next morning to NW Indiana to visit my good friend Andrea. Diablo fit pretty well in her driveway. Andrea kept Will busy with her “honey do list”. We grabbed dinner that night at Wagner’s. A great little place for some BBQ. Then we drove further to New Buffalo, Michigan and Four Winds Casino. Andrea and I came out ahead, sadly Will did not fare as well, but we had a good time.
Andrea did give Will a break so we could check out the Dunes. Or the big sand hills on shores of Lake Michigan. Since I grew up in the Chicago area, I had been to the Dunes a few times. There is both a state and national park component to the Dunes. We decided to at least check-out a portion of the National Park. While it had been a National Lakeshore since 1966, it only received National Park status in 2019.
We walked for a bit along the shore and viewed the carousel of homes. The carousel of homes are 5 “futuristic” homes that were built for the 1934 World’s Fair in Chicago. The homes were moved to their current location via barge across the lake.
We drove down further and went to Mount Baldey the tallest dune within the National Park at 126 feet.
We took off the next morning and headed down to Indianapolis. We had planned this RV trip around the P!nk concert. Andrea was following us down to attend the concert as well. Our friend Dan was supposed to join us as well, but unfortunately, he had to cancel. P!nk did a great job and her flying over the crowd is always one of the highlights.
Andrea spent the night in Diablo and joined us the next day as we toured around Indy a bit. We started at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is actually is own separate town surrounded by the city of Indianapolis. We learned that the track used to be a brick track until the 1930’s when it was paved over except for a 3-foot-wide section of bricks at the start/finish line. It is a tradition that the winner of the 500 would kiss the bricks after winning. When our guide, “Gator” found out we were from New Mexico he relayed the story of how Al Unser taught him how to spell Albuquerque correctly. He was an interesting character with a great memory of the race car drivers at Indy.
From the Speedway we went to the NCAA Hall of Champions. They have interesting tidbits on the various NCAA sports and some of the athletes throughout the years. Former Cleveland football player Jim Brown was also a champion Lacrosse player in college. There were some interactive portions of the museum as well. Will and I couldn’t resist getting on that ski machine.
The next morning Andrea headed back home, and we headed down further south to Evansville, Indiana and back to the Central time zone. Indiana is one of those states where most of it is in the Eastern Time Zone. But both the NW and SW corners of the state have a number of counties in the Central time zone. When I was growing up in Illinois, we learned that the portion of Indiana that was in the Eastern time zone did not practice daylight savings time. And it wasn’t until 2005 that the state passed a law that the state would now recognize DST. While most states are trying to pass laws to get rid of changing times Indiana has done the opposite.
We only had one night in Evansville so, we hit up the casino. Heck why not, I had pretty good luck, but sadly again Will just didn’t have the touch.
