May 7, Friday
Eugene T. Mahoney State Park
We left around 10 am. We drove state highways most of the way, which were in excellent condition. Along the way, we stopped at a full-service gas station in Springfield and the attendant even scrubbed the bugs off of our windshield and side mirrors. Besides a couple of construction zones and wind gusts up to 30 mph, it was a nice drive. We arrived at Mahoney State Park around 2 pm. After a quick check-in, we filled up with fresh water at the dump station and parked in Site 31 in the Little Creek Campground. It was a short, narrow site that was barely long and wide enough for our truck and trailer. The back of the site had a steep wooded ravine, and our grassy area was rather small but had a fire ring. The site was paved and level, so we could set up quickly.
Holy Family Shrine
The small chapel was 10 miles from the park’s entrance, so we decided to run over and look at it quickly. The idea for the shrine was hatched in 1993, and a series of miracles led to the acquisition of property and the building of the shrine, which opened in 2002. This unique church stands on a hill visible from both directions on I-80. It is a glass-walled Catholic chapel that is 45 ft tall. The church is reminiscent of E. Fay Jones’ Thorncrown in Eureka Springs, Arkansas from which the architect admits he drew his inspiration.
You have to take a gravel road to the parking lot, which sits in front of an underground visitor center built into a hill. It has restrooms, a small gift shop, and a gathering place. A spiral fountain is dripping into a small pond cut into the floor. A man-made stream is cut along the walkway to the entrance and then into the floor of the nave.
You get to the chapel along the small garden path and water channel. The timbers of the church were a little weather-worn in spots but very beautiful. A small path goes down the bluff to the Stations of the Cross area, which is still a work in progress.
Schramm Park and Platte River
After we left the shrine, we wandered down to Schramm Park. It had a closed Fish farm museum and was crowded with geese and their hatchlings that had covered the surrounding ground with poop. They also made us very nervous about wandering around too much or getting close to the ponds since we feared they would attack us.
On our trip back to the park, we stopped at a roadside and admired the wide Platte River and the crazy sand bars in it.
Mahoney State Park
When we returned to the trailer, we enjoyed dinner and then drove around the park. We went into the lodge which was huge and it had a nice restaurant. We saw a putt-putt course. tennis courts, a large pool, a rope course, an activity center, a movie theater, a marina with paddle boats and kayaks, a camp store with soft-serve ice cream, riding stables, and a lot of trails with boardwalks. There were a lot of cabins of various sizes that looked brand new. There was an observation tower also but the path to it was closed because of construction. The park was very well maintained, but because of all the attractions, I felt like we were in an amusement park, not a state park.
When we got back to the trailer, the campground was almost full. We settled in for the night and watched TV until we went to bed.
May 8, Saturday
Wildlife Safari Park, Ashland Nebraska
After a great breakfast of granola pancakes and bacon, we headed over to the Wildlife Safari Park around 10 am. The Lee G. Simmons Conservation Park and Wildlife Safari had bison, elk, and pelican areas that you could drive through and some walking trails that took you to cranes, wolves, bears, and eagle cages. It was pretty small, and the animals were generally some distance away from us. There was also a small Prairie Dog Town near the visitor center but we only saw two of them. We did enjoy ourselves, though.
Dairy Queen
For lunch, we decided to go to Dairy Queen. When we got there, we each decided on the $7 meal, including a 1/3 cheeseburger, fries, diet coke, and a flurry. It was too windy to eat outside, so we drove to the parking lot of the Strategic Air Command Museum, which was 6 minutes away. The flurry was melting before we arrived, but we both quickly gobbled up the lunch and ice cream. We were pretty stuffed when we headed into the museum.
Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum
After lunch, we drove over to the Strategic Air Command and Aerospace Museum. The museum is a Smithsonian affiliate and the home to the largest collection of Cold War aircraft and artifacts in the United States! We were able to get up and close to iconic aircraft, including the SR-71 Blackbird, nine bombers, including a B-36J “Peacemaker,” a B-17 Flying Fortress’ and a B-1A “Lancer”, missiles, spacecraft such as the Apollo Command Space Module, as well as a collection of Astronaut Clayton Anderson artifacts, Nebraska’s astronaut. There were also several exhibits that included artifacts and information about General Curtis E. LeMay, Francis Gary Powers, Doolittle’s Tokyo Raiders, famous women of flight, and many others. We spent about four hours in the museum.
Evening
There was a threat of rain starting at about 5 pm, so we hurried back after leaving the museum to pack up the trailer and connect it to the truck. It did not take long before we got everything packed, the slide in, and the camper connected to the truck. All we had was the tongue jack, electrical cord, and wheel chocks left to secure in the morning. We were still very full from lunch so we just relaxed and watched TV for a while. It did not start raining until about 7-8 pm, and though it was a strong thunderstorm, it did not take long for the storm to blow over. It did continue to rain until after we went to bed.
9 May, Sunday
We woke up around 6-7 am, and after a quick breakfast, we finished packing up. We were at the dump by 8 am and first in line. Several other trailers pulled in just after us while we were dumping. With 149 sites and no full hookups, we knew the two dump locations would be busy.
The drive was heavily overcast with rain clouds, but we got very little rain on the way home. We stopped once for gas and coffee. We arrived at the trailer storage at about noon without mishap.