August 22 to September 2, 2007 - From Washington to Nebraska

On August 22nd we left Rochester, WA and started our over 3,000 mile trip to Washington, DC.  We took I-5 south to I-205 and then I-84 east through the Columbia Gorge.  Here are some shots of the Columbia Gorge further east:

The Maryhill Museum on the Washington side of the river:

After 308 miles we were at Wildhorse Casino RV Park in Pendleton, OR.  We last stayed here in August 2004.

August 23rd we headed further east and after 312 miles we were camped at another familiar place, River Adventures Tours RV Park in Hagerman, ID with their nice large campsites.  We last stayed here in June 2004.

August 24th we drove into Twin Falls for shopping and to eat at Johnny Carinos. 

Then we visited Malad Gorge State Park which is next to the campground.

All this time we had been heading to Colorado to visit some friends and we were planning on staying over Labor Day weekend.  But they were having some family medical emergencies so we did a reroute.  We decided to take I-80 through Wyoming instead of going across Colorado since this would allow us some places to hang out for the holiday weekend.

August 25th we drove into Utah and after 209 miles we were camped at Century RV Park in Ogden, UT.  

August 26th we drove through southern Wyoming on I-80.  The weather was better than when we took this trip in 2002.  This is how the road looked:

Little America advertisements were common:

This is Little America, which has grown since 2002.

After 287 miles we ended up at the same campground in Rawlins, WY as in 2002, but this time we took pictures of RV World Camping:

We did unhook the car and drove around town since we felt guilty stopping in Rawlins twice and not touring the town.

August 27th we heading east and stopped for lunch at the Laramie Pass rest area.  Across the interstate is the big statue of Abe Lincoln:

A close up telephoto shot of the statue:

This time we decided to turn north inside Nebraska and visit Scotts Bluff National Monument instead of staying on I-80.

We decided to stay at Robidoux RV Park in Gering, which was highly rated on the internet.  After 256 miles here we were:

It is a very nice campground and reasonably priced.   We agreed with the internet reviewers.

And it has a view of Scotts Bluff National Monument:

August 28th we had lunch at Runza, a Nebraska fast food chain known for runzas, something like a wet pastie or a piroshki with cheese in it.  They are OK.

Then we headed for Scotts Bluff National Monument, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

August 29th we drove to North Platte and the Holiday Trav-L-Park.  Here is our campsite after a drive of 175 miles.

August 30th we drove 143 miles to Grand Island KOA in Doniphan, NE for four nights and Labor Day weekend.  This is the same campground we stayed in 2002.

Grand Island area was familiar, we had stayed two nights when we stopped in 2002.   We were now about half way to our goal of Washington, DC.

We had enjoyed the Stuhr Museum in 2002.  On September 1st we toured it again - Stuhr Museum, Part 1, Part 2

Newmar owners will understand the humor of this rebranded Newmar that stayed one night a few campsites from us:

The humor is Newmar made a "Northern Star" that no one from the South would buy because of the name.  For Newmar an "Aire" product is higher end than a "Star" product so a "Cajun Aire" is a Southern high end Newmar.

A photo of a ground squirrel at the campground.  Not as good a photo as the one at the Stuhr Museum, but these squirrels were more shy.

Sunset Photos from Grand Island

We ate at USA Steak Buffet, Fazoli's and the Mongolian Grill.  The Mongolian Grill was about as good as the one we liked in Woodinville, WA, a happy surprise.

We were also happy to find that downtown Grand Island was looking much better than in 2002 with new stores and people walking around.

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