2015 Western Trip – Days 4-6 - Kansas City & North Platte

My favorite part about blogging has been the people I’ve met electronically and then in person and the friendships this has led to.  Dave and Jackie Scott are one of those couples, having met them when they drove all the way from Kansas City to attend our 2012 blogger party, returning in 13 and 14.  Since our route for this trip took us thru KC, a meet up was a must, so we had lunch a place called Jazz, along with their friends and fellow RVers, Dan & Jackie.  Left to right are me, Jackie, Dan, Pat, Jackie, Bev, Dave.

We stopped that night at the KOA in Salina, KS which was a typical early generation KOA and hasn’t been updated much.  Like the other places so far it was okay to spend a night or two and very convenient to the interstate and fuel places at exit 252.  One nice thing was that it was cooler and much less humid than Columbia, MO the previous days.  From there, we headed up US-83 which was a very nice four-lane road that gave us a fine view of Kansas farming – mostly corn and soybeans.  We then drove I-80 into North Platte, NE and found it to be another road in good condition.

We stayed at the Holiday RV Park (pretty much our only option) and it was another older grass and gravel campground and was a little tight for our rig.  But we managed to get in and out and it had an excellent cable TV and WiFi.  The first full day we did a few chores on the RV, drove around North Platte and had breakfast at Penny’s Dinner – reminded me a little of Waffle House, with a good short order cook being the key to the operation.

I had the best breakfast of the three called the Sunrise Skillet, composed of vegetables, hash browns, meat (ham for me), with cheese and eggs on top.  It was very good and I took about half of it home.

After that we drove by the Buffalo Bill Cody Ranch – here are some excepts about it from Wikipedia – “In 1883, in the area of North Platte, Nebraska, Cody founded "Buffalo Bill's Wild West", a circus-like attraction that toured annually.”  “In 1893, Cody changed the title to "Buffalo Bill's Wild West and Congress of Rough Riders of the World". The show began with a parade on horseback, with participants from horse-culture groups that included US and other military, cowboys, American Indians, and performers from all over the world in their best attire.”  “With his profits, Cody purchased a 4,000-acre (16 km2) ranch near North Platte, Nebraska, in 1886. Scout's Rest Ranch included an eighteen-room mansion and a large barn for winter storage of the show's livestock.”  “Buffalo Bill located Scouts Rest Ranch at North Platte because it allowed him to move his Wild West Show by train or by wagon across the United States relatively quickly.” 

Buffalo Bill later was instrumental in founding Cody, WY and we’ll have more on that when we get there.

Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/27 – 7/29/15 event dates