Day 5 - (08/07) North Platte, NE

Nebraska is very wide when you travel from east to west, very flat between Omaha and North Platte, and is very hot today.  

We toured the Strategic Air & Space Museum after checking out of the Mahoney State Park, then drove 267 miles on I-80W to North Platte.  The temperature reached 99 just west of Lincoln.  We're about 175 miles from the Wyoming border.

The state park was an outstanding place to stay.  Our site was far from level, though.

Mahoney State Park offers great campsite views

Site #85 - the trailer is level, the pad isn't

The Strategic Air & Space Museum is located next to the state park.  It specializes in U.S. Air Force vehicles.  It's nicely done.  Here are a few views.

Entrance - Strategic Air & Space Museum

SAC (1946-1992)

SM-62 Snark missle

SR-71 Blackbird

U-2 Dragon Lady

B-17 Flying Fortress
(B-52 Stratofortess in the background)

B-25 Mitchell

C-47 (a.k.a. DC-3) Gooney Bird

Extended travel on I-80W revealed some interesting changes.  Most notable were the toasted condition of NE corn and soybean fields. The drought seems more devastating here than in IA.  Also, we see fewer crops and increased cattle grazing as we continue west.

Parched fields line the highway

We're camped at Holiday RV Park in North Platte.  They claim to be the best RV park in NE.  It's OK, but far from exceptional.

Site #31 is level

Nebraska is much less populous than we thought.  We were shocked to find we couldn't name any cities in the state other than Omaha and Lincoln without a map.