Day 13 – Travel Day – North Platte to Chappell NE – 96 miles through more of Ne

We didn’t make many miles today, but Bill has lots he want to see re the Transcontinental Railroad. We were a bit slow getting out of North Platte this morning, leaving the campground at 10:15. We got gas and made one stop at a rest area before arriving at Creekside RV park in Chappell at 12:30 mountain time. This is truly in the middle of nowhere! It is not a fancy RV park, but we have all the hookups for an inexpensive charge. We are also less than 2 blocks from the train tracks/silo, so we are getting our fill of railroad ambiance. We got setup, and then Bill wanted to go sight-see which in this neck of the woods means driving for miles in the hot Tracker to see a roadside marker!

I did go with him this time and got my photo taken at a scenic overlook of nothingness. Then he wanted to drive the 15 miles to Julesburg CO. He loves the fact that Julesburg was moved 4 times – 1st time it was burned by Indians, 2nd move to be near Ft Sedgwick, and the 3rd move was to the railroad, and the 4th move was to another railroad junction. There isn’t much to see, but Bill did find Ft Sedgwick in Julesburg 4. We got there, and the sign said closed on Mondays! I got out to take a photo of the closed sign when a nice lady opened the door and invited us in. She is the director of the small museum and was working on her day off. She gave us a 5 minute over-view, and then went about her work while we roamed the museum for half an hour.

We came back to Chappell (pop. approx.. 1300) and tried to find some roasted chicken for dinner. The Red Rooster Café didn’t have any white meat, so we went to the grocery store. They had sold out. We finally ended up at Burgies, a bowling alley where the manager said she could fix us up. We waited at the bar with an older gentleman who seemed to be just passing the time there. We had a pleasant chat with him and brought our chicken back to the RV.

It was quite hot today, once again in the 90s, but it seems to be cooling off nicely at night. We have another large cottonwood tree (one of only a few in the campground) next to us which provides some nice shade.