Clements Family Summer Vacation - 2010

Wow, it went by fast but we had a good time.  Left Omaha on June 4th returning on June 13th and that many days away is good for the soul and good for a person's mental health.  No work, no office, no life stress, everything slowing down and moving into the RnR mode, great times. 

1st Stop - Indian Cave State Park - Shubert Nebraska in Richardson County right on the Missouri River.  A very interesting park with hills and a LOT of shade throughout the park.  Campsites were good sized and pelantiful to say the least.  No full hook ups here but thats generally not a worry for a stay of only a couple of days.  The cave is pretty cool and its ALL the way on the far end of the park, feels like you are driving forever as this park is bigger than it seems.  Part of the park includes remains of the old settlement of St Deron with a school house and a store as well as a seperate area with living history set ups including a blacksmith, soap maker and candle maker.  Another highlight of the park is the overview area at the top of the park - gret view of the river and beautiful countryside.  Our pictures are included in a slideshow on the right side of this blog so I wont include a LOT of pictures here but here are a couple (click on any pic to enlarge)...

Indian Cave

View our or door - Site 31

My Girls

Indian Cave SP Overlook - Pic does not do it justice...

We pulled out of Indian Cave on Monday at Noon headed for stop 2.

Stop 2 - Kansas City staying at Worlds of Fun Village -  Worlds of fun village is an RV'ers RV Park with all the bells and whistles, this is like the 5 STAR hotel in the hotel world - Its as good as it usually gets for Campers and Rv'ers - Cable hook ups, sewer, electrical and water, full concrete pad with a pool, hot tup, arcade, convenience store and laundry all on site...  We were definately a little fish in a big world here as there were several HUGE rigs there, many costing more than my HOUSE....  BUT, it was nice, very nice...

Tuesday in KC we really had nothing scheduled, we knew we had 3 full days to to WOF and the KC zoo so on Tuesday we did laundry, ate bar-b-que and watched it rain... 

Wednesday was Worlds of Fun, now I am telling you I will probably NEVER go to worlds of fun again on a busy summer weekend, there was NEVER a wait for Any rides and not fighting crowds was a great bonus, the park was nice, it wasn't too hot, we took in a couple shows and some rides as well as some games.  Didnt spend lots of $$$$ on the food at the park as our camper was only a few blocks away...  :-)

Thursday was the KC Zoo.  When you have the HD Zoo in Omaha you kind of get spoiled because it is as good as it gets in the US.  The KC Zoo wasnt bad by any means but just not near then quality of the one in Omaha - None the less we had a good time...  A few pics with the rest in the slideshow above.

     Arthur Bryants at the Casino

    My two favorite' s at the KC Zoo

    WOF Village Entrance                           Site 81 - WOF Village

We pulled out of KC friday at noon headed for stop 3.

Stop 3 - Viking Lake State Park - With Maggie on the fritz we took the rounte I THOUGHT she has wanted us to take by getting off I-29 north at Rock Port and going cross country up to Stanton, as it turns out it may have been better to take I-29 all the way north to the Red Oak exit and head straight east to the park - Its about 35 miles east of the interstate and the "Fastest Time" according to Maggie was going cross country - seemed like it took us forever BUT we did see some nice countryside...  Viking lake was hyped by some fellow campers and it is a nice park with a restraunt, convenience store, decent sites with sewer and water (always a plus) and very picturesque.  Warm, humid and rain off and on the whole time we were there and we were getting a bit tired so maybe that dulled my view of the park.  Not really anything wrong with it just not up to what I had expected from all the hype.  We finally had a campfire on our last night out and it was nice to relax and sit around the fire that night.  Sunday morning dodging rain while trying to pack up the camper left me a bit crabby but all in all lit was a great family trip...  A few pics of Stop 3...

Viking Lake State Park - #65

Final night campfire

Dutch Oven Egg Bake - YOU BET...

 

Now we just need to start thinking about our 10 day family vacation in 2011 - Branson or Rocky Mountain National Park anyone????

Until next time, save travels...

2010 Trip 3 - Fremont State Lakes

Its good to finally get out and be able to wear shorts and a t-shirt, now it was a bit windy so sweatshirts were in order in the morning and the evening BUT to finally be out when the temp is in the 70's was fantastic.  It was a bit windy at times, well that is anytime we were not trying to fly the kites :-).

We camped with Pat/Brian and Noah and Noah's buddy Joe and Jodi/Bernie and Blacker so I took the camper out Thursday evening to stake our "claim".  Probably was not needed BUT we wanted a certain area where we can all be side by side with a big "yard" to share.  Nebraska State Parks are not generally reservable until closer to Memrial Day so its first come first served...  A big plus is that they were still charging winter rates and $13 for an electrical is a great deal. 

Friday night we had a roaring campfire and sat around and drank some GREAT scotch that Bernie had brought along.  The margaritas Jodi made were pretty tasty as well.

Saturday morning brought the usual routine of coffee sitting outside the camper, man it really is relaxing and peaceful in the mornings.  We had other guests during the day as well as most of the Mitchells, Henkeinus's and Schuberts stopped out along with Travis and his girls.  I had thought maybe Hildings might stop out but it is Masters weekend.  We broke out into a battle of FARKLE which yours truely won as well as the bean bag toss and threw the football around a little.  I really like the SOCIAL aspect of camping and had a nice time.

Saturday for supper Bernie tried out his new "Can Cooker" and Brian and I cooked with the dutch ovens.  That can cooker does a real nice job and the Pizza out of Brian's dutch oven was definately something I want to try sometime.  We were all satisfied with the Saturday night meal and Brian even brought Ice Cream for everyones' Peach Suprise...

Sunday we meandered around loading up the camper, we werent in too big of a hurry and even contemplated staying another day, AHHHHH, I guess there is always next time... I guess Alyssa's T-Shirt says it best...

Until Next Time - Safe Travels

BC

Alyssa's Camping T-Shirt

Valerie and Brian "Relaxing"

Three Maidens all in a Row...

2010 - The First Trip - Spontaneity at its FINEST....

3:30 PM Thursday afternoon and Alyssa sends me a TEXT, "Hey Dad, let’s go camping!" I hit the reply button and start to put in reasons why we can’t go camping and then it struck me, hey, we can go camping!!!! Valerie and I had already taken the day Friday off because it was Alyssa's last day of spring break but we did have Saturday plans. Fast FORWARD 36 minutes, it’s now 4:06 and I get a hold of my wife... "Wife", I say "Let's get out with the camper tonight, I don’t have the new tags on the camper yet, can you get to the DMV and make it happen all before they close at 4:30?" I hear a silence and then a profound "YES" and she's off... 4:33pm I receive a text "The Eagle Has Landed, I repeat the Eagle Has Landed..." and we're off.... Backing in and setting up in the twilight at about 7:15pm has got to be the quickest preparation and execution of a trip we've made to date.... It helps when your wife has been "frothing at the mouth" to do some camping.... :-)

Two Rivers is only about 16 miles from our house and about 8 miles from where the camper is in storage. We unwinterized and since no facilities were available at the campgrounds yet and everything seems to have weathered the LONG COLD WINTER just fine.

Did a little fishing, sat by the campfire, you know the routine. Biggest problem we ran into is that the dump station (which was open when we pulled through on Thursday) was closed on Saturday morning so we just skipped it and pulled the camper home, we'll hit one on the way out this weekend - Louisville so we can be in the proximity of Judy and Daves for Easter on Sunday...

Pictures to follow - Until next time..... Safe Travels

Fillin Up the Fresh Water Tank

Our Site - Lakeside #22

Now thats a FIRE....

Friday morning 7AM - And everyone else is headed to the office...  Oh Yea...

Our coffee maker died so we did it the old fashioned way...  Not TOO Bad...  :-)

Louisville State Rec Area

We made our first trip of the year to Louisville, we always like this park as its close to home and has a nice layout. The Thomas's camped next to us and we had visitors on Saturday, Rauerts and Travis and Mark stopped out. Sharing our camping makes it all that much more enjoyable. The Weather was a bit hot with the temp hitting 99 on Saturday and lots of scattered thunderstorms on Sunday. It made it a bit interesting getting packed up and out of there on time. Anyhow, enjoy the pics from our latest trip...

Two Smiles at the same time... :-)

Cool panaroma of our campsites

And about 90% Humidity...

Swimming was a good way to keep cool, and another smile...

Lots of action on the river as well...

SMORES anyone???

The Thomas Abode...

Yummies around the campfire...

Dont think the heavy stuff is gonna come down for a while...

Good times, good times...

Safe Travels until next time...

Happy 4th Everyone - God Bless the USA

This year we made our 4th of July trip to Branched Oak Rec Area outside of Lincoln. It was our first trip to this park and we'll be back for sure. We had a nice time there and the Johnsons were there and are still there as we speak and Barb and Tim came up on Saturday.

Although the weather was not the best it was actually better than being 105 in the shade and Sunday was the best day of all, we did get some swimming in before we left. This trip made me want to look into a small boat even more, so who knows what the future will bring.

It two weeks we are off to Big Lake in Missouri. We are meeting several friends from college there and are trying to revive an annual trip we did in the ninties with a bunch of WSC friends. We are really looking forward to it and Corey, Kim and Gaby are going with us.

Branched Oak Trip Pictures:

Swimming on Sunday

One of the best parts of camping.

Ever try to catch fireworks on a pocket digital camera?

Cheers...

Going FISHIN...

Mama caught the big one...

USA, USA, USA, USA....

Concentration...

Big DOG....

See you next time...

Trip 17 - Fremont State Lakes

We made it back in one piece from Fremont this afternoon. We really had a fun time despite the weather not being the best, but at least it was dry during the day and everyone had a fun time. Pictures for now more dialogue later... (I'm Tired :-) )