Beatrice, NE
Thursday, May 9
After taking a summer hiatus, I’m determined to wrap up the last few blog posts about our RV road trip from Florida to Wisconsin this past spring. Why? Well, because we’re about to hit the road again in our 24’ Winnebago View!
The last few days of our road trip in May felt like “home” which is likely why I never came back to finish my recap. It was home — we parked in my parent’s drive-way and mooched off their electricity for a few days Mother’s Day weekend. That said, we did kept a sense of adventure by exploring some “new to us” sights while we were there.
We left Waterville, KS on the morning of Thursday, May 9th and drove through Blue Rapids, KS on our way to Beatrice. This tiny Mid-west town was once a stop along the Pony Express and also boost a circle-shaped town square. Andi whipped the RV around the square a few times just for kicks.
We continued onward through Marysville, KS and eventually crossed into Nebraska. When I was a kid, we had family friends who lived in Marysville and we’d drive there often to visit them. I hadn’t been back there in 25 years so it was fun to jog my memories along the way.
In Beatrice, we decided to pay a visit to the Homestead National Monument. On this windy, cool day, we had the place to ourselves and it looked much different (newer!) than I remembered. In fact, it was a really nice facility and I couldn’t believe it’d been there — in my hometown — this entire time! Tory and Aden picked up Junior Ranger packets from the front desk, and then we walked through the exhibits learning more about the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed any qualified person to claim up to 160 acres of federally owned land in exchange for five years of residence and the cultivation and improvement of the property. Andi and I found it particularly interesting given all the information we’d learned thus far on our travels through the southeastern USA.
On the wall leading to the entrance of the building, each state has a cutout that represents the proportion of homesteaded land in that state.
After the kids both earned their Junior Ranger badges, we set off for my parent’s house across town. There are several hiking trails on the Homestead National Monument property which we would have liked to do, but it was too chilly outside to take advantage of them today.
Since we don’t have a mailbox on the road, we’d shipped a ton of packages to my parent’s address. Andi installed a rear sway bar on the RV that afternoon while I did some catch-up on my computer & organization in the RV. Tory and Aden kept themselves busy playing with their cousins. My mom showered them with loads of gifts, of course, since she hadn’t seen them since November.
My mom made tacos for dinner and then we all hung out together at their place for the rest of the evening. We camped in their drive-way that evening (thanks for the free hook-ups, Mom & Dad!). Tomorrow night, we planned to camp with cousins in the nearby town of Fairbury.
