July 6 New wagon wheels, John Cozad and Arches Monument

    Kearney, Nb.  - We left the campground to visit the nearby Fort Kearney.  The picture of its sign explains about it.  This small town is full of hotels, restaurants and nice neighborhoods with beautiful flowers.  Tom stopped in a gunshop called Old West Guns.  He saw some market value Garands at $800-850, some sporters and Winchesters.  We had to replace 2 tires on the camper today (new wagon wheels!)
    Arches Monument - this arch is built over I-80 and has a nice museum attached that has fabulous displays of life size people, animals and wagons.  First we walked the grounds, including on the bridge over the No. Platte River and saw the carp.  The place we stood at is where people feed them from-there is dog food for sale in a machine there.  This area saw the wagon trains, Pony Express, building of the railroad and the Lincoln Highway, which runs from NY City to San Francisco.  Between 1841 and 1866, 350,000 people traveled on this trail by wagon train etc.  The wagon in the picture which shows a man pulling it is called the Mormon wagon.  From the eastern Iowa city of Iowa City to Salt Lake City - 1350 miles -  it took 125 days to pull a wagon like this.
    It took  Pony Express riders 10 days to ride from the East to San Francisco to announce the beginning of the Civil War.  The new Union Pacific RR charged $50 to ride from Omaha to San Francisco-imagine the difference between that and months in covered wagons.
    As we walked back to our RV we saw a purple box hanging in a tree.  We have seen these in several state parks in several states and have never been able to figure out what they were for.  A sign said it was to protect the ash tree from the ash borer beetle and that 4 million trees in America have been destroyed by this bug.  The box appears sticky, like a fly strip.
    Jobs:  Highway billboard:  Gibbon Packing Plant has job openings.  $17.65 per hour and we work 50+ hrs per week.
    Lexington:  Sports teams are called Minutemen and Minuteladies.  Remember Concord and Lexington? Remember I said a few days back that it seemed any town with 10,000+ population had a Walmart?  The sign says this town has 10,011 and it has one.  We replaced 2 trailer tires which were wearing thin on the sides - probably the sun at the storage lot and at our camping lot at the river.  The ones on the other side get more shade.  Many signs in this town are in Spanish.  Tom went into the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles which a bunch of guys have put together and only charge a donation to enter.  Many vehicles indoors and out and lots of rifles, uniforms and memorabilia.
    Cozad -this little town was started by John Cozad, not the one who is our friend.
    Arrived in North Platte.  Found a campground at the beginning of town.  Tom was so hot and aggravated by mosquitoes getting camper set up.  We went to the Bailey Railroad yard-see pictures- and sat in the camper all evening again.  Could see people walking their dogs and swatting their faces, arms and legs.  It was 85 all afternoon and 90 at 6:00.  May rain tonight.