Rivers West Tour - Day 8

It rained all night again, but cleared up in the morning.  This was another travel day, this time with a stop en route.  Unfortunately, we almost didn't make it to that stop.

We're towing a car using a tow dolly and whenever we take off on a travel day, we have to reload the car.  This usually goes very smoothly with me driving the car and David directing me.  This time however, because of the aforementioned rain and the thick gravel, I had trouble climbing the step onto the dolly; my tires just spun once the front ones got off the ground.  David told me to make a running start and press hard on the accelerator.  This worked except that I managed to overshoot and pinned David to the back of the motorhome.  He ended up with his back against the RV and the car in his lap. 

We were the last to leave except for the tail gunner and his wife and they both came running.  They managed to extricate David from under the car, but then there was the problem of getting the car onto the dolly proper.  Two of the campground employees came to our rescue and using heavy duty jacks and boards and blocks managed to jack up the car high enough that I was able to back it back down onto the dolly itself.  There are no pictures of this, because I didn't have my camera and I was stuck in the car the whole time because I couldn't open the car door. 

We managed to leave only about half an hour late and made it to the stop on time.

The stop en route this time was the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center in Nebraska City, NE.  Their claim to fame is a replica of the keel boat used on the journey.  The tour started out at the keel boat where we learned more about the people and conditions on the expedition.

Keel Boat from Walkway

Keel Boat from other side

A picture of the whole group

 After the talk we all got to explore the Interpretive Center itself where there were lots of exhibits and of course, a movie.

Interpretive Center

On the way back to the motorhome, I took this picture of some of the motorhomes lined up along the drive.  Ours is the third from the back.  There are 25 RV's in our group, most with cars, and they were all parked along the roads in the order you arrived.  Fortunately, one of the employees was kind enough to transport everyone parked down toward the end up to the center.

When we made it to the Pine Grove RV Park where we'll be parked for two nights, we immediately took off to find some lunch and a Harbor Freight so that David could get the tools he needed to modify the tow dolly so that I didn't have to go up the two inches to make it onto the dolly.

When we got back to the park, David went into the office to ask permission to make the repair.  The wagon master had already shared what had happened and the lady gladly gave permission and even sent someone over to do the repair for us.

We also got back in time to join a bonfire happening in one of the nearby sites.

Tomorrow, we have a tour bus taking us to a Lewis and Clark monument and Father Flanagan's Boys Town.