Wednesday, June 15, Pender, NE

Sunday we left Cabela's parking lot in Kearney, NE for a 200 mile drive east on I-80, eventually taking some back roads through beautiful rolling countryside, destination being Pender, NE and our appointment at Blue Ox on Monday morning. This part of the midwest (well all parts of the midwest) have had an abundance of rain this spring so everything is a beautiful green. We arrived at Blue Ox's campground early afternoon. There are 14 RV sites here and by evening 12 of them were full. We wondered if everyone had an appointment at Blue Ox or were some of them just 'camping' here. Well, it turns out that this is a popular destination for many (not many other campgrounds in the area) and a local told Dick on Monday that this campground is usually full all the time. Wow!!

After we settled in we grabbed an early dinner at the local Popo's, one of 3-4 eateries in town. Popo's was, well its hard to explain, but it was quick, cheap & filling. Dick's pork tenderloin (his favorite sandwich in the midwest) was 'ok' and my Asian Chicken Salad wasn't of Applebee's quality but it was still good. Definitely a local favorite place because by the time we left, it was very busy. Homemade desserts sat on the counter, all sliced & wrapped up with saran wrap ready for purchase.

Monday morning it rained very hard for about an hour and we thought it was going to be a terrible day. As the day went on, it warmed up and the sun came out and turned into a nice day after all. We learned that we don't have the right 'receiver' on the motorhome for the hitch we wanted and that was very disappointing. Dick had been emailing with someone here in customer service and that person assured us that even though the hitch we have now was a different size than normal, they could make it work. Well..........couldn't happen so we decided to proceed with getting the Honda all set for towing and we'll have to get the receiver work done in Elkhart when we get there next week.

For lunch on Monday we decided to check out another local eatery and tried Welsh's Bar. Sunday night as we had been driving around before deciding on Popo's, we drove by Welsh's and a couple were leaving with pizzas. They yelled 'best pizza in town' so I guess we looked like tourists looking for someplace to have dinner. Anyway, we decided to try Welsh's on Monday and what a treat. The 'restaurant' part of the bar is closed on Monday and Tuesday but you can eat in the bar which was fine. It is definitely a very old bar, mismatched furniture, the menu was written on a white board that was propped up against a case of beer on the bar, and only about 3-4 things on the menu. There were about 6 old guys at a table in the bar playing cards & they said c'mon in when we came through the door. The waitress explained these guys are in there every day, play some cards, have a few beers and go home. In fact, when they need another drink they help themselves behind the bar. I asked the waitress if they pay and she said...........yes, we think so! Just a friendly little farm town with not a lot to do here. They do have an Ace Hardware, a Rexall Drugstore (haven't seen one of those for awhile), a Napa Auto Parts Store, a little local grocery store, a large John Deere Implement dealer, a Subway and a Curves. Homes here are very well maintained and we learned it's an old German town that is very proud of its heritage. We love to find little towns like this and patronize the local businesses.

Tuesday, Blue Ox finished the work on the Honda by noon but we decided to stay until tomorrow morning in order to figure out how we're going to get across the MO river into Iowa. Flooding is closing a lot of crossing points between NE and IA so Dick will monitor that this evening and make a determination in the morning which way we head.

I mentioned in the last blog that Dick would need diesel on Monday. His price was $3.96 at Bosselman's Travel Center, at N. Platte, NE probably the nicest truck stop we've ever been in.