The Parker Travels

Trip Details Campground: Louisville SRA. 15810 Hwy. 50 Louisville, NE 68037-2880 Site: 163 [Back in, 30amp Electric only] Dates: August 23rd - August 26th, 2017 Overview:  The first thing to say about this campground is its loud. There are train tracks right on the other side of the water and the trains run all day and night, making the campground very loud. Besides the train, the campground is fairly quiet. You have to pay an entrance fee of $8/day for out of state vehicles. The fee system was pretty complicated to understand when checking in late at night. Basically fill out the envelope with all your info and put $8 inside. The campsites are really long, fairly level asphalt pads and easy to back into. Ours backed up to the water and had a little spot to walk down and fish if you wanted. There was a metal picnic table and a fire ring at each site. The area around the asphalt was pretty uneven and a mixture of grass and dirt. There were lots of trees all around to provi...

Check out at the Louisville SRA campground wasn't until 2:00 PM. We were able to take our time again this morning and on the road around noon today. We are only going through 2 states today; Nebraska and Colorado. There aren't any planned stops so our drive should take about 7h 30min (514 miles). The drive to Colorado is another boring one. We are headed to Boyd Lake State Park which is just inside the CO border. So most of our driving today will be through the entire state of Nebraska. Lots and lots of corn, as far as the eye can see! So. Much. Corn! The skies were pretty though! Even Toby thought the drive was boring today. We made it to the campground right around 7:00. We had to drive around for a bit before we found where the fresh water spout was close to use. Most of the campers have run a hose from their trailer to the communal water spigots, which made it hard to find one that was available to use to fill our tank up. We had plenty of daylight left when...

We woke up Friday morning ready to go out and explore Nebraska.  We went over to Mike's house in the morning, which was about 30 minutes from the campsite.  When we got there, Toby and Silver ambled around the apartment, indicating they were ok with each other's presence.  We were lucky, because Toby doesn't get along with many dogs. We left the apartment and Mike drove us around his neighborhood, showing us his old house and where he worked near Omaha.  We then went into downtown Omaha, and there was way more there than we had anticipated.  We ate at the Twisted Fork, which had a great selection of food and craft beer.  Afterward, we went to two candy shops in the downtown area, one of which doubled as an antique shop.  There were tons of 50's era signs and memorabilia, reminiscent of an old soda fountain.  We walked around for an hour or so, then headed back to Mike's apartment to feed the dogs and rest. After talking and hang...

It was a perfect morning here in Nebraska. We were able to watch the sun rise through the trees with beautiful morning weather. We are going to see Mike today but not until later when he gets off work. Since the last few campgrounds we stayed at haven't had laundry services, I decided to go into town to find a laundromat and run some errands. Kyle stayed at the campground with Toby and relaxed. I spent a few hours at the laundromat then headed over to the grocery store nearby called Hy-Vee. If any of you know my thing for grocery stores, then you will understand why I spent over an hour here! This store was close to the top of my list of favorites, Wegmans being the first. I took my time strolling through the aisles and eventually bought what I needed for dinner tonight. We are cooking tacos at the campground when Mike gets in. Afte stopping for some gas and a car wash I headed back to camp. Mike arrived shortly after I did. He brought his rescue greyhound, Silver. We a...

It was another wonderful night last night and we woke up to perfect 68 degree weather. We wanted to get up early and get on the road because the drive today will be to Nebraska, about 8 hours of driving, 524 miles. But it was so nice outside, we ended up taking our time instead of rushing out of Indiana. We sat outside for a bit, had some cereal and coffee and watched Toby eat all the sticks he could find. The dump station at this campground is a drive away so Kyle hitched the tote-along to the Beast and took it over there. He went into town to get gas too before we got on the road. While he was gone I worked on breaking down camp and Toby just sunbathed in the dirt/sand. - Toby clearly is comfy in the trailer. He also likes his new orange water bucket. Towing the blue tote to the dump -  Toby has become much calmer over these last few days. I think he has really started to get used to the fact that we are traveling. Usually he gets anxious when he sees us packing up and will...

Trip Details Campground: Indiana Dunes State Park. 1600 N 25 East, Chesterton, IN 46304 Site: 136 [Back in, 50amp Electric only] Dates: August 21st - August 23rd, 2017 Overview:  This campground is located inside Indiana Dunes State Park. The campground is a short drive away from the beach and surround by dune hiking trails all over. Out of state vehicles must pay an additional one time fee of $12 to enter the park. The campsite itself has a pretty level concrete pad to park the trailer on with a larger asphalt pad for 2 cars. We didn’t need to use our BAL leveler on this site. There were two small wood picnic tables and one fire ring at our campsite. We had plenty of tree coverage and the ground around the concrete pad was a mix of sandy grass. There seems to be lots of bugs and at night you can hear all of them along with the frogs and other animals. The noise didn’t bother us because we use a fan at night which masks the outside noise. We were in the electric section...

There was an insane thunder storm last night. I thought we were going to wash out to lake! The sound of the rain on the trailer seemed like we were going through Niagara Falls again. But the PUP held up like a champ! I really am proud of the amount of work we have put into this trailer, it really proved itself last night. My heart went out to the campers next to us in their tents. They were gone by the time we woke up early this morning. Since we are staying at Indiana Dunes State Park, we had to go explore the dunes. We drove down to the beach at Lake Michigan and looked around at the water and dunes for a bit before heading into Chicago for the day. It is so crazy looking at the water. You have to keep reminding yourself that you are looking at a lake and not the ocean! The sand is so soft too, but the dunes are steep and make for quite the hike! - Lake Michigan, Indiana Sand Dunes - Toby gets to spend the day at a PetSmart day care today. After dropping him off, we headed...