Nebraska

    I had a huge problem in finding campgrounds for the trip home without a computer or any campground books.  The campground in Golden is a sister campground to the one in Estes Park.  We found the information on it in the office in Estes.  I had a KOA book and found a KOA campground in Nebraska along the Platte River, but when I called to make a reservation I was told that the campground was closed for the season due to flooding damage.  So I was back to the map looking at a large part of Nebraska that has very few campgrounds.  However, it DOES have a lot of State Recreation Areas along the Platte River.  We stayed at one on our way to Yosemite.  I used my phone to get a number for the Johnson Lake, SRA.  The park ranger told me that they never fill up on weeknights so although I was too late to get a reservation we should have no trouble getting a site.

   In the heat and humidity of this summer I was determined to find us a spot where we could hook up to electricity and run the air conditioner.  We can run it off the generator for a while, but probably not all night.  So we took off from Golden for our 350 mile jaunt to Johnson Lake.  The first part of the drive was through Denver which was surprisingly quiet, and up I76 which was also quite quiet.  Then we got onto I80 which seems to carry half of the truck traffic in the Midwest.  Each time a big semi passes us we are first blown to the shoulder and then sucked into the left lane.  Makes for tiring driving.  The camper can only go 65 when we pull our car (due to transmission issues with the car not the weight).  This means that on 70 and 75mph freeways  we are continuously passed.    Fortunately there was no crosswind today - very calm.
    Johnson Lake SRA is seven miles off the freeway which makes it very quiet.  The sites were huge and far apart with big cottonwoods shading all the sites.  The campground was located all along the lake shore so everyone has a view of the lake.  there was a nice swimming beach, playground and boat launch just down the shore from the campground.  We drove around the large lake after dinner and read a sign that told us it is a hydro-irrigation lake.   A huge canal ran out of the lake towards the nearby farms.  There was a variety of new, huge lake homes and tiny, old cabins surrounding the lake.  It was a beautiful, quiet evening.  We sat outside until after dark just enjoying one of our last nights on the road.