Days 13 - Southwest National Parks Adventure

10/06/2025

The cycling gods smiled on us today. The drive home after a road trip is always long. We left the Walmart parking lot early. The sun, if we could have seen it, was just rising. It was cold and rainy. After a couple hours in the car we needed a break. I checked Google maps for a place for a quick walk. The rain had stopped, but the clouds still hung low in the sky. Fort Kearny Historical Park caught my eye. I’m a sucker for historical sites. It wasn’t far off the freeway so we thought we’d give it a look. It wasn’t much and didn’t seem to offer a good walking path. The Fort Kearny Recreation Area was a mile down the road so we ventured over to it. It boasted at “hike & bike” trail. According to the map, it was a 1.8 mile trail. We figured we’d get on our bikes, even though it was only a short trail. We bundled up for a cold weather ride and topped our layers off with rain gear.

We rode up the 1.8 miles crossing two bridges over the Platte River. We expected the trail to end there, but it continued through a tunnel under a busy road, turned and continued. It was a great paved trail. We rode past farm fields, paralleled a small river, past a cool bridge, a replica of sod house and some bison sculptures. The smooth, well maintained trail went on and on. We rode 5.5 miles out before forcing ourselves to turn around because we still had a lot of ground to cover. It was like the trail materialized just for us, because we needed it - like something out of a Harry Potter book! I wonder is it’s still actually there.

I included these last two pictures because I thought you’d get a chuckle over our foul weather riding gear.

We’re at the Rhythm City Casino Resort in Davenport,

Iowa tonight, they allow overnight parking. I think they assume we will go in and gamble, we didn’t.

When we pulled back the covers on the bed we discovered that it was wet. Half the comforter, sheets and mattress all quite wet. Seems something along the back of the camper is leaking. We had driven east all day with wind and driving rain at our back so that definitely made it worse.. We made the dinette into a bed and made do.