Day 16: Trains Everywhere

Time to head for Nebraska! We had heard the most direct route was closed by one of the reservations due to COVID, but after some research Rob found out that the checkpoint was just two miles from the campground and if you asked nicely they might let you through. We were in luck; they let us through.

We had originally planned to stay a little further north on our route and visit the Corn Palace and Sioux Falls, but then found information on the “Golden Spike Tower” in North Platte, Nebraska and thought the kids would much rather see that.

We arrived with just an hour to spare before they closed, but it ended up being the perfect amount of time. The Golden Spike Tower overlooks the world’s largest railyard. There were tons of trains, engines, and tracks. A highlight for us all was to watch the trains on the “hump,” where they decouple the train cars and send them downhill to the appropriate track to get recoupled to a train to their next destination.

There was a section dedicated to the North Platte Canteen, where during WWII volunteers worked from 4 a.m. to midnight to provide some Midwest hospitality (in the form of food) for the military trains passing through. People were traveling hours to deliver their donated food to the canteen. It was the warm fuzzy story of helping others that I always love.

We’re a simple family with simple needs, so we decided the North Platte Walmart parking lot would be a fine accommodation for the evening. We got some Italian take-out and settled into our parking spot. I went to get groceries while Rob and the kids watched the Seahawks game. We had a pretty noisy night’s rest due to all the trucks coming and going. It’s crazy how quickly we have all adapted to hearing that we are going to sleep in a Walmart parking lot and consider it a good plan.