One of the benefits of membership in Escapees, which is an RV club that we are members of, is being able to be part of smaller, regional chapters and to attend rallies. Basically these are just gatherings, large and small, of RV’ers, with various events planned during the rally. We are never in the right place for them, usually.

While we were wintering in Denver last year, though, we discovered that the Rocky Mountain Chapter 2 of Escapees meets once a month at the Golden Corral just down the road from the AirBnb where we were staying. I thought that besides meeting some new folks, we might be able to find some new-to-us Colorado RV’ing spots that we might like to check out whenever we want a break from Denver. We went to a couple of meetings and discovered that their first rally we could go to was in…Gering, Nebraska.

Surprisingly, Gering is only 200 miles from Denver. And it sits in the shadow of beautiful Scotts Bluff, which in the 1800’s was a main stopping point for travelers heading West. Our RV park was in view of the bluffs. We could catch the changing mood of the rocks, whether at sunset or sunrise or sitting under storm clouds.

Scotts Bluff National Monument was the first excursion our group took together. We listened to a ranger talk, watched a movie, and then were turned loose to go explore. The covered wagons lined up in the picture below are all sitting on the former Oregon Trail.

The bluff is a series of striking rock formations. The pioneers in their day would not have seen the view from the top. We were able to do it simply by driving up to the top on the road that now exists for us.

Scotts Bluff was important for them because it was a measure of progress after weeks of seeing nothing but prairie grass. On the Oregon Trail, a third of the journey now lay behind them. They had been hard-won miles of disease, unpredictable weather, flood, and bison stampedes. It was called “a Nebraska Gibraltar”.

The Legacy of the Plains Museum is close to Scottsbluff and later we took a quick visit before closing time.

Looking at a fully loaded wagon is a sobering reminder of just how small they are.

Of course, John Deere tractors were not seen on the plains until many years later. In an alternate life, Cal envisions himself driving one.

A very different experience was next on the rally agenda. We visited Cozad’s Antique Ford Garage. All of this is the work of one man, Tom Cozad, who has a special passion for both Fords and Coca Cola. So much so, that he bought up the whole block.

Oh, and there’s a gas station too.

Around the corner is Tom’s sign shop, the business that he owns. The rest is all a hobby.

Besides the cars and Ford displays, there are several rooms of Coca Cola memorabilia, a small theatre with old theatre seats and a big screen TV, a tiny antique barbershop, fully equipped, and all on two levels.

When I first saw this on the rally agenda, I was not sure that I would find it interesting. But it was, very much so, since there was so much to look at. I just couldn’t believe he collected all this stuff singlehandedly!

Unfortunately, Mr. Cozad does not keep regular hours, is not open to the general public, and only does this by word of mouth. He accepts no entrance fees, only cash contributions which he then donates to charity.

What I liked about the rally is that we could join in on as much or as little as we liked, with plenty of time to do things on our own. On another morning we rose early to visit Chimney Rock.

This rock, along with Courthouse and Jailhouse Rocks, were actually what the pioneers saw first when coming from the east. It let them know they were not far from Scotts Bluff. Chimney Rock is a state park and in the visitors center there are more exhibits about the pioneer story.

I was really more interested in reading about the rock, but I did get this information about the trails west: the graves of 20,000 people line those trails. This is no surprise. But then there is this: a half million people traveled on them. So, more than 90% of travelers made it to their destination.

We hiked the mile-long trail behind the visitor center toward Chimney Rock. There was a small graveyard in the bluff close to the rock. The graves were mostly post-1900, but there was this memorial stone:

Mary’s son John converted to the Mormon faith in the United States, returned to Scotland, and converted the rest of his family. Mary, whose husband had already died in a mining accident, made the trip from Scotland at age 67 to join her son and his family in Utah. She died in her sleep, though, and is buried somewhere out on the trail. She was part of a group of Mormon immigrants who were pushing carts on the trail for lack of wagons.

Chimney Rock itself is not as the pioneers saw it. The rock has a sandstone cap, which protects it, but it is still eroding. Early travelers were sure it would have fallen over by now. Who knows how much longer it will stand?

Robidoux RV Park, where our rally gathered, has nice wide sites and belongs to the city of Gering. We could ride our bikes into the small town or out into the countryside along a pretty little canal. After breakfast at a local restaurant, we were able to walk across the historic downtown area over to Tom Cozad’s museum. We enjoyed the small-town environment here.

In between the sightseeing, we joined other rally members for dinner every night. All 26 of us overloaded the kitchen at the golf course one evening. Other meals were potluck or covered by the rally planners. A couple of mornings I joined some other women in the clubhouse to work on our crafts and chat for an hour or so. Those interested could do a scavenger hunt, watch the Sunday afternoon Broncos game together, or play golf.

The rally was fun and if time allows we’ll be back for another in a different location next year. And who knows, maybe we’ll visit Gering again? We liked the RV park and here are still things to see that we didn’t do.

Back here in Denver, we are getting excited for a month-long international trip, leaving in just a few days. It will be at least that amount of time before I post again.