Terri and Peter's RV Adventures

After a restful night in a comfortable hotel room, we gladly hit the road to another state and another time zone. It was easy to say goodbye to Wyoming and the Great Plains and enter the transition to Nebraska’s ever-so-gentle rolling farmlands and Central Time. Now I remember why my parents stayed away from I80 if possible during our cross country road trips. We used to joke that going through Nebraska, you didn’t really need to touch the steering wheel. It’s straight, straight, straight. For endless miles.

But it was relaxing nonetheless. It took us six hours on the road to arrive at our first Harvest Host, miles from I80 turn after turn down smaller and smaller country roads flanked by endless miles of fields of churned up cornstalks, residual from last summer, grain silos and cattle. Finally, we turned onto a well graded gravel road, drove two miles and landed in the coolest place in Nebraska we’ve seen so far: The Milk House at Smilin’ Ranch Co.

Mallory, our host, was warm and welcoming. She and her husband, Ty have lived here almost 20 years and are about to finally buy the place after renting all these years. They have three kids and Mallory is an entrepreneur in the truest sense of the word. As she put it, “Who would’ve ever thought I’d be a milk maid, but I am! I learned to milk the cows and then turn it into yogurt, cottage cheese, ice cream, and all kinds of flavored creamers. Every time I come up with a new idea, my husband either supports it or says I should think again. We work incredibly hard but love it.” They board horses, brand and raise cattle, have chickens and farm dogs, including the incomparable Bob, the Corgi.

Bob and Lily became fast friends and Cali dropped several years off her life playing police dog. They had a blast running around, chasing rabbits, checking out all the animals and just being farm dogs for the day. It was like summer camp for the dogs and us. After walking around and saying hi to the horses, we set up our little camp, grilled salmon, observed Mallory’s two boys, Woodruff and Gus practice roping, and watched the sun go down. Such a bucolic, midwestern spring scene.

Unfortunately, we have to leave early, as in tomorrow. We’d planned to spend two nights here but the drive to Council Bluffs is four hours away and we need to be at the RV repair place at 10 am Monday. So I found another Harvest Home place today that’s an organic farm and literally 9 miles/14 minutes from where we have to be Monday morning, making it much less stressful than leaving here at 6 am Monday morning. And it looks like coincidentally, the repair place is right on the lake where we’ll be camping Monday night assuming the repair can be done in a day.

So, we’re trying to balance relaxation with getting stuff done. It’s all part of the RV experience and the adventure. I’m grateful for this unique opportunity to spend the next two nights on two different Nebraska farms, oh and for the heaven-in-a-pint of hand churned pumpkin ice cream.