Nebraska Antique
Farming Association
TRAN 2013 REVIEW
Day One: Saturday, June 1, 2013 Pine Bluff Wyoming to Sidney Nebraska 64.5 miles
We choose the route of the Lincoln Highway in 2013 to take part in the 100 year celebration of the nations first coast-tocoast highway.
Kenneth & Lois Rageth were segment leaders today. Breakfast was sponsored by Rageth Trucking at the Pine Bluffs Community Center The Lion’s Club was serving a community breakfast of pancakes, ham and orange juice.
Around 8:15 a.m. 31 tractors headed west on Hwy 30 and crossed the state line into Nebraska. The weather was a chilly 39 degrees with 40 mile an hour wind and a light mist. It was definitely long john and coveralls weather. We drove to Oliver Reservoir where we had our first break at 9:30.
Next stop was Gotte Park at Kimball for a short break, and then on to Dix for lunch at 11:45. We left Dix around 1:00 p.m. and arrived at Buffalo Bend RV Park with 10 less tractors.
We took a long break at the park as we were ahead of schedule. We stopped at the Sioux Army Depot historical site on our way to Sidney. The Sidney police escorted us across town to Cabela’s campus where we had dinner.
Day Two: Sunday, June 2, 2013 Sidney to Ogallala
We had a breakfast of biscuits and gravy at the Cabela’s campus Visitor Center at 6:00 a.m. JR Barkell was our segment leader.
We left Sidney around 8:15 a.m. with our first stop at Pole Creek Station historical marker just outside of Sidney. We traveled on to Lodgepole and stopped for a break.
BRAN, Bicycle Rally Across Nebraska, rode along beside us today. We arrived at Chappell at 11:00 and ate lunch at Toot’s.
After lunch we left with only 8 tractors/drivers. We stopped at 2:00 p.m. at Lewellen for a short break.
We stopped at the California Hill Historical marker on our way to Brule. We arrived in Ogallala around 4:00 p.m.
Day Three: Monday, June 3, 2013 Ogallala to North Platte
Jim Russell was our segment leader on day three for a 54 mile trip. We met at the Livestock sale barn at 7:30 a.m. where breakfast was available at the sale barn restaurant.
We left Ogallala around 8:00 a.m. stopping at Paxton for a break around 10:12. The trains were our constant companions on this trip. At 11:30 we stopped at Sutherland for lunch at the Roadside park catered by Highline Coop. Lunch consisted of brisket sub sandwich, coleslaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, cookie, and water.
We left Sutherland at 12:30. We stopped at the Hershey Veteran Park at 1:00 p.m. and arrived at North Platte at 2:30 p.m. Supper was provide at the Buffalo Bill Museum of pork loin, beans, coleslaw, and tea sponsored by TSC. Sisters Barb Beckett & Brenda Cohn entertained us by singing some of their songs.
Day Four: Tuesday, June 4, 2013 North Platte to Cozad
Thirty tractors started at North Platte with Randy Edson as our segment leader. We had breakfast of biscuits and gravy at the Buffalo Bill museum sponsored by the JD Plains Dealership.
We left North Platte at 7:30 a.m. and traveled south of town on State Fair Road, which is the old original Lincoln Highway. We stopped at Fort McPherson National Cemetery at 9:20 a.m. We stopped at Miller’s Repair at Maxwell arriving at 9:45, serving us cookies and water. Had three more tractors joined us at Miller’s.
We arrived in Brady at 11:10 having a lunch of sloppy joe, chips, fruit, tea/water, was served at Maureen’s Kitchen sponsored by the Brady Bank.
We arrived in Gothenburg around 1:30 and stopped at the Pony Express Station. We drove through the Stone Earth Estates Assisted Living and Hill Top Nursing home as we left Gothenburg.
We arrived in Cozad at 3:45. KRVN Radio sponsored a concert in the park with Tommy Watt. Supper was sponsored by All Points, Chamber of Commerce and HyGain Feedlot in Cozad. The FFA served hamburgers, polish dogs, beans, chips and water.
Day Five: Wednesday, June 5, 2013 Cozad to Kearney
Gary Metzger and John Howsden were our segment leaders today. Before breakfast, many headed to All Points for fuel. Breakfast was 3 different egg casseroles, fruit, juice, and coffee sponsored and served at the Meridian Museum.
We headed out of Cozad on the “old Lincoln Highway” which took us north of what is now Hwy 30. We drove into Lexington from the north on Hwy 21 around 10:00. We stopped at Fairbanks IH Dealership for a break and KRVN interviewed several people while we were there.
BRAN was our companions off and on today. At Overton, we had a lunch of burgers, beans, potato salad, drinks, and cookies sponsored by Gary Metzger.
After we left Overton we stopped at the Lincoln Memorial Hwy Bridge for photos. We arrived in Elm Creek around 1:50 for a break, we had another break at Odessa at 2:42 p.m.
We arrived in Kearney and many of the TRAN drivers got to know one another a little better at Whiskey Creek while having a great dinner. We all were quite pleased that we were carded!!
Day Six: Thursday, June 6, 2013 Kearney to Grand Island
Rich and Donna Wilton and Skip Meyers were are segment leaders today. The John Deere Dealership, Landall Implement, provided us with coffee, tea, and rolls for breakfast at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds.
The Kearney Motorcycle Police showed up to escort us across town. We started out about 8:15 making a fuel stop at Gibbon around 10:00.
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We then headed towards Shelton where we toured the Lincoln Highway Museum. The Lincoln Hwy Association was formed in 1912 for the purpose of developing the first transcontinental route from New York to San Francisco running through 12 states. It was named in honor of Abraham Lincoln who had also united the nation in a symbolic way.
Lunch was sponsored in the Shelton Park by Fairbanks Ford New Holland and the Nebraska State Fair. The Historical Society ladies made and served the lunch of pork sandwiches, beans, potatoes, tea, and homemade PIE!
An NTV reporter caught up with us at Shelton and did some interviews. We left Shelton around 1:00 and had our next break at Wood River. As we left Wood River we drove through the Good Samaritan Society home.
We then went to Sue and Howard Uhrich’s place to view their collections. We left their place around 3:40 and headed on to Grand Island arriving at Orschlen’s at 5:00 p.m.
Supper was sponsored by the Aurora Coop and was served by Northwest FFA. We enjoyed entertainment by the Classic County Cloggers. They not only clogged, but they also did some belly dancing and Irish dance.
Day Seven: Friday, June 7, 2013 Grand Island to Columbus
Segment leaders today were Randy Fuehrer and Rod Elm. Because of the truck traffic between Grand Island and Columbus on Hwy 30 we will be following gravel roads for a total of 92 miles today.
We started out with 27 tractors and drivers. We left Grand Island on what they call the seedling mile, which is one of the original miles from Hwy 30. We stopped at Preferred Popcorn at 9:30 for some popcorn, cookies, and drinks.
Our roads today were many twists and turns so if you were not familiar with the area you could be lost quickly. In Central City we drove by Cottonwood Estates Nursing Home. It was 11:00 when we started our trek onto Clarks.
We arrived at Strobel Manufacturing for lunch at 12:30. They served us a lunch of pulled pork, beans, coleslaw, chips and a variety of drinks. We left Clarks at 1:30 and arrived in Genoa at 4:00 p.m. We drove past the nursing home and ended up displaying tractors down the middle of the main street.
The Genoa Fire Department served us cookies, brownies, and drinks. We stopped at Monroe for a break and then traveled the last 14 miles to Columbus arriving there at 6:15 p.m.
We arrived at the New World Inn were we had a nice supper of chicken, roast beef, corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, lettuce salad, coleslaw, macaroni salad, fruit salad and drinks. It was a delicious meal after a longggggg day!
Day Eight: Saturday, June 8, 2013 Columbus to Fremont
Kenny Klepper and Duane Starr were our segment leaders for Day 8. The word today was RAIN!
We ate breakfast at the New World Inn and headed out into the rain around 9:10 a.m. Fortunately, most people were prepared with rain suits. We were going to stop at Richland but because of the rain, we kept on “tractoring” to Schuyler.
We made a stop at 10:55 at the First Chance/Last Chance Restaurant where we were served fresh cinnamon rolls, coffee, and hot tea! We left around 11:15 and arrived in North Bend around 12:30.
We had lunch at the high school of polish dogs, brats, potatoes, corn, beans, desserts, and drinks sponsored by the Nebraska Antique Power Association from Fremont, Johnson Farm Equipment, Nickerson Short Stop, and North Bend FFA and Alumni.
We left North Bend at 1:55 and past the Birchwood Manor while the residents watched us through the windows! We traveled to Timberview Farms near Fremont arriving at 4:00 p.m. We enjoyed cookies and drinks while the sun shone for a period of time!
We headed to TSC in Fremont when it just started to sprinkle. Our leader, Duane Starr, all of a sudden took off like a shot, we figured out quickly that there was a downpour of rain headed our way. We didn’t make TSC before we once again got very wet! Supper was served at TSC of sloppy joe, hot dogs, chips and drink.
Day Nine: Sunday, June 9, 2013 Fremont to Missouri Valley Iowa
Howard Cowan was our segment leader on the last day. TSC provided rolls for breakfast.
We stopped in Kennard around 9:40 at the park to use restrooms, however, they were closed. A couple of gentlemen that had come to see the tractors had keys to the Dew Drop inn and invited us to use their facilities.
We stopped in Blair to get fuel around 10:15. We crossed the river bridge into Iowa at 11:00 a.m. We stopped at Tony Salter’s to check out his IH collection and then traveled on to the Wisecup Minneapolis Moline Museum for lunch of hamburgers, brats, potato salad, fruit salad, lettuce salad, apple pie, and drinks. Everyone loaded up and headed home in the rain………….
The 549 Miler Club