Followed the old "Lincoln Highway" (which is the US hiway 30 that goes through the town in Iowa where I grew up) from Grand Island to Blair, Nebraska on a hot and "sticky" Midwest summer day. Got the last campsite at Fremont Lakes, a Nebraska state recreation site on 21 sand pit lakes near the town of Fremont. Nice park and obviously popular place, but then this is a weekend and everyone wants to cool off at a lake. We definitely wanted a site with electricity tonight as we want to run the air conditioner.

Once we got set up we decided to drive to the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge on the Missouri River. Really interesting museum in visitor center showcasing the hundreds of artifacts that were recovered from a sunken steamboat that went down on the Missouri River in 1860. It was carrying goods bound for new markets in the West and an amazing quantity of preserved items are on display. A real glimpse into necessities of life of 1860's.

Too hot to hike but we did drive through the refuge and stop a few places to bird. Found a Baltimore Oriole and her incredible hanging nest. But even better was a Great Crested Flycatcher--new bird for us--and we found its nest site also! How cool is that!