I had been to Colorado a couple of times before to watch Sandhill Cranes that do a stopover in the Monte Vista area during their spring migration. Nebraska, it turns out, is also a favorite for these cranes. About half a million stop near the Platte River, and one can readily find photos and articles describing how spectacular these migrations can look. So here we are.
When I was checking airfares and distances, I found out flights to Kansas City, MO cost quite a bit less than flights to Omaha and Denver. MCI is about 6 hours (!) from North Platte (around the westmost point along the river we plan to visit) and OMA 4 hours away. United, however, has no non-stop flights to Omaha, so the flights would take at least two hours longer - a wash timewise.
Sunday 3/27. Uber was readily available at around 7 pm, and cost surprisingly little: less than $40. Newark Terminal C was not too busy, and with Clear and Pre-Check we went through quite quickly. We decided to use Anne's two United Club passes for the extra hour or so on our hands.
The flight departure was delayed by 45 minutes, first because of slow loading of cargo, then because of line of planes waiting to take off; there was a storm that came through earlier in the day. We nonetheless got into MCI only 10 minutes or so behind schedule. It was close to midnight, but the airport was still quite busy.
We were upgraded (with Plus Points) for this flight. We were served a hot chicken sandwich.
We waited in vain for this black Marriott shuttle. A Residence Inn van came by, and the driver offered to take us to the Marriott after dropping off her customers. We (there was another gentleman) gladly took her up on her offer. The room reminds me of Newark Marriott, perhaps in better condition.
The room at the Airport Marriott was okay. However, the door to the bathroom is very narrow.
It was close to 2 am when we went to bed. This part of the country is one hour behind East Coast.
Accommodation: Marriott at Kansas City Airport (1 night).
Monday 3/28. The Marriott shuttle is a large black van (more like small bus) with the logo in red. We certainly didn't see it last night. Anyway, the driver took us and another family to the rental car place directly, which saved us some time. The car we checked out was a Kia Soul, a rather practical car - we rented the same model a few years back, in Houston.
The objective of the day is to drive the 400 or so miles to North Platte, stopping at one location, perhaps, to see some cranes. A couple of remarks about the drive. First, it is a 3-state trip: Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska. Second, speed limits can be as high as 75 mph on I-80 (in Nebraska). Third, this part of the country lives up to its reputation of being flat. Fourth, 400 miles in a day is a lot of driving; we ended up doing more than that.
Our original stopover point was to be the Rowe Sanctuary. It closes at 4 pm, so we would get there about closing time. We decided instead to visit Crane Trust. It has a short film on the cranes, and a hike that passes by a herd of (fenced in) buffalos. There was also a crane viewing drive; we did some of it, and saw a smattering of cranes, most of them quite far away.
There is also a recommended drive in North Platte. It was getting late, so we didn't drive the whole way (whole trip about 15 miles out and back). Probably because of the time of day (around 7 pm, sunset around 8 pm), we saw a lot more. Many flocks were startled by the approaching car, and they seemed to fly off to their evening roosting place (Platte River, probably).
We also paid a visit to a public viewing blind in town (around 6:30 pm and 7:30 pm) but saw no cranes on the river. (I am recording these non-events because things would be quite different the next day.)
Click on this link to see a video of Cranes coming in for the evening.
This Kia Soul had a little over 2000 miles on it when we rented it. We put 990 miles on it from Monday to Thursday. The windshield had some scratches on it when we got the car - good thing we asked the gate agent to note the damage down before leaving the lot.
The Crane Trust. For reasons not clear to me, they also keep a herd of bisons. Unfortunately I didn't find this, or the Audubon one we visited the next day, particularly helpful.
Photo taken at 7:50 pm local time. The skies were quite clear this afternoon.
Location in North Platte where above photo was taken. Turns out Dusty Trails will bring us back to same area the next day.
We had dinner (at Perkins, right next to hotel) before checking in the hotel, at around 9:30 pm.
Accommodation: Fairfield Inn, North Platte (2 nights).
Tuesday 3/29. As far as our main objectives go (to see Sandhill Cranes, just in case you are wondering), today was the day. Dusty Trails came up every time I queried about watching Sandhill Cranes. At $40 a head, it wasn't particularly expensive. And the idea of taking a bus to locate the birds during the day appeals to me. The tour started at 10:15 am, and ended at around 1 pm.
Two small school buses, each about half full, went on this trip. The operator (Dusty) could have saved a few dollars by packing the customers into one bus, in using two buses we didn't have to trip over one another to look at the birds.
The bus basically went to the same general area we went to yesterday, but for some reason (probably because of time-of-day) there were quite a few large groups of cranes about, some quite close to the roadside so we could observe their behavior - typified by the several dance moves they make.
This crane puts on many of the moves our tour guide told us about, including the "toss". As far as I can tell, only one other bird was paying attention. Perhaps that's enough.
A couple of shots made during the Dusty Trails trip.
We decided to try Runza for lunch (rather late as it was around 2 pm we got there). Runza is a regional sandwich, and it was so popular that they built a chain of restaurants using the name. The sandwiches were definitely okay, what came to mind was a Philly Steak Sandwich, but with ground beef. They tried expanding the franchise outside of the area, but with only limited success.
After lunch we first visited the Golden Spike Tower. The Bailey (Railway) Yard is the largest yard in the US. Being at the confluence of two major rail lines (one being Omaha - Denver), North Platte was chosen for a facility to "sort, service, and repair locomotives and cars headed all across America," with over 2600 Union Pacific employees (per Wikipedia). The poster claims 300 engines and 10,000 cars go through the facility every day. I have no reason to doubt that, and there are many tracks, many engines, and cars of all types. What was surprising was how quiet the place looked.
The "Runza" reminds me of a Philly Steak sandwich, done with ground rather than sliced beef. They are quite numerous in this stretch of Nebraska (between Lincoln and North Platte).
The Golden Spike Tower. Union Pacific uses North Platte as one of the major staging stops for their trains. One can go to the seventh floor and go outside (limited view) or one floor up for a panoramic view.
Many tracks, many engines, and many railroad cars.
Dusty told us the cranes were named after the sandhills in Nebraska. So we took a short trip (up Route 97), and sure enough the hills looked very sandy, with sparse vegetation.
Sandhills. A few miles north of North Platte, on Route 97.
It was around 5 pm when we drove around the same grounds Dusty Trails took us (and we visited the day before). This afternoon we saw a lot more cranes than yesterday.
At close to 8 pm we visited the blinds again. And were there many cranes. They were all flying back towards the river from wherever they were, and by the time we left at 8:15 pm the river was full of them.
Click on this link to see a video of Cranes coming in for the evening.
For dinner we were hoping to try Amigos. They were takeout only, and we didn't know what's on the menu, so it was Burger King.
Crane Watching Tips. Anne thought it would be a good idea to write down a good crane viewing strategy. Mid-morning (say 11 am), see them in the fields, quite active dancing; mid-after (5 pm), at around sunset (today it was 8:05 pm), cranes land on the river for the night. [Note added after trip: there is probably a good chance of catching cranes in the morning congregating on the river as long as one visits within 90 minutes of sunrise.]
Wednesday 3/30. Writing this at the end of this day, it is clear yesterday was the best crane-watching experience we ever hoped to get. Some of that is "self-inflicted,' some just luck.
First the self-inflicted part, we had wanted to wake up early this morning to go back to the same location last night to see if we could catch the cranes in their morning routine (which I think is flying off in groups). But I overslept. (To be fair, or by way of an excuse, I was working on finishing up a translation yesterday.) So that plan was scrapped.
Leaving North Platte at around 10:30 pm, we got to the Rowe Sanctuary of Audubon at around 1 pm. Along the way we spotted quite a few groups of cranes, some in large numbers. Rowe Sanctuary itself was somewhat of a disappointment (actually all the Audubon sites we have visited have been disappointments). I didn't walk out knowing much more then when I walked in. They closed the trails so the cranes wouldn't be disturbed; since there are no other areas along the river that are closed, perhaps that's also to support the tours and viewing experiences they offer. And they do manage to sell out most available slots.
There are a couple of museums of some interest to us in the Grand Island area. We picked the Stuhr Museum. The main building is surrounded by a circular moat (for lack of a better term). During the crane watching season they also have an exhibit called "Wings Over Nebraska" highlighting artwork by local artists. The paintings are for sale, ranging from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand. The featured artist has all of the first floor, and on the second floor there are works by other artists (and generally a lot cheaper, of course I am no judge of value), and a "permanent" exhibit of some history. How the displayed items are organized, I have no idea. Including having lunch at the Bistro, which was a one-woman operation, we spent about two hours there.
Stuhr Museum in North Platte.
The building is surrounded by water.
Jude (Judy) Martindale is the featured artists. Her work occupy the first floor of the museum. This is offered for sale at $6,500.
Owl on display on second floor.
In its halcyon days there was an "opera house" in North Platte. Bartenbach's started off as a paint store.
We drove to the location of Bartenbach's the next day. The sign is directly infront (above the gray truck).
Distribution of Native American tribes in Nebraska. The word "Nebraska" is believed to come from the Otoe word for "flat water."
On the grounds is a 2x4 block railway town, which we drove through, and an antique farm machinery exhibit, which we skipped. There were only a few visitors at the museum, I wonder how large an endowment they have to maintain it as an ongoing concern.
Traffic was generally light for the days we were in Nebraska. Not sure how one could overtake this truck, with an arm stuck out like this. The other issue is level crossings where long trains are slowing moving across.
We stopped by Panda Express to have dinner before heading to the viewing platform on S Alda Road. Google Map provided a route with a level railroad crossing, and indeed there was a long train on the track, not moving. In any case, we got to the viewing platform just around sunset. We saw quite a few flocks flying, some landed across the river, quite a distance from us. It was in general not as great an experience as yesterday's. And today was much colder (just below freezing) and windy.
Accommodation: Fairfield Grand Island (1 night).
Thursday 3/31. Not much happened on the crane watch front. When we looked at the Rowe webcam yesterday morning, there were not many cranes on the river. This morning, at about the same time (8:30 am), however, there were still many. So we were thinking of visiting the public site to see we if could catch them. 10 minutes later, no more cranes! So it seems the cranes don't all fly out at the break of dawn, but eventually disappear. (Sunrise around 7 am, so perhaps good for 90 minutes?)
We left the hotel at around 10:30 am and started our trip to the Kansas City airport. It snowed last night, and was still close to freezing when we left. Not an issue we just scrap off the little snow on the car with a styrofoam cup. The trip was about 270 miles, taking about 4:15 hours. We stopped at the same general location we did on Monday, but had lunch at Runza this time (right next to the Arby's we visited). I wanted to fill up with just enough gas to get us to the airport, but had cold feet - so we had 80 miles (a little over 2 gallons) left at check-in. The scratches on the windshield were quite noticeable, I am glad we had the exit agent mark it down when we checked the car out Monday. We put 990 miles on it. Considering how much we paid for the rental and gas, it came to about 57 cents/mile.
Getting home took a bit longer than expected, well, more like a lot longer. Soon after we arrived at the gate, United sent a message saying departure would be delayed from 5:56 pm to 7:26 pm, then to 8:15 pm. This because of a thunderstorm in the Newark region that refused to move. And our flight was the last one from the terminal, so no options there. (We could have taken the MCI-ORD-EWR option that would land at EWR at 12:55 am the next day, but Anne correctly pointed out there is no reason why the ORD-EWR flight wouldn't be delayed.)
Boarding started at 8:15 pm, it's a small plane CRJ 175, so it didn't take long. The plane was wheels up a bit before 9 am. About an hour into the flight (about 11 pm EWR time), the captain said we were in a holding pattern, and another update would be at 12:15 am (EWR time). Sure enough, Flight Tracker says we did a couple of big loops over West Virginia. When he came back on at 12:15 am, he said we had been given permission to head towards EWR. With no more complications (like holding over Sparta as delayed touchdowns often do), we landed at around 1 am. By the way, the ORD-EWR flight? Didn't land until 2:40 am, per flightstats.com.
Our plane was in a holding pattern over WV for a while. We were eventually cleared for Newark, at around 12:15 am.
We were again upgraded to First, with PlusPoints. The plane we flew in was pretty old, and these old-style seats were quite uncomfortable. [I looked into the plane, it was delivered in 2017, so is quite new. That would make the experience even more inexplicable.]
Terminal C at Newark was quite chaotic, as one would expect (or should have expected). Uber was offering $120 rides to South Amboy, but even at that price no cars were available. We decided to wait for a taxi, and call an Uber at the same time. (They also ran out, but empty taxis were rolling in, one at a time.) Eventually we got an Uber (for around $90). Home at 2:30 am.
Weather was actually okay as the plane approached, all the way till around 3:30 am when I took out the recycle - it started to rain rather heavily, no gusts though.
I recall having bumpy flights when I flew out to the Midwest in the spring (which I did quite often). Today the problem was at the NJ end.
We seldom visit this part of the country (called "flyover" for a good reason, I guess), so we were surprised at lack of minorities in the areas we visited. Per census.gov, Nebraska has a population of just under 2 million, 88% white, 5% black/African American alone, and 3% Asian alone. (For comparison, NJ's corresponding numbers are 72%, 15%, and 10%.) Also interesting, population density for NE and NJ were 24 and 1200 per square mile in 2010 (50x)!
