Nebraskaland

52 Nebraskaland • April 2024 MIXED BAG How long have you been a campground host? I started as a camp host in the year 2000, when I retired, but we used to come out here and camp, from the mid-1970s all the way until now. It was in the early 1970s when they made this a park because of the interstate and the sandpits. [Note: The sandpits or borrow pits along Interstate 80 were dug for material to build the highway and its interchanges. Mel Steen, director of the Game and Parks Commission when the freeway was built, asked that the pits be dug in a way that would be more useful as recreation areas and provide better fi sh habitat.] We'd come every other weekend, as often as we could. I'd take a half-day vacation from Pfi zer, and we'd come Friday at noon so we could get a spot. Now you've got to come Thursday morning to get a spot on the weekends. When did you lose your husband? Glen died in 2017 on Dec. 7. Our anniversary was Dec. 5, and we had 58 years, barely. Two days later he passed away. The doctor said, "Helen, he'll probably live another week." And I said, "I don't think so," because he couldn't eat. Mark [Clymer, the former superintendent] and I planted three trees in 2017 in November, right up by the booth. I spent two weeks out here in the motor home by myself because Glen was in the nursing home. I'd have to put him in the nursing home in order to get a break. My insurance would pay fi ve days, and I'd pay fi ve days to come out here and play. We planted those three trees in memory of Glen and my son, Alan, and that bench I put there with the sandhill cranes. Alan passed away same year Glen did in March. It wasn't a good year. That's why I'm living it up now. You've got to take every day to its fullest. What made you volunteer to be a campground host? I always respected this park because Mark always kept it as clean as he could and as nice as he could. I would pick up trash and limbs and whatever I could fi nd, even when I wasn't a camp host, because I wanted things to look nice. Or if the bathroom was dirty, I would just take the toilet paper and wipe the sinks off . Then I said to him one day, "If you ever need someone to work in the park when I retire, I'd sure like to." And he said, "Well, you're hired." What are your other duties at the park? I love planting trees and growing trees. We put mulch around them and water them in. Sometimes I run the water wagon and water all of the trees. I love doing that. I've even got my own weed eater — well, it's kind of mine. Laura got it for me because it was smaller. I can't handle the big ones the boys use. This one's got a battery. I love it. I used to ride my bike to clean the restrooms. What do you like about the park? It's my favorite little park. It's so peaceful. I could go over there in my little camper at night, and it's just wonderful to be out of Lincoln. I don't enjoy the ones around Lincoln as much. They're way, way crowded all the time. This one's always clean. Perfection. And the beauty of it. The other night we had six deer that came up behind the barn back there about 7:30 p.m., just when it was almost dark. Crazy. I'm at the park from April to November. I go home once a month to get my mail. I basically live out here. It's really a comfortable little park. I call it my little jewel in the middle of the country. Not a lot of people know about it unless they do the internet and all that kind of stuff . Do you hear the interstate? Never. You get used to it. People off the interstate that have never been here, the tent people, they don't like that. That's why we're trying to get more windbreaks. That's the only drawback that I've ever heard from anybody is that the interstate is loud at night. I say just turn on your fan or some kind of music or something to knock that out and you won't have any trouble. Where do visitors to the park come from? We have a lot of locals from the Grand Island, Hastings and Kearney areas, but you'd be surprised how many people come in off the interstate, and they love it. We had one couple this morning that stayed in a tent. They were going back to Boone, Iowa. They're very nice people. They've been here before, and they love it. That's why they stop on their way back and forth. We have a lot of people from back east that will stop here going west and a lot of Colorado people that are going east. Windmill is one of two parks where campground hosts stay the entire season. Others are two-week stints. Which do you prefer? I wouldn't like moving around. I knew when I retired that this was going to be the one that I worked at, or hosted at. But I wanted to try a couple of others, so I did Fort Kearny and Rock Creek Station. That was fun. I got poison ivy between HELEN BRAZEE By Eric Fowler Campground Host

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