Kirby and John's Reception

Kirby and John got married a while back but family wasn't able to be there so a reception was held in their honor.  It was a pot luck with meat furnished and some really good food.  Miss Marley stole the show.  She is the curtest thing!

Doug, Kirby, John and Angie.

John's band preformed after supper.  Not too bad.  Fun evening but a really full day.  I'm ready for things to slow down.

Zane and Kaitlin's Wedding

Zane and Kaitlin's wedding It was a nice day -- warm but not too bad.  Most of my pictures were dark or blurry but we enjoyed being a part of thier wedding.    Congratulations! 

Wagons Ho The End

Our last day only had one stop.  We got up and around in pretty good time  but Conner said he wasn't hungry and didn't want breakfast and Katlin only had one little muffin and a glass of juice.  Little did they know we wouldn't stop for lunch until 2:30. We set off for Harold Warp Pioneer Village.  Dan was excited to go to this one.  There were lots of cars and guy stuff.

It started with a transportation building that started with wagons, hand carts, stage coaches and moved on from there.

Every old car you could imagine!  There were old airplanes hanging above.  They had old ice wagons, hearses, peddler wagons every vehicle you could think of.

 This caught my eye.  A folding boat!

Look closely at this tree.  They used bricks to fill in the hole.

This was pretty interesting.  There were 7 layers of flooring and the years they were installed .  They had rooms set up with period furniture from pioneer days through the 70's.

This was a tractor car.  Tractor tires in the back and car tires in the front.    They had a room full of old motorcycles.  Another full of snow blowers and chain saws.  Another full of old bikes from unicycles to modern Schwinn.

That thing hanging out the window is an air conditioner!  I had never heard of such a thing.  Must have been for rich people.   Wish I had had one for me.  The buildings weren't air conditioned and it was pretty warm.  The second time I sweat.

Early snow plow.

There were several buildings.  a school, church, livery, pony express station.  Could have spent a whole day here but we had miles to go.  Dan thought Lincoln was pretty close and was going there for lunch but it was quite a ways and I think Conner and Katlin could have eaten anything by the time we stopped.  We had taken the left over bread form the covered wagon ride dinner and they both tore off a piece and ate it but they didn't have any thing to wash it down and only made it worse.  Stopped at cracker barrel around 2:30 and ate and headed for home.  Conner was getting a bit anxious to get home.  We dropped him off around 7:30 and I got home around 8.  Tired but happy.  Had a good time but was really glad to sleep in my own bed.

Wagons Ho! Day 5

We started Day 5 with a sleep in.  Katlin woke me up at 8:15.  By the time we all got up and ready and had breakfast we didn't leave until around 10.  But it was kind of nice not to hurry.  We had seen some things the day before that we were suppose to see today so were in good shape.  We were going to stop at the  Golden Spike Tower  but Dan missed the exit  .  Not sure if that was on purpose or not.  Any way we made our way to North Platte and Fort Cody.

Fort Cody is kind of like Wall Drug Store.  One of those tourist places you just have to stop and see.   They boast a 20,000 piece hand carved miniature of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.

Also a two headed calf.  That little boy was realy fascinated by it.   Katlin on the other hand was repulsed.  They had lots of saddles and chaps and halters so we spent a fair amount of time here.  Then an easy drive back to Kearney for the night.    The kids went down to swim for a while and we decided to order pizza for supper and eat in the room.  We had domino's and it was pretty good but we didn't eat until about 7:30 and I should never eat Pizza that late.  I won't say I had nightmares but I sure didn't sleep as good as the night before.  This ends Day 5.

Wagons Ho! Day 4

 Day four started at 5 AM when the peacocks outside our door started screeching.  If you have ever heard a peacock you will know what I mean.  That's why in the olden days they used them as watch dogs.  Every time I would almost drift back to sleep, one would screech again.   Finally gave up and decided I would take a shower while everyone else was sleeping.   The water had a lot of sulfur in it and I didn't know it but the smell ( I had to hold my breath while sticking my head under the shower) like rotten eggs had permeated the whole place.  That got Dan up.

Finally drug the kids out and both insisted on showering.  Dan and I talked and decided rather than spend another night here we would see what we wanted to and head south and look for a room there.  This is the place.  It was nice but notice how steep the stairs are!  Two sets of them One to each bedroom upstairs.  We went to breakfast and what a disappointment.  I kept trying to remember that she wasn't expecting us.  She made an egg casserole with onions, celery, carrots, sausage and  yuck peppers!  Sliced watermelon (Dan doesn't eat watermelon) and warm juice.  She asked if anyone wanted toast and I jumped on that like a chicken on a June bug.  We told her we decided to move on and she seamed ok with that.  She warned us that the badlands could have rattle snakes and scorpions and to watch where we walked and sat.

Her is Dan using his Ninja skills to check for critters.  The only one we saw was a little rabbit.

This is the sod house at the park.

Some of the rocks in the distance and that white line kind of in the middle is the goat path you walked on.  Not too bad here.

More of the pretty rocks.  It was a nice day.  Hot but nice.  One of the two times I sweat on vacation.

I did not go here.  Conner and Dan were very nice to help me down the steeper parts of the walk.    The trails kept going  up sometimes gradually sometimes pretty steeply.

There was one place ( a ravine) that it took Katlin, Conner and Dan to get me across.  I was glad they didn't leave me there to die!

Some of the cliffs or buttes.

A watering hole.  The only water we saw in the whole park.

One of the toadstools formations.

This is the end of the trail.  Yes I did have to come down that steep little path but I made it.  We were all glad to get back to the car and some cold drinks.   It was fun and I would recommend it to anyone in the area.

Next we went just a few miles to the Hudson-Meng Bison Bone bed.  It was a place where they had discovered  over six hundred bison had died together.  They are unsure how.  There were three hypothesis.  All had followed each other over a cliff, The Indians had driven them over the cliff or I think the third cause was disease. We went back to Crawford and stopped for lunch at Jan's Bar B Que pit.  It was recommended in a guide book but Dan said there couldn't be any good Bar B que in Nebraska.  He not only ate his words but the brisket too.  It was very hot but there was a breeze so we sat outside to eat.  Then on the road south and towards home.  Our next stop was Alliance and Carhenge.

This is modeled after Stonehenge in England but made with cars.  Pretty cool huh?

A closer view.

They also had some other sculptures.  This is a spawning salmon..  The sad part of this is all the graffiti on every thing.  It really detracted from the whole thing.   Guess some people don't care about others property.

On we went toward Bayard, where we were going to do a covered wagon ride and they feed you steak.    This is chimney rock.  It was one of the landmarks the pioneers used in the travel west.  It is supposed to be the half way point from St Louis to California.

Here is the wagon ride.  It was pretty short about 15 minutes and the driver was a tad grouchy.  We should have waited for the next ride when all the kids were done.  He did have some interesting information and asked us if we wanted the whole
pioneer experience.  Of course we all said yes so he told us to get out and walk.  None of the real pioneers rode they all walked.

We had to be at this place at 6 for the wagon ride but then they didn't start cooking the steaks until 7:30!  We just sat around for an hour and a half.  Most of the people used this time to  have a few beers.  Sometimes more than a few.  I guess that they were waiting for everyone's money to run out.

This is the grill they used to cook the meat.  Everyone thought it was pretty good.  Mine was a little (ok maybe more than a little) over done.  You got a big boiled potato and some really good green beans and at the table was a loaf of homemade bread.  It was a good evening.  They also gave you a homemade ice cream.  They were just starting to move to the fire to sing songs and roast marshmallows when we made our escape.  It's not like we had never done that before.  We had wanted to get a motel in Bridgeport which was only 15 miles from the covered wagon place but none had a pool and Miss Katlin threw a fit so we drove to Scottsbluff and stayed in a Comfort Inn.  It was after 9 by the time we got back to the motel and Dan made both Katlin and Conner get on their swim suits and go and get in the pool because if we had to go the extra way he was going to make them use it whether they wanted to or not.   And they did not.  Watched a little Wildman or Hillbilly Hand fishin can't remember which and went to sleep.  I warned them I was going to sleep hard that night and everyone prepared with ear plugs.  I guess I didn't let them down.  This ends day four.

Wagons Ho! Day 3

We got around a little early this morning and left the old Stage Coach Inn about 8:30.We were driving secondary roads today and hoping for some pretty scenery.

The first thing we saw was Lake McConaughy.  We drove over the dam and it was pretty impressive.  You can see in the bottom right hand corner the water coming out of the hydro plant.  On the other side of the dam were pretty beaches.   The lake is the biggest in western Nebraska.

Although on secondary roads we made good time and were ready for a cold drink when we happened on this place in the middle of no where.  We went in to look around and Conner thought he saw the biggest dog in the world.    That is probably the second most talked about thing from him.  Too funny

 Driving on we saw this longhorn steer and he decided to pose for us.  Stayed just that way until we were done taking pictures.

Finally made it to Gordon and stopped for gas.  The attendant told me the cafe next door had really good Indian tacos.   An Indian taco is made with fried bread on the bottom and then all the taco stuff on top.  So we went there for lunch and she was right but they also had the biggest gooiest  carmel rolls.  We didn't see them until we were paying so we got 4 to go and man were they good!  We drove around for a little while  but finally found the Tri State Old Time Cowboy Museum.  However it wasn't open.  There were some numbers to call so Dan called them and they said someone would be there by 1PM.  We sat in the park and waited.  It wasn't too bad although it was close to 100.  The guy finally came and we looked through all the saddles.

There was a whole wall of brands.

And a sign to explain what the brands meant.

 A whole wall of cowboy hats.

A display of different kinds of barbed wire.   We spent some time there.  Dan wanted to take some pictures of the saddles.   Then we headed off for the high plains homestead our stop for 2 nights. We were all looking forward to it because we were all to have our own beds.  And it came with a big cowboy breakfast.

But before we got there we ran across another museum. (Every town in Nebraska has some kind of museum)  this one was the Museum of the Fur Trade.  It had rooms of guns and furs and indian clothing with lots of extensive bead work.   Outside was an Indian tepee.

with three little Indians in it.

Another sod house.  They were every where! There was a trade room where the Indians trades buffalo  robes for  goods.  1 robe for a knife, 1 robe for 5 yards of cotton fabric, 3 robes for a medium blanket, 5 robes for a gun.  

One our way again to Crawford.  The scenery was really changing now.  Lots of buttes.  Made it there in good time.  found the J & J saddle shop and Dan talked for a long time to the owner.  He was a very nice man who had a really bad stutter.  But we found out his wife played fiddle and so went into his  home a the back of the shop and saw her trophies and heard him play some music.   We ate supper at a dive restaurant and did a quick tour of Fort Robinson.  

One little butte on the way to High Plains.  We had to take a one lane gravel road for what seamed like 50 miles but was probably only 15.  When we got to High Plains I went into the restaurant and was asked if she could help me and I explained I had reservations and she asked if it was for supper and I said no to spend 2 nights there.  She then went to get the owner.  She said she didn't have any reservations for me.  And I said she better have because she had cashed my check.  She went and looked some where else and found my reservation but she had already given the room to someone else.  She was very apologetic but that didn't help us.  One 

of her waitresses said her mother had a B&B close by and she would have room for all of us and that they were coming to supper at High Plains and we could make arrangements then.  She gave me a check for the amount I had paid.  and we waited for these people to finish their supper.  We did look around.  I had told Dan I wanted to get a close up look at some buffalo and lo and behold they had some buffalo.

It actually was really nice there and we looked around and then sat and waited and waited and waited for all most 2 hours.   Every one was kind of bummed but tried to stay positive.

Katlin and Conner trying out the old time school while we waited.  Finally she came for us and we followed her to her house, more miles on a one lane gravel road.  When we got to her place she showed us a little two bedroom house and said the couch made a bed and she had a roll away for the 4th person but she also had a loft apartment in the barn that we could look at. So we went to look at it and Katlin fell in love with it.  There were 2 loft beds up some very narrow stairs and a bed down stairs and a couch that made into a bed.  It was also 97 degrees in there.  She turned on the air but it took forever for it to cool off.  They did finally get us a fan and that helped.  It was cooler outside than in the apartment. We stayed up and played cards till about 10:30 waiting for it to cool off.  Dan and Katlin took the upstairs bedrooms because I didn't think I could do the stairs(they were pretty steep) especially in the middle of the night.   Conner got the couch and  we settled in. It was midnight before I could go to sleep because of the heat.  Tomorrow is another day.  This ends day three!