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!
