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.
