Nebraska

Heading out on I-80 eastbound

Even though it's one of my six (!) bordering states, I'd never been to Nebraska before today. I've seen Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado, but South Dakota and Nebraska were unknown. Actually, I'm sort of clueless about most of the middle of this country, sad to say. But Rick was heading to Sidney, and I took the opportunity to tag along and experience NE for the first time. Peter came, too.

Our shadows on the playground

We stopped a few times along the way, first at a rest stop near Pine Bluffs, WY. We wasted a few minutes on the playground. It was very windy, like crazy. I thought we might fly off the top of this dome.

Flags

See, it's very windy.

jackpot!

Just at the state line, we stopped at a weird little junk store (closed) that had dozens of gas pumps outside. There were also old vacuum cleaners, farm equipment, and a million other things.

Kaijsa and Peter find the good life

Just up the road, Rick was nice enough to stop and take my picture at the Nebraska sign. I wish I could have done that for him this summer in Washington and Oregon, but we were on I-90 heading into WA and then(obviously) crossed into OR in the middle of the Columbia, which means we couldn't stop on a bridge. Sad. Back to Nebraska, I never would have guessed it was the home of Arbor Day, because there are like twelve whole trees there.

The next dust bowl

Remember how I said it was windy? Well, that kicked up an amazing amount of dust. It was mid-morning here, but it looks like dusk. We also saw a million tumbleweeds as they crashed into us. I felt bad for Rick having to drive with such a strong crosswind, but I was happy to be the passenger, even though I was riding on the hump--we sat three across in the pick-up.

One of these things is not like the other

Another fun roadside attraction was this shrine. Seriously. There was a sign that said "Shrine" with an arrow. Sweet. In addition to the giant virgin, there were fourteen statues for the stations of the cross, plus bonus postscripts. And there were several madonna and child statues in front of Mary, but I didn't look to closely. Maybe some of them were various saints.

The weary travelers and a moose

Of course, the reason we went to Sidney was to go to Cabela's. I'd also never been to one, and this is the mothership. I asked a nice man to take our picture in front of the moose, because it's Rick's favorite and he seems to have bad luck finding them in the wild. I personally enjoyed the big horn sheep, posed in mid-frolic, as well as the wolverine. We also ate lunch; I had a tasty buffalo burger.

The big pants

None of us bought anything, but we had some fun poking around. Finally, we headed back home. On the way, we stopped in Cheyenne and I experienced another first--bought 50 cent ice cream cones at Little America, home of the fanciest restrooms in Wyoming.