Day 37, More Nebraska

Day 37 had us once again backtracking!  The National Park Passport book Babs used to find the ranger station had out of date information and thus we were about 100 miles off course.  To add insult to injury, the road to the Niobrara National Scenic River Park was closed about five miles from the site.  We were in the middle of “Nowhere Nebraska”.  This is their post office.

  Fortunately this very nice and talkative woman was mowing her law on a riding tractor mower and gave me alternate directions. “Take that road,

(pointing behind her), it will wind around a lot of curves, it will turn into an oiled stretch, and then you will hit NE20 (the road we had originally been on).  Turn left and you can skip across the road to the park”.  She was right on and without her help we would never have found the park.  Almost halfway down that road there was a tremendous view of the Niobrara River Valley.

After visiting the park we headed toward Beatrice, Nebraska to find another National Park site.  Along the way we crossed over the Niobrara National Scenic River.

  Our route took us through the middle of Nebraska.  As far as the eye can see, there is nothing but corn.

That may be why they call their football team the Corn Huskers. We didn't see anyone for miles, except for this one man Nebraska traffic jam.

  There were lots of Nebraska rural skyscrapers.

  Passing through one little town on our route was this wayside bell stand.

  We also crossed the legendary Platte River that early pioneers followed like a road map west.

Just outside Beatrice, Nebraska we visited the Homestead National Monument of America.

  This National Historic site has an original Homesteaders cabin

and many displays in the visitors center.  One thing that caught Babs fancy was this goat powered washing machine.

We are spending tonight in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  Getting here while driving through Omaha, Nebraska we found our first major traffic, five lanes in each direction.

UGH!  Tomorrow we turn toward home!

Babs says: It has been the hottest day since we left home.  How hot?  Hot enough that the tree thanked the dog.