2013 Western Adventure Day 14

Today we got a later start than usual, 9:30 a.m. We spent all day driving on I-80 toward North Platte, NE.  We did not have to deal with snow at all today.  Instead we had 50+ MPH winds to rock the car around.

I-80 is paralleled by US-30, part of the Lincoln Highway. The Lincoln Highway was a twelve state continuous route from New York to San Francisco which was completed in 1915. Boy Scouts placed about 3,000 concrete markers along the highway in all 12 states.

Babs had no National Parks to visit today so she scouted the AAA Tour Book for things to see.  Our first stop of the day was Elk Mountain, WY, a town that was developed in the 1930’s. Highlights of the town were the Elk Mountain Hotel and dance hall, an old barn, a trading company, and a community church.

Elk Mountain Restaurant and Dance Hall

Back on the highway we drove over Desert Mountains and flats which were lined with wind generators but no evidence of transmission lines.

The next stop selected by Babs was a memorial to President Lincoln located in a rest area.  The memorial consisted of a huge stone and bronze statue of Lincoln.

View from inside Visitor Center

From the Lincoln Memorial we continued on I-80 to Cheyenne, WY which is a refinery and railroad town, as well as, the State Capital. After traversing streets down town and even attempting to turn the wrong way on a one way street we were finally able to snap a photo of the Capital building.

We headed out onto I-80 once again driving toward Kimble, NE, the highest town in Nebraska.  It is also supposedly also the home of a Titan Intercontinental Missile which has been erected in their park.  It was well past lunch time so we decided to stop for a bite to eat at the only local restaurant, The Longhorn.  The food which they serve wasn’t bad but it was neither great, nor fast.  It took over an hour to have lunch.  One of the things I had to eat was the salad bar which even had prunes as an item. I love prunes but in retrospect, I would not recommend eating them while on a road trip.

It was during lunch we got the bad news.  Yes there is a Titan Missile in the park but during a storm the top blew off and it is now only part of a Titan Missile. Oh well, we are here so we went to the park anyway.

The Nebraska scenery included rolling hills and flat land from which you could see for miles.  One of the hills sported a metal Coyote.

Our last stop before reaching our destination for the night was Ogallala, NE which claim to fame is an “Alien Water Tower”.  You be the judge.

We approached North Platte as the sun was setting.  

We checked into the Hampton Inn and had a good dinner at the Whiskey Creek Restaurant.

I forgot to mention the beautiful show clouds presented all day.

Tomorrow we continue east on I-80 to nowhere in particular.

Babs Says: It’s amazing that the Presidential Inauguration isn’t a big thing out here and barely mentioned on television news.