Chimney Rock, NE June 19, 2006

Well, I prefer Chimney to Elk's Penis. A big chunk of the top is missing now, so hard to say which was the better name. 

Chimney Rock, Ne June 19, 2006

Chimney Rock, you can see why it was one of the most memorable markers on the Trail. 

Courthouse and Jail Rocks, June 19, 2006

Here they are, but which one is which????? 

Enroute to Scott's Bluff, June 19, 2006

Courthouse and Jail Rocks- remember click to make bigger and read. Another trail marker along the Trail. 

Enroute to Scott's Bluff, NE June 19, 2006

Came through this roadside fire along the way. Lots of water trucks and folks milling around, down to one lane. 

Kimball, NE June 19, 2006

Here it is-Titan I missile. I think if you hold the cursor over the picture, the pix will get bigger. Try that on the previous pix, and read the sign. 

Kimball, NE June 19, 2006

City Park, Kimball, NE - a Titan I missle. 200 of them are/were buried in the area surrounding Kimball. Guess it is not much of a secret where they were/are. The missile was donated to Kimball from the AF. 

Enroute to Ash Hollow, NE June 18, 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen-"amber waves of grain" as far as the eye can see. Strange that those folks tramped through here, our richest farmland, without a thought of staying here. 

Ash Hollow, NE June 18, 2006

This is the homestead of Dennis Clary a Methodist Minister from----MARYLAND, who staked his homestead claim here in Ash Hollow in 1899. He actually built a stone house- see stones under sign, and ran a post office for settlers passing through. 

Ash Hollow, NE June 18, 2006

More wagon ruts! 

Ash Hollow, NE June 18, 2006

That's Bobbi's car ( the little speck between the trees) at the bottom of the hill- gives you a better perspective on how high and steep the hill was and how dumb Bobbi was to walk all the way to the top in 90 degrees. 

Ash Hollow, NE June 18, 2006

Voila!! Bobbi's first set of wagon ruts. In case you did not read my blog on wagon trains in general- the 3-4 inch wagon rut, has eroded into 4-6 feet gully through erosion. 

Ash Hollow, NE June 18, 2006

Here is the official scoop on Ash Hollow, Bobbi's first set of Oregon Trail wagon ruts. Even tho it is called Windlass Hill, where the wagons were lowered with ropes, there is no evidence of any ropes used. 

Ogallala, NE June 17, 2006

Words to live by- just outside the homemade pie emporium-saloon (a perfect combination), Ogallala. 

Ogallala, NE June 17, 2006

Lee was so sorry that this was closed. 

Ogallala, NE, June 17, 2006

Boot Hill Cemetery , Ogallala, NE, June 17, 2006. Ogallala was at the end of the cattle trail. This cemetery got its' name from the cowboys who landed here, still 'booted', but this picture, taken by the retired ED of the Maryland Commission on Infant Mortality Prevention- is of a mother and her infant. 

Paxton, NE June 17, 2006

I'm not really sure how these guys got to the middle of Nebraska! 

Ole's Bar & Rest. June 17, 2006

One more dinner companion-Ole's Bar and Restaurant. June 17, 2006 

Ole's Prairie Ridge Bar and Rest. Paxton, NE

One of our dinner companions. Ole's world famous Bar and Resaurant. Paxton, NE 

Ont the Road Wyoming June 22, 2006

June 21, 2006

Wyoming

Dearest Readers,

On the Road Again
Our home on the range is barreling west on US 80. We are looking for open pit mines, trying to see from whence comes all of these trains of coal. Dear Readers, do not think that coal comes from Pennsylvania! According to the state museum of Wyoming, 24% of the US coal production is from Wyoming, and Wyoming coal gets shipped to power plants all over the world, because it has a low sulfur content. And, even tho there can’t be a lot of people here with costly problems, they get 30% of the state budget from a coal tax.
But, the big story is trona!! Yes, indeedy, Wyoming is big in trona. Luckily, (?) it is strip mined so we should be able to spot a trona mine. There are a gazilion RR cars sitting along side of the road empty waiting for coal, or trona, but we've seen no strip mines yet.

What? You don’t know what trona is?? Is that the same lot of you that did not recognize the 1940-50’ beauty salon hair perm machine?? Trona is soda ash, and it is in baking soda, detergent, kitty litter, just about everything.


Oregon Trail
No Oregon Trail ruts down here, we are in the Red Dessert. The pioneers were smart enough to avoid this area. The trails were further north in the Sweetwater River valley. The Sweetwater got its name when one of the trappers dropped a bag of sugar in the river, and the name stuck.

Bobbi has been in search of ‘ruts’ now for 2 weeks and she is beginning to figure this thing out. In 1803-4 Lewis and Clark set out for the West and came back. Keep in mind without Sacajawea, their naviguesser, they would not have made it. The Indians knew any group with a woman and child would not be a war party, so it was their dumb luck that they picked her up along the way. The South Pass in the Rockies, (south/central Wyoming, just above Rawlins) was discovered (Fremont “found” it, but the Indians had always known about it), which really made overland travel possible. The trappers and the Indians pretty much had the West to themselves until 1841 when the first round of emigrants went out. In the 1840’s, the rivers were the gas station, providing water and grazing for the animals. The emigrants- Oregon, Mormon, Santa Fe freighters, 49ers, followed the North Platte river, then the Sweetwater river, over the plains. They didn't go single file, because the last guy would have been choking to death, they fanned out tramping down everything in sight, until they got to a river crossing, or a mountain pass, where they were forced to go single file. There were over 500,000 of them over the 20 years or so. In the beginning, the journal entries describe the beauty of Ash Hollow, and some of the other stops, but by the end the migration in the 1860’s, all of the ash trees in Ash Hollow were gone (used for fire wood) and the water spring had been trampled into a great mud pit by the oxen. It’s no wonder so many of them died of cholera. The ruts they left were 3-4 inches in the 1840’s but by 2006, erosion has turned some of them into 4-6 foot chasms. Since AAA wasn’t yet around, the route they followed was marked by obvious rocks, rivers, etc. Chimney Rock is a strange rock in the middle of the plains-looked like a chimney to the Easterners, but to the Indians it was Elk Penis rock, so we are all lucky we weren’t left with that great American monument. Independence Rock is a huge round rock mound in the middle of the plains- the email server of the 1840’s where folks signed their name and year, and sometimes left notes for those following. Us Americans are always good at graffiti. But in 2006, most of it is gone, except for the stuff added in 1945. It is called Independence Rock, because if you were not there by July 4th, you are going to get cold before you get there. I am still impressed by the Mormon hand carters who pulled their own wagons. Many of them started the trip too late, with not enough food, and unseasoned wood for the wagons. Lots of them had been recruited for Zion in Europe, and found themselves tramping across the Wilderness, after sailing the Atlantic, adding up to one bad year. The Mormons send their teens on Pioneer Trek. Every year hundreds of them show up at Martin Cove, near Independence Rock, where many of the hand carters got snowed in. In the 1860’s some were rescued with a wagon train from the West, but many died. The teens come- they must make their own pioneer clothes-long skirts, bonnets, baggy pants, and for 4 days they walk the Martin Cove area pulling handcarts, camping. They had just completed the trek, the day I arrived, and we all stood in the Visitor Center Ladies Room wait line together!!

The Oregon/ Mormon Trail ended abruptly when the Union Pacific train was completed in 1869, travelers could now do in 6-7 days what had taken 6-7 months. Similarly, the Pony Express, an enterprise most Americans would recognize, lasted less than 2 years, bankrupted the people who put it together (in 67 days), and lasted just a few months after the telegraph started. Timing is everything! I would not wanted to have been the pioneer who made the trip the summer before the railroad went in!!.

North Platte, NE Nebraskaland Days Parade

This is my favorite parade entry, in fact this is my favorite entry of all parades. The guy in the front is driving a bathtub( in front of a tractor) and he is pulling 8 toilets with folks sitting on them, for Charlie's North Platte Plumbing.
On this note dear readers, we leave you, at June 17, with a promise to upload again as soon as we get good internet coverage. 

North Platte, NE June 17, 2006

It's Nebraska!! Check out the Sherwin Williams store on the corner, downtown North Platte. 

North Platte, NE

Nebraskaland Days parade. This guy is shooting tee shirts from his bazooka- very popular. 

North Platte, NE Bailey yard

We're not sure why they want us to know this. I was happier thinking the engineer leaned over to scratch something. 

North Platte, NE June 17, 2006

Bailey Rail Yard. Union Pacific has their main yard in North Platte. There are over 200 tracks here and all of the trains are "built " here. Cars are sorted as to content and destination then hooked to an engine. It is so huge, it is hard to get a picture of it all. 

North Platte, NE Thunderstorm

The weather is very interesting out here on the plains. The last week it has been hot(90+) and windy. Not breezy, but windy-20-30 mph with bigger gusts. Lee will tell you that driving the big guy down Interstate 80, with the tractor trailers, in the wind has not been easy. Bobbi will tell you, forget spraying your hair-you walk out the door and it goes straight up in the air. However, the thunderstorm we had in North Platte was literally an eye opener- no one was going to sleep thru that one. We had gone to bed knowing there was a thunderstorm watch, but we said hey great, no tornados. A half hour later we were in bed and the RV was rocking back and forth like the boat in the 'perfect storm,' We got up and pulled all the slides in, then had the great debate- jacks down or jacks up. Next morning there was 1/2 a tree down, 2 doors down.

North Platte, NE June 17, 2006

Here is the rodeo stadium, across street from Buffalo Bill's house. We never got to the rodeo- it rained every night.