Remember we slept at Walmart in Sydney, NE last night and woke up to the sound of diesel engines. When I peeked out the window, we had a truck parked (length wise) just inches from our front bumper, another truck on our right and rows of trucks parked everywhere else. I bet there were at least 30 maybe even 50 huge cargo trucks parked at this Walmart. I've never seen anything like it, have you? As soon as the truck driver in front of us moved, we got out of there for fear another truck would take his place.
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| That's our motor coach stuck between the trucks |
Today we drove about 175 miles but we made lots of interesting stops along the way. Our first stop was the most-remarked-upon landscape by some of the 400,000 people during the Great Western Migration in the 1800's. Chimney Rock is a 120-foot sandstone spire atop a 200-foot mound. I got a kick out of what the local Indians called this formation ... "elk penis".
Next stop was the Agate Fossil Beds National Monument near the Wyoming border. The Visitor Center has full-size skeletons from the bones of animals they found in this fossil bed. Animals that they didn't even know existed. One of the most interesting and well preserved was a Palaeocaster, a dry-land beaver, fossilized and preserved in its spiral-column-like burrow. Amazing.
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| The tree was full of these colorful Goldfinch |
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| Fossilized Burrow |
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| It was a little chilly today with high winds and showers - nothing stops us |
This land was part of James H. Cook's Agate Springs Ranch in the late 19th century. He made friends with Chief Red Cloud, Chief Crazy Horse and other Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Indians. The Visitor Center has a beautiful 200-piece collection of items he collected and received as gifts from the Indians.
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| This was Chief Red Cloud's Wife's Dress Made of Elk Skins |
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| This jacket was Chief's Red Clouds |
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| This depicts the battle of Little Big Horn |
Along the North Platte River in western Nebraska is Scotts Bluff National Monument and that was our next stop. Scotts Bluff is a remnant of the ancestral high plains - hundreds of feet higher than the present Great Plains - that formed in the continent's interior after uplifting the Rocky Mountains.
Our total sightseeing miles for the day was 4.7 - that's a good hike for just walking around checking out the sights.
We had planned at stopping at Fort Robinson State Park to see the free-range bison but by the time we got there we were both pretty tired and decided to just get to the next Walmart in Chadron, NE.
That truck was definitely parked way too close for comfort in my book. Glad you got out okay. We've never been through NE so thanks for the pictures.
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