Chapter 21

We started our day today with the Nebraska capitol, just a few minutes from our motel. It's a great way to start, because, among other things, it's open at 8:00.

This capitol is different from every other capitol we have visited, because, Fun Fact: it was the first state capitol NOT modeled after the US capitol. When it was completed in 1932, it was the tallest state capitol, but that didn't last very long. Louisiana was building its capitol at the same time, and they waited to complete it until Nebraska was done. Nebraska's is 14 stories tall, so Louisiana made theirs 15 stories, and at least at that time, it was the tallest.

Nebraska's has lots of mosaics, paintings, and statues, and all of them tell some part of the Nebraska story. We also took the elevator up to the observation decks in the tower. We have liked every capitol, and each has something special, but we liked seeing one that was different.

After that, we began our day of transportation -themed sightseeing -- but without having to look at cars! (Except those on the roads)

Our first stop was in Kearney, the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument. It has a short interpretive trail, where we could see a sod house, a Native American storehouse, and several varieties of buffalo statues. We were interested in the arch museum, which tells the history of the area, but at $12 each, we decided to skip it. There was an extremely friendly travel advisor, and she loaded us up with brochures and ideas about how we could spend the rest of the day.

Our next stop was in Gothenburg, where there is a Pony Express station building in the city park. This is an actual station, moved there in the 1930s. We had lunch in the park.

Next stop was North Platte. We have mixed memories of North Platte from 2012. Generally, it was "the proverbial low spot" of that trip, but the memory was improved by the characters who sat outside the back door of our motel. No matter what time of day we entered or exited, they were always there. So, on our way into town, we swung through the parking lot, to see if they were still there. Yup, they were.

We went to the Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center. This is a tower, built to look like a railroad spike, that overlooks the Bailey Rail Yard, the world’s largest train yard. Covering a massive 2,850 acres, each day Bailey Yard manages 10,000 railroad cars. Of those, 3,000 are sorted to make sure the cargo reaches its final destination. You can see it all from the Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center in North Platte.

The Golden Spike is 8 stories tall. As soon as we got there, the clerk told us that their elevator was broken, but we could take the stairs if we thought we were up to it. We assured her that we were, but she wouldn't let us go unless we took bottles of water, and made sure we knew that there were security cameras, so if something happened to us, they would see us. We made it!

There was a view of the whole yard from the top. The retired Union Pacific worker manning the viewing area told us lots of things. I learned that there are east- and west-bound humps. Engines push train cars up this hill, and they separate into ones or twos, roll down the ramp, split off onto the correct track and connect to the proper train. They were assembling at least 3 trains that way while we were watching. Also, what they call "salad trains" or "refers" have priority (have to keep that salad fresh). Double deckers and UPS also have importance.

After North Platte, we drove to Brule. To get there, we got off I-80, and drove through the small town and kept going. A few miles outside town was a historical marker that told us that the Oregon Trail passed near there. If we went about 2/3 of the way up the hill on a dirt road, we would see where it passed.

We did that, and found a marker, and a mailbox with directions. We walked up the hill, known as California Hill, and there they were -- deep ruts, in this remote place!

That was exciting, so next we decided to make the 5 mile detour into Colorado to see more trail sites. We drove a loop on dirt and oil roads, and saw where the Overland and Pony Express Trails had gone.

Then we looped back up into Nebraska, and had to just drive, to get to our destination. We drove and drove, through remote, barren flat land. Finally, we crossed into Wyoming. We passed the time with a combination of podcasts, NPR news, and Nebraska's classical NPR station.

Once we crossed into Wyoming, it quickly got dark, and we could see lightning around, and went through some patches of heavy rain. As we drove through the dark, a tumbleweed suddenly appeared, rolling right at us. It hit our car and we ran right over it.

We finally made it to Cheyenne, and had dinner at Shari's, because it was too late and we were too tired to do any better.