As with the day before, the 20th was another long day of driving. We realized that our route would take us straight across the Southern part of Nebraska, so I reached out to my cousin, Cody, to see if he could meet us for breakfast. Cody is out in Lincoln at the University of Nebraska getting his PhD in ruminant nutrition. With our breakfast meet set for 8am the next morning, we knew that we needed to stay the night either in Lincoln or close enough that we didn’t have too far of a drive in the morning. We stopped at a Walmart in Nebraska City, and after stocking up on groceries in the store, decided to just sleep there in the parking lot. Doing so left us with an hour drive to meet Cody at Cracker Barrel the next morning, which we made exactly on time. After a great visit with Cody that included eating way too much food, we put the pedal down and kept driving West through the endless corn fields of Nebraska. Once again, we forgot to take a picture of our breakfast date.
The night of the 21st we stayed in Scottsbluff. I have been there two or three times before back in my work-travelling days, and knew that seeing Scott’s actual bluff was worth the slight detour (instead of heading up towards South Dakota.) Jennifer found a campground along the North Platte River that had a great view of the bluff. After checking-in at the campground and getting a site, we drove over to the Scottsbluff National Park to hike to the top – the only reason we were there. I remembered that the hike up was quite a leg workout; carrying a kid certainly didn’t make things easier. We fought through the burn (both legs and lungs) and made it to the top, which included going through a tunnel to the other side, then back over the top, then along a sketchy section of the cliff bordered by a wall on one side and a sheer drop of 50ish feet on the other. Once back at the campground, Jennifer took the kids to play in one of the best playgrounds they’ve ever played in, while I cooked dinner back at the campervan. Driving out of town the next morning we stopped to get the kids new kicks at Payless, which they were both thrilled with.
On the 22nd we drove North out of Nebraska and up into South Dakota. We figured that since we were in the area – and never had been before – that we might as well see the sights that southern SD has to offer. Our first stop was at the mammoth site in Hot Springs. A long long time ago there used to be a spring at the site and a bunch (61 as of present count, but they aren’t close to being done with the excavation) of mammoths (both of the wooly and Columbian varieties, we learned) fell into the spring and drowned; their bones have been preserved there ever since. So far, all of the discovered remains are males, which seemed rather odd. This is the part where the tour book inserts a joke about males not asking for directions. Harhar. We didn’t know of this place until our friend Sarah and her sister sent us a bunch of recommendations of things to see in the area. The kids weren’t as impressed as we were, but they were perfectly happy to run around and scream in the quiet church-like building that encompasses the dig site. After that stop we drove to see the famous things that people have carved out of rock. The online reviews for Crazy Horse were rather horrible, so we took the advice we read and didn’t pay the admission fee to go in, turning around at the gate instead. Next up was Mount Rushmore, which again was a bit of a disappointment. The carving itself is impressive, but they’ve built a massive parking garage complex at the base of the mountain, which really killed the vibe of the whole place. Since the kids were both asleep at this point, we again opted to turn around at the gate and save the $11 parking fee. Checked those off the list, in any case. On our way out of the area, we tried to stop to see Jewel Cave, where Sarah’s brother-in-law is a park ranger, but the park was closing in 30 minutes and they were done with tours for the day. We drove on until we reached the town of Sheridan, and boondocked it in another Walmart parking lot. Fancy living.
Up next: Yellowstone.