Nebraska (06-29-19)

Mike and Julie were in the small town of Bayard, Nebraska,  exploring the Chimney Rock Pioneer Crossing area. I had no idea what that was, so I googled it, and its part of the trail the Mormons used to cross the country back in the 1800s.

It turns out, Paul's third great grandfather and his family were Mormon Pioneers who passed by this very place in 1856, on their way to Salt Lake City.

Travelers were always excited to see Chimney Rock, as it marked the psychological halfway point between the beginning of their journey, and their destination. Most had never seen anything like this "chimney" and were fascinated by it.

With most groups of Mormons using the same trail to head west, it was soon a more established route, and was used by the Pony Express, Forty Niner gold miners, and many emigrants who were headed west to Oregon and California. It was designated "the Mormon Trail".







At the small campground we stayed in, there was one traveler who was in the process of hiking the Mormon Trail, and another who was following the Pony Express Route- by horse. Apparently that's not uncommon.

Nearby Scotts Bluff was also recognizable and visible from a long distance. 

 It is now a national monument, with a visitor center ( which was closed for renovations ) and a few hiking trails. 

The four of us took the opportunity to stretch our legs with a 3 mile walk that included a tunnel,  a big hill, and great views of the surrounding area.

This small town amazingly boasts several museums- we checked one out, but the highlight of the visit was trying to rescue Mike from a very talkative clerk/volunteer.












Before moving on to our next destination, we took a scenic drive around the area. We came upon a replica of an 1820s trading post .....

And lots of cows in the road....  They weren't very happy with us, either.















Having come upon Mike and Julie, we weren't ready to leave them yet, so we followed them to their next destination, which was  Fort Robinson State Park, less than 2 hours north.

Fort Robinson started its life as an army camp, in the 1870s, when it was used during the Indian Wars.  Since that time, it has been used for many things- in the 1930s the U.S. Olympic Equestrian team trained here, and during World War II it was a German Prisoner of War camp.




Julie and I liked that it has an Olympic size swimming pool, although we only used it once.

Several of the buildings, which do exist even though I didn't get a single picture of them (borrowed one from the web) have been made into museums, some are used as lodging, and some have been restored.

The four of us took off exploring in the Jeep, not having any idea what we would find. Well, we found a road/trail with very confusing signage. One sign said "Do Not Enter- authorized vehicles Only" or something to that effect.

The other sign said "Jeep Trail" and since we were in a Jeep, Paul decided it meant that we were authorized to use the trail. Off we went, down a one way trail. Did we get caught? Yep. We almost made it, but the "official Jeep Tour" was coming from the other direction. We had to back up and find room to pull off so they could get by.  The ranger guy wasn't too happy with us, but we had fun.




Our other Jeep outing was a little more fun and didn't involve almost getting arrested...We went to Toadstool Geologic Park, where it was hot enough that we elected to hike the shortest trail-  the interpretive Trail.

Julie was in charge of interpreting what we were seeing.

One of the items was what used to be a riverbed. Parts of it are tipped over, making it easier to see the footprints of ancient animals.

We thought it was supposed to be less than a half mile, but we are pretty sure it felt like almost 2 miles. It was really hot out though, so maybe that affected our thinking.

Also at the park was a reconstructed Sod House. You can actually go inside, and the temperature difference was substantial.

Facebook is awesome! That's how we found out that our friends Deloris and Charley were not that far away.  Fore once, things worked out, and the 4 of us jumped in the Jeep to meet them for dinner.

  Of course I didn't take any pictures, except on the way home, when the setting sun lit up the wildflowers and grass to an amazing degree.

Mutual of Omaha (09-15-13)

{Post Delayed due to Lack of Internet}

Well, just Omaha, really.  Omaha Nebraska. Slowing down the pace a bit, we spent three nights in Omaha.  We were lazy for the first day, and only ventured out to check out the Mormon Trail Center at Historic Winter Quarters.  What a mouthful.

When the Mormons originally started their trek from Illinois to their new home of Salt Lake City, they thought the first wave of settlers would reach their destination within the first year.  They were wrong. Weather conditions forced them to stop for the winter, and they did that in Omaha Nebraska.

Once here, they built a small town of 500 homes.  A smaller “scouting” party was sent ahead to Utah, and along the way they mapped the trail, watering holes, and good camping places. Once the weather was favorable, the Omaha settlers left for Utah,and more pioneers from Illinois took their place.  Over the course of several years, more than 70,000 Mormons migrated through this area.  In fact, it is considered to be the most successful pioneer migration in history.  These people were hard workers, smart,  and willing to sacrifice for the common good- or for God, as they probably saw it.


This is a small museum, adjacent to the cemetery where the pioneers who didn’t survive the winter are buried.  Once we entered the building, we were greeted by a “sister”, a young lady who is on an LDS mission in Omaha.  She was curious about our beliefs and she and I had an interesting conversation about the beliefs of the LDS church.  I enjoy learning about their faith, as long as one tries to convert me!  She didn’t, but she also didn’t let me tour the museum on my own.  She stayed with me, discussing each exhibit.  My only issue with that is that it made me feel rushed as I read the information presented.  Paul took the opportunity to scoot ahead and tour at his own pace.


One of the exhibits showed the handcarts that were used by the pioneers to cart their belongings from Illinois to Utah.  It was actually faster and cheaper to travel that way, since the oxen that had been used previously walked slower than people, and of course needed to be fed and watered.  Paul’s great great grandfather was one of the Mormons who made this trek using a handcart. Although small, this museum had a lot of interesting information.




The following day didn't start out exactly as planned.  The night before we had been having issues with the hot spot and Wi-Fi on Paul’s phone, and after 3 hours of talking with AT&T and Apple, they told us to go to the nearby Apple store and get his phone replaced.  Luckily we had insurance, so it didn't cost us anything. We took care of that before heading to the Henry Doorly Zoo for the day. (Edit: Paul’s new phone doesn't work correctly so we’ll have to replace it again when we get to El Paso.  Meantime I activated my hot spot so we’ll see if I can post with it)

We don’t go to many zoos, and we had just been to the National Zoo in Washington DC, but one of the exhibits sounded particularly interesting to me.  The Desert Dome houses habitats from 3 deserts around the world, and beneath it is Kingdoms of the Night- the world’s largest nocturnal exhibit.  

Here they have switched the day/night cycle, so we can see nocturnal animals at a time when they will be more active.  It was quite an exhibit. I enjoyed it, and most of the rest of the zoo as well. 

  The view of the crocodiles and alligators was interesting because we could see them above the water …

and below.

Some of animals didn't seem to have very much room to move around and definitely appeared bored.  That’s sad.  The National Zoo has large areas for the animals to roam, but then of course there isn't much chance of close up pictures!

The gorillas  have managed to find ways to combat the boredom, however.

They spend a fair amount of time interacting with the people on the other side of the glass. I love watching the gorillas- they are so intelligent!

 

One gorilla has his fun at the expense of the unwary.  He waits until someone is sitting in the round window, and then he runs by and bangs on the glass, startling whoever is sitting there.

We did a lot  of walking, checking out the larger enclosures.















This bird was the weirdest thing I’ve seen in a long time.  Pretty colors though.

Probably my favorite animals of the day were the lion cubs. They are so adorable and very curious about the people staring at them! They are almost a year old.