North Platte, Nebraska

We left Sioux City, Iowa bright and early this morning and drove south to Omaha, Nebraska. The weather was cloudy, rainy and typical of what we've experienced so far on this journey: crappy. It took us about an hour and a half to reach Omaha and I-80, but wow, did we make headway once we were again on the most traveled road in America. The miles sped past--in Nebraska you can drive 75mph, no doubt to help you get quickly across the state--though we stopped twice for Ozzy breaks and once for lunch in a strange place called Grand Island, Nebraska. I have no idea why it's called Grand Island since it was in the flatlands and trust me, there was nothing remotely island-like about the place. Still, we had a good lunch and an hour off to relax from the highway.

Then we carried on to North Platte, having driven about 380 miles today. Because the road was so clear, and the speed limit so fast, it didn't actually feel like that many miles, though we were happy to finish the day at a nice hotel on the edge of Buffalo Bill's place. His ranch is 5 miles from here, and the whole town of North Platte is devoted to his memory. Course, I haven't seen any photos of his slaughter of 5,000 buffalo in one day, but hey, it would probably be politically incorrect of me to bring that up to anyone around here.

I didn't take many photos today, mainly because we were driving too fast, and also because Nebraska looks much like Iowa: cornfields. I'm also getting bored with the photos from the car window. Maybe when we get to Wyoming tomorrow, there will be more exciting things to see besides these boring "Scenes from the Heartland."

This photo is for my sister and brother-in-law, Scott Sloan. Sorry about the blur. We were doing about 80mph when we blew past the sign for Sloan, Iowa.

Name that state. No, it's not Iowa, it's Nebraska. Same flatland, same cornfields. The only difference to Nebraska was the flooding. They had a most horrific storm two days ago so there's lots of rivers overflowing their banks, and many of the fields looked like lakes. Alan said at one point they should rename the area the Lake District. I laughed really hard, though I think the farmers with their corn half-submerged wouldn't think it was so funny.

This was an enormous arch across the freeway called the Great Platte River Archway Monument. It commemorates the pioneers, the Pony Express, and all things involved in the westward expansion of America in the 1800s.

This was a close-up of the statue on the top, right side of the archway. I'm not sure what it has to do with pioneers, or expansion, but it was really cool.

And so, that's it for today. We're going out to dinner in a few minutes, then will explore North Platte a little before having an early night and heading out in the morning for Wyoming. The bad weather has moved to the east, and we expect at least a few days of sunshine, which will be most excellent. Alan is hoping to at last see the Rockies; last time we drove through them--4 years ago--it was raining, snowing, and foggy. Seriously, he missed the whole mountain range..!! I'm hoping for better photos, and to finally being in The West.  Ozzy is no doubt wishing we had left him in Scotland.