Our day in Nebraska (we could cross it in one day) was quite miserable because of a cold wind.  I had forgotten to pack jackets for this trip, not even my hooded sweat shirt.  I had bought a cute sweater/jacket at Cracker Barrel when we were driving through the south (where there were Cracker Barrels every few miles, it seemed), but this cold wind was miserable.  The sun was shining, but the wind was biting.  However, the wind didn’t stop us from enjoying the scenery.  The farmland of Nebraska was rolling, as in Iowa, and we followed the Platte River through the state.  Where the Platte divided into two rivers, the South Platte and North Platte, we took a northern “detour” to visit a two key spots on the Oregon trail.  One was a piece of rock called Chimney Rock that stuck up 400 feet into the air.  As you can imagine, it was an easily recognized landmark.

The other spot was just a little further west where the trail left the North Platte River and went through a pass called Scott’s Bluff.  We were able to drive up to the summit of this ridge where we could see in both directions.  There was a trail that went up to the summit, but it would have been out of our league even if the wind was not blowing so hard.  But it was an awesome sight to think that all those pioneers braved the dangers and the unknown to settle west.

This is the “bluff” and the trail went to the left of it.

It was a short trip from here to Mandy’s in Laramie, and we have enjoyed being with her and Mark and seeing our growing grandchildren.  We leave tomorrow for the next leg of our trip to Utah, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.