Great Road Trip of 2017.....Part Five/Day Five

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

We hit a local diner in Grand Island Nebraska for breakfast before hitting the road for the day so we could meet a reader who lives nearby, Gerlyn.

Gerlyn had emailed me about where to find good barbecue along the route of our trip since her DH is from Texas originally.  Her and her DH own a ranch outside of town here.

She was so sweet and brought me some quilted items her mom had made and she brought some home canned jam and such she had put up.  I left her with a bag of toiletries(mostly shampoo has she had a bevvy of teenage daughter at that time). lol

Then we got down to breakfast.  I had an unsweet iced tea(I don't "do" coffee), a fresh fruit bowl and grits.  

Gerlyn said she wasn't very hungry so just ordered a cinnamon bun.  Well, WTF!  That bun was bigger than our heads! lol  I believe she took at least half of it home.

The obligatory photo with the Big Cock. hehehe

Then me alone with Tommy's rooster making love to it. lol

Lastly a serious photo without any cocks(lol)of Gerlyn and me.  It was a real pleasure to meet you Gerlyn and I'm sorry it took me 6 YEARS to post this.

After we parted ways we drove about a block and I saw another ginormous animal I had to have Hubs take my picture with.....

The mascot for the Texas T-Bone restaurant.  That same shopping plaza had a discount food pantry store too!  Of course I had to go in there......

FAT-FREE Mayo???  Isn't that the point of Mayo?!  Isn't fat the point of Mayo?

Gigantic #10 cans of Gefilte Fish.  These could have fed every Jewish mother in the entire state of Nebraska I bet. lol

And this shelf was a head scratcher....

They had a DISCOUNT SHELF!  Um, I thought the whole store was full of discounted food.  How far past the sell by/use by date must have THIS stuff been!lol

So we blew out of Grand Island NE heading West and hit rain on 1-80.  Just as we were pulling off the interstate in Kearny, NE the rain stopped as we got out of the car to go to "The Archway".  Or the "Great Platte River Road Archway" experience as it's better known as.

On the grounds of the place were some fake buffalo......

And native Prairie flora(which was not fake)....

There was also a statue descendants of the Martin brothers who survived a Native American attack had had designed and created.  One arrow went through both of their bodies, pinning them together as they rode hard back to their prairie home.

There was an accompanying plaque describing the incident.

The incident from 1864 and what happened is described HERE in case you are interested.

So we went in and paid our admission and were greeted by this man.....

Some one dressed up like a mountain from the early days of the West.  Man did he look convincing and truth be told I thought he was a statue and when he moved I about jumped out of my skin!!

Then, with individual transmitters in hand we rode an escalator up to the exhibit.........

The West was settled by folks of all ilk.....those looking for land to call their own, those looking for adventure, those fleeing religious persecution, those looking for a fresh start in life, those evading justice, etc.

Then gold was discovered in California and that set off wave after wave of more settlers and adventurers.

At first there were only notable landmarks such as rock formations and the stars at night to point the way (besides a compass).

The Mormons set off for their promised land they called "Deseret"(later to become the state of Utah)after their leader Joseph Smith was killed in Nauvoo, Illinois. Many of these travelers had no animals for transportation and just a handcart to drag their possessions in.  Setting off too late in the year on foot saw many would-be settlers freeze to death along the way.

After a few years travelers could also use the trail of discarded home goods as a guide as well.  If your oxen or horse or your wagon broke down, you left treasured possessions along the trail.  You had no other choice if you wanted to keep going and survive the journey.

And there were many deaths along the way.......

If the Natives didn't kill you or you didn't get some disease that couldn't be cured, some other disaster may be fall you along the way.  You'd be buried as best your traveling companions could and left out along the trail in the wilderness.

I found this particular exhibit above interesting.  You had to decide which shortcut to take by sliding little windows to reveal your fate.  The shortcut you took might not necessarily take miles off your journey and if you chose wrong, it could mean your death.

My 1st cousin 6 x removed, William Lewis Sublette, was one of the original "mountain men" who explored the West beginning in the 1820's.  We share a common ancestor in Pierre Louis Sublette, a French Huguenot, who came to Virginia in 1700 escaping the persecution of Protestants in Catholic France.  I descend from "Peter's" son William Abraham and Bill the Mountain Man descends from Peter's younger son, Lewis. Bill did trapped beaver for John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company among other activities and is said to have guided the first wagon train of settlers West from St. Louis to Oregon.  He was known as Bill or "Cutface" due to a wound he received on his chin.

And something I didn't know is that one of the shortcuts or "cut offs" is named after him, the Sublette cutoff.  Taking this cutoff near South Pass Wyoming took about 50 miles off your journey to Oregon.

I have lots more photos of the exhibit and if you are out that way it's worth a stop.  But avoid the gift shop downstairs.  A bunch of Made in China crap!  And waaay over priced.

Let's leave Kearny, Nebraska with a picture of Hubs next to a statue of a buffalo on the grounds of the exhibit outside.....

We hit the road once more........

We stopped for gas in Ogallala.  Mmmmm, gas station fried chicken. lol

We stopped for lunch in a quaint fake Western town front with a restaurant.  A tourist trap for sure and the restaurant was so dark inside you needed a flashlight to see your food!  Probably by design so you didn't notice how dirty the place was. Pondering that awful lunch I got to thinking that gas station chicken might have been a better choice after all. 8-)

We then took a turn North.....to get to "Carhenge", America's Stonehenge.

 It's located in Alliance, Nebraska, in the Northwestern corner of the state.

They talk about Carhenge's creator and the site HERE.

This was a very interesting stop but way off our route.

Next time we'll pick up from here.

Sluggy