Saturday, May 16, 2009

Making up for lost time

The bad weather cleared overnight and this morning we awoke to sunny skies. My Dad and I left the hotel at 7:15 AM and drove the final two hours between Liberty, MO and the Iowa state line. Before we reached Iowa, we crossed the bridge into Kansas so my Dad could say he's been there. Then we followed 1-29 through Iowa for about ten miles, and finally entered Nebraska around 10 AM. 

Welcome to Nebraska


Nebraska was pretty flat and very green. There was nothing along the highway except fields and farms. A little over midway through Nebraska, we were excited to enter the mountain time zone. 

Somewhere in NE

After about 380 miles of driving in Nebraska, we stopped at the flagship Cabella's store in Sidney, NE. My Dad wanted to look for some hiking boots and I wanted to get some hiking socks. After an hour trying on boots, my Dad didn't find anything (their selection left a lot to be desired), so we left with a pair of hiking socks each as well as a pair of binoculars.

Cabella's - Sidney, NE

We left Sidney around 5:30 PM with the goal of reaching Laramie, WY. In the last 50 miles in Nebraska, we started seeing two things we had not yet seen during this trip: oil derricks and trains. 

One of many trains along the road

One of many oil derricks along the road

We reached Wyoming around 7:30 PM. Just past Cheyenne, the scenery started to change drastically. Large, jagged mounds and hills emerged around us as the sun went down. It was a beautiful way to end a long day in the plains and provided us with a welcome preview of our drive into the Tetons tomorrow. After 12 hours of driving we made the final push through the 78 miles to Laramie, WY. Absolutely exhausted, we reached our destination at around 9:00 PM. 

Beautiful scenery in Eastern WY

After five days of travel, my Dad and I are extremely excited that we will be in the Tetons sometime tomorrow. We hope to arrive early in the afternoon so we can explore a little bit once we get there. Wish us luck on the final leg of our journey!



View Road Trip in a larger map

5 comments:

  1. So glad you are making progress again! Laramie is my FAVORITE place in Wyoming, although I've never been there. Long story, but I love that it was your destination yesterday! Was it nice? And I can't believe the flagship Cabella's didn't have a good selection of boots! Sacrilege.

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  2. The trains are the best part of the plains... it looks like you're a miniature person in one of those awesome model train sets. You can see them for miles over the plains!

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  3. thanks jenn! i think i need to hear this story about how laramie is your favorite place in WY! It was really small and we didn't see a lot of it, but it seemed nice. There were mountains in the distance which was really pretty. and yes, cabellas should be ashamed of themselves!

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  4. yeah, i really enjoyed watching the trains, too! they were really small in the distance and there were so many of them... it was really neat!

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  5. I wish I'd found your blog while you were actually on the road trip, but I'm still enjoying it immensely. I always take photos of trains... I love them. I also have Musubi, my mascot who sits up on the dashboard on trips. He prefers facing forward though, so he can see everything there is to see.

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