Saturday 3rd December – Nebraska: Points for Trying

Despite the sting of cold, the rising sun managed to add some warmth to my body while I made breakfast. Even though it quickly faded, I appreciated the morning start. I sat at the picnic table to eat my oats, next to where my fire had been, but I rushed the oats down so I could get going, the wind was picking up and I couldn’t feel my ears anymore. At the exit to the park I fished my money envelope out of the deposit box since no one had come by to collect it. Don’t judge me, nothing like a free camp!

Today was mostly driving in a round about way to Denver. There were a few things I’d marked on the map to see. All the research I’d done on the state of Nebraska suggested amazing things, but you know how tourism sights go, they’re not going to bag the state.

The Agate Fossil Bed National Monument is exciting for scientists and paleontologists, but didn’t get my heart racing. This is despite the park ranger Alvin’s best efforts to get me excited. He must be made of enthusiasm because he’d lived in parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone. I would call this park a wasteland compared to those two. I would go crazy. According to the visitor’s log, I was the first person to visit in a week!

Still, since I’m in no rush, I spent at least an hour looking at the visitor center exhibits. The best of which being a leather hide covered in Indian paintings, each one depicting the significant event of that year. It was interesting to interpret some of them.

I bid Alvin goodbye and opted not to do either of the two hiking trails through flat fields. The wind had really picked up so it wasn’t pleasant and I doubted the level of excitement I would peak at on the walks. I drove on, hitting a dirt road to cut east to my next stop, Carhenge.

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I’d seen this marked in my Atlas and didn’t know what to expect, but it was awesome. I ate lunch as I listened to the five-minute audio guide at the entrance. I was excited that to listen to the audio guide, you had to wind up the machine using a small spinning handle. After about a minute of that, it was ready to go. How cool!

The carhenge was the brainchild of a guy that had spent time in England and visited Stonehenge, taken measurements (this is obviously in the days where you could climb on Stonehenge) and brought them back home to a field where he concocted a plan to recreate the historic features with cars. After it was complete, of course there were protests, understandably so. Some people called it a vertical junkyard. Whatever, I thought it was brilliant!

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There were a few other “art” installations made of car components around the field, the best being a dinosaur made mostly of leaf springs and even a sign with letters arranged out of spark plugs. That made me laugh out loud, it’s the little things.

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Per the audio guide, I drove through the town of Alliance to check out the attractions there, but they were no highlights. I can imagine tons of school children running around Dobby’s Frontier Town (no relation to the Harry Potter elf) in summer, but in winter, all resembles a ghost town.

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After I’d driven through the main street, I took a detour south to see Jail and Courthouse rocks. Even though I could see them from a distance, I made it to the sign where I figured out I couldn’t get any closer so settled with a photo. Sitting amongst a very flat land, they looked pretty cool, especially with the sun starting to set behind them.

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Last tourist stop for the day was Chimney Rock. This one is a narrow spire rising out of a small mound near the highway. The visitor’s center was deserted but I was greeted with enthusiasm and the man in a Santa hat put on a 16-minute video for me. It was educational. I learned how the chimney rock had acted as a guide, a checkpoint, along the overland track that was used by travellers in the 1830s and 1840s to move from east to west or vice versa. There wasn’t much else to do here apart from go outside to take a photo, the sun now setting. I soaked up the last of the warmth out of the building before heading off again.

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Freecampsites.net had directed me to a camp in the nearby town of Bayard at the central park of all places. I would have been sceptical but Alvin had mentioned something similar in another nearby town so I figured it was a Nebraskan thing. Sure enough, right next to the park was a gravel carpark with a sign reading “campground regulations”. It stated the first two nights are free and $10 per night following that. Even better, there were three water and power stations for each parking spot. What a cool idea!

It’s cold, I’m having campfire withdrawal.