1
Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park

The home of Buffalo Bill Cody. \240His ranch is expansive with a stream from the North Platte River. \240

The house had a root cellar, ice box, bee and bat houses, and lots of space for horse riding.

The stable for his horses. \240It was filled with yokes, bridles, saddles, wagons and lassos.

The house in front is fancy to the gills, with ruffles, and trinkets, so I imagined that this was Cody’s ’man cave’, and looking at what was inside, it looks like he may have enjoyed it.

It is one room, and about 20x15.

The exterior construction is legit and will stand for many years to come.

On the grounds of the Scouts Rest Ranch.

2
Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center

We visited the largest rail yard in the US. \240It is super busy but relaxing to see the trains coming and going. \240Here, they break up loads, reassign to engines for new locations and then off they go.

Jim in front of the yards.

Ozzie and Dash watch the activity below them. \240On the ground level of the tower are flags for all the states served by Union Pacific.

A boys ’selfie’.

Our tickets to climb the tower.

3
North Platte

Nebraska flatness-

4
Mormon Trail, Sutherland, Nebraska

We went in search of historical markers today. \240North Platte, Nebraska, has the distinction of three major historical events: \240the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, and the Pony Express Trail. \240Amazingly, they are close but do not intersect. \240Here is the North Platte River, referenced in so many Oregon and Mormon Trail journals and letters.

The Sandhill Plains are stabilize sand dunes, covered with prairie grass. \240The ground is very soft, and so you can’t really use it for anything other than grazing/range land.

The trees along the river are a mix of cottonwoods, red cedars, and russian olive. \240They are very striking to see, and it is easy for me to imagine pioneers or Sioux Indians amongst them. \240We saw wild turkeys, deer and owls.

This is the documented location of wagon and cart ruts from the early pioneers. \240Because the ground is soft, moving heavy wagons would have been difficult.

A beautiful stone marker of the Oregon Trail location, on the south side of the Platte River.

We crossed the most narrow bridge we’ve seen in a long time.

Some company on our search. \240They were adorable and very cautious of us travelers.

A great-looking longhorn. \240He was kind enough to pose for me...

5
Fort Cody Trading Post

To finish our day, we stopped at Fort Cody. \240There was a live band playing and we looked at all kinds of western ’stuff’.

Pickled eggs, candy cigarettes and pipes, choke cherry jams, chaps, blades, buffalo rifles, hats, moccasins and all manner of trinkets are at the fort.

6
Fort Cody Trading Post

There is a huge display of hand-carved wooden pieces depicting life during the Bill Cody days. \240There are several moving pieces, but I only got three. \240Damn cute, I say!

Card players .

The Sherrif getting the ’bad’ guy.

7
Lincoln

For the last couple of nights, we have seen lightening bugs. \240They look like Christmas lights twinkling in the night. \240We learned that they have a short mating period, and consider ourselves lucky to have seen the show.

Unfortunately we cannot seem to get this on our cameras, so the photo below is a steal from the internet. 😌

We study up later and learn that the 'light' in fireflies is cold. \240This is the reason why they are difficult to photograph. Of well - it was a fantastic show!!!

8
Pioneers Park Nature Center

We explored the Nature Park in Lincoln today. \240Haines Creek, which runs through the park, is home to a multitude of animals. \240It is nice to see untouched natural areas.

A gateway toward the buffalo fields. \240Birds were abound.

The Park has acres of waist-high grass prairie. \240The pathway showed evidence of creature movement. \240It was soft and damp ( in some places, just outright wet) beneath our feet.

9
University of Nebraska-Lincoln

We visited the campus of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.

Underneath a wooley mammoth, in front of the life sciences building. \240They say they have found hundreds of mammoth bones in Nebraska.

The university campus is centered in downtown Lincoln, and adjacent to their state capital building.

10
Iowa

As we left beautiful Nebraska, and entered Iowa, the landscape turned to rolling hills. \240Most of the farms are terraced, perhaps to stabilize the soil and to conserve water runoff.