Day 3. Side to Side of Nebraska

Something woke me up at 3:30am. Not sure what. I tried to go back to sleep. My little voice started telling me to just get up and leave. I tried to ignore it and go back to sleep. It got louder. So I got up, re packed the car, got Lon up and we were on the road.  I dropped the key off at the drop box, and we drove across the street to get gas. At 4:20am They did not take credit cards. I had 1/4 tank left and no way to know if anything else was open down the road. I spent the last 20 dollar bill I had (I will get more) and got 5.269 gallons of gas.  Lon was awake for a while.

 He saw the sunrise at 5:20am. 

The next time I took a quick peek at him, he was asleep. I was happy he could sleep some more

Still on small road 26, going to meet up with I-80 in Nebraska.

Chimney Rock. It was interesting looking. There is more information on Wikipedia, but I thought I would just put the history here
The first recorded mention of 'Chimney Rock' was in 1827 by Joshua Pilcher. Pilcher had journeyed up the Platte River valley to the Salt Lake rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain fur trappers. The first non-natives to see the pillar were probably the Astorians of Robert Stuart in their eastern journey from the Pacific Ocean in 1813. This marker of the plains was recorded in many journals after this time. The name "Chimney Rock" probably originated from early fur traders  It went through a variety of names before becoming Chimney Rock such as Chimley Rock, Chimney Tower, and Elk's Peak
Based on sketches, paintings, written accounts, and the 1897 photograph by Darton, Chimney Rock was taller when it was first seen by settlers, but has been reduced in height since then by erosion and lightning. In 1992 a lightning strike that caused part of the rock to tumble off of the spire was recorded by a tourist's video camera.

Nebraska.

This is near Kearny. Lon and I stopped at a welcome center. I wanted something to do to stretch our legs, so we could move around a bit, but the lady at the welcome center told us there was not much to do near the freeway, and not much to do at all unless we wanted to go hiking or fishing. Okay. She did say that this bridge thing was interesting to go see, but only if you were a kid. We just kept going. Lon read a book. A whole book. I kept driving along

More Nebraska.

Love the old barns. I wish I could have taken more photos of them, but we were moving along the freeway.
We arrived in Council Bluffs, Iowa about 2:30
We stopped twice for gas, after the early morning 5 gallons. Once in Ogallala NE, at 7:59am mileage was 1429.6 I put in 10.265 gallons at $3.89
The next time was in Gretna, NE at 2:06pm 1737.1 was the mileage, I put in 11.78 gallons at $3.39. The Flying J is close to the freeway, but you have to go in and get your receipt. Makes it a pain.


We met up with a friend from home who is doing a motor cycle tour around this part of the country. We had a nice dinner. I got a steak. I started wanting steak after we drove by what seemed like endless amounts of cows.
It was a good day today. The weather was good. 97 degrees today. Summer !