Jun 27, 2014

The thumbnail is a shot of the Scouts Rest Ranch Barn which is on Buffalo Bills Ranch which he built as a place to retreat to after his Wild West Shows to relax.

 

This is the house on the ranch.

We followed a country highway today which meant we were for the most part on the Mormon Trail so on the north side of the Platte River rather than the Oregon Trail south of the river and didn't cross the river until we started heading for Sidney late in the afternoon and after getting a little rain and hail on the way in we are now on Tornado Watch (in Cheyenne County) and Norm has left the bikes under the entry portico and in gearand he could hardly stand up against the wind before he came back in. That was around 5.30pm.

 

This is a quirky bike Norm found in a bike shop at North Platte when he went to buy some plexus (polish). He said it was at about 2 feet longer than any motorbike he has seen. Can't imagine what it would be like to get that around a corner!

 

We stopped for a coffee in a town with a cute set of shops and Norm couldn't resist taking a shot of me before I got the sun hat off. Looks pretty ridiculous with all the rest of the bike gear but keeps the sun off the nose neck and ears.

 

We travelled through very sandy areas today which consisted of flat land and heaps of sand like sand dunes but covered with grass. We were trying to find the Caifornia Hills being some wagon ruts over the sand hills and there had been heavy rain last night and the road we had to go on had large deposits of sandy silt in patches. I went through the first but when I saw the second just past the parking spot I decided I'd gone far enough when I saw Norm's bike nealy take a nose dive. Here we are back at the turn off and note the mud much heavier on Norms tyre.

 

We descended onto some flat land again through a sandy valley and this is in the Ash Hollow area.

 

Soon after this we rode into the Ash Hollow State Park and had a good view down onto the surrounding countryside again as well as finding this historic little stone school. Very cute.

 

The early emigrants used landmarks to plot their course by and this was called Frog's Head Bluff and also Indian Lookout Point.

 

Another land mark, these are called the Ancient Bluff Ruins as this is what they reminded the travellers of.

Bits and Bobs:

More trains today, heaps and long. The longest one we measured was 2.6kms and had 3 engines at the front and 2 in the middle. As we were heading into Sidney tonight there were a big number just sitting queueing.

Following some signs we saw in the cafe cum bar cum servo we had our lunch at today.

 

 

 

 

Last night's Accomodation: 

La Quinta Inn & Suites, 2600 Eagles Place, North Platte, NR 69101

Out of town but good facilities. Included breakfast, parking and wifi. Very comfortable and good value. Just off the Parkway but cannot hear the traffic. Town a few kms away but a number of cafes which deliver to the Inn.