We are still running from the snow that is coming on Saturday. We supercharged and spent the night at a Hampton Inn in Sidney, Nebraska. The snow was coming there on Saturday, so we wanted to be long gone. We did find out that the headquarters of Cabela’s used to be in Sidney and there was still an 85,000 square foot store there. My sister, MaryAnn Woronowicz’s late husband, John, and his best friend, Murph, were Cabela’s fanatics.
They would have thought that they died and went to heaven when they saw this store. It blew us away. We spent some money, but I imagine that outdoor enthusiasts will spend much more money than we did. We gawked as we walked through the store. We saw a stuffed elephant.
There was a wildlife exhibit that went from the floor to the ceiling.
There were stuffed animal heads everywhere. It is not our cup of tea but if it is yours, you would have loved it. There were exhibits of pronghorn antelopes and mule deer and many, many others.
There are also some sad stories that are told about Cabela’s. I spoke to a woman who worked there for fifteen years, and she absolutely adored the owners. Things changed when Cabela’s was bought out by Bass Pro Shops in 2017 for approximately 5 billion dollars. At the time, Sidney, NE, the headquarters of Cabela’s had a population of 6600 people. Two thousand people lost their jobs after the acquisition. That is a huge hit to a small town. The town has struggled but many good things have happened there. We hope that it continues.
We left Cabela’s and headed east on I80. I was looking for a home for the night where snow was not predicted for Saturday morning. The closest town that I could find was Lincoln, Nebraska, the boyhood home of Abraham Lincoln.
As we headed towards Lincoln, this image shows the snow clouds that we were trying to outrun.
In Chappel, NE, we saw a scenic overlook that we explored. It was an interesting story but its information about seeing a Colorado town to the southwest was difficult to comprehend. We are sure that it is there, but we couldn’t see it. Please notice that the snow clouds are still with us.
We stopped at a rest area in Ogallala, NE and saw some beautiful landscaping and a wonderful dedication plaque.
Our next supercharger stop was in Gotenburg, NE where we decided to have lunch at the Nebraska Bar”N” and grill. We had a nice lunch, and it was a great break for us on our driving adventure to avoid the snow.
Not far from the restaurant was an original pony express station. We decided to explore. We arrived at the site and found out that the museum had closed for the season three days before we arrived. It was still neat to see what we could.
There are signs that we have seen in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska (and I am sure there are the same signs in other states) like this one.
We went under the Archway in Kearney, Nebraska. Here is how it is described: “Like brave 19th century pioneers who settled this wild land, the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument — its name officially shortened to just The Archway in 2013 — has endured horrible adversity and celebrated day-by-day victories. A victory is when the parking lot fills, and the gift shop is abuzz with souvenir seekers. Or when Jack Nicholson was filmed in a scene here for the movie About Schmidt. The Archway is a comparative newcomer to heroic-scale Great Plains tourism, opening in 2000. Using giant multi-wheeled transporters, the 1,500-ton, 309-foot structure was rolled across the highway in one piece on the night of Aug. 16, 1999. The interstate was closed for eight hours while the archway was locked onto its support platforms. The structure — a dream of Nebraska’s last living three-term governor, Frank B. Morrison Sr. — was designed by a Walt Disney team from Orlando.
Under a giant log arch, the two-story lobby escalator — the longest in Nebraska — spares modern pioneers a stair climb, and leads up into the Archway’s multi-media experience. Statues of Lewis and Clark era guides stand along both sides, pointing the way up. The impressive entrance leads through a moving video display of the prairie.
Once up, in a big, cavernous space, we are transported back to the first white man exploration of Nebraska, as they traveled west the hell out of Nebraska. A periodic thunderstorm adds to realism. Off to one side, a large video of a field suddenly erupts with a buffalo stampede, a la Glen or Glenda.”
We finally arrived for our last supercharger session in Lincoln, NE. We had our dinner at Runza Restaurant. Ronnie and I split a Swiss, mushroom Runza sandwich with cabbage, onions, ground beef and spices, Swiss cheese, and mushrooms. We also order frings (a combination of French fries and onion rings) and Ronnie had a root beer. We were both full when we left. We will go there again.
As we got back to the car, I saw a beautiful sunset and took my phone to capture it. We hope that it was a premonition that we have avoided the snow. We will know when we get up tomorrow.
To add to this grand adventure, there is a full moon tonight and I photographed it from the Hampton Inn parking lot.
Tomorrow, we are heading south into Missouri. We are looking at visiting the Ozark mountains in Springfield, Missouri and stopping in Ozark, Missouri. We gave our niece, Nichole, the nickname, Little O after shortening it from Little Ozark. We hope that the Ozarks will be another addition to our great cross-county adventure.
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