Holiday Inn Express Kearney, Nebraska

We left Omaha in the  morning and decided to travel the back roads that most closely followed the original settlers and their wagon trains as they headed west. In the  evening we arrived at Kearney and stayed at a very nice state park adjacent to the old fort.Nebraska is already surprising us, and we are thoroughly enjoying our time here. 
So the town is called Kearney but it is pronounce ...

Left Denver in the morning and headed to Cheyenne WY and saw the state capitol. Quite a bit fancier than the NV capitol. From there headed to Nebraska using state highways. Went to Scottsbluff and Chimney rock. These were markers for western settlers following the Oregon, Mormon, California trails as well as the Pony Express. At Scottsbluff the wagon ...

... with period dress and pioneer demonstrations. (At least that's what Tish told Tom.) So we made the trek south of I-80, our concerns growing as we passed a series of cheesy signs for "Harold Warp's Pioneer Village." (Harold Warp made big money as the inventor of Flex-o-glass, for those of you trivia buffs in the crowd.)

Well...our fears were realized ...

So after five weeks of enduring America's public transport system, it comes as a relief to head west from Chicago in a car. I'm sharing the petrol and driving with a fella moving West from Chicago, who turns out to be a bit of a character. The first day takes us 800 miles over the Great Plains through Iowa to Western Nebraska - thoroughly uninteresting landscape but pretty stunning skies.

Oil leak fixed, $45 motel, and within 1-day's range of our motel. Now we're doing a little better. Caught up to a storm front in Nevada around sunset, when thunderstorms are at their most powerful. As we drove past, under the rain-free base, just to the Southeast of the storm, a massive downburst developed with powerful straight-line winds and threatening-looking clouds. I pushed the ...

... the first one only lasted 30 minutes but the rain was severe, causing some drivers to pull over. The second storm, this time in Nebraska, was about an hour with high winds but the rain was lighter. It did serve to drop the temperatures from the low 30sC to the low 20sC, which was a nice break. I stopped for the night in Kearney, Nebraska (about half-way across the state). Total mileage today: 1087km

Today was a long long drive. To make it worse, I was just plain sick. I did make a run by the famous "Rock City" that I always saw the "See Rock City" signs as a kid. I did not bother to pay to go in. I was not feeling well. I got to the hotel and crashed hard.

... a lot of snow and even a snow whirlwind for a brief time near Vail. There were many sking on the slopes and some very pretty little towns along the road. They had quite a bit of snow in areas and it is always so pretty to see that Colorado snow fall just piled up on the roof tops and fences and rocky ledges. Tom had a very hard drive for awhile through the mountains with the snow and curves etc. We logged 595 miles today and ...