Grand Island, Nebraska

Drove from Laramie, Wyoming across Nebraska today, Laramie is cowboy country and where Butch Cassidy was imprisoned, the territorial prison is now a musum. Visited a quilt shop in Kimble, Cheyenne and Ogalala. The owner in Cheyenne gave us a good referral to a cafe called "Egg and I" in town and we all had a good breakfast. While in that shop she told us about a quilt museum in Lincoln, which Vicki knew about but forgot was on our way. So we trying to get to the quilt museum tomorrow morning by going as far as possible today since we discovered it was closed today.

Nebraska is rolling hills western part of the state and in the eastern part flatter. Lots of corn, alfafa, and more corn. When we left this morning it was overcast and we had some rain along the way. Sky was beautiful with big fluffy clouds, very different from California. Temperatures are cool, glad we had our jackets, 1st day we didn't use the air conditioner in the car. No more brown, we are now seeing green hills and green grass. We passed several museums we couldn't get to such as the Geological Museum at the Museum of Wyoming (dinosaurs) and an old car museum (antique cars) in Nebraska.

We are staying the night at a town called Grand Island at a Holiday Inn Express. Didn't seem much in this town so thought we would be able to get a room easily. Turns out there is a big agricultural show this week and all the hotesls are full, but the clerk called another Holiday Hill about 20 miles away. When Vicki got on the phone found out that there was only one bed. Meanhile the other clerk said she just got a cancellation so now we are a room with a king and a sofa bed. Boy are we lucky or not!! Room is very comfortable and only $110.

Where's the island in Nebraska? Apparently there used to be an island called Grande Isle formed by the north and south Platte rivers, back from the time of the french trappers. The isle disappeared when one of the rivers were dammed for flood control.

Plan to leave tomorrow to drive to Lincoln so we can visit the quilt museum at 10am when it opens.

Discovered what the fence like things along the freeway are. We thought they had something to do with snow, and got this confirmed by the quilt owner in Cheyenne. They are there to help keep blowing snow off the freeway and the railway tracks. Kind of weird that they are at some places and not at others and they are angled differently, had to do with the direction of the wind. At the freeway entrances there are gates which someone closes to prevent cars from driving onto the freeway when closed because of snow.

Also found out why there are so many places named after Lincoln and a hugh statue of Lincoln's head on somewhere before Cheyenne. Highway 30 used to be called the Lincoln Highway and head marked the place on I80 where the highway was highest.

We might spend several hours in Lincoln and then make our way across Iowa, we will see how far we get since there are a lot of quilt shops in Iowa. United Van Lines will be showing up tomorrow at 8am in Bristol with my stuff. Perfect day since Mark will be off. Driver told her he may have to back up the truck all the way into the cul-de-sac, will be interesting.