Day 7 Summer Vacation 2009

After breakfast this morning we had some time to kill before the Sod House Museum opened, so we headed South out of Gothenburg in search of the Gothenburg Berm. This berm is a piece of the original road bed and it is a nationally significant piece of the remaining stair steps from Gothengurg to North Platte NE.

For something that is Nationally Significant, it took us 1/2 an hour to find it. You would think there would be a marker or some sign indicating what this little patch of earth represented. We found horses at a drinking trough on the berm. If you are ever looking for this, it is across the road from the old gravel pit.

We headed back North to the Sod House Museum in Gothenburg. Their claim to fame is the “Worlds Largest Plow” but I think that the Buffalo and the American Indian on Horseback made out of barbed wire was much more interesting.

The early pioneers to this area were promised free land if they built a house and plowed the land for a period of 5 years. Trouble was, there were very few trees out here on the prairies of Nebraska, so the only way to build a home was to make it out of prairie sod. Here is a sod house.

After visiting for an hour at the Sod House Museum, we headed back South to pick up the original Lincoln Highway as it stair steps itself onwards to North Platte. We mentioned to the lady at the Museum that we were driving on the Lincoln Highway and she said, “oh you will want to head North then to get on Highway 30” We said no, that we were driving the original Lincoln before there ever was a Highway 30. She thought Highway 30 was the Lincoln. This poor highway, no one seems to care much or know much about it. Here we are from Ontario Canada, and we know more than the locals.

This is a map of our route as we Stair Step up to North Platte. You can see the Interstate 80 and the US 30 are not near as interesting a drive.

Here are some photos of the scenery that we saw along the way.

When we arrived in North Platte NE we went to Perkins for lunch. We had been to a Perkins for the first time a couple of years ago on our vacation to Florida and we really enjoyed the meal, so we have been looking forward to another meal here. Besides great food, Perkins has great desserts. I had the Peanut Butter Silk pie and Karen had the Caramel Apple pie.

We wanted to see Buffalo Bill’s Scouts Rest Ranch and State Park in North Platte. This was Buffalo Bill’s home and farm. You can tour the ground and go inside the house and the barn. There sure was a lot of memorabilia and everything is very well preserved. Well worth a visit if you are in the area.

After leaving Buffalo Bill’s Ranch, we went in search of a remaining Hotel and Theater on the Lincoln Highway. The Hotel Pawnee and The Fox Theater.

Then we drove west of town to the Golden Spike Tower. The tower overlooks Union Pacific's Bailey Railroad Yard in North Platte Nebraska. The rail yard is very large and this tower gives you a birds eye view of the layout. You could stay here all day watching the trains coming and going.

Last stop for today was the Buffalo Bill Cody Trading Post across the road from our hotel. The sign out front gives a brief chronological history of Buffalo Bill Cody

Today was a beautiful day weather wise. A high of 28 degrees and mostly sunny. Tomorrow we will head further West and cross over the State border into Wyoming where we will spend 2 days in Cheyenne.

To see all of our photos from today you can click on the link to my FLICKR site.