DAY 6–PEACHAM TO PORTLAND–OGALLALA, NEBRASKA

Dearest Readers,

8:00 am mountain time-Ogallala in western Nebraska

This is my yummy Mexican salad dinner with a frosty marguerita at Marguerita’s Family and Traditional Restaurant. The oom-pa Mexican music is loud, so are the patrons, the food is sumptuous and all is colorful and full of life.

 

grain elevator in Ogallala with train passing under I-80 in the distance

The town itself feels very western cowboy. It calls itself the Cowboy Capitol and site of Boot Hill, the famous cowboy cemetery from old westerns. 

Replica of a cowboy downtown in Ogallala NE

I saw Native Americans, (I think), Mexicans and rancher-types driving pickups and sitting around little barbeque grills outside of local motels including mine! 

Etta's view of downtown Ogallala at dusk

The sign Etta sees alternates the temperature with a message to “EAT BEEF!”

Today the landscape out of Lincoln NE was cornfields trucks and more trucks. 

View of wall of corn near Lincoln from I-80 west

Truck passing me out of Lincoln on very straight, very fast I-80

More trucks on an access road to I-80 midway to Ogallala NE

By afternoon the agricultural scenery gave way to scruffy grass and beef cows grazing. 

beef cows grazing along I-80 in western Nebraska

It’s still flatland, and corn is plentiful, but there’s a cowboy ethic I think, not such a corporate agri-biz feel.

 

Buffalo Bill's Ranch per the highway sign

There’s a multitude of museums in Western Nebraska advertised on the interstate. One for Prairie culture and nature study, a Cowboy Museum in Ogallala, a Pioneer village and museum, a sod-house museum, 

Outside the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles

the Heartland Military Vehicles Museum, the city of Kearney nicknamed the Sandhill Crane capitol of the WORLD which probably has a museum, the Robert Henri museum in Cozad. I learned online that he was a 19^th century painter and organizer of the Ashcan School of Realism. This stretch of I-80 in western Nebraska has a Pony Express Station to visit, Buffalo Bill’s Ranch, Fort Cody trading post with log stockade,

The Great Platte River Road Archway over I-80

 and an impressive archway monument with eagle sculptures at each end spanning I-80, dedicated to the Great Platte River that skirts I-80 out here. I’m very impressed.

Etta James sniffing around the N.Platte River in Ogallala NE 

 Onward friends…rain today. All that 80 degree heat yesterday was just the teaser before a “cold-ish” front on the way.