Leg 2 – Small town IL to Sidney, Nebraska
Miles: 760
Total travel hours: 13.5
Things of Interest: Pony Express Station, Boot Hill Cemetery, Cricket the Cat
5:30am alarm. Did you know there is a 5am? I knew about the pm one…. The first two days we intentionally scheduled driving days to get as far west as we can, and today was going to be the longest so we had to start before the sun was awake.
Through Illinois and Iowa was a whole lot of corn and windmills — there is a certain amount of beauty in vast farmland.
Nebraska was also just a whole lot of farmland but not quite as pretty as Iowa. Probably because my half of the drive was through a bunch of rain. 6a driving wasn’t gonna work for this night owl, so I guess that’s what I get for not being a morning person.
First point of interest was the Pony Express Station in Gothenburg NE. This was an important part of the Oregon Trail first constructed in 1854 and having one of the stations still standing was cool to see. More than anything this was a welcomed stretch of the legs after over nine hours in the car.
Down the road a bit was our second point — Boot Hill Cemetery in Ogallala which was an old Cowboy cemetery. While the spot is historical, many of the families moved their loved ones to the more modern cemetery when it was built. All of the markers were wood originally and remain as wood or stone – some with the cause of death which most were due to gunshot wounds. Cause you know, cowboys.
The best part of this stop by far was Cricket. She followed me from the car park all the way up the stairs and all through the cemetery and back down to the carpark. She was so snuggly, and was not homeless. She just wanted to be my friend. I was not sad about this.
After arriving to Sidney, we grabbed some quick dinner and checked into the hotel completely exhausted falling asleep pretty quickly.
