Rocks and more Rocks

June 17 – It was a beautiful day today!  We had a restful evening and managed to get up and on the road before 9.  As we pulled out of the campground we got photos of a roadside attraction, a giant soft serve ice cream cone.  Made me crave ice cream all day!

Jailhouse on left, Courthouse on right

We didn’t drive too many miles today which was nice.  Our first stop was only 64 miles to Jailhouse and Courthouse Rocks.  No interstate today, which was even better.  There was no traffic on our two lane roads.  As we followed the directions the roads got smaller and once we got to the last turn off it was gravel which we were not going on in the RV.  Luckily there was a nice wide pullout for the Rocks with a sign telling about them.  So, we didn’t make the trip for nothing.  The rocks were famous landmarks for travelers on the Oregon-California Trail through Nebraska.

Old Chimney Rock

21 miles further we stopped at Chimney Rock.  Chimney Rock was another famous

landmark along the trails west.  Many travelers carved their names and dates of passing on the rock but since it was sand stone most of the names crumpled and disappeared from weather conditions.  There were also a number of

Current Chimney Rock

graves along the route, most of which are only discovered by accident.  They say there is a grave for every mile of the trail. There is a nice visitor center at Chimney Rock with a great movie about the Oregon Trail.  We learned that the Mormon wagon trains would not follow the exact trail of the heathens (us regular folks), so at times they went further out of the way.  There was a telescope set up so you could see the “stack” of the chimney up close.  A display of drawings and photos of the rock from first time trappers and all those that followed is compared to the current photo and you can see the deterioration of the rock.  Who knows how many years it has left after wind, weather and lightning strikes?  Visitors are not allowed near Chimney Rock so the telescope was a good idea.

It was lunch time and rather than make something in the RV we ate at a little café that is part of a campground literally right in front of Chimney Rock.  We saw it on our way in and being a campground we knew they had ample parking for us.  Bill chose a table in front of a window where he would see Chimney Rock while he ate his chicken, bacon, ranch sandwich.  I had pulled pork and both came with potato salad and we shared a drink.  It was a bigger lunch than I am used to so Bill finished my potato salad.

Fueled up after a good lunch we headed another 25 miles to Scotts Bluff National Monument.  We approached from Gering, NE and as we did we were driving on the Oregon Trail.  There were houses on both sides and Bill said he’d like to live there and tell people he lives on the Oregon Trail.

View from Scotts Bluff

The visitor center, housing and office compound sits at the base of one section of the bluff.  To me it looks more like a very long plateau, but what do I know?  The opening at the ranger station going in was VERY narrow and I needed to make an immediate right.  Yikes!  Just the RV would be one thing but towing the car, that kinda concerned me.  We could see as we drove up where the RV’s were parked so I creep mousied in and around and we pulled in behind a fifth wheel.  Before we could get out of the seats a shuttle van pulled up beside us and asked if we wanted a ride to the top of the bluff.  Of course!  Sure beats unhooking the car and re-hooking it up later.  The instant I opened the door I told Bill I was going to need a jacket!  It was cold out.  We had noticed it was much cooler when we had stopped earlier but not as cool as it was now.  Bill grabbed my hoodie but with the slide in he couldn’t reach his jacket.  Worked out OK as most of the time we were in the van.

What a nice ride up through 3 short tunnels.  The CCC sure did a good job of road building

Larger section of Scotts Bluff

back in the 1930’s.  The view from the top was awesome!  We could walk from side to side, well just from one end.  The driver pointed out Chimney Rock and I was able to zoom in on my camera and get a photo, although not the greatest.  We learned how no one wanted to settle in the area because it was too dry and now it’s prime farmland due to canals dug by the CCC that bring in plenty of water for irrigation.  We spent some time in the Visitor Center but the view was the real attraction.  The ranger there is a local high school teacher and rangering is his summer job.

The city of Scotts Bluff is only 5 miles and sits on the other side of the bluff from Gering.  Our stop for the night was a county park called Riverside Campground in Scotts Bluff.  I had called several times trying to confirm a spot for the night and they never would commit.  There is a Little League tournament in town this weekend and they had booked a lot of the spaces for that but she promised if we didn’t get a space we could dry camp.  So we didn’t know what to expect and the “host”, who is the summer employee there, didn’t even write it down as she didn’t seem to recall speaking to me several times.  She had us wait while she drove the riding mower around to check what spots were now open since some of the teams staying there had lost and left.  Didn’t seem like a very efficient system to me but then, I’m not in charge.  Lucky us, she had a spot for us!  All of the parents were out to watch me drive in to the space.  I guess they’d never seen a woman drive something that big.  It was a full hookup but not a very well groomed place.  We can manage anywhere for 1 night.

After setting up and having our afternoon iced coffee, we decided to have an early dinner and go to the new Wal-mart in town and then to see “Pirates of the Caribbean” at 7.  Bill showered while I prepped dinner, then I showered and we ate and left just after 5:30.  At Wal-mart I was speed shopping!  One reason I wanted to go was I wanted to get a new toaster oven.  My original RV toaster oven turned 8 this year and would not heat higher than 350 and took “forever” to do that.  I use it a lot for small dishes for just the 2 of us.  In 8 years things have changed!  There were only a few toaster ovens to choose from, now they were all toaster/convection ovens.  I already have a convection oven I don’t like so why would I buy another one?  I also didn’t want anything over 18” wide due to my counter space.  The new one is smaller and a beautiful red so I’ll give it a try.  It was very sad to say goodbye after 8 years of crisps, cobblers and pies.

I knocked out the rest of my list, mostly produce, and we got checked out and to the movie by 6:30.  We enjoyed this Pirates movie as much as all of the predecessors.  The ending pretty much guarantees this was the last one.  (No Jack Sparrow did not die).  It was still pretty brisk out and we didn’t need the AC at all tonight.

Since we ate an early dinner and didn’t get anything at the movie I made popcorn in my microwave popper (no salt, no butter) and we read and snacked.