Nebraska and More

It's a windy rainy day as we leave for our next stop. On I-80 about 50 miles west of our last stop is York NE, a town we stayed near in Nov. 2010 (I have a blog about that trip if you wish to review) and I said then "not much happening here". It seem the same this time as well.

It was like this pretty well all day. I'm glad I washed the front of Harvey at the last stop. The roads were smooth and the traffic light so I'll not complain about a little rain.

We finally arrived in Ogalalla Nebraska and due to the rain and winds, I just hooked up the electric and water. Now on the next day I've done the satellite and unhooked the Jeep so we could do some touring around.

You may not know that Ogalalla was once called the Gomorrah of the west. Here the Texas trail herds were loaded on trains for the east. Lots of thirsty and randy cowpokes looked to have some fun after the long trip up the dusty trail. So gamblers and ladies were there to fleece the wages from the cowpokes. Lots of gun play resulted. In a 3 year period 25 men were shot; not bad for a town of 100. 

Here on Boot Hill ( it seems every western town had a Boot Hill) all the unfortunates were buried. It looks like what I would think a Boot Hill should look like. A bare knob of a hill covered with prairie grasses and sage being whipped around by a fierce prairie wind.

A statue was placed here a few years ago to remember the trail riders who came to Ogalalla. I didn't know they rode sidesaddle, big sissy.

9 miles north of Ogalalla sits the Kingsley Dam and Lake McConaughy. It's one of the largest earthen  dams in the world at 3.1 miles long and was built during the depression so a regulated flow of water could be used for irrigation down stream. The whole area was transformed into an agricultural heartland.

All this touristing makes one hungry so we took our leave to the closest saloon to live like a cowpoke, at least at lunch. The lunch special was based on a meal served over a hundred years ago. It was called "Maid for you". Doesn't that sound manly. Kind of a sloppy joe and taters. But it included drinks and a great peach cobbler so we enjoyed our cowboy meal. Now back to hook up the jeep and get ready for our next leg.