In which we begin the journey home...
I'm not sure why I felt so choked up as we locked the door for the final time. Perhaps it was because I knew we were going home to unnecessary drama. Maybe it was simply because this felt like the beginning of the end of a once in a lifetime road trip. Probably it was at least a little bit because we had found a peace and happiness that has been somewhat lacking back in New Jersey.
Regardless, I definitely found myself dabbing at my face as we pulled down the five miles of dirt road off the mountain.
We stopped for gas before heading south on Route 385. We passed several places we'd become familiar with over the course of the week, and it felt like a season recap on Netflix as we reviewed all the fond memories we'd made along the way.
As you all know, one of my goals for this trip was to add as many new states as possible along the way. Not surprisingly, I had a couple more planned for the trip home, starting with Nebraska.
Originally, I had us navigating for Omaha, but I soon realized that our Saturday stop (no spoilers) was way north of that. I wasn't sure the added miles would give us enough time to comfortably get home in time for work on Monday morning. (Stupid real world responsibilities...)
Instead, I picked Sioux City as our destination for the night. I even booked a hotel in advance, which meant we were committed.
To get the GPS to take us to Nebraska, I had to pick a point on the map. My only plan was to drive at least part of scenic Route 2. There wasn't much on the map to pick from, and I finally plugged in the "city" of Alliance just because there was nothing else around.
Away we went!
We entered Nebraska with Bonnie looking completely defeated in the back seat.
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| I swear she's not as sad as she looks. |
Nebraska was pretty much what I expected. We found ourselves surrounded by an endless sweep of open land, dotted by cattle under a huge sky. Occasionally we passed a homestead, but mostly it was straight highway and a whole lot of nothing. After the dramatic vistas of the Badlands, Custer, and Spearfish Canyon, this landscape was tame. There was some degree of peace in that.
We passed through a corner of the Nebraska National Forest but there were no points of interest on the map so we opted not to stop.
I wasn't originally planning to stop at Carhenge, but with nothing else in sight, I changed my mind. At the very least, we could check getting out of the car in Nebraska off the list. Plus this could serve as Bonnie's daily walk.
I was pleasantly surprised at how fun this stop was! It definitely answered the daily inquiry: what do people do for fun out here?
Bonnie enjoyed wandering and sniffing. We enjoyed stretching our legs and looking at the art. The local pigeons enjoyed flying out of tight spaces and directly into my face. I could hear them laughing as I shrieked.
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| Carhenge is exactly what it sounds like. |
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| In keeping with our metal dinosaur theme... |
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| I loved this guy! |
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| Bonnie Yawns Across America |
A mere five minutes from Carhenge was a little blip on the map called Dobby's Frontier Town. I hadn't heard of it, and we almost didn't stop since we'd already done a local attraction. Then I saw how cute and quaint it was and exclaimed, "Let's pull over!"
Dobby's Frontier Town ended up being the highlight of the day, and my favorite museum out of the entire trip.
The open-air museum is made up of original structures from the surrounding area that have been relocated and restored, creating a miniature frontier town complete with a general store, schoolhouse, saloon, jail, and other relics of Nebraska’s pioneer days. It is run entirely by volunteers and admission is free, though donations are encouraged. When we got home, I made a sizable donation online because we enjoyed the experience so much.
The tour of the town is self-guided. Unlike most museums, you can explore all the exhibits hands-on and handle the artifacts. Each building had a plaque with a description and a QR code. Scanning the code would load an audio recording describing each exhibit.
While the grounds were pet-friendly, Bonnie happily sat this one out after her walk.
We took our time strolling the grounds and exploring each building, listening to each audio recording, and soaking it all in. I could have spent the entire afternoon at this spot.
Here is a photo dump with some of the highlights.
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| The first exhibit we saw was the funeral parlor. Amazing. |
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| Barber shop. |
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| Doctor's office. |
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| Hamburger shop. |
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| Church |
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| Stagecoach. |
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| Bank. |
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| Fabric shop. |
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| Sweet shop. |
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| The covered wagon needs a new canvas. |
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| Dress shop. |
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| Distillery. |
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| Lace samples. |
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| Old Sears catalogue. |
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| Very cool! |
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| Post office. |
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| Robert Anderson's log cabin. |
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| A sod house. |
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| One room schoolhouse. |
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| Nobody will be surprised to learn that the saloon was my favorite. |
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| The jail was also a hit in my book. |
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| Print shop. |
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| Cobbler. |
After this very satisfying stop, we agreed it was time for lunch. Downtown Alliance was quaint and quiet. I think I could be a city gal if our cities were like this!
There were a handful of eateries to choose from and we quickly chose Golden Hour BBQ. Can't go wrong with barbecue!
As soon as we stepped through the front door, I knew we'd chosen wisely. The place smelled amazing.
The owners were visibly pleased and amused when they learned we were all the way from New Jersey. We took their suggestions on meats and sides. Everything was delicious! The daily special, a Swiss knacker sausage oozing with cheese, was particularly amazing.
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| Main Street during rush hour. |
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| Yum. |
We weren't the only ones who ate well. We came outside to find a flock of birds picking dead bugs out of the grill of the truck. Gross!
With full bellies, we were ready for the next leg of our adventure. Route 2 picked up in the center of town and we followed it east into the iconic Sandhills.
Despite the name, there was very little exposed sand to be seen. Instead, enormous ancient dunes lay hidden beneath a blanket of prairie grass, rising and falling in soft green waves all the way to the horizon. The road wound through broad valleys dotted with cattle, ponds, and the occasional lonely ranch. It was a surprisingly beautiful landscape, subtle and immense, and unlike anything we had driven through so far.
What I think was deceiving was the scale. Again, with no trees around, it was hard to grasp the true size of these hills. We tried to visualize them as they would appear with East Coast greenery. It was rather awe inspiring.
Along the way we saw many bison, freight trains, and cottonwood trees.
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| The cloud shadows moving across the rolling landscape were pretty surreal. |
When we spotted a pair of local birdwatchers pulled over next to a lake, we pulled over too. They were very friendly and pointed out the yellow-headed blackbirds they were watching. We didn't get any photos of these, but they were cool to see. We don't have them in New Jersey.
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| The dunes were massive! |
Back in the car, we also saw flocks of tundra swans!
Some time later, we had our first time change.
Then we followed the North Loup River as we left Route 2 and picked up 91.
In one small town, we kept seeing life-sized hand-painted cut outs. They were both eerie and cool. Mike and I wondered if this was the locals' way of proving that people are out there. "See? A person! We exist!!"
After that, we really were in the middle of nowhere with nothing around. There were feedlots everywhere. The size of some of them was mind boggling.
I spent some time reading out loud about the beef industry while Mike drove. If you want to have your mind blown, Google "Blackshirt Cattle Feeders".
At one point we saw signs for the Klown Museum. It wasn't open and I don't think we would have stopped anyway. Reading the reviews provided entertainment for a while.
This was my favorite:
Eventually, we left the country roads and rejoined the main highway. Shortly after that, we entered Iowa.
It was 8:30pm central time and we were closing in on our hotel after a long day of driving through nothingness.
What we didn't realize was that the hotel was in South Dakota! When we passed the Welcome to South Dakota sign, we both guffawed. There was something very funny about driving all day only to end up back in the state we started in.
Or maybe we were just punch-drunk.
Regardless, we got checked into our hotel, where we were mildly concerned about being on the ground floor. (It ended up being fine.)
After taking Bonnie for an extra long walk, we settled into our room and tried to unwind before bed.
The following day would likely be our longest driving day of the entire trip. We had one more stop planned. After that, all that remained was the final push home.
But we still had 1300 miles to go.
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