Ken and I decided to take off on another one of our Passport/Park trips on the Tuesday the 29th.  The leaves on the trees are starting to turn colors and the weather was going to be about perfect for late September.  We took off early Tuesday morning and headed up Highway 77 to Ponca State Bank. This was one of Ken’s stops. I had just finished reading the “A Warrior for the People”, a story about Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first female and Indian to become a doctor. Her hospital was built in Walthill so when we drove through we tried to find it. I should have checked the internet for its location but since I didn’t, we weren’t able to find it. Onward to Ponca.

At Ponca we found the emblem that Ken needed first thing. Close by there was a beautiful river overlook where we could see three states.

Then we took some time to drive through the park. We saw that there was also an Old Oak tree in the park that was supposed to be a sapling when the Mayflower landed so we took the hike to see it.

We spent some more time checking things out and then got out on the road again. Next stop was Niobrara State Park, one of my stops.

The Niobrara stop was in the Visitors center so we didn’t actually go inside but I did get my passport stamp. From there we headed south toward Neligh and then over west to Barlett. I could have gotten the Passport stamp by just driving through Bartell  but we decided to check out this stop in person. It was called the Mignery Bronze Garden.  Wheeler County turned its old courthouse building into a museum and the lawn is where the Bronze Garden is. The sculptures were beautiful. Most were old west themed, some serious, some humorous. Ken checked on the internet and these art pieces sell for anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000. We were wondering if art is a good investment!

I’ve been working on some family genealogy lately so I was hoping to find my great-grandparents graves in the St. Edward cemetery. Ransom and Nancy Francisco.  I remember Grandma Violet and Grandpa Buck driving up there each year to ‘decorate’ their graves. We found three cemeteries in the area. One was Catholic so I ruled that one out. The next one that was close to St. Ed was called Evergreen so we tried to find that through Google maps.  No luck, it led us to a cornfield.  We’ll have to get better directions before we go looking for the cemetery again.

My last passport stamp for the day was located in Genoa at the Genoa Indian School Interpretive Center.  It was an inside stop so we got the stamp on the drive-by. It looked like it could be an interesting place to visit but that will have to happen some other time.

We did make one side stop. Aaron had sent me the ad for some land along Beaver Creek outside of Genoa.  It was bordered on three sides by the creek and the fourth side had train tracks. If the train had to stop the landowner could get trapped without a way out. Interesting but not for us!! It was fun getting off the highway on a little adventure.

Looking forward to our next and maybe last Passport/Park trip.