We had a great vacation. . . . actually our 40th anniversary trip.  We didn’t have a honeymoon and so we decided to make a road trip.  The weather really cooperated, it was great the whole time.The plan was to make the drive by traveling the highways and biways without using the interstate.  From York we took Highway 34 west to Grand Island.  There’s an unusual place along Highway 30 that has a lot of statutes in their yard and things painted on their buildings.

We picked up Highway 30 in Grand Island.  About 2 1/2 miles west of Kearney there is a statue of of some oxen pulling a wagon. I read in Nebraska Life magazine that these Oxen mark the half way point between Boston and San Francisco.

There was a dance hall on that spot that was built to mark the half way point.  Before that it was a part of the 1733 Ranch.  This ranch operated there in the early 1900’s having, at the time, the distinction of having the largest barn in the world ( 3 stories tall and a city block long).

We had lunch a Mom’s cafe in Elm Creek.  The special for the day was hamburger steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, roll, green beans and cake for dessert, all for $6.95. You can’t beat it. The food was great and we really enjoy ‘people watching’. Every guy that walked in the door sat down at the same table at one of the empty chair. I asked Ken, could you see people doing that at a Lincoln restaurant, no way.  A young guy came in toward the end and sat down at the table with the rest of the guys.  The waitress came over to take his order and before he could speak, she was giving his cheek a spit wash.  I don’t know, maybe that was his Mom or just one of the many people in a small town that look after each other.

We went to Church in Kimball and then ended up at Olive State Recreation Area to camp.  Sunday morning we got up and headed to Cheyenne for Frontier Days.

The little shops were just opening up when we go there so we made our way around, checking out all of the neat western items for sale.  Ken got some good ideas on things to make and weld. The rodeo was good, but by our standards it fell a little short of the Burwell Rodeo.

Monday morning we drove to our Bed and Breakfast near Crawford.  More to come:)