Buffalo Bill is dead, trains are sweet, and "Oh Sh*t, oh sh*t! The Echo hates mountains!" aka the "Damn this is a long post" post.

Last night I slept at a rest area in the back seat of my car. Anyone who has seen or been in my car might say that this would be a bit difficult. They would be correct. Nonetheless, after a good six or seven hours I finally woke up, ready to tackle the day. With a crick in my neck. Ah well.

The drive from my last stop was almost 400 miles, and I had about 50 or so to go. I headed out, excited to see some nifty trains. However, as anyone will tell you, I am a tad ADD. On this particular excursion, that worked to my advantage.

My destination was North Platte, NE. I planned on going to Railroad Museum I had heard about because they have one of the biggest locomotives EVER there. But when I pulled off the highway, it caught my eye and I had to stop.

This big ole sign is in front of the Fort Cody Trading Post, which is basically a glorified gift shop. However, as you can determine by the sign, they have a special affinity for Buffalo Bill. And actually, this glorified gift shop had some really sweet historical memorabilia inside.

I didn't take pics of all of it, but one of the things I really liked was the hand carved model of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The model consists of 20,000 hand carved pieces and took 12 years (!) to complete. As someone who likes to carve when I'm trying to relax a bit, this was amazing to me.

They also had a fun mirror, which I liked.

Anyway, back to the trip. I spoke to the gal at the checkout counter about some of the local attractions, specifically, the train museum I was looking for. Glad I did.

If you ever go to North Platte, you'll note that two of its borders are comprised of rivers, the well named North and South Platte Rivers. Normally, both of these rivers are inches deep. They're more like streams. However, while I was there, both were frickin' huge!

Turns out they'd had some MAJOR flooding. Not only was the museum I'd been looking for closed, but so was Buffalo Bill's ranch (nuts!) and the Historical Museum. It was so bad, that they actually packed up all the displays at the museum and got them the heck outta Dodge..er, North Platte.

All was not lost however, and the nice gal told me about the Golden Spike Tower which overlooks the Union Pacific Bailey Yard. The UPB is the world's largest railroad yard. I won't bore you with the details on this one. Just look at the picks.

Hmm. Just realized I forgot to get an actual pic of the tower. Dang. Well, it's 8 stories tall. The 7th floor is an open air deck and the 8th is the observation deck. It's cool. If you like trains even a little, this would be a cool place to go. (On a side note, if you like trains or just like off the cuff romantic comedy-ish movies, check out The Station Agent. It's very good.)

Once I left the UPB, I started on the quick jaunt to Ogallala, NE. Home of the famous Boot Hill Cemetary, Ogallala is a place you can really lose track of time at! I meant to just snap some pics at Boot Hill and be on my way, but...

Boot Hill was actually a bit of a let down. Not because it was no good, but it wasn't as big as I'd expected. Where were all the graves of the various ne'er do wells and nameless innocents who were gunned down?

Turns out, most of them weren't nameless (go figure) and many were claimed by family or moved to the newer cemetery. By the way, in case you can't read it in the picture above, the hill was so named because most folks were buried with their boots on. Go figure.

While there weren't as many graves as I'd expected, there was an awesome statue that paid homage to the trail bosses. I took quite a few pictures of this one from various angles and whatnot, but I'll just post two.

With the pictures taken, I prepared to head off once again. I made it about a mile or two when I spotted this place.

As the sign says, this is the Mansion on the Hill. It was built in 1885 (I believe) from brick and had 16 inch thick walls. It's trimmed with stone, and all of the woodwork inside the house, including the staircase, was made from carved cherry wood. By today's standards, the house isn't huge, but it's wonderful. My pictures do it no justice at all.

I could prattle on about this one for a long time. Just go see the damn thing. Beautiful is the only word that describes it properly. As an aside, there's also a one room school house next to the mansion, and a visiting family was nice enough to pose as students for me.

There were a few other stops while I was in Ogallala. They have a petrified wood museum and a neat "Western" place that has restaurants and puts on a shoot out show once a day. The restaurant serves mountain oysters. :) It was time to leave.

My next stop was a mere 235 miles away in Golden, CO. Driving through the Rockies was crazy, and I can tell you right now - my little Echo does NOT like mountains. But, we pressed ahead and after about 3 or 4 hours, finally arrived at Lookout Mountain to view the grave of Buffalo Bill (you can tell I think he was pretty cool, right).

Lookout Mountain is well named, and rather than yammer on and on, I'll just post the pics for this one.

I hung around a bit, just kind of breathing in the air and enjoying the view. Something about standing on such a great height has a way of centering you (unless you're scared of heights, in which case it would probably make you crap your pants). After some quiet reflection, I decided to get back on the road.

My next destination was one that I've been SUPER excited about. It was just over 2 hours away. However, it was pretty much all mountain driving from here and I was a bit concerned about my little car. Plus, I was tired as all get out.

Originally, I'd planned on finding the next rest area or truck stop and taking a nap. But it's funny how awake you can be when you're worried about your car, driving up big ass mountains, then zooming down 7% grades (I actually drove through here when I was a truck driver and a 7% grade with a full load is nerve wracking).

Needless to say, I did NOT pull over to take a nap. In fact, after about 20 minutes of driving through the mountains, I didn't feel tired at all. The following pics aren't great. I took them WHILE driving (I'm trying to get into the retard hall of fame. I took video too. Am I there yet?). You can't really SEE  the elevation changes, but oh well.

After an exciting drive, I finally came to the AMAZING Glenwood Canyon (I think the last three pics above are actually of the canyon, but I'm not 100% sure - I had driving to focus on, duh). And, just after the canyon, I arrived at my destination - Glenwood Springs.

I checked on the resort I wanted to stay at. They were full up for the night, but no biggie, I just reserved a room for Sunday. I found a little motel to crash at for the evening and that's when my headache started - the good old "Check Engine" light came on.

Fortunately, I had a good idea of what the problem was. I made some quick calls to the local Auto Zone (God bless you fellas) and they had everything I needed. It could wait til morning. And you can hear all about my days in Glenwood Springs in the next post. Ta-ta for now. ;) Hopefully, in a MUCH shorter post.

Emancipators, Cowboys, and Bridges - Oh My!

NOTE: This entry is for Friday 6/3/2011. Unfortunately, I was in an area where I was not able to connect to the net. Darn you, Nebraska!
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When last I left you I was in Dixon, IL. How appropriate then that I began my day there as well. And the day was a long one!

I hit the road at about 10:30 or so and headed into town. Dixon is divided by the beautiful Rock River. Just over the Lincoln Memorial Bridge, and located on very well named Lincoln Statue St is, you guessed it, the Lincoln Monument State Memorial.

The memorial is of course, a statue of good old Abe. It shows him as a younger man, and commemorates his service in the Black Hawk war. Lincoln, a member of the IL Milita, was stationed at Fort Dixon in 1832. The statue may be one of the only ones that actually shows Lincoln in uniform.

After spending my time with Honest Abe, I was off again! My next destination was 270 miles away. It was still pretty early, but time waits for no man. Plus, I really wanted to see where "The Duke" grew up!

John Wayne grew up in a small 4 room home in Winterset, IA. It's a nice, little white house on a regular street in a regular neighborhood. This just goes to show you that it doesn't matter where you're from - greatness WILL shine through.

As I pulled onto the street, the first thing to catch my eye wasn't the house at all. What immediately drew my attention was the AWESOME conversion van with a mural of The Duke painted on it. As far as murals go, I think it was pretty bad ass (though I admit I may be a tad biased due to the subject matter).

Now, as I mentioned before, the house itself wasn't anything special. However, it has been restored to its original 1907 appearance and contains memorabilia, rare photos and letters from some of Hollywood's biggest names...or so I've heard.

Much like my timing at Ahgrim's Funeral Home, I arrived shortly after close. DOH!! After taking a few snapshots, I hopped back into my car and headed for my next destination - the Roseman Covered Bridge.

The Roseman Bridge was built in 1883 and is the most famous of the bridges of Madison County. Yup. I went to see one of those bridges. Like in the movie.

While there is no love story involved with my visit to Madison County (I'm no Clint Eastwood), what I did find was a remarkably well preserved bridge the likes of which you just don't see anymore these days. It's not open to automobiles, which is probably a good idea, but foot traffic is welcome.

When entering the bridge, I noticed to very disparate things. The first was the structural design. The way the bridge is put together is like a work of art. The boards, and the way they intersect creates a pattern that reminds me of some of the MesoAmerican art I've seen in museums. If you're ever in the area, do yourself a favor and check it out!

The second thing I noticed was kind of a downer, that's all of the graffiti that littered the insides of the walls. Granted, lots of bridges have this, but to me this just seems a real shame. Bridges like this are a treasure. You wouldn't spray paint the Lincoln Memorial in DC or the Statue of Liberty, so why do this?

Hopefully, the spirit of the bridge will catch up with these ruffians. Oh yeah. Did I forget to mention that it's said to be haunted? :)

After taking numerous pictures, it was back to the Echo for the next stop on my adventure. I had 398 miles to drive and knew I wouldn't get there until Saturday. Still, I went as far as I could. I'm stopped for the night, and after some much needed rest, the adventure will continue. So far, I've traveled just over 1100 miles. I'm not quite halfway there, but so far it's been great. See you at the next stop!

Rush

Rush is probably one of my favorite bands. However, rush is not something that I like to do. Yesterday, I was in a rush.

The day started with picking my car up from the shop. It had been giving little concerns that I wanted looking at, but finally, after being delayed for two days, I was able to get on the road. My bags were packed (mostly) and I was ready to go.

I'll skip some of the mundane crap and just tell you that I didn't actually hit the road until about 13:30 or so. Guess what? I drove a lot!

Driving through the Western portion of Michigan was pretty tough for me. Not the drive itself, but the emotions that stirred. If you get into a mood when you see Exit 104 on I94W, it's time to get the hell outta Dodge (Exit 104 is FireKeepers Casino. Nice enough place.)

Eventually I got to Indiana and went through there as quickly as possible. Leaving MI felt like a slight weight had lifted, but entering IN brought up new memories that were NOT working with me. If you've never been to the Blue Chips Casino...eh, it's alright. Just don't expect a hotel nearby other than the casinos, which is ridiculous.

After leaving behind IN, I finally made it to IL, which is where I'm currently at. Driving through Chicago wasn't too bad. I have some great memories of it and the traffic, while being really slow and backed up, did allow me to take photos and even a video while in it. I know, it sounds idiotic, but trust me, we weren't go anywhere. There was minimal danger.

After I finally got through Chicago, I made it to Nile, IL. Niles is a town most of us probably haven't heard of. However, if you're in the area, it would behoove you to check out the YMCA. No, not because you need to get into shape, but because of what's in front of it - a 1/2 scale replica of the leaning tower of Pisa! It's pretty cool, costs nothing but some time, and I think it's worth checking out.

Now, my next stop was supposed to be Ahlgrim Funeral Home. The Ahlgrim family has owned and operated this funeral home for over a hundred years! Not to shabby. But why would I want to go there? Because they have a mini golf course in the basement!

Unfortunately, because of the Chicago traffic jam, I wasn't able to make it to AFH until about 20:30, and they were very obviously closed. Being that my trip had many miles to go and it was still relatively early for me, I decided to move on. But, just to prove that I was indeed there, here are some pics (that are kind of a let down when you think about it). Oh well.

And that's it. The rest of the night was driving and a LOT of construction. Now, I'm in Dixon, IL - the childhood home of Abe Lincoln. I have a feeling that I'll be pretty quick here. Maybe snap some pics of the house and statue, then move on. I gotta get to John Wayne's house, after all. :)