From Indian Cave State Park, we headed west across Nebraska, much of our journey paralleling The Great Platte River Road.
Much of the westward travel in the 1800s followed this route – mountain men hunters and trappers, western explorers, pioneers, gold and silver miners – all following the river, on one side or the other, through a seemingly barren land. The people that went across knew it by other names – Oregon Trail, California Trail, Mormon Trail, Pony Express, the first transcontinental railroad, and Lincoln Highway. For the first 15 years of my life, it was home. I grew up in North Platte, which is situated between the North and South Platte Rivers, just upstream of where they join to form the Platte.
We are currently at Lake Ogallala, getting ready to head further west along the Oregon Trail, stopping at many of the historic spots along the way. During the week, we had a good visit with my dad, step-mom and sister. My dad’s house has been for sale for quite some time, but, the morning of the day we got there, it sold. They all be moving out to the coast of Oregon early next month. I guess we’ll have to plan a future trip out there.
We’ll be seeing a lot of places during the next month. I’ll be posting about a lot of them, as I can, and, in some instances, I may be posting more than one post in a day, with each post focusing on a particular place or feature.
We’ve only had two days, so far, where we didn’t have internet access. It would be nice if we would continue to be able to get online, but it is likely that we won’t be able to in some of the places we are headed.
(Each travel journal post is published on Exit78 and Haw Creek Out ‘n About .)
