August 6, 2016: An overhead sign tells US 30 travelers they’ve crossed the 100th Meridian in Cozad, Nebraska.
Grand Island, Nebraska — Of things that could go “wrong” on my trip without being time-consuming or truly tragic, three of them happened on this leg. It rained, I missed a clinching segment, and the GPS trip-tracker had a brain fart. But I also experienced some things that are what the United States is all about.
Route: Old NE 71, US 30, L51B, I-80 (exits 133 to 145), L51C, US 30
There was sporadic rain after Kimball, and for much of the morning. In Sidney, I stopped at Cabela’s — not just any Cabela’s, but the flagship store — and took some pictures of the mounts inside. Sadly, Cabela’s future as a Nebraska business icon is likely on borrowed time. Between Cabela’s and ConAgra, if the Nebraska Unicameral could ban activist hedge funds, I’m sure plenty would back the move.
Cabela’s flagship store and headquarters are just off I-80 in Sidney, Nebraska.
After more rain it cleared up between Chappell and Brule, so I got some pictures of US 138’s east end (including a mistaken NE 138 on one sign). I was intending to find the school in Brule and once I got there, there was some event going in the park. I had stumbled onto Brule Day, a small-town festival. A sloppy joe with ice cream for $5? Absolutely! And then the PIE. Rhubarb. Peach. Cherry. America at its greatest. I left Brule at 1 MDT and got gas in Ogallala at the end of US 26.
An old alignment of the Lincoln Highway runs through Brule, Nebraska; US 30 runs on the south side of town.
US 30 looked drivable between Roscoe and Paxton, but … it was closed. I followed the detour, depriving myself of the chance to clinch US 30 in Nebraska, so it remains my only gap between WY 34 and Pittsburgh. In North Platte, I must have missed a sign for the Golden Spike Tower, and had to do a GPS search. Doing that either nuked everything I had done earlier in the day, OR kicked it back into gear, but either way, everything from Kimball to North Platte was unavailable when I retrieved the data.
D’oh! This prevented my clinching of US 30 in Nebraska.
Still cloudy at Golden Spike Center. I spent much of an hour watching video about North Platte Canteen during WWII. The city and surrounding area went all out to give traveling service members some home cooking and hospitality during the war. Two months later, when I went to the World War II Museum in New Orleans, the orientation was in a “train car” with “North Platte” written on the side. So if you go, now you know why.
Bailey Yard as seen from Golden Spike Tower, North Platte, Nebraska.
From the observation tower I looked out at Bailey Yard. Activity might not have been as high as usual since it was a Saturday, but still, that’s a lot of trains and a lot of tracks. I exited to the west, got back to 30, then went back east again, and never got away from 30 the rest of the day.
I also stopped at the relocated Pony Express station at the city park in Gothenburg.