Wednesday November 22nd 2023 - Thanksgiving road trip to Oregon - Day 8 - Cheyenne WY to O'Neil NE, 1 hike - ~1.8 miles, 475 feet elevation gain

Today went very well.  I didn't expect to do much except drive and drive the first 2 days out of Oregon but I had hopes to have a little out of the car time in Nebraska.  Today we headed out around 8 am and drove to Scottsbluff NE by 10:30 am.  We spent a bit of time in the museum including watching their introductory film.  Afterwards, I walked to the top of the bluff which is a wonderful 1.6 mile hike that goes from the museum to the top of the bluff, gaining 435 feet along the way.  My father met me at the top in the rental vehicle and we walked around the top of the bluff to enjoy the overlooks together.

Lunch was at a bar/restaurant that had a big BBQ sign outside.  We expected to have some great BBQ but in reality, the only remotely BBQ thing on the regular menu was pulled pork. We both had burgers and potato salad.  It was very basic and filling.

After Scottsbluff we drove East a long ways along US-26, US-385, NE-2, NE-7 and US-20.  It was all perfectly nice conditions with warm pleasant weather, great visibility etc. Still, 426 miles almost all on non-freeways is just a lot of driving.  We're staying in O'Neil at the same historic hotel I stayed in last time I did a road trip that included Nebraska.  It's funky and has a 24 hour a day laundromat which is useful on day 8 of my travels.

Pictures are from today in Nebraska.

Scottsbluff:









What the rest of Nebraska looked like for hundreds of miles with only very minor variations:


It's nice to be stationary for the night.  We 'only' have 400 miles to go to get to Kansas City which we'll be staying in for 2 nights meaning that Thanksgiving evening and all of Friday are ours to enjoy before my dad flies out very early from Kansas City airport.  This will also ensure that I get a very early start on the remaining 1000 miles I have to cover.

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