The Western Roadtrip

A brief explination of the trip: My friend Kyle and I are roadtripping to the West (but not the coast) for a few weeks.

We've done a lot in the first three days. We left Sunday morning at about 8:30AM (about 30 minutes after we planned because I couldn't find my wallet).

The rest I will give you in the notes I've taken on the trip so far. They are very breif, but I will accompany them with pictures.

Day 1:

Drive to KC and get BBQ from Arthur Bryantts. I got some delcious pulled pork, Kyle got some good barbaqued beef. We recommend their Rich & Spicy BBQ sauce.

Almost ran out of gas... we were on E, and noticed right as we saw the sign "Exit Now, next exit in 54 miles."

Almost ran out of gas again, we were driving to a campsite, which I figuered was a mile down the road and told kyle "We'll get gas when we leave tomorrow." The campsite was about 38 miles away. Luckily, there was a small Sinclair (one pump) station.

While at the campsite, we decided to cook. I cooked some chicken with cream of mushroom soup by the light of the lantern we borrowed from some college kids from Denver at the site next to us. That wasn't enough food, so we cooked hotdogs on forks.

Kyle slept on the sand on the beach, and I slept in the car.

Day 2:

Saw lighthouse by the lake.

Get gas (from the small Sinclaire mentioned above)

Stop in town to get toothpaste and a couple pairs of sunglasses.

Drive west in Nebraska and take pictures.

Lost my sunglasses while taking pictures.

Found my sunglasses after driving back to the picture spot and searching through the tall grass (lucky!)

Stopped for lunch, I cooked omeletes.

Saw Jailhouse and Courthouse Rocks

Stopped by Chimeny Rock

Hiked Scott's Bluff

Found Lake Minatare to stay which was really nice. We started cooking but the wind picked up and stopped us. I ditched the chicken I was cooking and packed up the cooking stuff... just in time too, we cleaned up just as soon as a huge wind storm hit with winds that were at least 60MPH. There was no sand left on the beach after it was over.

We left there after about 3 hours of watching the storm and helping people get their boats under control and found a restaurant in town, Mi Ranchito.

After that we drove around looking for a truckstop so we could shower and sleep, but didn't find one. We slept in the car behind an America's Inn in Allaince.

Day 3

See Carhenge (guess what that is?)

Run in with the law (no speedlimit posted, Kyle got pulled over going 81 in a, supposidly, 60.

Agate fossil beds

Fort Robinson (for lunch)

Toadstol Geological Park- really awesome, we hiked for a few hours and took lots of pictures.

Shep's Canyon

Gas Station (which I'm in right now typing this up, free wifi) was really slow. Took us over 25 minutes to pump 7 gallons of gas. In fact, in the time we pumped, 2 other cars came, started pumping, and left after they got less than a gallon. To quote one guy "Honey, it's still not at $2 yet," they left.

When ours finished, we knew not because the pump stopped, but because we heard the gasoline pouring down the side of Kyle's car. It wasn't a trickle either, it came out the speed it was going in (which granted it was slow, but it was about a waterhose on medium). Kyle took it out and it was still spewing, but managed to pull the holster down so it stopped without drenching himself or I in gasoline.

I lied, I'm too tired to post pictures. Here are some pictures I posted on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/88287340@N00/

Thanks for reading

Eric