Deja Vu - Scottsbluff, Nebraska

Last weekend was when Joe and I went on our daycation to Scottsbluff, Nebraska.  Though this was Joe's very first visit, it was my second one.  I visited here in August of 1999 with Corey while we were on our two week driving vacation.  This 14 million year old sedimentary mass loomed for days in the distance and signaled pioneers they were entering into the western lands.

From notes Corey and I'd written documenting our trip..."Scottsbluff is indescribable - can see Laramie Peak 120 miles away in Wyoming and Chimney Rock 23 miles away.  Saw a deer and the wind blew so cool my ear turned cold.  Saw another deer while driving down - took a couple of pictures with her just standing there.

While checking out this morning, Corey met a bald-headed big biker man and his wife who had Harley's staying at the motel.  Turns out they're from Denver and he's a probation office.  He gave Corey his card is case we need help when we arrived there.

It's misting rain this morning and it's 67 degrees.  We went to get our gas last night - paid $1.18 a gallon.  But, that good cause I just saw $1.28 a gallon a minute ago".  (Note:  I wish we could buy gas at any of those prices now.  Today's current lowest rate here in Casper is $3.29 per gallon).

Our notes also said..."FYI  Scottsbluff has a cow dung odor".  (It still did last weekend).

Rebecca Winters Grave

Just off Highway 26 east of Scottsbluff sits a shaded grave, surrounded by protective green trees. You might wonder the story of that gravesite. Who is in it? Why is it so significant? An educational historical marker will tell you that the grave belongs to Rebecca Winters, one of the few people to be buried in a marked grave along the Mormon Trail.

Winters is considered a symbol of the westward movement, one of hundreds of thousands who set out to make a new life for themselves, one of so many who succumbed to illness along the way.

The 50-year-old woman and her husband, Hiram, were traveling in 1852 with a Utah-bound wagon train when she took ill with cholera somewhere near Fort Kearney. She died near what is now Scottsbluff on August 15, leaving behind five children between seven and 27 years old. It is said that a close family friend stayed up that mournful night to make a grave marker out of an old wagon tire, engraving the words, “Rebecca Winters, Aged 50 Years” into the iron.

For over 140 years, the simple marker stood unbothered, but because railroad tracks were laid only six feet from where the tire was embedded, officials began to fear for visitors’ safety as well as the integrity of the grave. So, in 1995, with more than 100 of Winters’ descendants on hand, the body was exhumed and the grave moved 900 feet east to protect it and its visitors from potential harm involving the trains.

You can now pull off the highway and pay respect to the symbolic grave and the hardship and endurance it represents. You’ll see the original marker and its thoughtful engraving.

This is heading towards the Wyoming border and leaving Nebraska...

Scottsbluff, Nebraska

After our luscious lunch at Sonic, we left to to to Scottsbluff National Monument.  I had visited here about 12 years ago with Corey (wow, has it been that long?!), but Joe had never been.

Here he is having the obligatory "I can prove I was actually at this place" picture.

Then it was my turn to have my picture taken - by Joe - since there was no one else around.  Don't you love how I've lost weight?  I'm as light as a cloud.

And then here was shot No. 2.  I am actually 1/2 my weight in this picture.  Do you recognize me?

At the entrance of the park.

Joe actually took this picture after several attempts.  Can you tell I'd about given up on having my picture taken?

Chimney Rock is off in the distance in the middle of this picture.  This was the landmark most often mentioned in the diaries of pioneers making their way west.  To the Mormon pioneers, Chimney Rock represented the half-way point of their journey.  Unfortunately, it was so hot (96 degrees) that there was a haze that we couldn't see it that well.  On clearer days you can see it well even though it's 25 miles away.

Lunchtime in Scottsbluff, Nebraska

Yes, it's true.  Out of all the restaurants we could have eaten at while in Scottsboro, we ate at Sonic.  Hey, when you don't have one where you live, you take advantage of it when you can.  But, I was soooo disappointed in this one - no Chicken Strip Dinner my favorite.  But I did have a chili cheese dog and it was delicious.