Please enjoy this blog post a lady wrote about her visit to Scottsbluff!
(A link to the actual blog page is at the bottom)
Nebraska?!?!?!
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| Yes, home of the corn huskers......I hit Nebraska "on my way" to Mt. Rushmore |
I’d been spoiled.
For the last 3 weeks I had a string of hosts, all the way from Moab,
Utah to Cheyenne, Wyoming, with the exceptions of one night when I camped with
a random family at the Great Sand Dunes National Park. You could say I was a bit
out of
practice when it came to free camping when I rolled into Scottsbluff, Nebraska
this past Sunday. I was also
out
of fuel. I crossed the border from
Cheyenne, Wyoming and had no services on the road for 105 miles to Scottsbluff,
Nebraska. Yes,……Nebraska!!! What am I doing here? It
wasn’t on my original itinerary for the states, but since it was just a slight
detour heading north to Mt. Rushmore, I decided to ride through corn country.
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| This was an understatement, try 105 miles without ANYTHING! Not a good first impression on Nebraska.... |
There were no restaurants, no grocery stores,….not even a
gas station on the road. Do these
people eat? Don’t they drink coffee or need gas? That was my initial impression
of the corn huskers. I saw
countless churches, but of course none of them sold food. I would have killed for a bake sale out
front, but the only thing baking on this Sunday was me! At 100F, the Nebraska sun beat down on
me all day. I couldn’t even think
straight when I arrived in Scottsbluff and needed to take care of my immediate
needs: food and water. I rolled up
to a Subway. I could kill two
birds with one stone, nourishment and free wireless. Most people don’t know if but Subway sandwiches has great
wireless, better than McDonald’s and the food is a step up. The first Nebraskan I interacted with
was Travis, who worked at Subway.
He hooked me up with a free meal and I chilled out in the air
conditioned environment, taking refuge from the heat, entertained with trip
planning and blogging. What should
have been an hour break turned into an entire evening. I knew I needed to find a spot to camp
in town, so an hour before they closed, I finally left Subway, not without a
luxurious sponge bath in their bathroom.
Another reason I love subway.
Unlike McDonald’s, they have private restrooms that you can lock and use
for a good 10 to 15 minutes while bathing!
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| Travis, at Subway, quickly changed my opinion of the corn huskers! The great hospitality started here at Subway |
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| I'm a sponge bath queen. All I have to do is find a single stall restroom |
I left, headed to the local park when I saw an ambulance
pull in the Taco Bell parking lot next door. It triggered a thought,…..I used to camp at fire stations. I
had forgotten all about this option.
I could ask these paramedics where the fire station in Scottsbluff was
and what it was like. I parked
outside Taco Bell and in I went.
The poor paramedics, were trying to enjoy a quick dinner break and here
I was pestering them.
Unfortunately they didn’t recommend sleeping there as it was adjoined to
the police station and they got a lot of calls throughout the night. However, they told me I could camp at
their service center on the outskirts of town in a more quiet location. I accepted of course!
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| Nothing but good things to say about the guys at Valley Ambulance in Scottsbluff, NE |
Jordan and Dan were working the night shift along with
Megan. They were the only ones
back at the station. Jordan, the owner’s son, gave me an a tour of the building
and the low down on how the paramedics dispatching works. We talked about my travels, the area,
and where I was headed next. Jordan sent out a few messages to friends to see
if he could find me a host for the next night. I could have chatted with the guys all night but they needed
as much sleep as possible if they average 2 or 3 calls a night, and I was
pretty whipped after my long day. They
wouldn’t have anything of me pitching my tent and instead offered me a bed
inside a motor home that wasn’t being used, parked in the garage. You know me, I can’t say no to a motor
home…..
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| Dan and Jordan look fresher than me, and they attended 3 calls during the night. I just slept after riding 105 miles. |
I probably could have slept for a day inside the camper
without any noise or natural light to wake me up, but I did set my alarm
so
that I could say goodbye and thanks you to Jordan and Dan at the end of
their
shift. Jordan already had a host
for me by the time I woke up in the small town of Crawford where I was
headed
that evening, 75 miles away. I hit the road and headed to Scottsbluff’s
national monument. You can’t pass through Scottsbluff without seeing
their pride and joy, and to tell you the truth, the bluff really is a
unique landmark. My mental image of Nebraska was flat farmland filled
with cornfield, but after cycling the western portion of the state, I
have yet to see a flat stretch that last for longer than 100 yards. In
the western part of the state, there are bluffs galore. I didn’t know
exactly what a bluff is, but now that I have seen them all around
western Nebraska, I recognize this rock and land formation as something I
started seeing back in Utah.
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| I can empathize with the pioneers pulling their wagons out west |
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| The Oregon girl finds her Oregon Trail |
Scottsbluff is an interesting town historically because it
is right on the Oregon Trail and as the name of the town indicates, there are
bluffs all around. Pioneers
headed out west on The Oregon Trail could see the bluff and Nebraska’s Chimney
Rock, another icon on the outskirts of Scottsbluff from hundreds of miles away
on their journey. I imagine when
they arrived at the bluffs, they were so taken back and amazed by these unique
landforms, it kept them curious and trekking further in west, in hopes of
discovering more beautiful sights.
Born and raised in Oregon, although my ancestors didn’t take the Oregon
trail, I think of myself somewhat as a pioneer, creating my own trail across
the world, leading to Oregon. At
the monument, I got a few pictures of the covered wagons and bluffs, but I
wasn’t going to ride to the top because it was getting late and I didn’t have
the desire to climb. However, they
had a shuttle bus that would take me to the top, so I opted for this. At all the other national parks, the shuttle
bus is monstrous and transports dozens of tourist. Here, at the monument, the
shuttle bus was a mini-van, more like a private chauffeur.
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| Nebraska's Chimney Rock. It gave the National Monument a run for it's money on the state quarter |
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| Bluffs here, there,.....They are everywhere in western Nebraska |
Doug Kent was the driver, a pleasant retired volunteer, and
his company was delightful. He was
fascinated to hear my story, in fact, I thought we were never going to make it
the 1.6 miles to the summit because he was driving so slowly listening to every
word I said.Doug was a pleasant older man and tickled to be driving me
around. At one point in the
conversation he asked me how I ended up in Spain. So I told him, I was a Rotary scholar, prefacing that by
saying, “ I don’t know if you have heard of the Rotary Club…….”. Little did I know, he was a
Rotarian! Whenever I meet a
Rotarian in person, I enthusiastically tell them how appreciative I am of all
their fundraising efforts and express how grateful I am of the opportunity they
gave me to go abroad. At this
point Doug was pretty much speechless.
He told me he meets a lot of interesting people driving the shuttle
around at the monument, but he told me that he’d never met anyone quite like
me! In fact he said, “ Melissa, I
could drive you around all day.
You are the real deal, a fascinating young lady! I can’t wait to share this with the
Rotary Club tomorrow at out lunch.”
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| Doug Kent, volunteer shuttle driver at The National Monument and a Rotarian |
I finally said goodbye to Doug and started pedaling
north. Again, not a flat bit of
terrain to be found as I crossed bluff after bluff with a headwind that blew
relentlessly at about 30mph. I
hate to disappoint my hosts, but making it to Crawford, 75 miles away was going
to be impossible! I was considering my options when road construction stopped
me. The car at the front of the
line was switching drivers and the nice woman got out and started to talk to me
about my trip. I told her my
predicament and she agreed that my destination for the night was going to be a
bit too ambitious with the wind, which was blowing harder than normal for the
area. Luckily, she lived in a town
just up the road, and told me they’d love to have me stay with she
and her husband. How lucky am I? I seem to find hosts in all the right places. I didn’t want,
Jill, Jordan’s friend to worry or be waiting for me, so I asked Nancy if she
would kindly call her and explain the situation.
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| Don't be fooled, nothing is flat here in Nebraska and the wild wild wind..... |
It took me a good couple of hours from the road construction
to reach Ed and Nancy’s house, but I finally arrived. She told me Jill was really disappointed I didn’t make it,
but understood with the weather conditions. Jill was planning on taking me to the old historical army
base in the area and introducing me to Iris Paris, the daughter of the first
woman to cycle across the country in 1948, who happened to live in her
town. What’s are my chances
that the day before, I didn’t have one friend or host in Nebraska, and now I
had so many I couldn’t stay with them all! It also was incredible, that one of these hosts lived in a
small town in Nebraska where Norma Jean Belloff set of to cycle cross-country
in 1948 and became the first woman to do so in history! Iris Paris, still lives
in the area and wrote a book about her mom, entitled “Once Upon A Chariot: A
True Story About Norma Jean Belloff, Who Established the USA Woman’s Record for
Cross Country Bicycling in 1948”.
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| Ed and Nancy, my hosts who saved me riding towards Crawford, NE |
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| Early bird catches the worm, except in Nebraska, the wind has a mind of it's own |
I ended up having a lovely stay with Nancy and Ed. Nancy was a cyclist
herself and the retired PE teacher at the school in town. After dinner
Ed helped me a bit with my bike and in the morning, the two saw me off
at 5:30 am, an early start to beat the wind (unfortunately that was
wishful thinking).
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| The reward for an early morning start |
Jill, who I wasn’t able to meet is sending me the book which
will be awaiting my arrival in Oregon. Something tells me however, that I’ll be
back to Scottsbluff, Nebraska and have the opportunity to meet Jill and Iris
Paris personally. You see, at the
top of the monument, Doug pointed out the hiking trail up, that he hikes, by
saying, “Now Melissa, I know you’ll never be back here, so I want to show you
this…….” Doug, yikes, you NEVER
say the world never to me!!!! We all
know what that means in my life…… Something tells me I’ll be back to
Scottsbluff. I’m not sure exactly why, but this isn’t the last time I will
visit this town in western Nebraska.
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