I woke up this morning to the sun streaming into the bedroom window and hearing Roger going in and out and hearing clicking and popping noises.   Seems the power had gone out and he had to recycle the electric box fuses a couple of times.  He never did figure out what triggered the power loss, but it was back on line in no time and we've had no problem since.  

Sitting having our tea and reading the news on our iPads this morning, we started hearing an airplane flying low over the RV Park.  It seems we are sitting next to a big corn field and it was crop dusting. It was fun to watch it going up and down and buzzing the fields.  As you can see the sun was shining and the cotton-puff clouds made a perfect back ground for the little yellow bi-plane. The weather was perfect this morning - nice and cool.  Early afternoon was in the 80s and then the temperature dropped with the thunderstorms that we got later this afternoon.

I had an opportunity to wash a couple loads of clothes before we take off tomorrow.  It was pretty pricey here, but, a bird in the hand.....

We had lunch and then went out for some sightseeing and to pick up a couple of things at a grocery store.  Maggie didn't like us leaving at all.  She had been very lethargic all morning - hangover from two days of drugs, probably.  She didn't want to go out for a walk at all, but when she saw us getting ready to leave, she sneaked out the door and hid under the RV.  We had to coax her out with treats and she looked so sad when we left. She didn't destroy anything, but she sure was a happy puppy when we got back.  



About five miles down the road is the entrance to Scotts bluff National Monument. This landmark was a very important one - the pioneers were leaving the relative flatlands of Nebraska along the Platte River and heading westward along the river into Wyoming and the mountains. At this point in their travels, the pioneers knew it was going to be an uphill battle. The park's visitor center has a great display on the native peoples, the emigrants along the Oregon and Morman Trails, and the geology/archeology of the bluff.  It's worth a stop in your travels to see.  We also learned that that the pass through the mountains here was also the Pony Express route through the area. 

We found a display of the "RVs" that the pioneers used.  I'm not so sure there would be enough space for our "stuff" and Roger wasn't sure that the power mode was as good as his truck for pulling the RV up the hills. Besides, walking along next to the wagon behind the oxen was probably pretty unpleasant, if not downright nasty! (Maybe the wagons weren't really recreational, huh?)

We took the twisty, turny road up to the top of Scotts bluff for a magnificent view of the Nebraska farmlands below. There was a hiking trail to take you to the tippy top, but I didn't have the right shoes on - for which Roger was grateful.  The trail did look a little precipitous in spots.  The vegetation was a bit different - grasses, scrub, sagebrush, yucca, and wildflowers!  Very pretty and surprising to see them on top of the mountain. 

 

We spent an hour after our tourist mode looking for a place to get milk and eggs.  We must have been in a strange part of town because there were no grocery stores anywhere.  We ended up finding a Target that had a minuscule grocery area - but they did have eggs and milk in a small refrigerator section.  Then, after we got fuel for tomorrow's journey, we headed back home - only to find a grocery about two miles down the road from where we were staying.  Oh well, we got what we needed and got to see the "hood."  Actually, several "hoods."  Discovered huge silos with "Western Sugar" painted on the side.  Maybe those fields that were getting dusted this morning were sugar beets.

We spent the rest of the afternoon during another major thunderstorm plotting our journey from here.  (It's 7pm and still raining hard with lots of thunder.) Once the first few days of everything going wrong has passed, we are now having fun and are looking forward to seeing more unknown territory - at least unknown to us.  We promised our grandson we would visit him in Boise, so we've got a tentative plan to get us there before he goes back to school.  If we are still having fun, and the temps at home are still high, we may just head back north to the mountains in Montana.  Who knows at this point.  We are trying to learn to be more spontaneous.    

I will, unfortunately, miss my book group's meeting and I will have to reschedule a haircut, but as long as we are having fun, there's no reason to head home yet.  

P.S.   I just asked Roger to check my work and then looked out the window - to an incredibly bright double rainbow - end to end.  Amazing!  I've never taken a panorama photo with my iPhone before, but this one turned out OK, I think.