From Brown to Green

My detour through Yellowstone took me off of the Oregon Trail for awhile but I rode south and picked-up US 20 which parallels a lot of the trail. I soon learned Route 20 could take me all the way to Chicago with not so much as one mile of interstate "slab." Looks like a way home!

But first, a stop at the world's largest hot mineral springs at Thermopolis, Wyoming..

Mineral hot springs at Thermopolis, Wyoming

The road south from Cody, WY was a very hot 100 miles. I was glad to learn that I could avail myself of the mineral springs at no cost due to a peculiar Indian treaty dating from 1896. Seems the whole area was part of the Shoshone Indian Reservation until the white man began to covet the sacred "smoking waters". Congress decided the area should be a park and "bought" it from the Native Americans, signing yet another treaty with two Shoshone and Arapaho chiefs. It allowed for free access to the springs for anyone of any color and to this day remains a "free entry" Wyoming State Park. Soaking in the public mineral pool is limited to 20 minutes.

Some mining towns in Wyoming have seen their day

Roadside camping can be spectacular

Wyoming up close

Abandoned school house west of Douglas, Wyoming

Ayers Natural Bridge near Glenrock, WY was a stop along the Oregon Trail

As the road led me east from Wyoming to Nebraska, the rivers and passes gave way to "cattle country" and expansive fields of irrigated alfalfa and other hay grasses. Things got greener and a bit cooler.

Three miles east of Chadron, Nebraska, I just had to stop at the Museum of Fur Trade. Well before Oregon Trail wagon trains, trappers and traders wandered about the plains and the great northwest trading guns and trinkets for hides. Located near the site of the original Bordeaux Creek Trading Post, this museum is billed as the largest of its type in the world. And, of course, every summer, they have the annual Fur Trading Days in Chadron. Second weekend in July.

Downtown Cody, Nebraska...all of it

This is the town of Cody, Nebraska. It has four businesses, only one of which is open past 5:00 PM. And it's not the gas station. With my "low gas" lamp on and 40 miles to the next town, I had no choice but to visit the place that was still in business: Husker's Pub. I am indebted to the bar tender who soon came to my aid with a red jug holding enough gas to get me to Valentine, NE where he promised there would be several filling stations open all night.

Pulling into Valentine, Nebraska...and gas!

As I was leaving Nebraska, I came across this fascinating vintage windmill collection on the side of US 20. They are all from the late 19th and early 20th century and have been lovingly collected and restored by a Mr. Gill, who happens to own the local landfill outside of the town of Jackson. You have to dodge garbage trucks as you wander about, but the Sentinels of the Prairie display is worth a stop, especially if you have a soft spot for agrarian popular culture.