AVERT2015 Recap Part 3

No, you aren't losing your mind, I'm actually posting on a day that isn't a Wednesday! I'm still swamped at work but I wanted to give you another installment of our Road Trip Recap (see part 2 here). Check back tomorrow because I'm going to actually try and get back to my What I'm Loving Wednesday link up! :)

We left North Platte early that Sunday (okay, it was 9am, but that was early for us). We had a few places in Nebraska we wanted to check out before heading on to South Dakota. The drive was beautiful, we saw MILES and MILES of farmland. We drove through the town of Oshkosh (NOT the home of OshKosh B'Gosh- that is in Wisconsin). But, it was still a cute little town. 

Amber waves of grain...

We made it to our first stop of the day, which was Chimney Rock National Historic Site (yes, we are all about history). The first thing we saw when we got out of the car was this sign....

Now, my first thought was...do the snakes know how to read and know to stay OFF the sidewalk. Needless to say, I was on high alert. Every noise I heard, I was certain it was a rattlesnake. Sad to say (no wait, I'm HAPPY to say), we didn't see a snake.

I didn't know much about Chimney Rock, but it was still a neat place to visit. It is considered the most famous landmark on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. If you are ever in the area of Bayard, NE, check it out. We didn't stay too long (honestly, after going through the museum, all you can do is look at the rock from the station, you can't actually get to it), but it was still a neat piece of history. 

I took this picture just because my birthday is May 23. :) This happened 126 years before I was born.

Our next stop was about an hour down the road from Chimney Rock at Scotts Bluff National Monument. I consider this a "must see" if you are in Nebraska- it was beautiful! I have to say, the forecast kept saying it was going to rain all day that Sunday. It didn't start raining until AFTER we had spent several hours at Scotts Bluff- thank you Lord. I'm so glad the rain held off. We were able to get some great pictures. We did some hiking as well (nothing major, maybe a total of two miles). They also had signs to watch out for rattlesnakes. Again, I was on high alert, but we didn't see (or hear) any. Whew.

It was kind of cool driving through tunnels cut into the rock/mountain

Like I said, the rain thankfully held off until we were actually leaving Scotts Bluff. We stopped for supper before hitting the road. We were trying to get to South Dakota before it was too late. Mel took over driving at one point. I rarely use SnapChat (I'm a terrible Snapper, wait, is that what you call people who use it? Oh well, whatever). I'm not that great on it, but feel free to add me, my handle is Averyfan (are you THAT surprised?) Lol. ANYWAYS, I sent this snap out (it somehow saved to my phone, so I'm adding that picture here. :) 

We were driving along when all of the sudden the car in front of us slammed on their brakes and veered off the road. We were about to yell at them for their crazy driving, when we realized that they saw the South Dakota state sign and that is why they stopped so fast. Lol. Of course, we also stopped for a quick picture (and actually silently thanked them for stopping so suddenly, we totally would have missed it). It was SO WINDY, and still raining some, but we got our pictures! :) 

The fourth state of our trip

We made it to Keystone, South Dakota well before dark (weehoo). Our motel was actually the closest motel to the Mount Rushmore entrance (it was a Super 8 motel, nothing fancy). But it was clean and the staff was super nice. More on our visit to Mount Rushmore next time! :)

XOXO!!