Day 8

October 19 Monday

We walked Skylar to school in the morning. We were originally planning on going to Denver to see the mint and/or something else nearby to pass the time. That’s what we decided last night. Aunt Allison is teaching today, we have to be back by 3 to walk Skyler back home from school. We would only have time for one tourist attraction, and the mint didn’t sound that exciting after all. So we decided to go to Nebraska instead! So much more fun! Nebraska borders Wyoming, which isn’t very far from Fort Collins. So we drove out to Nebraska so we could cross it off the list of states we’ve been to. We planned on going to chimney rock – which is featured on the back of the Nebraska state quarter. (The Indians apparently call the formation elk penis, which I think is a much more interesting name.) Nebraska at first looks just like Wyoming and Kansas – until you reach the bluffs. We ended up stopping at Scott’s bluff. It was awesome! We drove up to the top and had a spectacular view of the badlands… now I see why it gets its name. A cross country road trip in a speedy car with paved roads is long enough, imagine being in a covered wagon with no GPS and lots of this impassably bumpy terrain. (There were some rabbits!! They were so cute!) There is only one way through the bluffs by wagon train – through Mitchell’s pass. The Oregon Trail went through that pass. We got to walk along the real Oregon Trail! Its rather appropriate since we are on a trail to Oregon ourselves. We could see chimney rock way off in the distance from the top of the bluff. We decided it was too far and we didn’t have time. We headed back home just in time to pick skyler up! The rest of the day was spent uploading pictures to facebook. We had pizza for dinner and played apples to apples.