Leaving the Black Hills, we had no strict schedule for the next several days beyond making it to a Nickelback concert in Kansas. Everything in between was fair game.
Our first stop was Jewel Cave. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm had other plans. Lightning struck the visitor center, knocking out phones, credit card machines, and the elevator used for several tours. Thankfully, one of the tours we had reserved was still running, so we were able to explore part of the cave before spending the rest of the day wandering Keystone and Hill City.
With extra time on our hands, we took a paddle boat out on the water, tried our luck fishing, and enjoyed one of the few evenings where dinner was finished before eight o’clock.
Before leaving South Dakota, we decorated the camper and began counting honks from passing cars. What started as a small experiment quickly turned into a competition of its own. By the end of the week, we had already received more than one hundred honks from complete strangers.
From there we crossed into Nebraska and began following portions of the Mormon Trail in reverse. We stopped at Carhenge, admired a shoe fence, found a UFO-shaped water tower, visited the world’s largest plow, and toured one of the best preserved sod house replicas in the country.
The trail led us through Scotts Bluff, Chimney Rock, Courthouse and Jail Rocks, and Windlass Hill where wagon ruts still remain visible today. Standing in those places gave us a glimpse into the challenges faced by pioneers traveling west more than a century before us.
After spending the night in a Walmart parking lot near Lexington, Nebraska, we continued east to Minden and spent the morning at Pioneer Village. Three hours later, we still hadn’t seen everything. The collection included everything from airplanes and trains to toys, household goods, clothing, and automobiles.
That afternoon we visited Fort Kearny, crossed the Great Platte River Road Archway spanning Interstate 80, and explored a military vehicle museum where we spent time talking with several Vietnam veterans.
Kansas brought a completely different set of adventures.
In Hays we visited the Sternberg Museum and saw one of the world’s most famous fossils, a fish preserved with another fish still inside it.
From there we continued to La Crosse to tour the Barbed Wire Museum and the Post Rock Museum before heading underground, literally.
The Kansas Underground Salt Museum took us 650 feet below the surface where we learned about the mining operation and the ancient sea that created the salt deposits millions of years ago.
The next day we explored another underground attraction in Ellinwood. During prohibition, businesses hidden beneath the sidewalks had been abandoned and forgotten. Decades later, they were rediscovered almost exactly as they had been left.
By this point, we had fully embraced unusual roadside attractions.
That became even more apparent when we spent a day at an exotic animal farm where we rode camels, saw kangaroos, zebras, and countless other animals, and played with baby animals. Later that evening we headed to a drive-in movie theater where we watched Men in Black 3 and waited for The Avengers to begin.
Somewhere along the way, Zed won a stuffed animal from a claw machine. He named her Sasha and declared her our official trip mascot.
We also officially named our Garmin “Jorge.” His finest moment came when he attempted to direct us down the wrong way of a one-way interstate off-ramp. We ignored his advice and continued the trip safely.
The week concluded with our first concert of the honeymoon. We spent five hours listening to My Darkest Days, Seether, Bush, and Nickelback. Thankfully we had brought earplugs.
When the music ended, we climbed back into the truck and pointed ourselves toward Kansas City, ready to see what the next week would bring.
The Davies Herd 