I got off to a very slow start today. I had intended to have lunch at either my first or second destination of the day. Instead, I had lunch before I even left town. Surprisingly, though, I still got to both of the planned destinations with enough time to visit an optional third destination. Mercifully, today was much less windy and appreciably warmer than yesterday. This is important because, unlike most of the trip thus far, today’s destinations were entirely outdoors.
Even if you’ve never set foot (or any other appendage) in Nebraska, odds are fairly good that you’ve heard of Carhenge. In case you haven’t, it’s a replica of Stonehenge, built in the 1980s using dead cars instead of stone. For some reason, this is the one thing in Nebraska that seems to have become a must-see tourist attraction. I’ve never understood the appeal, so I didn’t initially plan on visiting Carhenge. But when I was plotting my overall trip route, I realized it was just a couple miles out of my way, so I decided to give it a shot. And I must say…it’s actually pretty cool. It’s a sculpture, a work of art, not just a vertically arranged junkyard. See for yourself (or for someone else, if you have such authority):
I was pleasantly surprised to find that Carhenge is not the only piece of car artwork on the site. Here are some of the others…
From Carhenge, I was off to Chadron State Park, near the town of Chadron [shad’-run]. Despite it being Nebraska’s oldest state park (established in 1921), I don’t remember ever hearing of it until I saw this video just a few months ago. So, I was really uncertain what I would see here, and how much time I would need. I stopped at the visitor center, but it was closed, so I pissed behind the building (see yesterday’s discussion of Urinary Urgency). Then I set about driving the park’s scenic loop road. Here’s a sampling of what I saw along this road:
The one thing I knew I wanted to do at this park was to walk the Black Hills Overlook trail. I hadn’t done any research on this trail; I had only seen it briefly mentioned in a review of the park. I followed a sign saying to turn right for the trailhead; this road takes you out of the state park, onto land owned by the U.S. Forest Service. Most of this road is unpaved, and there was a small patch of snow that had to be traversed to reach the parking area, but my rented Dodge Challenger was up to the challenge. Er. In looking up the trail just now, I see that it’s a 3-mile loop. Not knowing that at the time, I walked out along this ridge-top trail for about a mile, before doubling back the same way I came. In the few pictures I’ve seen of this place, everything is lush and green. Right now, everything is dead and brown. I wouldn’t mind coming back here some time during the spring or summer to experience the greenliness. But I’m also OK with the brownliness in the photos below. BTW, the trail is appropriately named: way out on the horizon in some of these pics you can see the “black minin’ hills of the Dakotas” as Rocky Raccoon might have called them. And I did find Gideon’s Bible when I checked into the hotel.
Having gotten the gist of Chadron State Park, and with plenty of daylight hours left, I headed to my optional third destination of the day: Toadstool Geological Park, within the confines of Oglala National Grassland. Yes, there is such a thing as a National Grassland. And yes, the grassland is called Oglala while the town is called Ogallala. Again, I blame the Kearneyites. But ignoring that, Toadstool Geological Park is about as far as you can get from my hometown while still being in Nebraska. According to my rough measurements in Google Earth Pro, it’s 24 miles from the Wyoming border, and only 10 miles from South Dakota. And it shows; this does not look like the Nebraska I know. Take a gander at this place, if ya will:
After seeing Toad the Wet Stool Sample, I made the 49-minute drive back into town, where I had a pair of runzas for dinner. For the uninitiated, a runza (with a lowercase r) is a yeast dough bread pocket with a filling consisting of beef, cabbage or sauerkraut, onions, and seasonings. Runza (with a capital R) is a regional fast food chain specializing in runzas. I don’t remember actually going to Runza when I was growing up, except for the one time I walked in and asked, “Can I use your restroom? I have the runz, aaah!”
Voyages with Parkinson's 