POINTS OF INTEREST ON THE ROAD TO SOMEWHERE ELSE

Tequila sunrise? How about Nebraska sunrise. No alcohol involved here, but this is what awaited us as we took off early Tuesday morning. It seems as though we have been on this trip for a very long time, and when I think about it, I guess we have. So on these days when we are marking off the miles to our final destination, I look for points of interest on our road to somewhere else.

The first point of interest is one we have passed before many times on our travels. As we passed under the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument near Kearney, Nebraska, I decided to see what the attraction is to this place. It opened in 2000 and if you watched the movie "About Schmidt" you might have seen Jack Nicholson pulling up in his RV and going inside.

Once inside, it is dedicated to the 19th century pioneers who first explored these lands of the Midwest. The era of the highway and car travel are highlighted as well. When we return through the area, I hope we will find time to check this place out, that is if we can maneuver the side roads to get to it. Seems when they built this attraction, they forgot about off ramps and the exit to get there is over two miles away.

Now, any outdoors man worth his weight in hunting gear, has to be familiar with Cabela's. In Sidney, Nebraska we passed by their world headquarters. This 120,000 square foot two story building could house a football field on each story and employs over 500 people. Having never been inside a Cabela's, I found out they are attractions themselves. The grounds in Sidney include a 3 1/2-acre pond and two bronze double-life-size bull elk on one side of the building. A 27-foot-tall replica of a mountain is framed in a 48-foot mural of blue sky. The mountain is covered with 40 lifelike game trophies and features a waterfall that splits at the base into two ponds. Suspended in the air between the entryway and the mountain is a flock of taxidermy Canadian geese. WOW... who needs Disneyland?

Making our way into Wyoming we came across the Lincoln Monument. No, not at all like the one in Washington DC, but a rather small tribute to this great President. The Lincoln Monument, near Laramie, was commissioned by the state of Wyoming in 1959 to honor the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth, and placed here in 1969 when I-80 was completed. It marks the highest point of the old Lincoln Highway (now I-80) from coast to coast -- about 8,640 ft. above sea level. The bronze head is 12 1/2 feet high, and its 30-ft. tall granite pedestal assures that it can be seen from quite a distance.

I'll close this entry the way I started it. This time with a beautiful sunrise courtesy of the State of Wyoming. The one thing we can always rely on is the sunrise lighting our way down the road to somewhere else.