To start this journey, we first met our NEW Executive Director of the Nebraska 4-H Foundation – Stuart Shepherd. Welcome to the staff! We are excited to be working with you!
Custer County Fair – Broken Bow
We took Highway 2 all the way to Broken Bow for the Custer County Fair. We set up shop next to the Livestock Arena where the 4-H and FFA Beef Show was going on. What a huge crowd for such an event! We didn’t think we were going to be there long, so we didn’t put up the tent. However, it got very hot – so we decided to put it up anyways.
After the beef show, we moved next to the Grand Stand where several vendors were located. It was a good location right next to the tickets for the concert and food! We took a calorie dive and tried the deep fat fried Oreos! They were great but oh so bad for us!!!
We were neighbors’ to a local coffee shop stand – The Secret Garden. It was amazing! Reese had a Caramel-Heath Mocha and Molly had a Java Chip Mocha – the best iced coffee we have had all summer! We enjoyed our 4-H company for the evening. They were great help! Thank you!
On the way into town, we heard on the radio that Sammy Kershaw was playing that evening at the fair. We thought it would be fun, so we bought tickets and had a great time! Gotta love the unexpected County Fair entertainment.
After the concert we hit the road again for a long drive to O’Neill! We had an exciting first on the drive… our first ROADKILL! We took out an opossum! That helped make the drive go quick and before we knew it we got to our friend Mary Peetz’s house! It was great to see her!
In the morning Mary’s stepmom made us awesome waffles with strawberries and blueberries and fresh ground coffee on the side! After much needed showers and a little internet time we got on the road for a little sight seeing before the fair!
NEBRASKA’S Byways Passport Program
We’ve decided to participate in the Nebraska’s Byways Passport Program and we are having a great time! This summer the Federal Highway Administration and the Nebraska Department of Roads with assistance from the Nebraska Division of Travel and Tourism are sponsoring the Passport Program to increase tourism within the state along scenic byways!
In a nutshell you take your passport book to a variety of listed tourism stops along the 9 Scenic Byways in Nebraska and get stamps! At every stop you get two stamps, one in your book and one on a tear-out sheet in the back. On the 30th of September you mail in your passport tear-out sheet to get prizes! 9 stamps: Nebraska’s Byways T-Shirt; 18 stamps: Digital Photo Frame; 27 stamps (full book): FLIP Video Camera. We are shooting for T-Shirts and Digital Photo Frames! Go to their website at www.visitnebraska.gov/scenic-byways.
The passport program is great for us because we are traveling all over the state anyways! This is giving our sight seeing some direction! There is so much to see and with our passports we are hitting places we wouldn’t have taken the time to stop at and plus we are getting rewarded for our efforts. Every time we get a stamp we celebrate! It’s a lot of fun!
Our passport adventure started in Alliance! We picked up our books at Carhenge and went to the Knight Museum there too! We got stamps for both! When we stopped at Fort Robinson on our way to Harrison we also got a stamp!
Boyd County Fair- Spencer
We headed out early for the fair and went the Niobrara State Park on the Outlaw Trail Scenic Byway. We got a passport stamp and bought a state park season pass…. it’s now in the truck so the winner also gets that! We drove all over the park and stopped at a great overlook for a picnic lunch!
Our view looked out over the Missouri River and amazing bluffs. (Confession, we thought we were looking at the Niobrara River! We were at the Niobrara State Park! We even commented on how big it was, saying how they must have really been hit with rain early this summer! It wasn’t until we were on the road looking at the map that we realized our mistake… duh!)
On the way to Spencer we stopped along the road and stuck our feet in the edge of the ACTUAL Niobrara! ☺ When we got to Spencer and easily found their fairgrounds got set up between two picnic shelters!
They were having a free watermelon feed, good stuff! We had a great guy about our grandpas’ age helping us out getting all his friends to sell tickets! After they wrapped up the watermelon they had minnow races! They were quite the draw for the kids and their parents!
After we packed up we made a round through the exhibit buildings to see if anyone wanted tickets. We ran into the Boyd County 4-H Council president and asked her to buy a ticket. It turned into a great conversation with us explaining it all her. Since one specific group in the county wasn’t selling them yet she decided that the truck raffle would be an excellent fundraiser for the council. Apparently they are trying to buy a sound system for the fair and they are going to sell tickets with their portion of the sales going to a fund for it!
We enjoyed Boyd County and hope the 4-H Council sells lots of tickets! We crawled in the truck once again and headed to Halsey for the night. Since we were only 6 miles from the South Dakota border we thought we take the truck up there! Gotta get a picture with the truck and the South Dakota sign!
Touring!
We got up bright and early in the morning and left the 4-H Camp for a morning of touring! We didn’t have to be in Mitchell for the Scottsbluff County Fair until 4 so we planned on being able to see some Western Nebraska attractions!
Before we left the Nebraska National Forest in Halsey we stopped by the office and added another stamp to our passports!
Our first stop was in Bridgeport to see Jail House and Court House Rocks! Very impressive! We continued on our journey west to Gering to see one of Nebraska’s most famous features…. Chimney Rock! You can see it for miles but we actually drove to the visitor center and the view was awesome! We went inside and actually got to stamp our passport books ourselves! They had a whole stand set up for it!
Next on our list was Scottsbluff National Monument! What used to be called the “Gateway to the West” was one of the most impressive things we’ve ever seen. The bluffs were breathtaking and we got to drive the truck through them! The tunnels looked tiny but she fit! Once we made it to the top we took a path and got a view of basically all of them! We got a stamp for our passports too! Stamp Total: 7!
We had lunch (4 p.m. Central Time lunch that is) in Scottsbluff at “Paradise.” It was the most multifaceted restaurant we’ve ever been to! It included, prepare yourself here, a coffee shop, restaurant, tanning salon, custom printing shop, car wash and DOG WASH. Don’t worry, they all had their separate areas it wasn’t like you sat sipping your coffee in a tanning bed while your dog is getting a bath but it was a CRAZY menu!
The coffee shop portion of the business was very cute! Lots of comfortable chairs, decorative drapes, plants, etc. It reminded us of a sun porch with its big windows! Our waitress suggested a hot artichoke dip served in a bread bowl for an appetizer and it rocked! Molly had a turkey, asparagus and swiss Panini and Reese had a chicken breast, bacon, tomato with pesto Panini. Both were mouthwatering. It was a great place! We had excellent service and the food was awesome!
Scottsbluff County Fair- Mitchell
We got to the Scottsbluff Fair about midway through the market beef show and got to set up right outside the arena! We caught lots of 4-H families and show spectators! It was a hot day and our tent was our heaven-sent! After the show we moved over to the food vendor area and caught people getting supper before the “Mud Boggs.”
Once again we loved the lack of humidity in Western Nebraska! Awesome! They also had free entertainment, about 25 feet from us and it was great!
We thoroughly enjoyed the Extension Educator Cathy! She got us all set up and helped us sell tickets the whole night! We want to thank Emily, a 4-Her from Mitchell, who helped us sell tickets too!
After we left Scottsbluff, we hit the highway back to Halsey for our long 3-hour journey, which turned into 4 hours due to the time change! What a quick night!
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