July 2, 2013

   Tried to get this posted yesterday, but after getting it all typed up and ready to go I found that it wouldn't load onto the server and ended up losing the whole thing. Still not sure why it wasn't working and it was a real bummer to lose it all after spending nearly an hour on it to begin with. Needless to say I wasn't feeling all that happy about the whole thing and finally gave up for the day. So I am hoping that it will work a bit better for me today.

    I spent some time yesterday morning doing routine truck and trailer stuff. Got the little air compressor out and went around checking the air pressure in all of the tires. I try to do that at least once every 2 weeks or so, but sometimes it gets away from me and the pressure dips down more than it should be. They are all topped off now though, and should be good until I make it into Colorado and put Esmerelda into storage for a couple of weeks. Also checked the oil and other fluids in the truck and got most of the trash tossed out that seems to accumulate over time.

    Got on the road by 11:00 and drove down to the town of Alliance for the day. Wanted to go down and go through the art museum there. For some reason the Carnegie Institute decided to provide funding for a small art museum there in town. It's really just an old house with a couple of rooms up stairs that they have cleared out and hung art on the walls of, but if you like western themed art they do actually have some pretty nice stuff there. You won't see any Remington's, O'Keeffe or Russell's, but what they do have is nice enough to look at. They also have a small area set aside there for local artists to bring in some of their work and sell it. Very reasonably priced for the most part. If you needed some unique birthday or Christmas presents this would be a good place to pick them up.

   Also went over to the Knight-Sand Hills Pioneer Museum and spent an hour or so touring that. Pretty much dedicated to the history from this area of Nebraska, it goes through some basic geology and then on to the settling of the area by indigenous people, before the final wave of trappers, farmers and ranchers came in and settled. Some very nice displays of Native American clothing and tools as well as some interesting stuff on farm and ranch life. A very nice place to spend some time while outside the rain was coming down in buckets and the thunder and lightning was going off every few seconds.

   A couple hours spent in the McDonald's there in town while on line. Made a few phone calls and talked to a couple of friends before heading out in search of some Mexican food. Found one little bodega tucked back away from one of the main streets and went in for a very nice meal of tamale's smothered in green chili. Yum!

   A nice drive back to the trailer afterwards. It was still raining hard in spots north of town. Even had to slow down and turn the lights on because it got so dark and the rain was coming down so hard. It had cleared by the time I got back to the trailer however and it turned into a really beautiful night, just right for sleeping.

    Up early this morning as the parks guys were mowing around the campground area. I spent a little bit of time going through some of the stuff I have acquired over this past year and packing it up into some boxes I picked up. Mostly it was modeling stuff, DVDs and books and a very few magazines that I would like to keep. Managed to clean out most of one 'under seat' storage area and filled two boxes. Will need to pick up a couple more boxes and keep going with it as there are still bunches of shot glasses to store away as well as some clothing and bedding that I'll leave behind next time I go on the road.

    I have a ticket for tonight's Cabaret show out at the Post Playhouse. This will be the last play/show I'll see here this season as the last play won't start up until next week sometime. Once again it has been a lot of fun seeing all of the shows and it was even more fun seeing several of those with family and friends. In the meantime; here are a few photo's I have taken while out driving around the area.

Misc. Scenes from the Chadron Nebraska Area - June 2013

One of many windmills that dot the range land out and around this area. I hit this one just as the sun was going down in the west. The light shining on it and on the clouds to the east captivated me.

It was fun to see how the light changed as I moved around it and saw it from different sides.

One last view as the sun was nearly down in the west.

An old farm/ranch house along the highway just south of the town of Crawford Nebraska. Now this one is a real fixer-upper.

The house and other buildings may be nearly fallen down into decay, but the windmill is still up and working.