The next morning our friends and us woke up and had a nice breakfast by campfire; beans, coffee, and a bacon competition (that ironically didn’t involve pork at all… a friend brought beef bacon, and I brought turkey). It was a nice lazy morning and everyone slowly rolled out. Very slowly for a couple who lost their keys in the river, haha! Safe to say it was an adventure for more than just Pete.
When it was just us two, we explored Valentine, Nebraska. All of the street signs have little hearts on them (and I didn’t make a single cheesy joke… land of missed opportunities).
I told Pete this was our one day that we didn’t really have any huge plans or itinerary, so we just kicked it really. We lazed around our campground, got him a Runza sandwich, and found a hiking trail to visit Smith Falls again.
Look close… we found bigfoot creepin in the distance…
We found a couple historic bridges. One had one some construction awards when it was built, which made his engineer brain light up. The other replaced a historic railroad that crosses the Niobrara River. It’s actually part of the Cowboy Trail, and crosses the whole state, and later on our trip we actually found ourselves driving next to it for miles! Apparently hardcore bikers (the bicycle kind) will ride across the state like no big deal.
Special thanks to Nebraska Jaycee’s State President & Vice President, Tiffany and Codie. We got lost (Yes. In Valentine.) looking for how to access that bridge, and they were just a text and a phone-call away to get us on track!
Day 2 was a simple one that ended back at our campground, just us two. Most of the entire grounds had cleared out since the weekend was over, so we were totally alone in the quiet darkness. He wouldn’t let me tell him ghost stories, haha. The moon and stars were so bright we didn’t need flashlights (but I’m glad I took one to the outhouse with me because there was a giant killer wolf spider that tried to rob me of more than just my dignity)…
Day 3 to be continued…
greenifer 