Day 3 - Lincoln, NE to Rawlins, WY

Today we started out in Lincoln, Nebraska.

After a good night's rest in the Country Inn and Suites (nice place--clean room, good for pets--A+), we set off for Wyoming.  We had 500 miles ahead of us, and a good night's sleep under our belts.

In Kearney, Nebraska, we stopped at the Great Platte River Road Museum, which we have passed under several times before, but have never actually visited:
 

It was a nice museum, with some fun headsets that used some "radio magic" as the tour guides.  The tour covered the journey westward, from conestoga wagons and stagecoaches to railroads and automobiles.  I kept thinking, "we talked about all this in class!  I wish my students could see this!"

If this quote doesn't define us, I don't know what does...

In front of a fun, Western expansion mural, sporting our super sweet earphones!  At the end of the tour, it became very "grand America", with America The Beautiful swelling in the background, and all these famous quotes being blasted through the headphones.  Seems to me that all tours end this way.

Nick was so pleased to pose in front of the buffalo.

Waldo (and Gus' butt) in front of a Sinclair statue.  Sinclair is one of the main gas stations out here, and their logo is a green dinosaur.  See how proud Waldo is?

In the evening, we stopped in Laramie, Wyoming, where we met up with Nick's cousin Jeremy.  I love that I look like a shrimp next to the two of them!  Jeremy took us to a yummy restaurant, called The Library.  Lots of pub-type food, which is exactly what I like!

Lots of fun facts for today:
*We had a coyote crossing, and tumbleweeds!
*We hit the 1,000 mile mark for our trip.
*We met some Great Dane breeders at lunch.  They own KKDanes.com
*Gus is tired of riding in the car.  He reluctantly jumps back into the back of the SUV now.
*There is still SNOW on the ground in Wyoming.
*At Happy Jack Rd., we reached our highest elevation of the trip so far, at 8,640 feet above sea level.
*Nebraska is WIDE.  80% of our travel today has been in this one state.
*I LOVE listening to Nick sing Lady Gaga and Glee songs.
*I stayed awake ALL day today.
*I also love to hear Nick try to do math out loud.  It is comical, really.
*Today we spilled an entire box of Mike-and-Ikes, and an entire bottle of Advil gelcaps.  Thankfully we did not spill them in the same place, or that would have been interesting.
*Nick has an innate inability to do crosswords out loud.  4 letters?  He says, "Shelf!"  3 letters?  He says, "Yoko!"  It is both hilarious and frustrating.
*We have made our own version of the new internet viral video "Hi, I'm Debbie, and I love cats."  It may or may not involve hotdogs.
*We ate: Qdoba (still don't like), and The Library.