Blue Goose ~ Day 45

July 15, 2014 ~ Scottsbluff, NE to Valentine, NE

Upon awakening, I googled coffee shops and found one downtown, which I realize is where many small non-Starbuck-towns have successful coffee businesses. (I guess this is most likely true also for town with Starbucks like Holland, MI.) I found my way to Cappucino and Co. which had very good munchies and meals. I talked briefly with a fellow traveler who also "road-tripping" and was also getting his devices charged. I overhead the waitress / owner ask if she could charge her iPhone using his cable, and that conversation precipitated his story. He had body piercings and sandals, was middle-aged and also worked on a laptop for a couple of hours.

The reason I was in Scottsbluff was to visit the North Platte NWR, which is actually four separate units. One is an island in the Platte River (which was several miles west) and the other three are lakes north and east of town.

North of Scottsbluff, NE

I started north and, while I wasn't lost, seemed to just be wandering on poor gravel roads with a hidden Lake Alice near but not visible, Lake Alice being one of the lakes. So I got a bit crabby and headed for the area of the other two lakes and then happened on definitive NWR signs. I drove around for an hour and had the thought how odd it was to have a lake on the prairie and have no dwellings and no waterfowl either, it being mid summer and all; at least this was true for Lake Alice #1. There was also a Lake Alice #2. The other two lakes did have some cottages on the parts that weren't on the refuge. It is hard to figure sometimes what is refuge and what is state park or private. One of the lakes had a lighthouse, an incongruous site in Nebraska. There was the irrigation thing going on here also with canal and ditches and gates and obvious manipulation of water for farming, and I was not moved to linger even though there were grassland birds all over, including many Lark Buntings. But if my windows were open, the insects were ready....huge flies, small flies, bees, mosquitoes and other unidentified winged things. It gets old soon.....wuss that I am. 

Leaving Scottsbluff, I drove a long, long time due east on a road with very little traffic, stopping once or twice for hawks on poles which were always Red-tailed or Swainson's, or for old buildings.

East of Scottsbluff, NE

Just east of Alliance, NE, I started seeing non-river water in the form of small pothole ponds and wetlands, and the land began changing from browns and tans and reds to greens. This part of Nebraska is the Sand Hill country, a rumpled landscape looking like an gigantic unmade bed, with a million small hillocks overlaid on longer shallower land swells. It is ranching country. There were only occasional trees or small groves and a few creeks, but as I got nearer to Valentine, I began to see small lakes. 

Valentine is near the Niobrara (Nigh-o-brare-ah) River where Fort Niobrara was situated to help "manage" Indian / white behaviors. This town with a pretty name wasn't especially attractive. I did have a delicious meal though in a truck stop restaurant...hamburger steak and good mashed potatoes. The meat was lean and tasty, with a rich brown gravy and lightly fried onions and mushrooms. And a good comfort-food chicken noodle soup. And pies in a case next to me which I did resist as I had a lemon bar in the cooler. I guess veggies and salads do not have a high priority with the customers. Better none than some awful salad and overlooked vegetable. 

It was one of those times when I drove around town looking for somewhere to sleep and ended up right next to the restaurant as the parking lot was gigantic. As usual, it was fine, although my vehicle is in need of a shake-down cleaning soon. And the issue of personal cleaning up continues....as I refuse to do anything in a shared public restroom or if the restroom is at all marginal.