August 18

Kearney, where we stayed before, the elevation is 2,169 feet. Here in North Platte, just 100 miles farther west, the elevation is 2,800 feet. The strange thing is that when you are driving you are really not aware that you are climbing. We were in North Platte again today. We probably walked 5 or more miles again today. We were pooped when we quit. We started the day out at a quilt shop and 3 used bookstores. Then we went to Bailey Yard which is a part of the Union Pacific Railway. This is the largest train yard in the world. It has 131 tracks, is about 3 miles wide and 8 miles wide. They repair the engines and move cars from one train to another.

Below is a model of the Union Pacific Railway Station in North Platte, as it looked in 1941. It became the most famous stop in the US for troop trains. UP furnished the building and volunteers (mostly women) kept it open for about 5 years and provided food for the service men and women. This was not a USO but private and it obtained no funding from the state or federal government. "In on month in 1945, they gave out 40,161 cookies, 30,679 hard boiled eggs, 6,547 doughnuts, 6,939 cupcakes, loaf cakes or birthday cakes, 2,845 pounds of sandwich meat, and 12 dozen different items in similar proportions." They gave out a birthday cake to every service member whose birthday was that day. They said they would serve between 3,000 and 5,000 every day! It is amazing to think that they were able to serve so much food when there was rationing and the women must have had barely enough supplies for their own families.

Kids, we saw more buffalo today. This one was rather close. I was afraid it might run over me!

Poor Pop. He got put into jail. They forgot to close the door so he got out alright.

This was Buffalo Bill Cody's bedroom in his house in North Platte. The blanket is a buffalo skin. I'm not sure what kind of fur made the coat.

This is an actual plainsmen hat that Buffalo Bill Cody wore.

I had never seen a necklace made from hair, only pictures.













We tried to see where the North Platte and South Platte rivers meet but there were no roads to the area. Part of the problem was that it is a great deal of marsh land around the two rivers.