Nebraska Vacation Day Two

Nebraska Vacation Day Two! 

If you have ever driven West on interstate 80, you may have noticed a place near Elm Creek called Chevyland USA. Gary and I have always wondered about it, like, could we go in there? Since Gary likes cars, we looked it up and  found out that it's open pretty much every day! We had to check it out.

We walked in and it seemed as if we had entered a time capsule. The owner, Mont Hollertz, greeted us and rang us up at an old cash register behind a counter covered with car memorabilia. Wow, there was a lot to look at in there! Counters covered with model cars and motorcycles, trinkets, photographs and newspaper clippings. After a brief chat, he turned on the lights and let us in to see the car collection.

I don't know what to say about the cars except wow he has a lot of them! Gary and I wished that we could've seen the place in it's earlier days, it's looking pretty tired now. If you like cars though, it's fun to check out.

We headed back to the Elm Creek truck stop to use the restroom when we noticed a BBQ stand across the road.

It was lunch time, so we decided to give it a try. As we got to talking with the guy, we figured out that he knows my Aunt. 

Small world! 

Yum it was really good! Just eating next to the road with semi's rolling by was an adventure in itself ha! The place is called Buzzards' Roost BBQ and we give it two thumbs up!

 So, I've wanted to see the Great Platte River Road Archway Museum since they built the thing over the interstate years ago! After lunch, we headed back towards Kearney to check it out. The new archway exit makes getting there much easier and I hope that will encourage more people to stop and visit.

I really enjoyed the archway. When you enter, you are greeted by a cast of old time characters, my favorite being the wild eyed and whiskered mountain man. I'm not sure if that's what he was portaying but he was really into his character! 

 After having our picture taken, we put on our headphones and rode the escalator into the exhibit. It's a self guided tour and as you walk through each area, a narrator tells the story of how people moved West through Nebraska via the Oregon, Mormon and California trails and eventually the Transcontinental railroad, Pony Express and Lincoln Highway. Along with the impressive scenes, there are things to read, which was hard for me to do with the headphones on! I'm a fast reader though, so I was usually finished with an area before Gary was. Luckily, there were many benches to sit on to wait for him to catch up. It took us about an hour to walk through the museum and after that we looked at the earth lodge and another small building outside and enjoyed a little walk on the hike/bike path. There's also a maze for kids, which Gary did immediately after stepping out of the car haha! I would definitely recommend stopping by here if you haven't before! We both felt it was worth the $12 admission.