NEIAMOILKY...or 5 states in one day

Originally we were going to stay around St. Louis but we woke up early and decided to see how far we could go.  Couldn't decide which pictures I liked best....these were all taken from moving car with auto setting on Canon 700.  Fred described it as a red, white & blue sunrise.

Saw this building that looked like a wagon train.

 After hearing that there were tornado warnings in IA and NE, we were glad that we decided to have a longish day. We were able to get hotel reservations in Paducah so will be here 2 nights. Missouri looks a lot like NC in areas. Had a massive rain storm while in IL...could hardly see out the windows.

Can you see the trees?

Welcome to the Heartland....or why they call this flyover country

We woke up early on Friday and decided to get on the road. We kept seeing "sunrises" because of changing directions and mountains. Montana is more interesting than today's drive in Nebraska...but both are pretty flat with occasional smelly sections!!!! Guess we had gotten spoiled with changing scenery.

This was in Utah....see the arch?

                                           Wind fences in Montana

The big excitement yesterday was Cabella's headquarters was located where we were staying, Sidney, NE, a big town of 6,000.

The National Pony Express Memorial in Sidney

We stopped to get a NE quilting license tag today and have lunch at Culvers.  This afternoon we went to the Stuhr Museum of  Prairie Pioneer,  we could have gone to the NE State Fair but decided to avoid the crowds. They were having a fall festival at the Stuhr and I talked with the quilters. They did tell me that there were over 400 quilts at the state fair. We decided not to have our fortunes read though. They have brought buildings to represent what life would have been like in railroad or farming communities and have interpreters in most buildings.

House where Henry Fonda was born

No planes....but plenty of trains & automobiles

Today is our lazy "non travel" day. We decided to go into Ogden and do a little sightseeing. We read about Union Station & its four museums and decided to visit it. The museum included Utah Cowboy, train, car and Browning & Wesson gun museums.....all for $4 a person! Learned some interesting thing about the trains that built the west. The gold spike that combined the two railroads is located in a safe in the museum (although there were 4). As the train companies got land grants and fees for each mile of completed track, there was no incentive to complete but to build extra miles of lines & both went past each other in construction. Finally President Grant brought representatives of Union Pacific & Central Pacific to Washington, DC to negotiate where the railroad would meet and a date was set. Also read about the Merci or the French Gratitude Train, also known as the Forty and eight. After WWII, France sent a boxcar for each state plus Washington, DC & Hawaii territory, filled with presents as a thank you for all the US did during the war and for the reconstruction aid after the war. The car for Utah is at the museum but the whereabouts of all the gifts is unknown. (Just checked & NC's is at Spencer & mist of contents at NC Museum of History or at libraries & other museum in NC).

They had a huge model train layout.

Actual working model guns....see the bullets on the bottom one. Master gunsmiths had to make one to be consider a "master".

After the museums, we ate at our favorite restaurant in Utah....In & Out. Salad for dinner tonight.

Other some things we saw in the Historic District.

This afternoon we drove down the Ogden River Canyon Scenic Parkway.

We think this water reservoir pipes!