#Gates50States

Nebraska wasn’t originally part of our 2020 plan with the Dakotas, but a desire to spend some time in Colorado hitting the national parks with Grandma Laura and Grandpa Dave required that we get from here to there. Who would’ve thought, but the trail passed right through Alliance, NE, a place we’ve wanted to visit ever since we met Tom and Steph years ago at Western Veterinary Conference. This blog isn’t the time or the place to get into the winding road of just how we met, but we struck up an instant friendship, they gave us an open invitation to visit, and we took them up on it.

After spending time in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, we set out for their ranch. Before we arrived, though, we visited Fort Robinson State Park, which housed the cavalry in the late-1800s and German POWs in the early ‘1940s. While there, we got to observe a riding/shooting competition!

There wasn’t a ton of hiking to do, and we didn’t have time for much anyway, so we found a good lookout to visit before we made it the rest of the way to the ranch.

Gracious hosts that they are, Tom & Steph planned activities and guided us through an authentic, Nebraska pan handle experience.

First, while they went to work on Monday morning, they directed us to the Knight Museum & Sandhills Center. Don’t be fooled by the small town outward appearance and location in a neighborhood, this museum is world class in its interpretive displays and sheer content of great information helping us Buckeyes (and anyone else visiting) learn the history of western Nebraska and just what it took for people to take root and thrive. From farming over the Ogallala Aquifer to the strong work ethic of the people, we left with an appreciation for all that western Nebraska provides our nation.

One cannot visit Alliance, NE, without taking in Carhenge! For real! Some people really took old cars, painted them, and propped them up in a real scale model of Stonehenge.

Dobby’s Frontier Town gave us a flavor of the history of Alliance, with an eclectic collection of memorabilia in a unique, backyard experience. As we moved through the buildings and displays, it was funny to hear Tom’s recounting of knowing some of the people pictured, and telling stories of his participation in some of the history depicted. It is truly just a cool, small town.

Tom needed to separate a few heifers from his herd for market, so we all got to participate in the penning, and then we went on a real cattle drive, moving the rest of the herd a couple of miles away! Jenn was an all-star on horseback, while Lincoln rode on one of the four-wheelers while I took Lydia and Henry on another.

The prairie dogs in North Dakota and South Dakota were cute. They constructed their massive towns, whistled at us, ran around like they had a job to do, and just generally pleased visitors and cracked up our kids. Prairie dogs on pasture land, however, are destructive. They ruin the soil, consume grass the cattle could otherwise eat, provide real hazards with their holes in which cattle can break a leg, and they’re just generally nuisances… costly nuisances. Farmers want to clear them from pasture land, and Lincoln contributed to the effort.

We’re so grateful to Tom and Francis for giving Lydia a chance to ride! We needed her to ride a horse with about as much ambition as to follow the butt of the horse in front of it, and they all came through. Lydia was a happy camper.

There’s not much quite like eating a steak on the ranch that raised the cow. It’s just a good, Great Plains/Flyover Country experience, and we loved every minute of it. Tom promised us a meal like this way back in 2015, and he certainly made good on it.

And the sunsets, sunrises and stars. Just, wow. The Sandhills do this pretty darn well. (In the night photo below, the bright light toward the lower right is Jupiter, and Saturn is just to its lower left.)

We did a lot on this #gates50states trip in 2020, from Theodore Roosevelt National Park to Custer State Park and a driving tour of Colorado’s collection of national parks. When you ask our kids what was their favorite aspect of the 2020 trip , each of them will respond by telling you about their adventures on Tom and Steph’s ranch in Nebraska.

Nebraska was simply a highlight of our entire #gates50states adventure.