I I think I do this about twice a year now just shave it all off start from
scratch for whatever reason I don't know how long I'll keep it clean shaven
hello mattalast before I grow it back out again but just it's got to get done
it's got to change things up we'll all get over it now following some railroad
tracks here to this thing I am trying to find it is not working for me because
it's between highway 80 and highway 30 and so I am parking at these four things
a railroad tracks with a train now coming and I'm gonna have to cross the
tracks find it somehow and just like that
we're gonna have to wait to cross the tracks now
five engines on that train this thing is hauling we really got to wait because
what I'm trying to get to is on the other side of the of this train right
now don't mind me just walking over railroad tracks oh there it is they're
kind of hard to hold my excitement here in the middle of a field here the
original Lincoln Highway it's a it's a bridge that's left here it's in pretty
good condition too Lincoln Highway just the concrete and then grass yep both
ways just no road left just grass again that's 30 over there train tracks and
interstate 80 is down there about five miles it's all worth it now I'm really
happy I made it out here this is the first piece of original Lincoln Highway
alignment of the 20s that I am walking on it does not feel like a highway at
all though hey don't say I didn't try my best to give you the original guys
alright I gotta go find the RV no you know there is an actual comfy cat bed
you don't have to sleep on the speaker box here
I'm no close to you dad hey good point
that's better that's a better it's really weird thinking about Lincoln
Highway now because I'm not driving on Lincoln Highway that Grass ditch is
Lincoln Highway and to make the road better they built this one right next to
it between the railroad tracks moved it over and then it just disappeared
so it doesn't make it less real to try to reach travel Lincoln Highway because
there's just so many different alignments of Lincoln Highway and most
of the stops are still available along the route so but certainly now it's in
my machine that bridge made it real that there literally was a different section
of roadway hello Road side what is this bummer this place
is actually closed I can't even tell what it used to be some type of a gift
store or Museum of some sort but it's closed up and abandoned now the world's
largest covered wagon although as you can see it's kind of no longer covered
the wind and the weather has taken that title away it's now a topless wagon
actually on the back side it's got a door with a window I can't get up that
high let's go the other side darn it windows - hi there I'm just gonna throw
the camera up over my head and onto the window see if you guys can see anything
is there anything in there guys can't see anything
just like New York City anytime you get a chance for good look touch those nuts
sorry dude the great Platte River Road archway
monument open daily look at this huge archway here are we back to 80
yeah that's 80 interstate 80 goes underneath the arch well we're gonna go
around the arch but actually I'm gonna stop in and see what this is because
this was not a planned stop just a total of two people here okay not a very busy
place but there's thunder and rain expected today so maybe a good day for a
little indoor activity you guys want to come along I'm sorry Jax
there's no kitties allowed in using Em's but are you hungry okay let's get some
in them first okay this guy don't miss any meals
hammer Motel Triple A approved the Lincoln Highway comes to the heartland
oh okay so they they saved this or preserved it
it was on the Lincoln Highway here and so now it sits here restored cool and of
course I feel like I'm on the right Road now so the tour that's in there is like
Alcatraz Island where you have an audio device on you with headphones see where
I'm getting with this I need to grab a couple pieces of equipment and a couple
of splitters and then I will be able to record the audio separately in my pocket
record the video here and listen and that auto-sync all that afterwards so
that you guys can hear exactly what I'm hearing as I'm filming so go check it
out together let me grab some stuff first before you
go up the escalator pause for a moment and look at the characters along either
side at the bottom of the hill on the right a Native American man is showing a
mountain trapper the way to Fort Kearney on the left
a pregnant pioneer woman and a man scramble up the hillside at the top
another pioneer waves his arms as a wagon train passes by I was born in the
city of Kearney and I grew up hearing legends of the great Platte River Road
since the 1840s millions of Americans have passed this way heading west to
follow their dreams the first Democrats along this trail
came in the 1840s farmers headed for the fertile lands out west the first of them
followed the Platte River Road and headed south along the California trail
in 1843 a huge wagon train took the northerly route to Oregon soon thousands
of settlers will follow in the Oregon Trail the carpenter and blacksmith's
shop stay busy morning tonight all the trails from back east come together here
to form the great Platte River Road that road follows a river west of Fort
Laramie 330 miles away so if you need to get your horse rishaad buy a pickaxe or
send a letter this is your last chance before you face the wilderness this
organ bound woman is pushing her Prairie schooner wagon while her husband coaxes
their ox to pull it get up baby get on up
that man told me the Ox had pulled a wagon to Oregon two weeks later I'm
pushing it uphill margaret frank and many other women covered thousands of
miles of trail mostly on foot past the covered wagon in the distance you see
chimney rock a tall slender geologic formation that was a landmark on the
oregon california and Mormon trails you could see chimney rock 40 miles away
it's composed of layers of volcanic ash and Bruhl clay more than 23 million
years old that were carved by erosion of the bluffs along the edge of the North
Platte River Valley you see those chiseled names in that
sandstone cliff hundreds of immigrants have left their mark in the soft stone
as they pass this way we call it register cliff it's an important
landmark on all three trails ahead of us you'll see three groups of people on
your left three fellers just sitting around the campfire trading tall tales
about the gold fields a party of people pulling handcarts on the wedding utah
gotten stranded on the far side of the Sweetwater River they're being rescued
by young men from Salt Lake City farther ahead you seen a banded wagon on
the Oregon Trail the family standing nearby praying over a loved ones grave
it's a sad fact about one in 10 immigrants doesn't make it to the end of
the trail the day folks follow the path to your ride around the log cabin to get
a good look at some of the new developments here in the West look out
the window of this Pony Express station you'll see a rider arrived carrying mail
in a saddlebag called the mochila he switches to a fresh horse and gallops
away to the next station the Pony Express had more than 150 relay stations
including one at Fort Kearney riders had to move fast so they couldn't way more
than 125 pounds they carried essential items only including the mail water and
a revolver riding day and night a relay team took just ten days to carry the
mail two thousand miles from Saint Joseph Missouri to Sacramento California
that was a real record breaker back in 1860 when the Pony Express got started
while the railroad was under construction the Union Army enlisted 200
Pawnee Scouts as guards the officer on your left major Frank North wrote the
following in July 1867 telegraph just came in a train has been derailed near
Plum Creek by a cheyenne raiding party after killing most of the crew and
burning much of the train the Raiders looted many of the cars
before the coming of the Transcontinental Railroad the only
alternative to walking across the Prairie was riding a stagecoach author
Mark Twain rusted across the country by stage and had this to report our coach
was a great swinging and swaying affair an imposing cradle on wheels first we
would all be down in a pile at the forward end of the stage nearly in a
sitting posture and in a second we would shoot to the other end and stand on our
heads the Union Pacific company will lay track
out of Omaha heading west with myself as chief engineer the Central Pacific crews
run by Charlie Crocker will come East from California through the Sierra
Mountains we on the plains face blistering heat freezing cold lack of
timber lack of drinking water and Indians who are unhappy about our road
bent cutting through game trails and grazing lands the neon sign overhead
welcomes you to our nation's first transcontinental highway system the
Lincoln Highway folks called it the Main Street of America
my grandpa told me about driving the Lincoln Highway back in the 1920s when a
vacation on wheels was a brand-new idea the new Auto tourist camps are a fine
place to meet other Americans on the road like these fine folks the
transcontinental driver must be prepared to camp out every night after he is west
of Omaha Nebraska every night we camp by a lake a pond or brook and out comes the
phonograph fiddles banjos or portable radios we came to a grove of trees and a
couple was sitting by their old touring car in front of a fire I asked is this a
tourist camp sure it's a tourist camp anything's tourist camp what has water
and a lack of no trespassing signs all the towns have got him now we Otto
gypsies create a fine melting pot and the habit is upon us now to eat and
sleep and amuse ourselves along the open road side which is a new kind of town in
itself
as the Lincoln Highway goes from brick to concrete beneath your feet you'll
notice a drive-in movie screen straight ahead
on your left you see a small town Main Street meanwhile there's a 1962 Cadillac
to your right and a view of Yellowstone National Park this was my mom and dad's
world back in the 1950s and 60s a peaceful life here in Kearney and
weekends on the road gas was so cheap Americans practically
lived in their cars I remember trips to Yellowstone when I
was little riding in our great big station wagon and listening to the radio
as the highway sped past us
from the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters this land was made for you
and me that's mr. Woody Guthrie and he must
have spent some time on the highway to see all those places the american
highway means freedom to you doesn't it freedom like no other country has
freedom to go anywhere anytime wow just taking a quick audio break there's no
audio and here is this not the coolest tour that i've ever taken you guys on
this is extravagant this is one of the most amazing things that you can see on
the Lincoln Highway it's just the feel and everything I want to see more cafes
like this oh look at those Donuts whoo guess what we are also in the arch right
now that's right so we are over the Lincoln Highway watching travelers come
across live here that is just amazing I don't even know pretty cool little stop
though a stop that I almost didn't make okay so now that I think of it hopefully
I am able to do my magic and share the audio of that tour with you as well only
going to show you about 10 to 15% of it you've really got to stop in having gone
through it now I can tell you there really is nothing else like this in the
country and the fact that it had some Lincoln Highway stuff in there I mean
it's better than the Alcatraz island tour it it it has an almost Disney feel
I'm not kidding you I'm sure I can't share that correctly but that building
in there and that tour is about as as much fun as a Disney attraction
that means a lot coming from me I'm a Disney freak so anyway we got some
Thunder thunderstorms rolling in and I want to find a campground and get
settled before the rain hits so we got to get VI get parked for the day I got
the bike covered in anticipation of some heavy rain coming I just want to point
out I don't think the magnet does the destination and enough justice I really
really liked that place but that is the only magnet that I could get that
actually said archway on it so put that guy right there for now
oh yeah I don't really understand the bad rap that Nebraska gets from
travelers I don't understand why everybody wants to skip Nebraska okay I
have proven that even on the lonely Lincoln Highway it's not for a lack of
things to see or do there is more free camping in Nebraska than I want to say
any other state I've been to I mean definitely better than Wyoming if you
know you're thinking about spending some time in Wyoming and boondocking for free
and forget about it unless it's July in August but Nebraska
has these I don't really know what to call them there are more private
campsites not campgrounds but camp areas and
they're private and as you guys have seen almost nearly every single one of
them is right on the water and just beautiful I just cannot say enough how
much I am enjoying Nebraska I feel bad that it's taken this long you guys that
live in Nebraska I grew up in Nebraska you knew your like shared quiet quieter
I know I know what you mean but you don't want that rap as being what I
consider Wyoming to be an unfriendly to our beers place you don't want that rap
anyways guys Jackson I'll camp here and we'll see you back on the Lincoln
Highway heading east here in a couple days
bye guys and guess what we are literally in the arch that goes over Lincoln
Highway so there's the highway there's a piece of glass there