Day 27

We had a brief conversation with our neighbors this morning before taking off.  They were an older couple from California.  They listed off places then thought we should visit and we did the same.  The woman told us that on our trip today we would want to pull over at the scenic overlooks and take pictures.   We didn’t really think much of it until we reached one of those overlooks.  It was like being in Bryce Canyon still.  There were huge red rocks and deep canyons.  Michael climbed around more than I did but we both got some great pictures.

After that we set our GPS to Sterling, Colorado a town we found on the map.  After Denver it was one of the few places we found that had a campground.  The GPS had us take the wrong exit to get to the campground so after about 45 minutes of driving around lost we found the place.  As we pulled in, Michael saw a bunch of buildings just up the hill.  He jokingly said I wonder if it is a prison. 

When we checked in the guy running it was really nice.  Michael asked about the buildings and it was a prison!  He said not to worry thought because it was surrounded by a high electric fence and they couldn’t get out. (Later on I would Google the prison and just last year someone escaped!)  We decided to go ahead and try it.  The map the man showed us had decedent sized sites on it.  However, as we pulled around they were all right on top of each other.  Before we even got out of the car we could hear what we think were cicada bugs.  When we did get out we were eaten alive by mosquitoes.  It didn’t take long before we were back in the car and asking for our money back.

We jumped back on Route 76 and searched for a subway so we could grab dinner quick.  It was about 9:20 when we pulled up.  Unfortunately, it was closed so we hit the road again.  I found a Perkins that was up the road in North Platte.  The problem was the book my parents had given me with the spot we wanted to see was in the camper and we were a little afraid we would end up driving by it.  As we got closer we saw signs for what were looking for and it ends up North Platte was exactly where we wanted to be!

We rolled into Perkins around midnight.  After a meal that really wasn’t as quick as it should have been, we went and tried to find a hotel.  Everywhere we went was booked up.  Turns out that they Lincoln County fair is this weekend and everything was booked up. Finally, the person at the Super 8 recommended that we headed to the Howard Johnson.  They had a room and we were able to crawl into bed at 2am completely exhausted.  Tomorrow they are under a heat warning, temps should be about the same as home so I hope we can see what we want before it gets too hot.