All I Can Say is Whew.

Okay, okay I'm sure you are all ready for the end of the marker expedition. You are in luck, as this is the final page in our epic drama. Haha. Despite the snow we headed further away from home to Harrison. In each town we thought of the people we knew there...just in case there was need for a "this weather stinks, let's wait it out here" decision.

Levi is in this picture. Can you spot him;)?

And after Harrison we continued still farther from home...nearly entering Wyoming! This marker was 1 mile from the state line.

Now we come to the "exciting" part of the journey. This marker was 11 miles south of Harrison on hwy 21.
After this marker there was a dilemma as I mapped out the trip. We could drive the 11 miles back up to Harrison and travel an extra 50 miles to our next destination. Looking at the map was frustrating because the hwy we needed to get on was parallel to hwy 21. It looked like merely 5-10 miles between the two...arg. Can we create new roads?
Upon further inspection and on a different map I found an aptly named little gravel road, Cut Across Road. That was our key...but remember there is snow.
Oh, look at nice and clear hwy 21. We traveled down this hwy another 23 miles and came to Cut Across Road.
We

saw

this:
Hmmmm. It was nearing 4pm now and we hadn't eaten or used the restroom since 9am. It was a cold and snowy day and this was a predicament. Needless to say, I did not want to turn around and travel an extra 100 miles. Truly, I just wanted to go home.
I made a decision then and there to test out the abilities of my little blue car on this little gravel road. Both Clara and I looked over the map again and assured ourselves it could only be 5-10 miles across.
And we went. It had been driven on recently and I never felt much slippage or spin-out. Whew, we thought we were good to go until...
We came to a T, an unforeseen T in the road. Ahhhhhh! Quickly we decided to head left and away we continued. (By the way we had already crossed two cattle guards, this was not just road but also a pasture.)
Hehehehe, we drove for 15 miles all the while nervously giggling and talking ourselves through everything. Finally...we turned around. Have you ever looked at a map of northeastern Nebraska? There isn't much up there.
After so much of seeing only white and a few cows (and yes they were cows, not steers, not bulls, and not heifers...but cows) we turned back onto the Cut Across Road and onto the hwy. (We crossed a total of 6 cattle guards by the way, and by turning around...we crossed them twice.)
WHEW! NOW WHAT!!
Due to our lack of enthusiasm and a now, not-so-clear hwy we headed south to Scottsbluff. It was the quickest route home and we took it gladly. Once there we drove around forever trying to find sustenance and restrooms. It actually required three stops, one for gas, one for bathrooms and here for food.
Our outlook on life was much better after those needs were met. The drive from Scottsbluff to Alliance was miserable, drove 40mph and the cars in front of us caused bad visibility. Once in Alliance we forged ahead...surely it would get better.

And IT DID! On the entire 3 hour trip home the roads and conditions simply got better and better. WHEW and PRAISE THE LORD!!

Alissa

P.S. Are you wondering, as we did, what was down the other turn of the T? I did and I checked it out. Had we turned right it was a mere 1 or 2 miles to our desired hwy junction:S