A Very Windy Road Trip Thru Nebraska - Inside The Archway / Pony Express Station & Roadside Relics
Road Trip Nebraska 2022
Transcript
0:03
welcome everyone adam who here as a
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recording of this friday april 29th
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2022 a very overcast
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somewhat dreary day here in nebraska i
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left lincoln about 45 minutes or so and
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driving
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i am now in millbrook
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and say hello
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to the world's largest
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covered wagon in existence
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a former gas station
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built in the early 70s closed in the
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late 90s
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used to have some big wheels on either
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side those have been removed and at one
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point
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there was a muffler man that stood right
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over here in another building
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it has seen better days but the covered
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wagon portion
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still exists
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that is interstate 80 over there i will
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be taking interstate 80
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many miles at least probably four to
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five or more hundred
1:01
miles commuting and i will veer off at
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different exits and see what i can find
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just like this going through nebraska
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and into wyoming
1:13
and as always i'm inviting you
1:16
to join me i am covering a lot of miles
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on this road trip to be honest
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i'm traveling a little too fast i should
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have left a couple days earlier to get
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to my destination
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but i'm making it work join me
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shall you gotta love this relic visa and
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mastercard all rusted out
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also i stand corrected
1:36
this is a town of milford not millbrook
1:39
like i stated i looked it up
1:41
i was incorrect
1:44
got the standing water over here oh
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maybe one of these poles
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is where it probably was right here is
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where the feet
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it is
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of the muffler man was
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and are these the muffler man's
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legs
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yes
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relics of the past
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i almost
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stuck my feet down that mud there
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some birds are up top there if they made
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a nest the top portion
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oh that's cool there's a us map
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right down here and made out of tile
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obviously someone has spray painted over
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it
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but that's awesome
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so when you go in
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on the floor they got a title of the u.s
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map
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and someone's doing a road trip there
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that's kind of what that's probably i-80
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there
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made a tile
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this would be a gas station and a
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mechanic shop
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it was someone's dream to open this
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as with a lot of roadside attractions
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and after they passed on it just fell by
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the wayside
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this is awesome
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wow
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massive this thing is massive truly i'm
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not going to argue with the statement
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that this is the world's largest covered
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wagon
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this york water tower looks like a hot
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air balloon it's made to look like a hot
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air helium balloon
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veered off the interstate
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into a small town
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the town of mccool
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named after a railroad official named
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daniel mccool
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many years ago
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it was the town's name that really drew
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me into
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veering off to check it out
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once i get here very interesting
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downtown
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with this little silo
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building the community of mccool
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technically it's
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cool junction
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i like this building here
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right here on the corner
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old barn back there
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nathan martin and robert martin
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were struck
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by arrows right here
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and they pinned them together
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fell from their horse
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but survived
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they were pinned together
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the incident happened approximately 800
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feet northwest or this point
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hello cows
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how's it going
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doing all right back there cows
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all right i'll see you
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going directly over interstate 80
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is the archway i've never been inside
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one thing i am really interested in
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about this
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it was in a movie i really liked called
7:54
about schmidt jack nicholson hard to
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believe that movie is almost 20 years
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old
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personal favorite of mine
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it's a little bit different
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type of film for jack nicholson
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in fact i don't even know how well it
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did
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i think a lot of people probably didn't
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really understand the movie but i got it
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it resonated with me
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and there are
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there's a moment in the movie
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where after his wife passes
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he takes the rv that they had bought
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together they were going to go on road
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trips and he went on a road trip
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kind of like i'm on a road trip now and
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more or less
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and he stops off in a lot of places and
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where the place he stops off at
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is the archway here so i'm gonna go
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inside never been in here yep take a
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look at this did you know the archway
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was a filming location for the 2002 it
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has been 20 years about schmidt starring
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nicholson
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and there's his rv that he parked
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outside
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and went up the massive escalator into
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this exhibit
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this escalator is something else the
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size of this escalator look at this
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this is a pretty amazing setup
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this attraction that just goes over the
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interstate
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you go up this very tall escalator
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into a wagon and then the wagon look
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appears as if the wagon takes you off
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through the story going up the escalator
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now
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this guy's climbing up the side
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wants to get to the top
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yeah directly through
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this goes directly through the covered
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wagon a lot of covered wagons on today's
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episode
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okay
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i made it to the top not going in was
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not expecting all this to be in here
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i'll be honest
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got the flag there
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get some inclement weather off in the
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distance
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this is very well done oh look there's a
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lightning
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going through
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you're the horses
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oh my gosh this place is awesome
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oh
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down here are some 49ers
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right up there etched in the wall it
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says 49ers
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this guy has a pipe right there and
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there's some information there's also
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there's also this they'll give you that
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just kind of shares some info and it's a
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kind of like a walking tour that you can
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do we can also read
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as well if that's your if that's your
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fancy
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i really like this place a lot
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and honestly going on going down
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interstate 80 you wouldn't really even
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know what this is so much
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you wouldn't even have any clue
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that all this was up here
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going over the top of the interstate
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and i walk back over to this room
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seems as if the weather pattern has
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changed and now it's sunny
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it was stormy in here
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now not stormy
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pretty neat
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over here in this window
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is a gold pan
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right down here this is a gold pan you
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see little
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nuggets of gold in there and there's a
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pick there that they use for
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you know
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picking a way to find the gold
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oh i thought it was i thought that was
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all of it but
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i'm entering another
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section
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i hear the train
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and now back down another escalator
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back down to ground ground level out of
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the arch
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and as i'm going down the escalator
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there were a couple other exhibits on
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the way out
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one basically
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dedicated to road trips and travel and
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the lincoln highway and also a little
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section over here that has a drive-in
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theater you know the old drive-in
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theater style and a diner where there's
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even someone behind the counter ready to
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serve yourself you know a little a meal
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and
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some breakfast or even possibly a piping
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hot caffeinated beverage yeah i really
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like the theming
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seeing this seeming through is pretty
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pretty dang cool
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i highly recommend not bypassing this
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place if you're on i-80 and overlooking
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the escalator i went in on the escalator
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i just descended from
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and now
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the final escalator
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to depart
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exit through the gift shop and kearney
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nebraska is where this is technically
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located
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and here's something i never realized
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nebraska because
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they're so sweet could be a real beehive
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of activity i never realized that bees
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were a nebraska thing
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i guess so a nice little stop off for
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sure
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kind of gave me some spaceship earth
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vibes obviously there's no animatronics
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in a totally different subject matter
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but kind of gave me give me those vibes
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and a couple of spots in there
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all right moving on also
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admission fee was 12
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should also mention that as well
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back on the interstate
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got a lot of ground to cover
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also when cruising through nebraska
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it is a must listen to this album
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my favorite bruce springsteen album
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just saying
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there is a start and a finish line
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here on this road
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in gothenburg
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which has one of the original pony
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express
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buildings
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right over here in this park
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wow an original pony express building
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this old station once stood at the upper
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96 ranch west of here
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okay so it was moved
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oh it's moved and restored
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by the gothenburg post number 64.
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but this is where the pony express would
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go here's the route st joseph to
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marysville to fort kearney
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laramie lake city
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salt lake city all the way over to
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sacramento
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and looks as if the door is open could
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go inside
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i see there's a bee right down there
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underneath that flower
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there's another placard with the
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information
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wow i love that
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pony express where are you from i'm from
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florida florida near orlando
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every day
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well
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we only stay open until three today but
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this month but next month we'll be open
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until six okay
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yeah
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do you know about the pony express i
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know a little bit about it well you know
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it only lasted for 18 months
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only a year and a half really yeah
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telegraph lines kind of put them out of
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business they made it out to california
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with the telegraph blinds
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yeah we went from st joseph missouri to
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sacramento california i saw that outside
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there was a map i didn't realize it went
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all the way to sacramento that's pretty
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neat through solutions every 10 to 12
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miles so they could change horses
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and then every 80 to 100 miles they had
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what they call the home station and
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that's where your writers would change
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yeah but only lasted for 18 months
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yeah in my mind i thought it was
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something that went on for like a decade
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but wow 18 months
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that's interesting
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it was more like dollars for a half
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ounce of mail
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back then that was very expensive that's
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what they would charge that's what they
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charged and so it was mainly mainly
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government mail they carry
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because this was right this was uh you
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know they wanted to get messages out to
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california
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from the east they had a railroad up to
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the missouri river but on this side
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there was nothing yet saw this really
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and as soon as the telegraph lines were
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completed out to california
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the ponies went away
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ended up getting a few things and got
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some free stickers as well
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stickers are free bought a magnet also
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purchased a magnet
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and the train going by kind of adds to
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the ambiance as well
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pretty neat little stop off
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drove another half hour or so and have
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arrived at fort cody
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named after buffalo bill cody who's
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standing right there
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okay it says inside there is a buffalo
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bills wild west in miniature
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american folk art at its finest
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look at this guy's all along the the top
20:25
there and of course the hotel sign
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properly placed
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it kind of
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kind of ruins the vibe just a little bit
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the hotel side probably was not there
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when this place was built
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oh that's not good
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an arrow in the tucus
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peeking up over that lookout tower or
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someone
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also someone there and that
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is a tourist trap
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cute pretty neat inside of course they
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have a gift shop where you can get all
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kind of different products and
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snacks and things for the road trip and
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whatnot when you're going down i-80
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there's also a lot of the miniatures in
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here and a lot of
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buffalo bill cody stuff kind of
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scattered around through as well
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kind of a neat little stop-off never
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been in here before this is right up my
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alley all this stuff
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this is the kind of stuff i really enjoy
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when i'm on a road trip just traveling
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along
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seeing stuff like this you can also go
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out back you can actually step out back
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to even more displays by going through
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that door there's a bison
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and peeking up over the top of the shack
21:46
looks to be
21:47
a muffler man
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i feel like i need to look inside here
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and see what's in here oh
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there are some mannequins
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take a look
22:10
i love this stuff so much
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look at this indian muffler man yes
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that is so freaking cool
22:20
did not know this is gonna be back here
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but i love it
22:25
and i've stated this before but
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a muffler man is given that name because
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you can almost just imagine if you will
22:30
a muffler
22:32
basically promoting and advertising
22:34
you know a gas station a fuel station
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mechanic shop more specifically
22:40
you can almost picture how they would
22:42
have mufflers
22:44
right there
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so the muffler would be right here in
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that hand
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and then the pipe from the muffler would
22:50
be in that hand
22:51
hence the name mufflerman
23:41
they have landed
23:41
they've landed
24:03
equipped with lights
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around the rim
24:05
i don't see that every day
24:19
peace i also need fuel four dollars and
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nine cents a gallon got the self-pumping
24:22
neck and a mechanism there
24:24
and the name of this place is
24:27
called
24:30
it's called
24:30
fat dogs you are nowhere
24:34
never seen this never seen a gas station
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called fat dogs before
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it's also very very windy
24:42
i think there's even a high wind
24:43
advisory on the way up direction i'm
24:45
heading
24:50
those weather clouds over there in the
24:50
distance do not look very kind
24:54
going right into them
25:50
over in the distance there is the chapel
25:52
water tower
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a big ice cream cone
26:03
someone's yard
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water tower's over there
26:09
in this park in kimball nebraska
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some frisbee golf
26:15
courses here
26:20
and at the moment
26:20
the volleyball courts are not being
26:22
used and also a really large
26:27
dismantled
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former
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missile
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just sitting here
26:41
right in the center point of this entire
26:41
property
26:47
looks like there's even the engine
26:47
down there
26:52
well the rocket boosters i should slide
26:52
out the engine
26:54
yeah take a look
27:04
oh i see some pigeons up there
27:04
some birds up there
27:32
pretty much every dog in the backyard of
27:32
all those houses
27:34
is barking probably barking at me
27:36
wondering
27:37
why i'm over here
27:39
looking at this but how can i not be
27:45
look at this thing
27:45
oh it's getting gusty and windy too very
27:48
gusty and windy today and just down the
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road a bit says
27:52
the labyrinth
27:54
all are welcome into the labyrinth
27:57
when i first saw the sign
28:00
i thought maybe there would be a maze or
28:01
a labyrinth there
28:03
but possibly that's just the name of the
28:05
organization
28:06
it's not elaborate well
28:08
this building might house the
28:11
organization called the labyrinth
28:14
but that is a basketball court right
28:27
okay there's a sign here
28:27
no this is a
28:28
church that's an episcopal church no
28:31
nothing about the labyrinth on that sign
28:34
what is the labyrinth got back on the
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interstate which is right over there but
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then veered off again
28:41
on the state line road that turns onto
28:42
this road
28:44
because i am about oh it is windy
29:04
take a look at this old fuel station
29:04
here
29:10
close down now see see better days but
29:10
it has the nebraska wyoming line
29:18
i went up saw this and turned around
29:18
it's on that same little little road oh
29:19
i got a train coming by
29:22
nice
29:34
it is incredibly windy i have my hand
29:34
cupped over the
31:15
wow this is a treasure trove of gas
31:15
pumps
31:17
since 1924 at pete's service station
31:21
and that's the downtown over there
31:29
it's a lot of gas pumps
31:29
and up the way is a few miles is this
31:32
home
31:34
that has a tp incorporated
31:37
into its architecture
31:55
pretty interesting
31:56
also
31:57
on the side of the hill classic car
32:00
alert
32:06
by pulling into today's destination
32:06
cheyenne
32:08
elevation 6062
32:11
there's a train up here
32:13
ended up going a total of 443
32:16
miles
32:18
just looked up the distance
32:23
a little shy of 500 that's pretty much
32:23
the pace
32:24
i've been going on each day on this road
32:26
trip
32:40
i'll see you in the next video the vlog
32:40
is over