Wednesday 8Apr20 Buffalo Bill's Ranch State Park
Day 83
Woke up at 5 and checked the weather forecast for wind speed and direction. As I suspected it would be calm until around 8. I decided to get on the road and drove on to North Platte Nebraska. I found a Walmart there parked and went back to sleep.
I got up around 10 and made breakfast then watched some TV. I noticed a lady panhandling at one of the entrances to the WM. I later saw her walk to an older Chevy Van. Another VanDweller. One that is apparently struggling to make ends meet. I am worried that a lot more people are going to be in similar or worse conditions if the State Governors continue to lockdown the citizens of their states. The only Governor that in my opinion has it correct is Kristi Noem from South Dakota. The fact that 90% of business in some states are forced to be closed when less than 10 people have died I'm their respective states. I have become very disappointed in Utah Governor Gary Herbert. A week ago he stated that if a Utah resident was on the road to wait out his imposed Lockdown in their second home in Southern Utah they had better turn around immediately. How can someone driving have any impact on the spread of the virus. Today he set in place a process using technology from the federal Amber Alert system to send a text message to all cell phones crossing a Utah border. The text message instructions the owner they needed to fill out forms asking such things as their health condition and where they have been. I WILL be crossing the Utah border at some point but I will NOT be filling out any form. I have also heard that another governor has set up a process to pay people for reporting business that have remained open against their directive. Whether the directive is even legal is very questionable but asking their citizens to squeal on one other harkens back to Berlin. This is some scary stuff that should alarm every citizens of a free society.
Later I drove to Buffalo Bill Ranch State Historical Park.
It was closed for the season but I was able to walk the grounds and take some photos. The Ranch was built for Bill to come and relax between show tours. Buffalo Bill's Wild West expositions were held nationally and in Europe which made him the living symbol of the American West. I let Wiggin walk with me and at some point he got in a pond and was a muddy mess. I was happy that I had installed the exterior shower for such occasions.
After checking out the park I drove a couple of miles to Cody Park to check out a unique steam locomotive. The train was fenced off but I was able to get a couple of photos. The locomotive, 3977 Challenger is the only one left in the entire world in this class.
After checking out the train I stopped and got gas at a Shell station on I-8O just west of North Platte. I drove on to Sidney and parked for the night at a Walmart.