We are in North Platte, Nebraska tonight. Drove 278 miles today, in sun until lunch and cloudy the rest of the day. It's still a bit chilly but 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the first days of our trip.
We have crossed over the Platte River at least 4 times. It has multiple channels separated by many islands covered with cottonwoods. We drove through the bottomlands near Grand Island where thousands of sandhill cranes rest on their way north each spring but were about 6 weeks too late to see any.
We stopped at an antique shop in North Platte and bought some neat old 1860-1880s bottles from 3 different old forts in western Nebraska. The fellow digs them up on private property on or near the long gone forts. I guess lots of drinking made isolated fort life bearable.