Visitors center over the interstate near Kearney, Nebraska.  We did not stop as we visited the place on a previous trip.

Typical area where the sandhill cranes rest. This is an island in the middle of river channels

Main channel of the Platte River. Notice all the trees rolling along in the spring high water.

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.

Road artwork just before we crossed the Missouri River in Council Bluffs. It is as wide here as the Mississippi was at Le Claire.
We are off to North Platte, Nebraska tomorrow.

Our drive was like this all day. Overcast with endless fields waiting to be planted. Can you see the faint rainbow in this photo?

340 miles today in off and on rain. We stopped twice, for lunch in Des Moines and at a terrific antique shop in the tiny town of Walnut, Iowa. On route, we heard on the radio that a prisoner had escaped and shot 2 policemen in Council Bluffs, Iowa earlier today. As we drove through that city on our way to our hotel just southwest of Omaha we saw a caravan of police cars and motorcycles with lights flashing.
Turns out the prisoner, on trial for murder, while being transported from the courthouse back to jail,  somehow attacked his handler, got his gun and shot 2 police. One was killed. He escaped in the transport van, shot a civilian while taking another car and led police on a chase. He was captured in Omaha after crashing. The death was the first in 37 years for the Council Bluffs Police Dept. The caravan of police we passed was escorting his body.