Day 7

Starting mileage is approximately 11924, I had forgotten to take the picture before we left, this was about 5 miles after we started.

We had a long driving day today, just over 600 miles.  The route takes us into Iowa and across Nebraska ending up in the small town of Alliance.


View 6a in a larger map

Our first stop was in Weston Missouri to see the largest ball of string (not twine).  This was constructed from postal string by a guy named Finley Stephens.  Finley opened a small museum where he displayed his prize possessions.  The ball is now on a covered deck outside O'Malley's Irish Pub which is located in the same building as the museum that originally housed the ball.

Shortly after we left the ball of string, we passed into Iowa.  Our visit to Iowa was pretty short, we passed by what is claimed to be the largest coffee pot, but it's really just a water tower that the SAPP brothers chain has dressed up to look like a coffee pot.  We ran into this chain all over Nebraska.

We were only in Iowa for ab out 10 miles before we ran into the Nebraska state line.  This was one of our shorter state visits.

On the eastern side of Nebraska is a small town named Unadilla.  They claim to have a groundhog named Bill that also predicts the weather much like Punxutawney Phil.  Bill can be difficult to locate, but we found him in the bar.  This and the bank next door are his favorite hangouts.

Since we are visiting large objects today we also stopped in Gothenburg, NE at what is claimed to be the largest plow.  This was outside a reconstruction of a sod house and dedicated to the sod house settlers who settled this area.

Further into Gothenburg was an "original" pony express station.  I'm not sure how original this was, it had been moved and rebuilt by the local American Legion post.

It was a long driving day, over 600 miles total, but we finally ended up in Alliance, NE.  I was surprised once again that the first hotel we stopped at was again full.  This time it was a wedding party.