[MommaBetty]

Early Friday morning I began my trek across Nebraska to the Sandhills Open Road Challenge. This race is 55 miles of highway racing near Arnold, NE. My trip was 240 miles with the last 210 miles all driving through the sandhills.
Photo #1 - The first beautiful site in the northwest part of the sandhills is the Niobrara River. This river goes east across Nebraska through the sandhills and into the Missouri River. It is a favorite spot for canoeing and tubing.

Photos 2,3,4,5 & 6 - Most people think of the sandhills as bare and desolate. Not really a true picture. There are many beautiful lakes and small rivers.

Photo #7, 8 & 9 - It was 100 miles until I reached the first major town. Hyannis, NE is pop. 287. The amazing thing to me is that these small towns have banks! I was worried about being able to get some premium fuel for my car. No problem, I stopped at the Hyannis station on the east edge of town and they had premium 91 octane pure gas for $3.84 a gal. That was a real nice surprise! Another 65 miles to the town of Thedford, that has the beautiful Middle Loup river nearby. It also has this great sign painted in their little town that definitely caught my eye!
Part Two in the next post. SORC!

 

[Mysty1]

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing

 

[oilslick]

Great pics as usual Betty! :smileup:

 

[bad8nti]

Betty, those are some great pictures! Can't wait til the next batch!

 

[MommaBetty]

Part II - SORC

Photos #10, 11, 12 & 13 - After leaving Thedford, I headed straight south for about 40 miles and finally got to highway 92 and only 16 miles into Arnold! I was pretty excited and for good reason. Imagine pulling into a town of 600 people and seeing Vets, Vipers, and Challengers all over town, driving and parked on the streets. I was quite surprised to see this Dodge dealer in such a small town. I wanted to do a quick wash and the first two cars I saw was this toxic orange challenger and the beautiful B5 blue that was entered in the race! We were both waiting in line at the car wash, so we got out of our cars. Had a great visit with this nice young man from the Omaha, NE area! So fun to visit with him. I will post more pics of his car!
Photos #14, & 15. Pulled into the local gas station and waited in line to get some more of that pure premium fuel! In front of me was a beautiful Vet and behind me was a Mustang. Both guys came up to me and checked out the Challenger. The immediate comments was how much they liked the color, what did JZBLBBY mean, and how my outfit matched the car! They were very nice and really appreciated the Challenger! Made my day!

Photo #16 & 17. It was lunch time, no restraunts around, so I asked at the station. The local bar also served lunch, so off I went. Loved parking my car next to these two cars entered in the race! Walked in the bar and this was on the wall. Kind of fun to look at.

Guess I will extend this to a Part III

 

[MommaBetty]

Part III - SORC

Photos #18, 19, 20, & 21 - The most exciting part of this trip for me was getting to meet another forum member in person! After lunch I got to meet up with Tripper and his wife Kathy. We parked together on a side street, and I snapped this picture of Tripper sprucing up the Challenger a little. I loved that he had a black Challenger along next to my jazz blue one. It is easy to see the difference in the colors. Got a picture of Tripper and Kathy, then me and Tripper. We decided to walk a few blocks and go to the parade of cars that would be racing on Saturday.
Photos #22, 23, 24, & 25 - There was a huge number of Vets, some Mustangs, a few Cobras and a few Vipers! I also got a pic of the B5 Blue Challenger!

Photos #26 & 27 - The owner of the B5 Challenger was a very nice and showed us his car after the parade. They had a car show on the side streets, so it was fun to get a look at his car. His car is definitely equipped for racing! Nice supercharger under the hood. Unknown to Tripper and I, we ended up in the car show! We parked at the end of the street where they parked all the cars for the show. So we had a lot of gawkers and some great conversations with the onlookers. I believe the owner of the blue Challenger is going to post some video of the race on our forum. He said he heard our forum is the best of the two forums! Hope he will join us!!

Photos #28 & 29 - After the parade Tripper and I cruised north of town about 5 miles where the road race was going to be the next day. It was an amazing view, so we stopped and took a few pictures. Then we had to wave goodbye and go our separate ways. I enjoyed Tripper and Kathy so much. They are great people, and a great addition to our forum. Kathy is definitely a "car gal"! He was headed south to spend time with his brother, and I headed to Lake McCougnahy to visit my niece and nephew. Great trip!!!!

 

[dodge boy]

Great pictures Betty!! very impressive!

 

[MIDNITE RT]

Nice combination of cars and scenery. :smileup:

 

[Dodgeguy]

My, Betty, you have done it again, such great pictures and narrative.:smileup:

 

[MommaBetty]

Thank you guys for looking and reading!! Appreciate your nice comments.

 

[Sweden]

Thanks Betty! I love your pics and storys (as always).

 

[TikiMan]

Awesome pics as usual. It's hard to imagine such small rural towns. The gas station is like a blast from the past. Looks like everyone had a great time seeing all the cars. I think that is the first roll bar I've seen in a Challenger.

 

[MommaBetty]

Tiki,
The great thing about the owner of the B5, is he just joined our forum! His first name is Chris and a really nice guy. He put a carbon fiber spoiler on the car and it looks amazing. He will be posting video of the race when he puts it all together.
On the complete trip through the sandhills, I went through three towns, all under 300 pop., in a 200 mile span! And still was able to purchase 91 octane pure premium gas!

 

[STS1]

Thanks Betty, great pics and a wonderful story. May be a trip for myself someday. I too have purchased 100% gasoline in Tennesee and the car loved it. Paid 10 cents a gallon more, but what a treat for cruising in the mountains with all those curves.

 

[MommaBetty]

I have a few more pics of Chris's 2010 Challenger. If you want to see video of him racing the Challenger, go to his web page, b5racing.com. He also has the full specs on the car, and pics of his build. This year he took third in the 110 mph class!

 

[2010B5]

It was great meeting two members last week, I have since joined the forum. Here are a few pics of the two of them at the car show, a great pickup, one of the nights in the Sandhills, and the mid-race turnaround. I'll have some pics and video of the race up shortly.

Enjoy!

 

[Sweden]

Great pictures, thanks for posting. Welcome to the forum!

 

[Thommo]

Great job on the pics and story! Thank you for keeping me informed and telling me about the thread!

 

[RunningWithBeers]

Thanks for the pictures and the write up it looks like it was a great time!

Take it easy
Jay

 

[Home Theater Guy]

Very nice trip and photos. I have never been to Nebraska and getting this view of it validates what so many have said. A great state to live in!