Bayard, Nebraska...

Three and a half miles north of Chimney Rock is a town of about 1600 people called Bayard, whose main raison'd etre at this point seems to be its proximity to the rock and thus a possible stopping off point after the anti climax of seeing Chimney Rock, which is nice to see if you are in the neighborhood, but otherwise....

Bayard is the self proclaimed "Hometown, USA" maybe because it is a good place to come from, but there doesn't seem to be any compelling reason to stay on unless there is the family farm, or you are going into your father's business.  It is quiet and unhurried and will cause you no harm.  To their credit, they have not capitalized commercially on their proximity to the rock in the tacky way that so many places near Mt. Rushmore have.  But then, Chimney Rock is no Mt. Rushmore.

The gas station/convenience store on the way out of Bayard back to the main road.  Its just that there was something soft and muted about it, kind of like the prairie that surrounds it.

As always, it was late in the day when we got to Bayard, so this pictorial survey is not complete or satisfactory, but you get the idea.  As the sign indicates we took the 62A link to the 385 making our way east.  The weather started to get bad as it got darker and although it didn't rain, it got windy and something we had never seen before, horizontal lightning, moving strong and sideways along the flat prairie.   I was enjoying the light show until Jackie got me thinking about the possibility of tornados which we could never see in the dark.  Luckily, we made it to Ogallala and found a room for the night along with a bunch of truckers who were also impressed with the weather and the strong rains that were just letting up as we finished our communal buffet breakfast.

                                                                  Pablo