Westward, ho!

This past spring, when Ken and I were discussing our travel plans for the coming summer or fall, Ken mentioned he'd like to drive out West sometime to do some family history research. I asked him if this trip was on his Bucket List, and he said it was.

So I said we'd better take the trip now. A long ride in a car is not my idea of real fun, but it had been a while since we'd driven from shore to shore, and I knew we'd have fun rediscovering America. We set off on September 2.

On both sides of Ken's family relatives headed west from New Hampshire/Maine and made new lives for themselves "out there."

Our first stop was Scottsbluff, Nebraska. Here Ken's father's uncle settled. The uncle is long gone, of course, but Ken was hoping the uncle's daughter might still be living. We learned while in Scottsbluff that the daughter's husband died in 2005. As far as we know, the daughter, now age 95, is still living, but we were unable to locate her. We did get the name of her son, however, and once Ken does a White Pages search, he plans to get in touch with him.

So here are a few pictures of our brief stay in Scottsbluff. You can drive to the top of the actual bluff and see for miles. There are excellent hiking trails on the bluff, and the local residents certainly make use to the trails, judging from the people we encountered and chatted with as we hiked.

Our trip took us from the Atlantic to the Pacific, so I have more stories to tell!