Nebraska

On Thursday night we took a little trip down to Nebraska (about 9 miles south of the casino). We started out at the Fort Niobrara Wildlife Preserve. We were told that we were guaranteed to see elk, but we might not see any buffalo. We started off just seeing some prarie dogs, who made weird chittering noises and had their burrows build very close to the dirt road in the preserve. Prarie dogs are a lot smaller than I expected. You can see one in this picture if you look closely.


There ended up being a herd of buffalo grazing right next to the road, which was amazing to see. They were shedding their winter coats, so they looked very mangy.


This next shot is just a general view of the wildlife preserve.


Next we went to see some horses, which must have belonged to a rancher nearby. I've seen horses in person before, but it's been a while, and I was surprised by how big and how beautiful they were.

This guy really liked me, and almost knocked me over when he was nudging me with his head. Then he started to lick my toes non-stop. I guess my feet were a little sweaty, so there was some salt on there.



After we left the wildlife preserve, we drove into downtown Valentine (pop. 2800), and went to the Bunkhouse Saloon, the typical TFA hangout for those on the Rosebud Reservation. I didn't think playing shuffleboard and listening to country music at a bar where most of the clientele wear cowboy boots and hats would be my think, but I must have some country roots, because it was fun.