Embrace the Suck - GoRuck Challenge (part 1 of 4)

Before I did the GoRuck challenge, I had a tough time describing what it was (largely because I didn't know). Afterwards, I still have a hard time describing it, but here goes. The GoRuck challenge is a 10-12 hour team event (not a competition) of special forces style exercises/drills where you will test your physical limits, learn about teamwork, and embrace the suck.

Best picture that encompasses the event

I first heard about the GoRuck challenge from the Art of Manliness blog. If that link to the AoM blog is right, I've known about the challenge for over 1.5 years, but I feel like it's been longer. I had never really taken the initiative to sign up, so The List was a good reason to do it.

Before the night began, I knew that I would carry 40lbs the entire evening and to go along with thatI could expect pushups, running, water, carrying additional heavy things, and pain. However, I didn't know to expect trespassing, borrowing, and a partial prostate exam. Put simply, it was a fun night.

The night was full of varied activities that are worth sharing, so I am going to break this into 4 posts to not leave anything out.

Summary (TL;DR version)

This was a wholly different experience than I'm used to. I'm used to individual sports where I can rise and fall on my own. It also usually covers a lot of horizontal distance. This was a team event that ended up only covering ~7.5 miles. I can't carry railroad ties by myself, I needed my team's help. I loved this event because it was unique and challenging. I don't want to sugar coat it though, it sucked. This is definitely top 3 hardest events I've done. This was more challenging than the Ironman I've done. I won't be doing another one simply because of how hard it was. However, I still HIGHLY recommend people do one. Sign up, test your resolve, and embrace the suck.

Our Cadre was great, he didn't get in your face and wasn't a pain in the ass just to be a pain in the ass. I equated him to the disappointed parent. If you weren't putting in the effort, he would calmly tell you to do it again with a tinge of disappointment in his voice.

The finishing 1044 class

Check out parts 2, 3, and 4.

Tried to Climb a 14er and Failed

Despite having grown up in Colorado, I had never gone to the top of one of the state's 53 mountains over 14,000 feet. I thought the list would be a good way to remedy that fact. I had initially thought about doing this back in December, but climbed The Incline instead.

This memorial day weekend, I headed out to go after Pikes Peak with a couple friends. Back in December, I was worried about the snow that had accumulated over the winter and hadn't melted from above the treeline. Unfortunately, this ended up being the case and we heard reports of waist deep snow above the treeline. Additionally, for several nights before our climb, it snowed down in Colorado Springs, which meant it was likely snowing at the top of Pikes Peak, so there was fresh snow as well. Our plan was simply to head out and get as high as we could.

Start to Barr Camp

We got up at 3:45am in order to get to the trail early enough so we wouldn't be out there when storms came in the afternoon. The first half of the hike was pretty uneventful. We started in the dark using headlamps to light our way. It was pretty much your standard mountain hike: good trails, trees, not very tired, peaceful, simply fantastic. We stopped about every mile to just rest, eat, and pee. Pretty laid back.

First break, sun wasn't up quite yet

Barr Camp

Barr Camp is about halfway up the trail (in terms of distance, not time) and has a surprising amount of accommodations despite being at 10,200 feet. There's a little cabin with food you can buy as well as an outhouse. I was surprised to learn that you can camp there for pretty cheap (note to future self).

View of the backside of the camp

There are two caretakers that live there year round. That seems like a pretty solid way to live, I think. Waking up in the mountains every day and spending time talking with nice hikers. Yeah, you probably have to deal with more poop than the average person, but every job has its downsides.

We grabbed some water, a bit of food, and most importantly some info about conditions further up. The caretakers said that above treeline there was consistently ankle deep snow and plenty of spots of knee and waist deep snow. This was a bit disconcerting, but we pressed on.

Sutulas being lazy-pants as always...

We somehow ended up staying here for almost an hour doing who knows what. I still don't know how we wasted this much time here, but it was time to head out again.

A wrong turn

The blue canadian mountie

The next 1,000ish vertical feet were pretty uneventful. Eventually, we came to a spot in the snow where there were tracks in the snow leading both left and right. We took the left path, which was a huge mistake.

This left path almost immediately directed us into waist deep snow, but we soldiered on (stupidly). By following the other footsteps, we could kind of find where the good places to place our feet were so we would stay on top of the snow. But every couple of steps you would place a foot, sink in, and struggle out.

Bob struggling to recover after falling in

I had the least amount of waterproof clothing so, I stayed at the pack and followed in everyone else's footsteps and probably had the easiest time. It was also the funniest position because I got to watch everyone else randomly sink into the snow and swear a little bit each time. We eventually decided that this was either the wrong trail or if it was right, it was going to be very difficult going; so we turned back to try to find the right path.

View from our first turnaround point

Back on Path

We headed back the way we came and found the clear path we should have taken. We proceeded on this path as it started to snow. Or, at least, I thought it was snow. We later learned it was essentially tiny hail. We followed the trail until about 11,700 feet (essentially treeline) when a suggestion arose that we should choose a hard stopping time to turn around so we don't get stuck on the mountain during bad times.

It was about 11:00 am at this point and we started to realize that pushing towards the top was not going to be the safest thing to do. Given the information we had about snow above the treeline, we knew it was going to be hard going. If we got to the top, we were golden, because we had train tickets for the cog railway down. So, the issue was if we didn't get to the top and had to turn around. This decision was where making the wrong turn earlier helped us out because we knew how hard it was going to be to get through that snow.

Just 5 more minutes...

We thought if we pushed on for another couple of hours and turned around at 1:00, it would take us about 6-7 hours to get back down the mountain. This would have been bad news bears because we would be on the mountain during the typical storm time and would potentially also be out there after dark. So, given the low odds of making it to the top, we decided to turn around.

Headed Back Down

Going down was pretty uneventful. We stopped at Barr Camp for about 15 minutes which is where we learned that we had essentially made it to treeline. There were also nice piles of pea sized hail everywhere, so we had lucked out and had gotten the tiny hail and not this deluge. Headed back down was one of those times where time went by so slowly. It ended up taking about 5 hours to go back down, but it felt like it took longer than it had to go up.

Pikes Peak in the background

I was actually feeling pretty bad on the way down because of a growing headache and my foot was acting up. The headache was likely from the altitude and lack of salt in my body (I forgot to pack any salty snacks, so water was just passing right through me) and the foot has been an issue for the past couple of months that the downhills really aggravated.

Once we got below the level where The Incline joins the trail, the traffic on the trail picked up. We secretly hated all these people because they were so fresh and happy. We eventually got back to the truck and headed back. I struggled not to vomit in David's truck and looked forward to a refreshing shower.

Summary (TL;DR Version)

I failed at climbing this mountain. While this wasn't the hardest physical adventure I've done, it was definitely taxing. I gained a great respect for true mountain climbers and have even less of a desire to ever do that sort of thing. Over the next day in the Springs, I had resentment in my heart every time I saw Pikes Peak mocking me in the distance. Regardless of the failure, I got to spend 11 hours with some of my best friends, catch up, have fun, and get in a good hike. This was the true value of the trip. Keeping friends after college is a challenge and scheduling things like this help immensely. I will go after Pikes Peak again sometime, but probably not anytime soon. One thing is for sure, I will do it with great friends.

James and Bob at the top via train the next day

Silver State 50 Miler Race Report

My first 50-miler, my first "traditional" race report. Check out my Garmin data here.

It was nice to be nervous about a race again. I wasn't super nervous, but I certainly wasn't over confident. Up to this race, the furthest I had ran was 31 miles. So, this was going to be 20 miles further than that. I knew it was going to be a challenge and didn't really know what was in store.

Beat the Blerch!

I'm going to break the race down by the drop-bag locations simply because that's how I had mentally broken up the course for planning purposes.

Pre-Race

The race started at 6:00am and our hotel was less than 10 minutes from the race start. So, I got to sleep in and got up at about 4:45. The joys of a running race vs. a triathlon, no need to be there super early! Pre-race was pretty uneventful. Angie put on some sunscreen and I talked with some other folks about the course. The most important thing I learned was that going to the bathroom on a tree was acceptable and expected. Before I knew it, it was time to line up.

Peavine Summit 1 (mile 12.5)

The beginning of an ultra feels so much different than anything shorter than a marathon. You can just feel everyone holding back. I don't really know how to describe it, it's just a different energy of the group. The first 8 miles were really just getting a feel for the trail and filing in line with similar pace folks. People started walking the hills immediately; I was glad they did this because it really highlighted how this race was going to go. I mimicked them and started walking even though I didn't feel the need to. The downhills at this point were tiny, but I started to hate them because I knew I was going to have to go right back up that same distance.

Good view of the type of terrain for the course

I actually started getting pretty worried during this part of the race. I was getting a headache, wasn't really feeling my stride, and started having difficulty breathing. I was a worried that the altitude (only about 5,000 feet at this point) might be affecting me more than I thought it would. But, the only thing to do was to keep on going.

At about mile 8, I started to learn the difference between the hills on this course and the hills I run in Omaha. At this point there is about 3-4 miles of uphill. Thankfully, I was able to run with a couple of guys that made the time go by faster. At this point, I also started to find my stride and my earlier worries about elevation were gone.

There was a lot of walking but I made it to Peavine Summit feeling really strong. I was about 30 minutes ahead of where I had planned to be and didn't feel like I had pushed it too hard.

Ranch Creek (mile 27)

This section of the course is where things started to get hard. This was especially bad because it was downhill so I thought I was going to gain a bunch of time.

I had planned on the uphills being pretty hard and attacking them accordingly. However, I hadn't really given much thought to the downhills. Going downhill is easy, right? Just don't fall. Well, after Peavine summit, you come to essentially 7 miles of downhill, the first 2 being especially steep and rocky. I still don't know how I could have descended this section better. If you go slower, then you use more muscles to slow down. If you go faster, you pound the ground harder and risk tripping and killing yourself. Those first 2 miles I went at about an 8:30 min/mile pace, nothing crazy, using gravity to help. I could feel at about mile 17 that the downhill took a decent toll on my body.

From about mile 8 to 20, I was running with a couple people off and on. At 20 I decided that I was getting too tired to keep up with them and had to back off. This essentially was the last time I ran with anyone the whole race and just pounded the trails on my own for 30 more miles. This section also had the most confusing aid station. I walked in and there's a guy in overalls with no shirt on underneath, a woman with curlers in her hair, booze, and some other weird hillbilly stuff. As someone who isn't familiar with Reno, I wasn't sure if these were real hillbillies or if it was an act, so I just kind of ignored it. After I left the aid station, they had a couple signs that solidified that it was an act, thankfully.

Mile 20ish was probably the prettiest part of the race. It was running through forest, which was unexpected because I thought the whole thing was uncovered desert. It was also the time where the race started to get "real". The hurting started to mount and I began to understand the magnitude of 50 miles. On one hand, I was happy because in my previous longest runs, this same feeling came at about mile 15, so I was 5 miles further this time. On the other, I had another 30 miles to go. It was going to be a long day.

Some sightseeing around the park Angie did while I was out

The rest of this section was essentially me just trying to convince myself that even if it's a slow run, it's a run and would keep me moving forward. I also made a point to pee, more as a "dip stick" test to see if I'm hydrated enough. Thankfully I was doing well on that front.

River Bend (mile 33)

This 6 mile section of the course was simply cruel. It was all downhill and much of it technical single-track. I was already pretty fatigued by this point and the downhills were hurting a lot. This is where I regretted my effort on the downhill at mile 12. The cruelest part is that at the bottom of the hill you keep going down, you know that you had to turn around and head back up.

Cold sponges, yeahhhh buddy

The thing that made this part bearable was knowing that the only spectator access was at River Bend and Angie was waiting for me there with some cold Blue Monkey coconut water. Dag nabbit I love that stuff (and my wife too). I took a little longer at this aid station than most, just to get some rest before the next terrible section of the course. I sat down, ate a bit, and dumped a bunch of cold water on myself. I was getting a little worried because I had completely lost my appetite. Oranges and Oreos were about the only things that were palatable.

On to phase "Ain't nothin to it but to do it".

Headed out of the aid station

Peavine Summit 2 - The Revenge (mile 39)

Put simply, this was the slowest 7.8 miles I've ever done. 7.8 miles with 3,000+ feet of elevation gain.  It took my about 2:45 to cover the distance. That's slower than 20 min/mile. Just kept putting one foot in front of the other.

Before the race started, someone told me his nickname for this part of the course was "pigfucker hill". Boy howdy he was right. I swore numerous times simply because it seemed like it would never end. I kept looking to the top and when I finally saw the top, I was in a little disbelief that I had to keep climbing that far. I kept looking around for a different hill that might be more palatable. But alas, it was the hill right in front of me. Eventually I got towards the top. I was so so happy when I got close enough and realized I didn't have to go up another 200ish feet that I thought I did.

Angie was unexpectedly waiting for me at the aid station which was a welcome surprise. I got some water, drank a smoothie (got a brain freeze), and took a seat again. The next 11 miles were essentially all downhill, but I had done enough downhill to know that I was not looking forward to the next section.

Headed out from the top

Finish (mile 50)

Mentally, it was all about time at this point. I just kept calculating over and over how much longer until I was done. Thankfully, even the conservative estimates put me in before the 14 hour cutoff so I was fairly certain I was going to finish. This was all downhill and once again a lot of single-track. All I really wanted at this point was to not get last. I had been passed by a lot of people and could rarely see people behind me, so I kept thinking I was the last place person.

I got to mile 50 (according to my watch) and I wasn't at the finish. I knew this was going to happen given the nature of these types of races, but I was still pissed. Nothing to do at this point but to slug through it.

As I got to the park, I could hear people cheering for the person who finished a little ahead of me. When I heard that sound, I almost broke down crying because that sound meant I was essentially done. These sorts of races just rub your nerves raw, and any sort of emotion can almost push you over the edge.

I crossed the finish line and was never happier to be done with a race. Angie was there to take care of me. I took a seat and just kind of zoned out for awhile. At the end of it, it took 12 hours 24 minutes to finish. I came in 56th place (out of 66 people), not a stellar finish, but a finish.

Just crossed the finish

Summary (Tl;DR Version)

Overall, I'm glad I did this race, but wouldn't recommend the course for anyone's first 50 or if you're not used to mountains. The aid stations were amazing with both the food and the volunteers, the course was well marked, and the course itself was beautiful and challenging. Will I do another 50 miler again? Probably. Will I do a 100 miler? Never say never.

I guess the toe box doesn't block much dirt...

KC Culinary Indulgences

Cooking Class

A growing passion of mine over the past couple of years has been cooking. In reality,  the passion is around eating; cooking just allows me to make delicious foods to shove in my face. I simply love the act of eating. This is actually one of the unforeseen benefits of rocking a plant powered diet; I can simply eat more volume because I don't have to worry about the calories associated with the food.

Despite enjoying cooking and the food that comes as a result, I had never really tried to learn how to do it. Enter my list item of taking a cooking class. Once again, this was one of those things that proved harder to do than I initially thought due to living in Omaha. Thankfully, I have friends that live in larger metro areas that have these sorts of services. So, off we went to the Kansas City Culinary Center with our friends Meghan and Joji.

The class we took was basic knife skills. I thought this would be great because knife skills are the building blocks of any type of cooking. Additionally, I thought that if I got better with a knife, cooking might take less time.

We walked into the class and I immediately noticed that it looked like I knew more than I did simply because I brought my own knife block. If I was going to learn how to use knives, I was going to learn how to use my own. The room had a nice setup of mirrors and a camera that gave you good visibility to what the chef was doing regardless of your position in the room.

The first part of the class was him showing us how to sharpen and then demonstrating the techniques for various vegetables (onions, carrots, etc). The next part of class was where we got to use the techniques ourselves. We were making a big ol' vegetable soup to eat at the end of class. Angie and Meghan both stated that this wasn't a competition; Joji and I informed them that they were wrong. I feel that I beat Joji in the speed department, but he beat me in quality (this is par for the course for me). The good quality elevated Joji to chef's favorite. The chef would come over and demonstrate advanced techniques to Joji while we just looked on. I guess I lost the competition. I've got to say, I was a bit jealous.

Joji demolishing the celery

All in all, it was a fun experience and I did learn how to use my knives better. Unfortunately, it's one of those things you need to practice regularly, so I had already forgotten some of the stuff a day later.

Fancy Pants Dinner

Later in the evening, we went to try to cross off the most difficult item on my list, spend $150 on a meal for Angie and myself. I had no idea that this would be so difficult to do. Not eating meat and not drinking alcohol keeps the price down. I still don't know if it's possible and not feel like you want to vomit everywhere.

Our fancy pants dinner was at Cafe Provence, a French restaurant that seems to actually be ran by French folk. I thought our waitress was just throwing out a couple of random words in French to complete the atmosphere, but then I later heard her conversing with another employee in French.

Fancy pants bathroom decor

Angie and I each ordered an appetizer, main course, and dessert plus I gave a larger tip than I normally do and we only got up to $120. Of course it was a very good meal, but I can't really stomach spending that much money on a meal any time soon. So, overall, kind of "meh" would likely not go again.

Meghan more terrifying than usual

Top 10 Things to Do in Nebraska

After completing my top 10 things to do in Nebraska and living here for the past 8 years, I feel qualified to make my own top 10 list.

Senator Mitch McConnell is coming right for us!

Here it is, Matthew's Top 10 places in Nebraska (a bit Omaha centric, but whatever):

1. Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo - The zoo here is simply fantastic. I don't really remember the San Diego Zoo from when I was a kid, but I've heard that Omaha's zoo is at least on par if not better. As they expand, it's only going to get better. My favorite part is the aquarium.
2. Memorial Stadium - As a non-Nebraska fan, it's a little odd to put the Huskers stadium on my list. But, it's a pretty great experience to be in the 3rd largest city (on game day, the stadium is the 3rd largest city) in Nebraska and hear the crowd chanting Husker Power.
3. Holland Center - I've only been to the Holland Center once, but it's a beautiful facility. It's a nice modern facility. The theater itself is actually built for sound quality so anything you see here is going to sound amazing.
4. Lincoln Haymarket - The Haymarket has a soft spot in my heart because it has some of my favorite eateries, and I love eating.
• Best restaurant - The Oven
• Best ice cream - Ivanna Cone
• Best candy store - Licorice international - If you like black licorice, this place is a MUST.
5. Orpheum theater - The Orpheum is where the Broadway shows play when they're in town. It's an older theater than the Holland and has that type of feel. It feels like I imagine an 18th/19th century theater would feel.
6. ConAgra Foods Campus - The campus of ConAgra foods is one of the most beautiful business complexes I've seen. The Omaha marathon used to go through it which made that little half mile in the middle a nice little mental detour. I get quite jealous of my wife because I would love to be able to run here over lunch.
7. Hot Shops - Hot shops is one of those places that I keep meaning to go back to but have only made it once. It's a collection of different types of art studios that includes glass blowing, metalworking, carpentry, painting, etc.
8. Branched Oak Farm - While you wouldn't really consider a dairy an "attraction", but I really enjoyed it and think more people should go. You can read more about this in my earlier blog posts.
9. Sandhills cranes - The Sandhills cranes were a pretty cool site. I would like to go back and see them at dawn sometime.
10. Barn Anew - Again, a B&B isn't what you would typically call an "attraction", but it's a pretty relaxing place. You definitely need to go on a Friday so you can listen to the bluegrass jam session.

There you have it, my favorite things in Nebraska.

Western Nebraska Tour (Part 2)

The second day of our western Nebraska trip (see part 1) was filled with snow. I had a grand ol' plan of running 10 miles or so. I was pretty excited about the run because it was going to be on back country roads with views of the bluffs. I managed to make it 2 miles in the blowing snow and called it quits.

Once back in the warmth of the B&B we had a delicious breakfast served in their sun room.

It was then time to get underway for our day of sightseeing. First up was Scotts Bluff (after grabbing more coffee in town). The bluffs had high potential for good hiking, but the snow ruined that for us. Additionally, the road to the top was closed, so we couldn't even drive to the top. So, we poked around in the museum a bit and learned about the settlers and the trails that ran through here.

Next up was Chimney Rock. Thankfully, we drove by this the day before because it was essentially completely obscured by the snow. If you stared long enough, you could barely make out the outline.

Treat it like a magic-eye, just stare long enough and you'll see it.

Chimney Rock is such a great symbol for Nebraska (it's even on the state quarter). Honestly, it is a super boring and unimpressive site. The only reason it has significance is because everything east of there is utterly desolate. So, as settlers were headed west, anything beyond flat plains was exciting as the Blue Angels dive bombing some Apache helicopters (I couldn't think of a better analogy). Once again, we checked out the museum and learned even more about the trails and settlers that came through these parts.

Our final site of the trip was Carhenge. For those of you who don't know what Carhenge is, it's exactly what it sounds like. A replica of Stonehenge made out of cars. As I parked I started giggling at the absurdity of the site. One, how laughable Carhenge itself is. Two, we drove about 1.5 hours through a snowstorm to see it. We didn't spend much time here due to the snow and wind and there's not much else to say about it.

Who knew they had a problem with the world's fastest hedgehog around here...

We then drove to the Roadside Inn in Thedford, NE. When we originally planned this trip, we thought we were going to get to the hotel at around 8:00pm since we thought we were going to be hiking and whatnot at the various sites. But, because of the snow, we ended up getting to the hotel at 4:30. Instead of recognizing our sunk costs and just heading home that night, we stayed in Thedford and increased the town's population by over 1% (Thedford's population as of 2010 was 188). The restaurant next door to the hotel was closed, so we asked the woman at the front if there was any other place to eat dinner in town and she suggested the two gas stations or the bar. We decided to just eat the food we brought with us.

Cool pattern of ice that developed on the wheels while we were driving.

I was then planning on running 20 miles in the forest nearby in the morning, but wussed out due to the cold and wind. And we just drove back a bit earlier than we planned.

Overall, it was a fun trip. It was good to see some of the better parts of Nebraska since I pretty much had only seen the I-80 corridor. We will definitely be doing this type of trip again in the future as it was fairly low key and relaxing.

Cold sunrise in Thedford

Western Nebraska Tour (Part 1)

In order to finish off my list item of visiting the top 10 things in Nebraska, my wife and I took a 3-day weekend trip out to western NE. Despite driving a lot on I-80 to Colorado, I had never really seen the western part of the state. We thought it would be a good couple's weekend and see some nice sights. It was a simple weekend getaway sort of trip. I'm breaking this into 2 posts so I can show some pics and talk more about each topic instead of a simple list.

The things we ended up going to see were:

1. Sandhills cranes
2. Lake McConaughy
3. Scottsbluff
4. Chimney Rock
5. Carhenge
6. Sandhills of Nebraska

Below is the route we took:

Western NE Tourism on Tripline

Day 1

Sandhills Cranes

The Sandhills Cranes stop in Nebraska every year on their migration back north. About 75% of their population stops along the Platte River to plump up before they head further north. Essentially, this means birds everywhere.

We stopped at the Rowe Sanctuary at about 10:00am in the morning. I guess I don't give small towns much credit because I didn't expect much because we were in the middle of nowhere. 10:00am is not the ideal time to see the cranes, because they're out of the river and into the corn fields after the sun rises. Still, it was pretty nice and the sound of the thousands of cranes (whose calls can be heard from miles away) was quite impressive.

Lake McConaughy

The end of March isn't really peak season for Lake McConaughy, but it was interesting nonetheless. Essentially, the only thing to do was to drive around it and hit up the visitors center. During the season, there's, you know, lake stuff to do. Still, it was interesting to learn about the construction of the lake's history and the Ogallala Aquifer. I had no idea how huge the aquifer was until this. Basically all of Nebraska and much of the great plains are on top of this massive underground supply of water.

Driving around the lake was actually a fairly scenic thing to do. I didn't realize that this lake was gigantic, with  about 74 miles of shoreline. I can see why a lot of people head out here during the summer for water sports. One thing I couldn't figure out was why the entire area was full of trailer parks. So, feel free to leave a comment if you have any ideas as to why that might be.

Scottsbluff

For Friday night, we stayed in Scottsbluff, out in the panhandle of Nebraska. We spent the night in a B&B named Barn Anew. We've never stayed in a B&B before, but based on this place, we will definitely be doing it again. This place is called "Barn Anew" because it used to was a former stable for Percheron horses. The upstairs where the rooms were, was the old hay loft.

The large beams are the original wood from the stables

You get a pretty solid "middle of Nebraska" feeling since it's right in the middle of a bunch of cornfields.

Look closely and you can tell that calf was born just a few minutes ago

The place is right next to Mitchell Pass which is where the Oregon, California, Pony Express, and Fur Trapper trails passed through the bluffs. This is also how they named the 4 rooms. We got to stay in the Pony Express Room.

I stupidly didn't take many pictures of the view Friday thinking I could get more the next day. That was the wrong thing to do.

The couple that runs the place was super nice. The first thing we did was go on a tour and learn all about the artwork they have displayed. They have a lot of native american artwork, both "ancient" and modern designs.

For dinner, we went to the Emporium. Quite frankly, I'm shocked that a place as nice as this was in such a small town (Scottsbluff has about 15,000 people in it). I had a delicious watermelon and beet salad and tomato soup with fancy grilled cheese.

The best part of Barn Anew (and unfortunately the part I didn't take pictures of), was on Friday nights they have jam sessions. A bunch of musicians from around the area get together and play some bluegrass. There were about a dozen people there that night and they would just go around in a circle choosing what song to play. It was just great to sit and listen to these people just have fun with their instruments. Unfortunately, we only stayed for an hour because I kept falling asleep in my chair. I really think Barn Anew should advertise this more. It's something I doubt you can find many other places in the country.

All-in-all, a nice little jaunt out into the country. Fairly laid back and entertaining. I will definitely hit up a couple of these sights again during their "proper" times later in life.