Box Butte County scenes | WEGGIEBOY'S BLOG by Doug Thomas

Andy hinted that it was time to feed the kitty.

As grim as it looks, it smells pretty good.

Well, maybe he wanted something else

My car’s message center indicated there was tire leakage. My air compressor works when I turn the car on.

Turned out the tires all were a little low. I took care of it. Apparently I have no puncture to take care of. That’s good news!

My car was filthy so I headed out to the car wash to run it through the wash.

That little VW Golf SportWagen icon on my message center “drives” from left to right as the gasoline level in the tank drops. I had this car seven-ish years before I noticed that! I think the VW programmers had too much spare time on their hands.

I took a little road trip to help dry my car off. Going north out of Alliance on US 385, it is very flat farmland…

…so this time of year – harvest time – one is bound to get behind sugar beet trucks and machinery like this corn harvester. Thanks to lots of traffic coming toward me, I got to drive 21 mph/ 34 kph till the traffic thinned out enough for me to pass this thing.

Up by the 16 mile corner, there’s this long row of rural mail boxes…

…and, on the opposite side of the road, this Historical Marker.

I live in Box Butte County, named after about the only sort of prominent topographical feature, Box Butte. The main street in town is Box Butte Avenue.

South of Alliance, on the intersection of Potash Avenue and Kansas Street, there are these two bits of landowner steel whimsy.

It was lunchtime. I decided to stop by the Runza restaurant for a runza and onion rings. It’s a Nebraska thing.

I returned home to enjoy my meal and to end my very busy morning.

Andy finally showed up for a last kitty photo.

He’s barely awake now, but not too tired to pose while taking a moment to straighten out his “floof.”

Oh! And I took out a dolly full of trash to the dumpster before I aired my tires up. How could I leave that out? Such a busy day!

The general sense of Nebraska is that it is “flat as Kansas”. That is somewhat true, but largely false. If you drive a road that follows a floodplain, such as I-80, the topography tends to be flat. If you drive off the Interstate, that’s where you find the diverse topography of Nebraska.

The following scenes are north of Alliance, up to the 16 Mile Corner, over to US 385, south to Berea, then to Alliance. That means nothing to you now, most likely, but by the time you take the “tour”, you will see flat land, hills, and a bit of where I live, in Alliance. Don’t worry! There are kitties at the end of the trail!

It’s just before harvest time for winter wheat, a major crop in Box Butte County.

Yeah, just north of Alliance is flat, flat, flat!

The road is pretty much straight for miles…..then it gets gently twisty and hilly.

But there are diversions along the road. For example, Carhenge, which is managed by the City of Alliance.

It's free, you can buy souvenirs - if you must - at the visitor center, and it's free!

It’s free but you can buy souvenirs – if you must – at the visitor center! Of course, contributions are welcomed.

View it from your car…

…or get out and walk around it! Quirky, imaginative, a nod to the other one in England! LOL!

This is the land of those amber waves of grain we sing about….! This is a land of horizontals.

The 16 Mile Corner is, well, 16 miles from Alliance. It crosses over to Hemingford, west, or the intersection of US 385, south.

The 16 Mile Corner is, well, 16 miles from Alliance. Hemingford is west, or head north to Rushville. South is Alliance.

Not a lot there, but Berea is the third settlement in Box Butte County. Alliance and Hemingford are the others.

Not a lot there, but Berea is the third settlement in Box Butte County. This is from north of Berea.
Alliance and Hemingford (“Hemmingford” in Stephen King’s CHILDREN OF THE CORN…!) are the other towns.

The Sallows Military Museum honors the mean and women who served or serve their country in the military. This was Alliance's biggest contribution to WWII.

The airbase was Alliance’s biggest contribution to WWII.

Tenth and Box Butte. Box Butte Avenue was paved with bricks in 1920. They add some charm to the avenue, and the citizens are very proud of them. Bruisin' or Cruisin' the bricks used to be a teenager activity: make endless round trips the length of the Butte to find friends - or trouble! - for the evening.

Tenth and Box Butte. Box Butte Avenue was paved with bricks in 1920. They add charm to the avenue, and the citizens are very proud of them.
“Cruisin’ the Butte” used to be a teenager activity: make endless round trips the length of the Butte to find friends – or trouble! – for the evening.