Our first stop of the day was Scotts Bluff. Because of a scraping noise that we had heard emanating from somewhere within the vicinage of the front wheels, we took the shuttle up there. We saw for a long way up there, across to some small badlands that are around a portion of it, as well as all the way to Chimney Rock, which was small and barely discernible from the sky, but we saw it nonetheless. The bluff, while not the highest thing that we've seen, was stunning in the fact that it rose up out of the prairie with no warning. After getting back to ground level, we walked along a stretch of the old Oregon Trail, where the ruts where the wagons and oxen went can still be seen.

We got back on the road, but the car's steering was acting a little funny and the scraping, tapping noise was getting progressively sharper. so we pulled into a small Nebraskan town named Kimball. While the dealership was slammed, the folks who worked there must have felt pity for us or something, because they worked us in. Within two hours, they'd replaced a ball bearing in one of the wheels, telling us that "we'd never have made it home if they hadn't replaced it then." My dad kept threatening to trade it in for a new one, but I reminded him that the process would take too long, for he would invest more time and money in getting a new one than he would if he just paid for the repairs, because he'd have spent twelve hours at the minimum at the dealership if he'd decided on the former, as is his car-buying custom.

Back on the road, we got across a significant portion of Nebraska, past both deer and more prairie dog colonies. While the wind was bad at first, it died down soon enough. Getting back into Central Time, we got to Kearney, where we stopped at a restaurant called the USA Steak Buffet. I can't say that the food was excellent, but it was alright. One could order steaks however you liked at a counter, and while I ordered mine medium, it came out well done. The next one I got was laced with fat. However, their fried chicken was pretty decent and I learned that I liked catfish. (Also, their peanut butter pie was positively glorious.)

Getting into the hotel, the lady who checked us in was surprised that we had earned so many points with our consecutive stays, and "climbing up the latter that fast." But my dad misheard the last two words, thinking that the lady said something about coming to an event known as Fat-Fest. This led to much hilarity and laughter.

Tomorrow: Kansas City, Missouri.