I have driven through much of the state of Nebraska over the decades going both east-west and north-south. However, for the Panhandle portion of the state, I had only driven across I-80 at the extreme south edge of the state. As for Wyoming, I had driven along the borders at the north, west and south parts of the state but never in the east central part of the state. Got a bit of that area this trip.

Two things worth a visit in the Nebraska Panhandle -- Scotts Bluff National Park site and Agate Fossil Bed National Park site. And, just west across the state line into Wyoming is Fort Laramie National Park site. Three national parks forming a triangle of an "Hour Between Each" (though no direct route between Fort Laramie and Agate Fossil). And, I had long wanted to at least drive through the town of Casper WY which is two hours west of Fort Laramie.

Thanks to the extra time gotten from skipping Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park in Kansas, and, longer sunshine time in mid-May, I had time to visit Scotts Bluff and Fort Laramie in the late afternoon and evening (although I was too late to get into the visitor center for Fort Laramie).

The park ranger at Scotts Bluff called Fort Laramie to verify that the grounds and buildings at Fort Laramie would still be open after the visitor center closed. That way, I could see the fort itself (which was surprisingly quite spread out, if they ever had a fence around the whole fort, it was a really long fence, possibly a mile long around the perimeter).

The view from up top of Scotts Bluff was amazing. A storm was heading towards the park from the west -- easy to see the rain clouds and rain in the distance. My timing at Scotts Bluff was good.

Fort Laramie was interesting to see although I had seen many old forts over the years. Since Casper WY was a four-hour round trip from Fort Laramie and I still needed to drive another hour east of Fort Laramie to get back to my hotel in Scottsbluff NE, I decided to skip Casper, especially since nothing there I really wanted to see, just mostly wanted to finally visit the town. Another day, perhaps, since it is on north-south interstate I-25 that runs through Denver and Albuquerque then on to El Paso.

On the way to Fort Laramie I could see the rain headed my way -- a person can see quite a distance in the part of the country. On my way back, I saw the widest rainbow I have ever seen -- and, it was the second time during the day I had seen a rainbow which was a first for me. Normally, I see a single rainbow once every few years.