832. Gering, Scotts Bluff County (NE30)

This courthouse is much better than Harrisburg’s. I have to admit the first thing that popped into my head was Hill Valley from Back To The Future. I was even looking for an electrical cable hanging from the flagpole, thinking that I hadn’t gone eighty-eight miles per hour in this county yet. Jokes aside, Gering seems to be more of a regional hub. It seems to have a bit more civilization—both good and bad—than you would expect from a town of its size. I was also curious why Gering was the county seat and not the adjoining town of Scottsbluff (one word), which is larger and has better cell phone reception. It’s even part of Scottsbluff’s metropolitan area, not the other way around.

Gering is also incredibly cache-rich, far more so than I would have expected. I pointed myself to one at the local Civic Center within walking distance from the courthouse and shot over to grab it. The fact that it was one of the most favorited in the county was an extra draw. Credit where credit is due: even a curmudgeon like me could see it was cute as all get-out. I picked up one of its trackables and dropped a couple I had brought with me before signing the logbook and giving it one of my stingily hoarded favorites. Well, actually, I would have had Gering’s reception not been terrible. I also couldn’t pull up my next destination, which reminded me that I hadn’t gotten a map book for Nebraska yet. I need to do something about that in the foreseeable future. I intend to return and finish the state at some point. But not on that day. After getting some gas, I headed west for the next step in the day’s odyssey, crossing the border of Nebraska and into…