Go West, Boomers! Day 12 and Wrap-up

Location: Casa de Schmidbauer
Distance Traveled: 3.722 miles

The final day of any road trip is anticlimactic, as you drive through more and more familiar territory. We did drive back roads across Indiana and into Ohio, which helped.

However, there wasn’t a lot to see. A couple “attractions” proved to be a bust. The only place we took photos was in Batesville, IN—the home of a major casket making company. They also have a cuckoo clock tower. One the hour, you’re supposed to see the two workers below the clock saw logs, but despite our perfect timing, it must have broken down (the photo was taken later).

There was also an art installation involving umbrellas.

We had a good if nondescript lunch, then moved on into Ohio and home.

Overall, it was a fun road trip, giving Mindy and I some time to ourselves and fully relax. The hotels ranged from fair to very good, while there were some fantastic attractions and meals. Hard to complain about it. I think both of us were over all the driving by the end, though.

Where to next? It will be sometime next year, and we have some ideas—stay tuned. Meanwhile, the next episode of “From the Pop Culture Bunker” will be a travelogue of this trip. Thanks for following us. #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 11

Reporting from Vincennes, IN
LAT 38.39 N LON 87.3 W

What will most likely be the penultimate day of our trip began in the St. Louis area. We kicked things off at a sculptural park.

I’ve got something in my eye.

Bambi’s back and she’s pissed.

Then it was onto St. Louis proper. Wow, what a mess of a city! “St. Louis: We Gave Up”.

A sign bigger than a gas station.

A flying saucer that now houses fast food.

With all the visitors and a sportsball game going on, this was as close as we could get to the St. Louis Arch. We were planning to skip it anyway.

This is a bridge that goes to Chouteau Island, in the middle of the Mississippi. Took us a while to figure out how to get there.

Moving on to Illinois, and a great lunch. Roasted chicken and a smoked turkey salad. Both were great!

Moving thru Indiana, we found a dragon that actually breathes fire (as long as you pay for it).

Then the ”Madonna of the Trail”, a tribute to the women of the Cumberland Road.

Our final stop of the day was just across the border, in Vincennes, IN. A library with giant stuff:

Red Skelton was born in Vincennes. For your kids out there, Skelton was a famous comedian in the radio and early TV days. I remember his long running variety show, but to be honest I was never a fan. I do remember his sign off "good night and God bless".

Red as a kid.

Muffler Man and Uncle Sam, Saturday mornings on NBC!

With such a big lunch, we had a snack for dinner.

OK, time to crash. Tomorrow—all the way home (?) #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 10

Reporting from Warrenton, MO
LAT 38.49 N LON 91.8 W

Overall, today started well, but went downhill. I would call Missouri the "Show Me (the way out of this) State”.

We started off at the Johnson County Museum—incredibly impressive. There must be some money in this area to fund something like this. It includes an entire “all electric home” from the 50’s.

I’m pretty sure we had this color of counter-top when I was a little kid.

The painting slides back to display a TV. WANT!

There’s also a full-size neon sign from a local hotel.

We moved on to the National Museum of Miniatures and Toys. Two ladies had collections, and ran out of room in their respective homes. I was impressed!

Tiny rooms with even tinier furniture.

Regular and mini.

Of course, I was more interested in the toy collection.

ViewMasters—the Instagram of the analog era.

Stuff I had as a kid is in a museum? Yep, I’m old.

Sure, you got burns from them—but it was fun.

HOT WHEELS!

Moving on to the Truman Presidential Library. President Truman was a pivotal figure from the end of WW2 to the Korean War, along with the Berlin Airlift.

We grabbed a burger and tots just down the street from the Library.

As we continued the drive across the state, we ran into the “Cradle of Ragtime” at a train station

We then hurried to Jefferson City, in order to see the Missouri Capitol before they closed for the day. It was a bit of a letdown. Very impressive from the outside, but the interiors were in bad shape. Part of the place has been turned into a “state museum” that frankly wasn’t as good as the one we saw this morning. Both houses were closed and inaccessible. All the inside arches reminded me of a subway station. At least Mindy got a pencil from the Governor’s office.

At that point, we started to look for a place for the night. Mindy uses her phone to find a place each night, and we generally do pretty well. In this case, for whatever reason, we learned that hotels in Missouri are VERY overpriced. Like nearly double other states. There’s certainly very little drawing people here—just seems like profiteering. Anyway, after some driving and backtracking, we found a place that is decent and slightly better priced. We picked up some local pizza and sacked out.

Thin crust—almost cracker-like. We liked it.

Ehough for tonight. Tomorrow, St. Louis and parts east.

Go West, Boomers! Day 9

Reporting from Lenexa, KA
LAT 38.57 N LON 94.44 W

We began the day in Nebraska, and visited our 6th State Capital in Lincoln. It’s unique—Nebraska is unicameral, so there’s only the Senate. Also, the building doesn’t have a traditional dome—instead, it has a 14 story tower. You can actually go outside near the top. The place looks like a church inside—no metal detectors to be found. Ironically, the outside seems more like a prison.

A panorama on the 14th floor, near the top of the tower. Lots of black stone and murals.

View from the top.

Driving on, we ran into some wooden objects.

In a guy’s front yard. It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a tree?

Replica of a Lewis & Clark boat. Very narrow and cramped.

After a quick sprint across the corner of Iowa, we found ourselves in Missouri. St. Joseph is the self-proclaimed “Pork Tenderloin Capital of the World”, so we shared one at a local dive.

A local resident.

BPT with homemade chips. Delish!

We jumped over the river to Kansas, where dinosaurs run wild.

Not Photoshopped.

Back to Missouri and Kansas City. We started with a castle tower in a residential neighborhood. A guy decided he wanted to build one, and I guess there was no HOA to stop him.

A treacherous spiral staircase takes you to the top.

The top includes a cannon, in case you have an issue with a neighbor.

Then it was onto KC proper. We had to have BBQ there, and found a place that started in a gas station (ambiance is inversely equivalent to quality in ‘que). After a 15 minute wait in line (and this was an early dinner), we got ribs, burnt ends, and a meat-centric salad. All were great.

The following are artistic installations in the downtown area. We decided to get to all of them tonight, so we didn’t have to go back into downtown again. The roads and traffic are a mess! (Of course, having a Chiefs game going on tonight didn’t help).

In the garment district, almost hidden.

Giant books at the library, with Mindy shown for scale. Took 15 minutes to find a place to park.

A replica of TWA’s “Moonliner” from Disneyland, on a random building. Perhaps it’s there because of…

…Walt’s original animation studio, pre-Disney. Can’t understand why the Mouse House doesn’t pay to have this abandoned building fixed up as a shrine!

One of several giant shuttlecocks at the art museum.

A glass labyrinth, possibly inspired by KC’s roads.

By that point, we were beat, and we headed to the Kansas side of the KC metro area for the night. Tomorrow, museums, libraries, and an electric house. #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 8

Reporting from Lincoln, NE
LAT 40.5 N LON 96.41 W

Today involved a lot of driving, and only a few stops—but they were all good.

We drove back into Nebraska, and came upon a shrine to Our Lady of Fatima. A WW2 chaplain vowed to build one if he survived the war. He did both—and it’s very pretty.

A ways farther down the road, we visited Pioneer Village. A guy named Harold Warp decided to start his own version of the Henry Ford museum in the middle of Nebraska. 26 buildings of everything you could think of.

There is a whole village of original building moved to this location, along with a lot of warehouses.

A local TV station’s circa-1960 equipment.

The schoolhouse that Harold attended—along with all the books and records.

A 1950’s kitchen…

…and a 1980’s kitchen.

Computer equipment—some of it I’ve actually used.

There were also multiple warehouses packed with classic cars.

The beige hornlike device hanging out the window is an add-on air conditioner.

Just loved the coloring.

“Hey, Bob—what if we put the sun visor INSIDE the car?”

Generations later, people refer to poor cars as Edsels.

This is a Ford Model A Coupe—my dad owned a Model A Truck for years.

There were multiple aisles in multiple warehouses like this, arranged by make and year.

Did you know that Hastings, Nebraska has the largest municipal museum between Chicago and Denver? And did you know that Kool-Aid was developed in this area? Well it was.

OH, YEAH!!!

So we ended up the day in Lincoln NE. There was a lot of online buzz about Lee’s Chicken restaurant (unrelated to the Lee’s Chicken chain). You can read my earlier report in FB about it—suffice to say we were not impressed.

That’ll do for tonight. Tomorrow, onto Kansas City. #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 7

Reporting from Wray, CO
LAT 40.5 N LON 102.13 W

(Delayed post due to poor hotel wi-fi)

We’re back to the plains this evening, in a small town. But we started in Denver this morning. While we enjoyed our day there, it’s more soothing to be out in the sticks.

First thing, we drove into downtown Denver to meet our niece Abby for brunch. The fare had a Mexican feel.

We then tracked down mysterious grates in front of the Federal Reserve which emanate strange noises. I’ll post video when we have some decent WiFi.

Onto Statehouse #5 for the trip. Colorado’s capitol building is on the larger side, but the interior seems smaller, with lots of hallways. Their brass cleaner budget must be immense.

Our greatest President—Jebediah Bartlett.

Just outside is a marker indicating one mile above sea level. Unfortunately, they miscalculated twice—Mindy is at the correct altitude.

We ventured out into the burbs to find Estes Mini-Town. It’s a set of buildings from the mid 20th century that have been collected, restored, and decorated. They have “new” items waiting for work to be completed.

We took a header west and made our was to an overlook of the Rockies. This is as far west as we go—everything going forward will be in the eastward direction.

After a great deal of searching, we found the statue of a horse with a hazmat suit on. This is a reference to a nuclear weapons plant in the area which required a massive cleanup.

Our final stop in the Denver area was Mile High Comics. A mecca for comic book fans, it’s a huge warehouse along with a massive showroom. I couldn’t leave without seeing it.

Someone’s getting fired.

Looks like my collection—times 1000.

Then it was a three hour trip to the east, ending up in Wray, CO. The front desk said there were 4 restaurants in town, only 2 were good. We picked a bistro that turned out to have zero signage—I was convinced I would need to provide a password to get into a speakeasy. Instead, it was a second floor establishment with a large menu. We have some Italian dishes—I guess when you have almost zero competition, you don’t try very hard. It was OK, though.

And that does it for today. Tomorrow, back to Nebraska. #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 6

Reporting from Aurora, CO
LAT 39.44 N LON 104.49 W
Altitude 5403 FEET

We began the day in Alliance, NE, a small town with a great hotel. Wonderful service and a huge breakfast—omelettes, ham, biscuits and gravy, and all the other stuff you would expect. We then made our way to “Carhenge”—an art installation in the middle of a field, consisting of old cars. The main exhibit is Stonehenge, except using automobiles as plinths. A truly spectacular sight.

An interior panorama.

And oh, how they dawnced, the little children of Carhenge… (with apologies to Spinal Tap)

Then, just a short distance away, we found Dobby’s Frontier Town. A set of old west buildings from around the area, collected and equipped with items appropriate to the place—a barn, a jail, a saloon, a post office, a bank… It was a large setup, and it’s clear the few volunteers involved are very busy.

The bars are from a bank robbery by the Sundance Kid.

Fun downstairs and upstairs.

We then took a drive across the prairie and into Wyoming.

This is Wyle E. Coyote territory. I was expecting to see broken ACME equipment strewn around.

We reached Cheyenne, WY, the State Capitol. It was smaller than the last few capitols, but very impressive regardless. While others use a lot of marble, this building uses wood, which gave it a warmer feel. We learned the wood was shipped from Ohio, back in the 1880’s! Wyoming was the first state to vote for women’s suffrage, 50 years before the US did so.

There are a series of vaults in the basement, originally put in place to store the state’s money and documents. As part of a massive restoration project, layers of paint were removed to reveal oil paintings on each one. They are now used for office supplies.

We stopped in at a local burger place for lunch. Excellent!

An hour later, we were in another state—Colorado, specifically Ft. Collins, to see more giant things.

An ice cream stand.

We wrapped up the day in Denver and more giants.

A bear checking out the convention center.

Chair avec horse.

Badly made chair.

Since we had a late lunch, we finished things up with ice cream from Nugg’s, a local stand.

OK, enough for today. We’re worn out. Tomorrow, more of Denver, including brunch with our niece. #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 5

Reporting from Alliance, NE
LAT 42.5 N LON 102.53 W

Now in our fifth state of the trip, with three of them new for me. But let’s rewind to this morning, when we left Wall, ND and ventured into the middle of nowhere, which is where you would place a Minuteman missile. Duck and cover, kids!

We move from the morose to the wacky—ladies and germs, the world’s largest Quarter Pounder with Cheese!

Hey, don’t tell me what to do!

We found another contrast in a Rapid City ND park—a giant rock you can spin, and a piece of the Berlin Wall.

Near Checkpoint Charlie.

As we made our way to Mt. Rushmore, we ran into Keystone. If you’ve been to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, you would find it very familiar. This also means tourist attractions like the Cosmos Mystery Area—one of those places that use optical illusions to convince you gravity has run wild. Photos don’t do it justice.

We also found a place where, for an enormous fee, you could get chainsaw sculptures.

And then it was Mt. Rushmore itself. You see it from quite a distance away, but it’s still impressive, mostly in terms of the amount of labor involved. It’s a national monument AND a tourist trap! It was $10 to park, but we got the senior discount, plus we charged up our hybrid car.

Had to get a shot of this—what’s the only state with a pennant flag?

Still haven’t gotten the knack of selfies.

If you’re going to protest, you must do so in this pre-defined area!

George, can we get a shot from the side? Great!

The guy that made it happen. Plus a great Scrabble move.

We finally found a place to eat in Custer, ND (we’re in the “off season”, and it’s a Sunday). Pretty decent Mexican food.

The final image for today is from Hot Springs, ND. There’s a archeological site there where Mammoths were found. It was expensive to take a tour, plus they were 20 minutes from closing, so we chose to take a shot of the fellow in the front hall.

It’s a living.

That’ll do it for now. Tomorrow includes another state capitol and (maybe) the Mile High City. #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 4

Reporting from South Wall, ND
LAT 43.59 N LON 102.14 W

Writing this a bit late, due to a) we’re now in Mountain Time and b) I had to use my phone as a hot-spot since the hotel WiFi is out.

We drove into South Dakota and made our way to Vermillion, which is the home of the University of SD, and fortunately had an away game today. We visited the W.H. Over Museum, which is a melange of archaeological, historical, and anthropological exhibits, seemingly placed at random. Very interesting though.

There was also what must have been a local’s collection of camera equipment—probably the best exhibit they had.

A retoucher unit—analog Photoshop.

In the same town, we read about a sandwich shop inside a hardware store.

It turned out great—the bread is recommended by Oprah of all people. Fantastic sammiches!

Sandwich of the Month - The Kent.

3D Melt.

We drove onto Mitchell and the Corn Palace—but first a giant jackalope.

The Corn Palace consists of the local auditorium with a corn mosaic glued to it (they change it annually). Far less impressive in person.

At this point, we “called an audible” for the rest of the day. We were planning to go up to Pierre and see another state capitol, but when we read there were no decent hotels or restaurants, we chose to skip it and move on. As it turned out, our final destination of the day wasn’t much better.

Anyway, we got on I90, which I quickly learned had an 80 mph speed limit (whee!). At one point, we took some panoramas at a scenic outlook.

Then a stop to see wildlife, both fake and real. The latter had a whole colony next to a convenience store—you could feed them if you wanted.

Our final stop for the day was the fabled Wall Drug. For those who haven’t heard of it, Wall Drug is the original tourist trap. An offer of free ice water in the 30’s pulled in the crowds. Today, it’s a warren of gift shops and snack bars. It was underwhelming, but we did get a few photo ops.

After an equally underwhelming dinner (if someone put a real restaurant in Wall, they would make a bundle), we shuffled over to the best hotel in town (in that the room doors didn’t open directly to the outside—which would make it a Motel IMHO). That’s when we found out the wi-fi was down (the manager said it was that way all over town, which I am doubtful of). So after some Googling and swearing, I hooked up the internet equivalent of two cups and a string—and here we are.

Tomorrow—assuming all goes well, Mt. Rushmore. I’m going to bed. #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 3

Reporting from South Sioux City, IA
LAT 42.26 N LON 96.20 W

My last missive was a bit premature—we didn’t quite make it to SD, just over the border. Our day started at Bluebird Cafe, since the hotel breakfast was lacking. We shared an omelette and Cinnamon Roll French Toast.

If I were you, I wouldn’t take one of these.

Onto the category of corporate symbols—in this case, Newton IA’s Maytag Repairman. Remember “The Dependability People”?

Another strange monument—”Laid Back Easter Island” statue next to a kid’s playground in Altoona, IA.

We moved onto our third State Capitol of the trip in Des Moines. Even more ornate than Illinois.

Apparently, the Secretary of State is a Marvel fan.

This is a massive mosaic.

Their law library was massive—looks like a scene from Myst.

Then it was a few hour drive across Western Iowa, interspersed with giant…

…wrenches…

…bikes…

…and popcorn balls.

OK, that’ll do it for today. Onto South Dakota, this time for real. #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 2

Reporting from Coralville, IA
LAT 41.41 N LON 91.36 W

We’ve reached our third state so far. But to begin the day, we found a “weird in the wild” item—a giant macaroni in front of a Kraft-Heinz plant.

Moving to Springfield IL and a more somber item—Lincoln’s tomb. There was a helpful park associate answering questions.

You’re supposed to rub Lincoln’s nose for luck, but the pandemic overrides luck.

Slightly less morose was the crypt of “Mr. Accordion”, who got his revenge after the cemetery tried to reneg on his purchased plot. He would regularly go out and play his accordion on his plot, (just as you went into the park), had an elaborate crypt put in, while being buried elsewhere.

Nearby was our second state capitol for the trip, and a far site better than the first. We took a guided tour then did a little scouting.

We drove for a while after that, and started getting peckish. We picked a place in the middle of nowhere called Grandpa’s. Took us a while to track it down, and almost walked back out. Glad we didn’t. Mindy had a “horseshoe”—a local delicacy I would call an Illinois poutine. Biscuit, meat, fries, cheese sauce.

As we crossed the border into Iowa, we located “Snake Alley”, a twisty steep road named for it’s serpent-like shape. Ripley’s documented it for “Believe It or Not”. Dashcam video of the drive will be posted later.

We visited Riverside IA for a specific reason—James T. Kirk will be born here. His “monument” is in an alley next to City Hall. We also found his bronze likeness—are all celebrities short? Anyway, we timed the visit for #StarTrekDay.

After finding a hotel in Coralville, we were looking for a place to honor Queen Elizabeth II who passed today at 96, but the best we could do was a British-themed pizza pub.  We shared fish and chips along with a salad. It was decent. #godsavetheking

That’ll do it for our second day. Tomorrow—some giant things and South Dakota. #gowestboomers

Go West, Boomers! Day 1

Reporting from Champaign-Urbana, IL
LAT 40.7 N LON 88.13 W

We’ve made it to the end of Day 1, which partly involved familiar drives. I have in-laws in Chicago and Milwaukee, so we didn’t see a lot of new territory until we got past Indianapolis.

But before then, we tracked down a giant rose sculpture. Did you know that Springfield OH at one point was America’s premiere rose grower? Well, in 2020, someone decided they needed to honor that. The distinction is muted when you place said sculpture at the side of a highway going out of town, with no clear way to access it. We pulled onto the berm and got a few pics.

The it was off to glamorous Greenville OH and the Maid-Rite Drive In. We skipped the loose meat sammiches (they were just getting ready to open), and concentrated on the wads of gum adorning the walls. Blecch!

Moving onto Indianapolis. Out first meal of the trip was at the Mug ‘n’ Bun, a classic drive in near the speedway. We ordered a burger, a pork tenderloin sammich, and onion rings to share. The burger was what your mom might make when you ask for a Big Mac, using a slice of bread in the middle. The tenderloin was tasty and not too enormous. Rings were a bit greasy. On the other hand, homemade root beer!

We have started a habit of checking out state capitol buildings, so we ventured into downtown Indy. The place was fairly generic--lots of 1880's flourishes and relatively dark with the exception of skylights. Couldn't get into the galleries despite there being no sessions underway. I'll give it a 5 out of 10.

Commandant and Sorcerer Supreme.

Finally we reached Illinois, stopping at Champaign-Urbana near the college.  After a quick rest at the hotel, we ventured out for dinner--something more nutritious than lunch, hummus and salads.  Both were excellent!

Well, that's plenty for one day.  Tomorrow, onto to Iowa and a historic birthplace...