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 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