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 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