Once again Mark is up first and not only gets himself ready for work but also gets pancakes and scrambled eggs (made from free range hens) ready for everyone for breakfast. Of course we eat serially as each of us is ready. It is the last two days of school for both grandsons and there are lots of festivities and graduation events scheduled. Of course we must get back on the road so we take a final photo and get out of the way! Departure is only a little bit sorrowful because we will be together again in Hilton Head in August.
I can't remember why, but this morning I am the first driver heading out and going north on I25 into Wyoming to about Cheyenne and then east on I80 where we definitely seem to be leaving the mountains behind us. Before long we are into Nebraska where the terrain is a bit more rolling with occasional bluffs as at Pine Bluff with pine trees and the occasional herd of cattle. The "State to State" story about Nebraska focuses on Omaha and is written by the writer of "About Schmidt" and "Sideways" who is a native and now owns a condo in Omaha.
Our first stop is in Sidney (my home town is Sidney, Ohio) where we both comment on the far greater number of "Sidney's" that we seem to find along the way compared to Harold's home town names of Harlan, Pineville, or Loyale (all in Kentucky). Before we reached Sidney, we crossed over Nebraska's highest point (5424 feet) at about the 71 mile marker.
Harold takes over the drive and we cross the South Platte River and see where it joins the North Platte River to form the Platte River. I80 seems to travel along the tree-lined river for about 200 miles. Together they create an interesting though long drive. Since our cell phone connection doesn't allow us to connect with the Organizing for America phone call when it tries to come into the cell, we turn one more time to James Lee Burke and his "Burning Angel" to entertain us along the way. The land here (as opposed to Louisiana where Burke obsesses over the latest crimes) is flat and green. Deep purple flocks line the roadside and break the monotony. At mile 149 we leave the mountain time zone and enter central time zone and lose an hour but that just brings us closer to our next destination - Omaha.
Lunch is at McDonald's in Gothenburg NB - we're trying to make time again. The community's claim to fame is that is still has the original cabin that was a stop on the Pony Express route. We enjoyed looking at a map of the Pony Express route and then moved along. We continued our book and our drive and arrived in Omaha with very bad directions but with Harold's natural sense of direction we eventually made the correction we needed - seeing some interesting sites probably not on the list provided by the convention and visitors' bureau in the process - and found the hotel.
Despite how tired we felt, we got directions to downtown Omaha and went off to find it easily. Omaha is undergoing quite a resurrection. It has enormous public facilities, parks, convention center, performance arenas, baseball park, and a restored historic downtown district which was alive with tourists and residents dining, shopping, and going to a concert. We found a wonderful place called Stokes Grill and Bar and enjoyed dinner followed by a short walk around the downtown and a driving tour of the area. We highly recommend a trip to Omaha - surprising but true - it's a lively place and did not disappoint us about the anticipation we felt while reading the "State to State" entry earlier in the day.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment