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