Nothing in North Platte

Well, if we found very little to do in Lincoln, we found even less in North Platte, Nebraska.  The list of things to see is very short.  Basically, it is either the home of Buffalo Bill (been there before) or going to the Golden Spike Tower. We had to do SOMETHING!  Our Wifi through Sprint was non-existent, so we couldn't even access the Internet to check email or update the blog.  We were down to one choice....guess where we went?

This tower gives you a panoramic view of the world's largest train yard.   Although this is something that normally wouldn't arouse my interest.  But as they say, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do".  In North Platte, people must pass the time by going out and looking at the trains.  Who knows?  There sure isn't anything else to keep them occupied!   At least I can maintain a 5 minute discussion on trains now that I've been there, something that I couldn't do before.

Here is a view from the tower, where 10,000 cars are handled each day, 365 days a year.  The yard is 8 miles long and 2 1/2 miles wide and their diesel shops repairs 750 engines each month.  The yard itself covers 2850 acres.   

Oh, did I forget to mention the corn maze?  That we didn't know about that until we were up in the tower.  

I did find some interesting pictures from the past on the wall.  To me, these were more interesting than the miles of trains sitting in Bailey yard.  The picture below is a box car part of the Gratitude Train.  After WWII, Europe was devastated and the American people sent over 40 million dollars of aid.  The French people at that time were so taken with this gesture that they loaded a box care of all things French for each state.  The goods were distributed at each capitol in the U. S.  I bet this was the last time the French  thought highly of us "ugly Americans"!  It has been many years since they've had anything except contempt for us.  We sure wouldn't see them doing anything like that nowadays!

 

There also was a huge board about orphan trains.  During the late 1800's, there were thousands of orphans on the streets of New York, surviving on their skills as pickpockets, prostitution and selling newspapers.  A young priest saw their plight and started the Children's Aid Society with the help of affluent businessmen.  He thought there was a better chance for the children to live on farms, so in 1854 the first group of 54 boys was sent to Michigan.  Associates would go out ahead of time to advertise and help organize placement of the children into rural families.  In 1872 a series of Baby Trains were loaded with infants and small children to be placed with families who agreed to raise them in the Catholic Faith.  Between 1850 and 1910, an estimated 200,000 children were placed out in the countryside.  The board stated that all the children on the Titanic who lost their parents were sent out on these trains.

At least now I know a little more about trains and the part they took in our American history.  I just hope I can retain that information.  After all, there are times when I  lose my "train" of thought and can't remember where we were the previous week!

Looking into Lincoln

"Go west, young man.." was one of Horace Greeley's famous quotes, and that is just what we did.  We headed west to Lincoln, Nebraska, not looking for a piece of land to plow but rather a RV site.  There were quite a few sites open this time of year at Pawnee Lake State Park.  We had no one in back of us except trees, bushes, and rolling hills.  That is the beauty of having your own rig and traveling this time of the year.  

The only disadvantage to our site was the distance from the Sprint towers that we need for our Wifi access.  We were able to look at email and Facebook, but I couldn't download any pictures at all.  There was no way I could update the blog until we got into a place with better Wifi.  The pictures would have to just sit and wait patiently in my laptop for a few days.  Sigh...

We found out that there isn't much to do in Nebraska, unless you are into football or golf.  The Internet list of "things to do in Lincoln, Nebraska" was small.  The number one attraction was the Capitol building.  So, we headed downtown first thing Monday morning. 

The tall building rises 400 feet above the ground and is the 2nd tallest capitol building in the U.S.  Both Classic and Gothic architecture are reflected in the capitol, which was built during the Great Depression.  Even though money was scarce during this time period, it was paid in full at its completion.

 The building is quite impressive from the outside.  However, once we entered the first floor, I felt like I was in a medieval castle.  The massive walls and dim lighting added to that feeling.  It was so totally different from the Des Moines Capitol building.  Our guide said it was built to last 500 years, and I bet it will last beyond that!  This would be a good place to film a Harry Potter movie.  It has just the right ambiance to it.

I think the elevators are the same ones they installed when they first built the Capitol!  Look how narrow the doors are.  The inside could hold 3 or 4 people, but I felt claustrophobic even with just two of us riding up to the 14th floor.

 Look at the narrow stairways!  They weren't much wider than the elevator!  You sure couldn't get many people down those steps in a fire drill!  After we got to the 14th floor, Don gazed out on to the city below.  Doors to the outer area can be conveniently closed during inclement weather.

The carved doors to the Warner Memorial Room are a stark contrast to the rest of the building.  The Native American theme adorns the 600 pound doors.

Time for some fresh air and sunlight!  Our next stop was the Sunken Gardens, located not far from the center of Lincoln.  For me, it was a sight for sore eyes.  The tour of the Capitol was interesting, but if I had my choice of where to be during the daytime, it would be among all the beautiful flowers, not between massive stone walls.

The multi-colored Koi in the pond were curious and seemed to want my attention each time I got near the edge.  Maybe they just expected me to feed them and wanted to be at the head of the line, so to speak.

Our last sightseeing stop was the Pioneers Park, also in fairly close proximity to downtown Lincoln.  Below is the Prairie Building, primarily used for educating school children.

Nearby was a one room Cunningham schoolhouse, built in the 1930's and used until 1968.  It was moved from near Valparaiso, Nebraska to this location in November, 2009.  I thought it looked quite at home among the tall prairie grasses surrounding it.

 As we approached the building, a group of school children (some dressed in period costumes) were playing a game of Red Rover, Red Rover.  I can remember playing that myself during my childhood days.  This is an excellent way to show our current school children how drastically things have changed.

We took a few minutes to wander through the original classroom, before the temporary teachers herded the group of kids inside.  Wooden desks like these are no longer used, and "smart boards" have replaced blackboards in the classrooms of today.  It brought back memories for both of us, especially Don, who had attended a one room schoolhouse through the 4th grade.  Makes me wonder what the classrooms will look like 30 or 40 years from now.  One can only imagine!

Prairie Refuge in Prairie City

As we travel through different states, we sometimes look for things off the beaten path.  We have gotten information from the Internet, pamphlets we've picked up at visitor centers and people we've talked to.  It doesn't matter....if it sounds interesting and we can fit it into our schedule, we go for it.  We had picked up a Silos and Smokestacks Visitor's Guide at the Iowa Historic Museum the other day.  The article about this refuge sounded interesting, and it was only about a half an hour's drive from our campground. 

   

This wildlife refuge is located in Prairie City, just south and east of Des Moines. 

Rolling hills of prairie grasses welcomed us as we drove on the narrow road towards the visitor/learning center.

In the late 1800's prairies covered 85% of Iowa.  As people settled down and established farms, most of the tall grasses were obliterated. Today, only 1/10 of 1% of the prairie remains.  This refuge was established in 1990 to restore the prairie system in this part of Iowa.  Congress authorized the acquisition of 8600 acres of land, and slowly the corn fields were turned back into grasses and sedge meadows.  Volunteers gathered grass seeds from old cemeteries, roadsides and railroad tracks for use in the reconstruction.

We first headed to the Prairie Learning Center to get some basic information.  The learning center is an educational hub for people of all ages and there is no admission charge.  Inside the center are numerous places where we sat down and watched short films regarding different aspects of the prairies, savannas and how they are affected and renewed by wildfires.  There is also an excellent 15 minute film called "Return to the Wilderness" shown on a huge, 3 part screen in the auditorium.

The refuge has re-introduced bison and elk, which are in an enclosed area of the park.  Currently, there are 86 bison and 24 elk abiding there.  At least, that is the count that was posted on the white board yesterday as we entered into the center.  No visit here would be complete without a chance to see buffalo.  They were not close at all, but Don changed out the lens on the camera to the telephoto lens and captured the shot of the buffalo while sitting in the truck.  

So, that was our afternoon.  The morning was partly taken up with doing laundry.  Who wants to read about that mundane task?!  Not me, that's for sure!

Four Letter "F" Word

Well, we had a four letter "F" word day.........which is "Free"!  What word were you thinking about?  After all, this is a PG rated blog site!  No swear words at all.  I guarantee that!  Everything we did during the day was free of cost, except our lunch.   The day was cool, cloudy and a little windy, not very nice for walking around outside but perfect for our agenda.

First stop was the State Capitol.  We waited for the 10:30 AM tour rather than doing our own.  It was well worth the wait.  We found out that the gold on the dome is covered with 23 karat gold leaf.  It is replaced about every 20 years.  The gold leaf is thinner than an ash from a piece of paper that has been burned.  If gathered and rolled up, it would be the size of a baseball.

 I spent a lot of time looking up at the ceilings, which were amazing.  Here is what the dome looks like from the inside.

Another tidbit of information:  Iowa's first capitol was in the state of Wisconsin since it was part of the Louisiana Purchase.  The second one was in Iowa City, but the people of Iowa wanted their capitol in the middle of the state.  It took them 10 years to decide on exactly where to put the building.  Guess that isn't very long when politics are involved!

There is a huge, beautiful painting hanging at one end of the 2nd floor.  It depicts people of Iowa moving from the Eastern part of Iowa to the Western Plains.  

It doesn't look so large until you see the picture below and see one of the tour group on the landing below it.

Another impressive room was the State Library of Law.  The spiral staircases at each end are a work of art.  When this was first built, people would use a dumb waiter to haul the books up and down from one floor the the other.  Nowadays, most lawyers avail themselves to the huge database online.  No sense in climbing up and down those stairs if you don't need to!

 This is a view of the main part of the library.

After the tour, we walked down the steps in front of the capitol and about a half a block to the State of Iowa Historical Building.  That was also on our "to-do" list for the day.  One of the security men at the Capitol told us there was a very good restaurant on the 3rd floor there.  Perfect timing for us!  It was lunchtime.  We walked inside the museum (also free) and went directly up the the Baratta Cafe.  No waiting in line for a seat and an excellent lunch as well.  While waiting for our lunch, I went out on the deck to get another picture of the Capitol Building.

The museum also was very interesting  and we timed it perfectly:  a large group of extremely noisy school children raced into one of the exhibits just as we were coming out.  I almost got run over by a boy who barreled around the blind corner!  Yep, it was time to move on.

 We had done research on the Internet and I wanted to take pictures at the Papajohn Sculpture Park.  Thought we had it all figured out....well the information gave us an address that led us to the Mills Rose Garden.  Roses are nice, but not what I had in mind.  Of course, the sculpture park wasn't listed in our Garmin, so that wasn't any help either.  We back tracked and ultimately found the park in the downtown area, where we had just come from!  Persistence does pay off.

 The sculpture that I wanted to photograph is called "Nomade" and created in 2007 of stainless steel letters.  I was intrigued when I saw pictures of it on an Internet website.

 Here is a view from the front.  Although it's hard to tell by just looking at the photos, it's quite large.

There are quite a few sculptures in this 2 block park, situated in the heart of downtown Des Moines, but the little girl was my second favorite.  She is named "White Ghost".  Maybe she could be Casper the Ghost's girlfriend in a future animated movie.

So, that is a synopsis of our 4 letter word "F" day!  We got exercise, learned some interesting facts about Iowa,  inhaled some fresh air, paid no admission fees and I came back with quite a few good pictures.  There wasn't even a charge to park our truck by the capitol.  Kudos for the state of Iowa for providing so many free venues.

A Natural High on the High Trestle Trail!

It will be 2 weeks tomorrow since we've been on our bikes.  Somehow, we got side tracked......wonder how that happened?   So, did we just take the bikes off the rack and ride around the RV park?  Nope.  We got in the truck and drove 28 miles to the town of Madrid, Iowa.  Here they say "Maa-drid", with the emphasis on the "maa".  We found this out when we encountered local people also on the trail and I incorrectly pronounced their town's name.  Oops!  

The High Trestle Trail can be accessed from many different places since it is 25 miles long.  We chose the town of Madrid because we wanted to bike the portion of the trail that goes across the bridge and over the Des Moines River.

What do we see at the very start of the trail?  The Flat Tire Lounge!  Did they know about Don's past history with flat tires in the last month?  Was it a foreboding sign?  I hope not, since Don didn't carry any extra tire tubes with him.  Off we went, hoping for the best.  The completed trail has an eight foot wide cement base.  Nice and easy riding for us oldsters.

We reached the East End Towers, and Don is sitting at the edge of the bridge.  It is half a mile from one set of towers to the other and the bridge itself looms 130 feet over the river channel.  It was windy during the first part of the ride, but we could really feel the gusts when we biked across the open span.

In 1912, the Union Pacific Railroad built a trestle bridge over this chasm.  In 1971 the Corps. of Engineers built a new crossing on concrete piers. This bridges uses the same concrete piers as the railroad.   Arching over the deck are 43 steel cribbings that are lined with blue LED lights that come on at night!  I think it would feel eerie to ride or walk over the black abyss with only the blue lights to guide you.  They say if you ride through them at 10 mph, the lights spiral and blur together. 

 Here is a view of what it looks like from the end of the bridge:

On the other side of the valley is the 1912 concrete footing for the old railroad trestle.  It sits above the newer bridge, allowing me to take a picture of what the High Trestle Trail looks like from the side.  What amazing views we had from the bridge!

 At the end of the trail, which winds up in Woodward, is the old train station.

Heading back to our starting point, I took more pictures of the tree lined path.  Fall was in the air, which had a crispness to it.  It was a perfect day for bike riding.

We got one last view of the Des Moines River as we biked back east to Madrid.  We sure wish they could transplant this trail to Phoenix!   We sincerely appreciate the 8 year effort (from 2003-2011) made by multiple organizations and volunteers to create this corridor for all to enjoy.

Bridges of Madison County & The Duke

Who said Iowa is just a bunch of cornfields?  Well, maybe they do have a lot of farms and rows and rows of corn all along the roads, but we discovered that there are many places to explore here.  Except for staying overnight in Des Plaines last month on our way to Wisconsin, we had never been to this state.  

The day was cool and only supposed to get up to the mid-60's.  But at least it was sunny!  Off we went to see the Madison County covered bridges and John Wayne's birthplace in Winterset, Iowa.   Out of 19 covered bridges in this area, only 6 remain.  Years ago, we had watched the movie "The Bridges of Madison County" with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood.  It was time for us to go out and track down the places seen on the big screen.

Don trudged up the stairs of the historic building in St. Charles, now used as a welcome center.  It started out as a Presbyterian Church in 1855.  After most of its parishioners left, the church closed its doors.

A local lady bought the church and used it for storage, letting it fall into disrepair.  After her death, her relatives donated it to  the city of St. Charles.  It has been beautifully restored; a costly adventure.  The individual stained glass windows needed to be re-leaded at a cost $4,000 per window.

First bridge on our agenda was the  Imes Covered Bridge, located in a park near St. Charles.

Many of the bridges can only be reached by traveling down white gravel  county roads.  At least the county has clearly marked the roads where we needed to turn and we had printed maps of the area.  It was much easier to find the covered bridges than the lighthouses by Sturgeon Bay!

As we came down the hill, the Holliwell Bridge came into view.

Holliwell is the longest covered bridge, and measures 122 feet.   It was featured in the film and renovated in 1995 for $225,000.  There were other couples walking around the bridges also, probably on the same quest as we were.

Our next find was the Cutler-Donahoe Covered Bridge, which in located inside Winterset's large City Park.  For such a small town, it is amazing that they have such a huge park.  For those of you who have RVs, the city also runs a 34 site campground, which is quite nice and only $18 a night.  Perfect place to set your rig down for a day or two while you're in the area.

Below is the beautiful arched Stone Bridge, which is just  south of  the covered bridge.  It's where Francesca and Robert (played by Streep and Eastwood) went for their get away picnic. 

Also in the city park, but not included in the film, is the Clark Tower, erected in 1926.  In another 2 or 3

weeks we could have seen rolling hills of colored trees from the tower, but today they were mostly green, with tinges of yellow in spots.

I digress.  Time to get back on track and get with the program.  Below is the Roseman Covered Bridge, which is featured in both the book and the movie.  It's also referred to as the haunted bridge.  A sheriff's posse was trying to capture an escapee from the local jail.  It was dark as the posse split into two, and went into the bridge from both ends.  A scuffle ensued, and the person disappeared.  Locals often hear wild laughing coming from the bridge and assumed it is the ghost of the escapee.  That makes me glad we went here during the day!

We backtracked to the middle of town to tour John Wayne's birthplace.  The house is quite small, just a kitchen, living room, dining area and one small bedroom where the 13 lb. baby boy was born.  The physician who delivered him was a female doctor, very unusual for that time.  No one is allowed to take pictures of the inside of the house, which is filled with memorabilia.  One framed photo on the wall shows the Duke with a group of Masons in Tucson.  Other information stated that he became a member of the Masons in 1970 in Tucson, during the time Don and I were still living there.

Yep, that's me, looking at the new statue of the big guy.  He lived in this area until he was seven, before his parents moved to California.  When he was young, he delivered newspapers with his dog, Duke.  The firemen in the station only knew his dog's name, so they would say, "There goes little Duke and big Duke".   After that, it is said that John (his given name was Marion) asked his mother to start calling him Duke.  I'd say that was a wise decision.  Being a boy named Marion generated a lot of teasing, even in those days.  It reminded me of Johnny Cash's song "A Boy Named Sue".

Bridge No. five for us was the Cedar Covered Bridge.  It was the only one you can drive through with your vehicle.  Guess that is because it was destroyed by arson in Sept. 2002 and a replica dedicated two years later.  The original was built in 1883.  They did a great job on reconstruction.  You would never know that it was more than 100 years newer than the others unless you read the information sheet.

It was time for a coffee and snack break.  We headed back into town again and went into the Northside Cafe.  The counter inside was where Robert Kincaid offered Lucy Redfield a stool.  The restaurant has been in existence since 1876, and the top floor was formerly an opera house.  

During a recent renovation the cafe's owners got rid of the drop ceiling, and gave the inside a fresh coat of paint.  I think the exposure of the tin ceiling adds a lot of character.  The cashier was telling Don they have a customer who is 103 who comes in here and remembers being in the opera house.  Hope I can have that good of a memory if I become that old.   I have serious doubts about that.  There are times when I can't remember what we were doing the previous week!

Last, but not least, is the Hogback Covered Bridge, built in 1884.   It got its unusual name from the limestone ridge which is in the west end of the valley.  At least it wasn't named after someone's family.  If I had a family name of "Hogback", I would legally change it.  It is 97 feet long and in its original location.

We had driven a lot of dusty roads today, but we checked off everything on our "just-have-to-see" list!   If you are a John Wayne fan, or loved the "chick flick" movie about Madison County, this should be a stopping point the next time you're driving through Iowa.  Little pearls can be found among the cornfields!