Road Trip: Up The Middle Of The Country

Day 13: Thursday, May 16, 2024 - Philipsburg, KS, and York and Lincoln, NE

Day's statistics:
Weather: 84°, showers
Steps: Steve 7,318; Linda 6,106
Travel: 239 miles

Breakfast was in another building behind the motel, accessed walking through the main lobby.
We arrived and were the only two eating.
It was a full buffet, though there were cheese omelets on ice that got heated in the microwave.

Linda had a bagel, and I made an egg sandwich.

Our route sent us back into town - due west - and then we took the first right and headed due north.
And then there was a whole lotta nothin', again, at least for the first half hour.


The road made a left, then a right, and not much further down was the state line.
This time I was finally able to capture the big black line that shows up when you look at a map - it was between the "Leaving Kansas" sign and the "Nebraska" sign. Most state lines don't have a "Leaving _______" half, which may explain the problem.

Seriously though, here's the state line - only two left after this.

When I was reviewing the map the previous night, I happened to notice a vista overlook. I knew it was just before Harlan County Lake. As we were getting closer, I slowed a little and kept an eye out for it. Then I saw the sign, and we turned into the small lot.
It was an overlook of the lake.



It was less than another hour and we were on the interstate.



We found out afterward that this bridge-like thing over the interstate was part of the "Great Platte River Road Archway Monument" in Kearney, NE.


We eventually wound up stopping in York, NE, about two-and-a-half hours from Philipsburg, KS, and about an hour from Lincoln.
"Yeah, I can be myself here in this small town; and people let me be just what I wanna be."
I thought we took a closer, better picture of this watertower, but I was wrong. It might be hard to tell but the top of this tower looks like one of the colorful balloons from the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. However, they should have painted a basket around the base somewhere so it really would look like a balloon.


We were stopping in this small town to visit the Anna Bemis Palmer Museum.

It was a small museum that had artwork, and military artifacts. We viewed the items, and spent a little more than half-hour there (I did say it was a small museum).
The docent told us that there are frequently locals that are stopping by to drop off artifacts too.









I was hoping this selection of artwork mounted to the wall could be stitched so it looked nice - but my source images weren't good enough.



Highlighting a couple pieces.
A cross-stitch of the capital.

This is a one-hundred-plus year old autoharp, though it is displayed behind a regular harp and those strings make it a little challenging to see.

This is a large painting - but it is also a "hidden pictures" painting wherein the viewer is given a list of eight items to find within the painting. The picture with the list on it is full size to make it a little easier to find the items.


In this set, this scroll is the "Worlds Largest Hand Drawn Maze", at over 1,000 square feet. There are various pictures of the scroll, sections of the maze, pictures of the scroll on display, and a picture of its creator.
The docent told us a story where someone had stopped by to see the maze, and the docent was telling the visitor about it and the visitor responded with "Yeah, I know, I'm the guy that made it."

Next up: lunch.
When we decided to stop in York to visit the museum, we also found a place to eat: The Kitchen.
We saw The Kitchen a we drove into town to go to the museum. So we had to drive the three miles back to eat.
We parked and headed inside.



We were seated and given menus (I didn't get a picture of the inside, for some reason).

Linda had a half grilled cheese and salad, and I had the fish and chips.


Outside the window we spied a prarie dog playing in the grass (I had my phone so I couldn't easily soom in like I can with the camera).

The meal was good and reasonably priced.

After our lunch we turned around and headed back into town.
We made our way to the Clayton Museum of Ancient History.


This museum is on the grounds of the York University, and is located on the lower level / basement of the Mackey Center.
We proceeded downstairs, and began our brief tour.

There were a half-dozen or so different areas, in one large room. It seemed that walking to the left brought is through a progressive timeline from older to younger - though we were still talking about artifacts that were hundreds of years old.
There were a fair amount of artifacts, and here are the ones we thought were more interesting, including some pottery, coins, clothes, dice, weapons, texts, jewelry, ancient texts, and more.












































As we walked a clockwise loop, the last item we came across was a replica / faux prayer wall.



Even though the museum was rather small, we still spent nearly an hour inside.
We headed upstairs and inquired in the office about the library that was on the campus. We were told it was the next building over, but it may be closed because the school had dismissed for the year alreaddy.
We walked over and sure enough, the doors were locked. We circled the building and headed back to the car.

Our detour in York, NE, was over and we continued on to Lincoln, NE, without passing through Delaware.


Some of a very large solar array.


Just after 4:00 we arrived at the Lincoln Library. No, wait, the library in Lincoln. We already visited the Lincioln Library last year...
We decided to hit up the library because it was after 4:00 and as most venues - museums, government buildings - close at 5:00, we wouldn't have had much time to visit after finding whatever and parking.

For a city library, this was a rather small facility.



The travel schedule sheets were getting a little marked up, battered, and were showing signs of wear. So we decided to print another copy of the last page since that was all we needed at this point in the schedule.
I asked the librarian if there was visitor use available, and after showing my ID, I was given a passcode that expired in an hour. Since I had e-mailed the schedule to myself - for just such an occassion - before we left, I easily brought it up. I asked if there was printing available and was told yes. However, the $0.10-a-page black-and-white printer was going to be in use for a while because someone was printing a large job, but the $0.25-a-page color printer was available. No problem.
While we were talking waiting for the page to print, we spke to the two librarians that were helping with computers and printing. And that's when we learned that we were in the "South Branch" - as the entry sign showed - but the main branch, just a couple miles down the road, was the big, new branch. Great, we'll go there after getting our printout.
Recognition for the family's loss aside, maybe they were at the library checking out a book on how to properly operate a motor vehicle... But as the driver in the next stop, should they have properly parked? Or is continuing the display of their abilty to drive acceptable? We'll never know...

We were only in the South Branch for about fifteen minutes.
Just over two miles away was the "main" branch, the Charles Gere Library.

On the way to the hotel, we stopped by a HyVee for some wine, and a salad snack (we were still working on the package of cookies from a previous day).

Our final stop was our hotel, Travelodge.
I did the check-in thing, and we headed to our room.

It was a little early this night, so after our salad, we played a few hands of Pinochle (this is Linda's hand - a Royal Flush with a nine, and a marriage).

We played a half dozen hands, relaxed a bit more, did the luggage thing, washed up, and went to sleep.

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