Road Trip: Up The Middle Of The Country

Day 14: Friday, May 17, 2024 - Lincoln, NE

Day's statistics:
Weather: 84°, showers
Steps: Steve 11,211; Linda 10,816
Travel: 241 miles

Today's breakfast was light continental.

Linda had a couple of small muffins, and I had a waffle - though because it was a squeeze bottle and not a measured cup, there is a possibility I may or may not have put too much batter into the iron...
We brielfy chatted with another traveler, who was from Japan and who was meeting two friends from Japan.

On capital days, the capital is usually our first stop. But it wasn't today.
Because the capital wasn't open yet - it opened at 9:00 - and it was literally on the way to the capital, we stopped at The Sunken Garden.

The gardens were at the end of a residential street, and the small parking lot seemed to be shared with the people living in the house across the lot / street.
Some flowers were in bloom, but not all - and I am certain this location must be busy at peak.
It was early, and besides the maintenance workers, we were not the first attendees in the park.
At the beginning was a domed gazebo-like structure called the Rotary Pavillion, then we went to the right into a more enclosed area with paths, proceeded along the back, overlooked the lower level and its fountains, walked the perimeter of the lower garden, then headed out back by the pavillion.
























































While walking through the garden, at the far end, I saw the Bicentenial Cascade Fountain across the street.

We were at the park for over a half hour.

Now it was time to go to the capital, which was just over a mile away.


We found a place to park, and headed inside. First, we grabbed our selfie.

Across the street from the capital was this relief on the side of a [assumedly] government building.

As I was trying to get photos of the front of the capital, there was a guy wandering around on the stairs. I was able to digitally remove him.





We spoke to him, and he was an architect, and there was supposed to be a gathering of some sort that was being lead by the state architect of the capital building itself. Nice.
We made our way inside. We spoke to the docent / tour guide. She told us that there was a tour leaving at 10:00, in the main rotunda, upstairs. She said she was heading up there and she would get our stamp too.
We made our way upstairs, and wandered around a bit, and spoke to a couple other people waiting for a tour too.
The guide eventually appeared and we got our stamp.


The tour was going to be with a group of school kids. And since we had some time before the tour began anyway, we headed off ourselves.










We also admired the architecture, including the doors to the Secretary of State's Ceremonial Office, the dome, ceiling, and floor.







We found an elevator in one of the corners to take it up to the 14^th floor observation deck.


When the doors opened, we were greeted by construction workers wheeling equipment off the elevator. After they got off, we got on, and found the car padded to protected the walls from the construction.
Up on 14, we found that three of the four sides of the deck were open as the fourth was under construction.

The views were pretty nice from there, safety chainlink fence not withstanding.














The observation deck wasn't continuous - meaning that after being on one side, you have to enter a central foyer area to get to another.





We returned to the elevator, and made our way to the second - rather than the first - floor, and continued our tour.















After the library, we returned to the first floor and wound up joining the tour group at the tail end of their visit as they were sitting on the floor in front of the Secretary of State's Ceremonial Office doors (they were kids, afterall).
We were able to walk across the foyer to peek inside the unicameral chamber - meaning a single chamber / assembly wherein the legislation is voted on as one, rather than having a separate House and Senate. Nebraska is the ONLY state that exercises this technique.




As we walked back toward the side we entered, we saw these courtyards - there was one on either side of the hallway.


There were four pairs of doors on either side of said hallway, and all but one was locked. A custodian pointed us in the direction of the unlocked one, and we made our way to the patio area overlooking the courtyards.

We sat for a few minutes, then went back inside.

We continued to walk around a bit, and stumbled on the Court of Appeals.


At one point I noticed the doors in a room were open, and I could see the docent.
I told Linda I'd be right back. It turns out that the students were in the Supreme Court - the last stop of their tour.
I hovered outside the door to listen in. When she was done talking, I stepped inside for some pictures.








We were in and on the capital for about an hour-and-a-half.

Before departing the greater capital area, we decided to check out the Catholic Church that was across the street.
However, that was just a little bit easier said than done - all around the area were a bunch of oneway streets.
While we looked for a parking space, we turned left, then left, then left, etc.
During our second passing one block over from the church, I spied a streetside spot next to a parking garage.
We pulled in, got out, and made our way to the corner. I grabbed these before we crossed the street at the corner.


It is a little unusual to have a 5:00 PM Mass on Sunday (Saturday, yes; Sunday, not so much).


What was most surprising was the what-we-felt-was-a long line of parishioners for confession.
We admired the stained glass, archecture, and then headed out.



















We spent all of ten minutes in the church.

It was a little on the early side, but it was time for lunch.
We drove into town a little more, and found the restaurant.
We parked a couple blocks away as this was more of a business district and it was lunchtime.
We put a couple quaters in the meter and started our walk.
It didn't take long before we were at Honest Abe's Burgers and Freedom. We had researched this place beforehand so we had an idea what we were in for.




We placed our order at the counter, and headed upstairs - there wasn't any real lower level seating - to find a table. Our table overlooked the entryway and cooking area.


Linda had the Hammer of Thor!, and I had the Greatest Burger Ever, and we shared a Tater Trifecta (and Linda at ALL the sweet potato fries).



The meal was worth the walk.

Speaking of walks... it was time to walk back to the car.


We had a two block drive to get to the Sheldon Museum on the Univeristy of Nebraska campus. We moved the car because it was getting hot, and the time on our meter was up anyway.
I pulled up, shoveled some quaters into the meter, and we headed inside.





Our tour began by walking up to and then around the second floor, and then down to the smaller first floor.
Here is what we saw, generally in the order we saw it.
A couple works regarding the devistation in New Orleans, a Picasso, a Polock, a Norman Rockwell, and a few other interesting pieces.




















It wasn't a huge museum, and some of the work was more-modern and we aren't huge fans of that. But the museum was worth the stop anyway.
After nearly an hour, we departed - with time left on the meter, bummer.
We had a bit more than a three hour drive to our next city, O'Neill, NE, so we got underway as we had visited three of the four sights on our list, and the one we passed on was another museum.
We live in a community (not a development) of at-the-time-of-this-sentence 58 houses and we lost power recently due to a storm and a downed telephone pole. It took about 15 to get that fixed. I can only imagine how long it might take for some of the residents in the farmhouses to get a similar situation resolved.


A lot of the roads out in this neck of the woods fields are long and straight without much to see, except maybe a couple rivers, some bridges, a wind farm (one with twenty visible turbines), and cattle.








As we drove along, we noticed a "pathway" running parallel with the highway. But what was unusual was that A) it was well maintained, paved, and had bridges; 2) had road signage at crossings; and D) unlike communuty sidwalks / walkways, it was long - we noticed it for MANY miles.
Eventually we learned - from the hotel clerk in O'Neill - that it was the Cowboy Trail. In all, the trail is 187 miles long.

We found our hotel in O'Neill - Super 8 - and headed to the a supermarket for a snack. Essentiually next to the motel was a small plaza that included a Superfoods market.
We bought some cooked chicken - a pair of thighs - and a salad. We still had wine from a previous stop.

We returned to the hotel, I checked in, and we made our way to our room.

We ate our snack, did the luggage thing, played some Pinochle, relaxed a bit, washed up, and went to sleep.

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