Ruly Road Trip 2012 – Day 15 – Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois
We were strangely content being on the road over two weeks. Maybe we are starting to build up our traveling stamina. The only sign of fatigue was the query from our 6-year-old:
“Are we going front or back?”
meaning were we headed back to where we had just come from or forward onto another stop.
We woke on Day 15 of our journey just outside of Lincoln, Nebraska. Our first stop today was the Strategic Air and Space Museum in Ashland, Nebraska. This stop was requested by my husband to indulge his love of military and Cold War history.
The museum is a very modern-looking building with a missile perched right outside. Inside is a very large atrium with airplanes hanging from the ceiling, several large hangars filled with aircraft, some smaller exhibit spaces and some interactive, educational exhibits geared toward children.
My favorite memory from the museum was the small stage in the main hangar, where I assume the museum hosts events or lectures from time to time. My children climbed up on the empty stage and as I climbed up to shoo them down, I sensed that I had an audience. The immense aircraft were positioned almost in a perfect semi-circle around the stage. It gave a sense of a Superbowl-sized crowd staring down at you. It was a really impressive and humbling experience to think of all the people these aircraft represented, from the engineers who designed them to the craftsmen who built them to the pilots who flew them.
My children enjoyed the children’s exhibits, particularly anything that involved pushing buttons. We talked about an exhibit exploring whether asteroids would hit the earth but this was a bit confusing and scary to them at such a young age. They also loved constructing buildings out of the architectural foam blocks.
My husband’s favorite part of the museum was this quote:
After the museum, we stopped briefly at another Nebraska institution, the nearby Cabela’s store! We did a little shopping and then ate in their cafe for lunch. What a menu they offered!
My husband tasted some of the more exotic meats while I stuck to something more traditional. The ambience for the restaurant was very unusual. Our table was an interesting homage to hunting:
There were lots of animal heads on the walls and it made you stop for just a moment to think. For some reason, it struck me that while this display was a little shocking, it represented a completely different mindset–one that was much closer to and more comfortable with the cycle of life and the pecking order of the universe. In my bubble of life, I don’t have to kill my own food. In Nebraska, it appears that many people do (or could) and it takes enormous strength of mind to handle the emotions involved with that. It is not surprising that so many people in this region turn to fervent religious belief to make sense of it all.
After lunch, we drove on to Omaha, Nebraska.
Our scheduled stop was to walk around the “Heartland of America Park” which is supposedly home to the second tallest fountain in the world.
As we arrived at the park, it began to rain lightly. A handful of elegantly dressed people came running out of the park in prom-like dresses and tuxedos, with one woman in a princess-style gown. We asked it if was a wedding and were informed it was a Quinceañera (15th birthday) celebration.
The park has a central lake with a sidewalk all the way around. It was very beautiful and peaceful.
When we were about halfway around the lake, the sun came out.
We never did see the record-breaking fountain. Perhaps it had turned off due the rain or due to the droughts. We finished our walk near some Norman Rockwell-like patriotic statues.
Then it was back to the car and on to Des Moines, Iowa.
This part of the drive was one of the prettiest of our journey. When I look back at my pictures, I am not sure I have captured its beauty but I remembered thinking at the time that Iowa was really more like a landscape painting turned into a state.
We caught up with the rain again.
Which just made for even more dramatically beautiful landscapes.
Close to the city of Des Moines, we saw signs along the road reading:
Urban Sprawl
Ain’t too pretty
Save Our Farms
Build in the City.
Apparently Des Moines is plagued by the same problems we see here in the Washington area.
We arrived in Des Moines in the late afternoon
and took a walk downtown in the Pappajohn Sculpture Park.
We didn’t have very high expectations for Des Moines but it really blew us away. This was an incredible display of art and the whole of downtown had an arts community sort of vibe. There were people drumming in the park, lots of art gallery spaces and a vitality to the place.
The sculpture park was a wonderful way to create an outdoor art gallery that is accessible to all. Many children were enjoying the park during our visit and we learned that the park is even open at night!
We left Des Moines
and headed toward Davenport, Iowa. What is in Davenport? Dinner!
We ate at The Machine Shed, which is an odd name for a very delicious restaurant. They serve traditional farm-style food. Drinks are served in Mason jars, there are oversized knives in the silverware
and you could make a full meal out of just the appetizers, which included cottage cheese, coleslaw and fresh bread. I have never been served cottage cheese as an appetizer before but I must say it was delicious!
There was a wonderful gift shop attached to the restaurant selling everything from pie-making supplies to die-cast tractor toys. There were some wonderful humorous but true quotes among the merchandise.
There were some mouth-watering desserts on the menu but we had absolutely no room for them. We would have gladly taken a to go box if there was any way to refrigerate the leftovers. Overall, it was a fun Iowa culinary experience.
We drove on through the dark to our hotel in Aurora, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, where tomorrow’s adventures awaited.
Continue reading: Day 16 – Illinois, Indiana and Ohio