Explore It - Part 1, Sunday, Aug. 20, 2017

Aurora Borealis? Aurora, Colorado? Aurora, Illinois? Guess where we are to "explore it"? We are in Aurora, Nebraska to check out the town as part of our Volksmarch Eclipse Weekend. 

On our 1/2-hour drive to Aurora on I-80, we had a beautiful sunrise. In fact, the sky was beautiful most of the day.

Sunrise I-80 east near Aurora, Nebraska

Volksmarch start and finish location

Information about Aurora, Nebraska on our Volksmarch walk instructions states: "The first European settler came to this area in 1861. Aurora was founded in 1871 and named for Aurora, Illinois. It became Hamilton County's county seat in 1876. Currently, the population stands at around 4,500. Harold Edgerton, inventor of the strobe light, grew up here. [More about him later in the blog.]

Today, we are doing a 10k walk and got an early start because is going to be hot. To begin, we went out and back on a neighborhood street and then headed north on Hwy. 14 past the Explorit Center and the Plainsman Museum. Aurora's police officers were on duty to stop traffic when the Volksmarchers crossed Hwy. 14 and kept us safe.

Coming back already?
Nope, just getting started

Edgerton Explorit Center

No time to explore this museum today, but
it looked interesting

More lovely sky

After crossing Hwy. 14, the path before us went through Refshauge Park, a beautiful oasis right off the highway. It was still cool and we had nice shade as we traversed the park.

Me proving I was there

Refshauge Park

From the park, we started making our way around town. We saw a grain elevator, some churches, a water tower, parks, residences, and the Hamilton County Courthouse.

Aurora, Nebraska water tower

Grain elevator

Cool perspective (with my shadow)

What kind of flowers are these?

Brick sidewalks

Presbyterian church

Beautiful homes were the norm on this walk.

The hostas were in full bloom. When we lived in Oregon and Washington, our yards included a number of these.

The building below looks like it used to be a church but maybe was converted to a private home. There is no sign outside indicating it is a church.

The Hamilton County Courthouse is Country Capitol Style as it is modeled in the shape of the U.S. Capitol (except there's no dome and it is built with red brick and Colorado sandstone instead of marble).

Hamilton County Courthouse, 1895

Hamilton County Courthouse

Walkers in front of the courthouse

Continuing through the city, we passed an old cinema, the lime green Espressions coffee shop, and then we circled Cole Park on our way to our checkpoint. A big thank you to all those who volunteered today at the start/finish area, sales table, checkpoints, and those who marked our route with either chalk or bark dust (on the gravel parts of our trails). You made our life easier!

Downtown Aurora, Nebraska

Espressions...more than just coffee

Volksmarchers heading to Cole Park

Walking through Cole Park

One of the beautiful homes on our route

Adorable mail box

NOT an adorable mailbox...this is the real Farmall

We crossed another highway and entered Streeter Park. Streeter Park is large and we followed trails there for about a mile. I think the photo below is a fungus of some type. It sure is colorful!

Fungus among us?

The big shade trees in Streeter Park provided a drop in temperature of about 10 degrees when we walked in their shade. Ahhh!

Streeter Park

Suspension bridge with congregated Volksmarchers

The only shade on the city street was our own.

I was so surprised to find hibiscus in Aurora, Nebraska. Not just any hibiscus, but hibiscus with HUGE flowers. We lived in Hawaii for five years and I've seen my share of hibiscus; we even had some in our yard. But just check out these hibiscus flowers in the following photos. Wow!

Hibiscus in the corner of someone's yard

A different yard with hibiscus. Look at the
size of those flowers!!

Lovely sky over Hwy. 14 and the railroad tracks.

We ended our 10k walk in about 1/4 mile at the Edgerton Explorit Center. But our day is not done. After we had our Volksmarch books stamped for credit, we got a $1 off coupon for the Explorit Center. It was time to see who Howard Edgerton was.

Turns out this museum has a fascinating display about the invention of the strobe light, invented by Harold "Doc" Edgerton. 

Here's where we learn about "Doc" Edgerton

The most impressive uses of strobe lights are high-speed and stop-motion photography. A number of his photos are on display. 

A diver

Description of photo above

"How to Make Applesauce at MIT"

A cat falling and landing

Hitting a baseball

Throwing a baton

The rest of the museum housed hands-on activities. 

This lady was making large bubbles.

I found a really cool place to take my photo.

Bubble tubes

The most fascinating item was this laser music harp. You could play music by moving your hands through the laser beams. There are four laser beams, each beam plays a different instrument. One of the buttons on the front allows you to change the instruments. Darren and I took turns playing "music" on this. It was fun!

Laser Music Harp & speakers

Darren playing a tune

Of course, there was also an exhibit about the Total Solar Eclipse. After all, that's what most of the people were in Aurora for this weekend. All the little towns in the path of totality were booked up.

After our morning 10k walk and a visit to the museum, we headed back to our rooms to rest before the evening 11k walk in Central City and on the Dark Island Trail.

My room at the Best Western in Grand Island.

Check back for the evening's walks as I will post those separately.

To be continued...