We saw a polar bear in Nebraska - Part 1 of Fri., Aug. 18, 2017

First off, it's been a crazy month so far. We moved into our new single-wide manufactured home at the end of July. I'll write a separate blog about that adventure.

Three weeks after we moved in, I left on a Volksmarching weekend with Susan and Darren. At 5:00 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 17, we headed from San Antonio to Grand Island, Nebraska...IN ONE DAY! That's 14 hours and four states. It's good we had three of us taking turns driving.

At one point, when Darren was driving, I-35 went from 70 mph to 0 in a few seconds. All of our luggage shifted forward. But we did not get in an accident. It was construction that took the northbound freeway from two lanes to one. Roadside construction signs informed us that it would take 14 minutes to get through the back-up at speeds of 10-15 mph. HA! Our speed was 0-5 mph, but we made it through. The length of the construction was a bridge. The back-up was miles.

Along the way, we stopped to gas up, eat, and go to a grocery store. During one stretch when I was driving, I became very sleepy, so we pulled over at a historical marker and Darren took over driving. The historical marker happened to be one for the Oregon Trail.

 

At the same stop, we also so this marker for a re-enactment of the Pony Express Centennial Re-Run that took place in 1960.

Our rooms were ready for us when we checked into our hotel in Grand Island, Nebraska about 7:30 p.m. Comfortable describes our digs for the next few nights. I have a king bed, desk, chair and ottoman, small refrigerator, and a microwave. Susan and Darren's room is similar, but they have two queen beds.

We were exhausted. All of us got a very good night sleep.

At 6:15 a.m. on Friday, we met for breakfast in the motel's dining area. The food was good with plenty of it. I had scrambled eggs, bacon, two small pancakes (from a pancake-making machine), and lots of sweet watermelon. 

Fueled up, we headed an hour east to Seward, Nebraska, to do their Volksmarch. The temperature was 71 degrees (a welcome relief after San Antonio's blistering 100-plus-degree temperatures).

The first thing we discovered about Seward is that it is Nebraska's 4th of July City, and has been since 1868! People come to Seward by the tens of thousands for the 4th of July.

Seward, Nebraska, wants us to be sure we don't confuse them with Seward, Alaska, 4,135 miles away.

Downtown Seward has a vibrant vibe, with businesses filling in historic buildings. A little later in the walk, we came back to the Square, and ate and shopped. But first, our walk...

The Rivoli Theatre has a restored, colorful face. I love the Art Deco look. The movie, however, is completely modern.

In 1871, the city of Seward became the Seward County seat. Here's Seward's Neo-Classical Revival Courthouse.

Seward County Courthouse

Love the spiral staircase on this side

 Anyone looking for a Mack truck utility cart? I know just where you can find one in cherry condition, and cherry red to boot.

Down a number of blocks, we turned off the main road into the Parade of Flags plaza that was sponsored by the local Kiwanis Club. They did an excellent job displaying state flags, territory flags, and flags of each branch of the Armed Forces.

Parade of Flags

Parade of Flags

They even put in benches!

Parade of Flags

Northern Mariana Islands flag

At this point, we left the road behind and hit the bike trail. I enjoyed checking out the wildflowers.

Black-eyed Susans

Missouri Goldenrod

Showy Partridge Pea

Six-foot-tall thistles

The bike path crossed under Plum Creek. A local woman out walking her dog said, "Wow! The creek is really high." (There had been some strong thunderstorms the day before.)

Plum Creek

The bike path bridge over Plum Creek

Coming around the corner on the bike path, I remarked, "That looks like a polar bear ahead."

Sure enough...a polar bear in Nebraska.

The lady walking her dog was a wealth of information, so we asked her about the polar bear. It is a float for the holiday parade the weekend after Thanksgiving. 

Pretty "cool" don't you think?

Next we walked through nice neighborhoods, back through downtown Seward, past the other side of the courthouse, and we decided to do a little shopping on the Square. We found a great bookstore selling eclipse postcards, a great collection of jigsaw puzzles, and books about the solar eclipse, in addition to their other books. We spent a few dollars there and bought up almost all of their remaining eclipse postcards.

Downtown Seward

Seward County Courthouse

County courthouse and statue

Seward water tower

While the walk was good, the biggest surprise came at the end and it wasn't even mentioned in the walk write-up: the Nebraska National Guard Museum. Outside displays include tanks and a beautiful sculpture of jets in flight.

Darren in front of a medium M60 "Patton" tank

M113 Armored personnel carrier

M113

M59 Armored personnel carrier

Nebraska National Guard Museum

Fantastic sculpture in front of the museum

Medium tank: "Sherman" or "Easy Eight"

If you do this walk and the museum is open, be sure to check it out. Did I mention it is FREE? This was our favorite part of the walk. I think we spent about an hour to an hour-and-a-half there.

First, we watched the movie and then we roamed around the museum. It isn't very big, but it's chock full of interesting things to read and see. For example, the plane below is a replica of a Curtiss Pusher biplane. 

Replica Curtiss Pusher biplane

A few more photos of the museum...

Susan Medlin, AVA Southwest Regional Director

Susan Medlin

Medal display

We finished at the museum and finished the walk. Then we went in search of food. At the Chamber of Commerce we found a brochure with local restaurants. Cafe on the Square sounded good. Darren looked it up and it had four stars. We bit.

Susan and Darren at Cafe on the Square

Interior of Cafe on the Square

Their menu has so many good choices. We had no trouble finding what we wanted to eat. Susan and I had the Oriental Salad. Darren had quiche with Hollandaise sauce and fresh fruit cup. Our salads were not the usual large restaurant size. They were more a dinner-side-salad size. The salads came with a nice-sized roll. 

Susan wanted to get onion rings; however, they were out. We were being good with the salads because we wanted peach crisp for dessert. Guess what? They were out of peach crisp! Someone didn't plan their supplies very well. If we had been able to order the extra items, the restaurant would have made $18.00 more on our table. Oh, well. Not so good for them.

When we finished eating, we headed back to Grand Island to look for an ice cream parlor for dessert. Their Garmin directed us to Annabelle's Ice Cream Parlor via a circuitous route that was three times longer than it needed to be, only to find out Annabelle's was no longer there. It had been replaced by a laundromat! No suds for me, thanks.

Fall-back position? Dairy Queen! Garmin did get us there. I have taken a liking to the Triple Truffle Blizzard. Mmmmm. The Grand Island Dairy Queen is a small mom-and-pop franchise so they offer their own specials. They have a buy one, get one for 99 cents special on Blizzards right now. Susan and Darren were able to take advantage of that.

We took our Blizzards and headed back to our rooms. It was time to rest before the eclipse weekend started with a Meet and Greet from 5:00-7:00 p.m., followed by either a 5k or 10k Volksmarch. Susan, Darren and I opted for the 10k walk. It was in the high 80s F. when we started. Thankfully, we went through neighborhoods and parks with trees. The sun went down as we neared the end of our walk, but it didn't cool off much. I will write about our second walk of the day in a Part 2 blog for Friday.

Travel Bug out.