We Didn’t Drink the Kool Aid

Even sleeping in, we were still out pretty early.  And it is STILL too hot - highs near 110, lows in the high 70’s.  It’s killing me and M. is sick or allergic, hard to know which.

We left Kearny heading East.  Again, Nebraska is hard state to drive through,  It’s not as flat - though it is flat, there are trees, various buildings, horses and cows and it’s still a hard drive.  It’s dull and dusty, and the highway was lulling me to sleep.

There is a spot here in which each year 100’s of cranes migrate. (We saw crane at Buffalo Bill’s place.  I kind of hoped there might be more,)  Unfortunately they migrate in spring and we are well beyond that.  In fact, the many of the little rivers and creeks given the heat especially are bone dry,  Though they’ve been dry a while, grass is growing in them.  Anyway, we did drive out to the Audubon Center, but given the near 100 degrees at 9 am, we didn’t walk the path.  I thought perhaps cranes might get me back into NE, but M. didn’t think even that was worth it.

Traveling further we roamed a local gallery in Grand Island.  Local artists, okay.  But sadly more interesting to me was the ‘travel stop” / truck stop we stopped at right off the highway.  We stopped for gas and rest rooms.  Travel stops that I’m used to are just that.  Big ones maybe have a little touristy gift shop and McD’s.  This was like a mini mall!  The store had everything from the usual junk to clothing - levi’s - and car parts and office supplies.  There was a food court with 5 options.  Nothing I’d want to eat given a choice, but still - 5?  And a second floor! With a 24 hour hair cutting shop (I was tempted.  You know what long hair is like in this heat?  I’m just sooo happy my hair is no longer black.)  Oh, and an arcade too - a big arcade with life-size statues of aliens in front of it.  But the real culture shock for me, was the announcements for who had signed up for the showers going off every few minutes.

In their lobby they had a piece of the World Trade Center, because the steel for the building was made or came from somewhere near by. 

From here, we headed South to Hastings - home of Kool Aid.  Hastings is the home of the Hastings museum - which is supposed to have a Kool Aid display.  Unfortunately, THAT display was under construction and not available.  Not wanting to have simply wasted the ride and wanting to stretch we went through the museum anyway.  It was a true old school museum - lots of taxidermy.  I have real feelings about that.  I like the little scenes, but the politics of it bothers me.  On the other hand - these critters have been stuffed for two of my lifetimes or close - at least they’re not… going to waste?  That seems the wrong words, but I’ve no better at the moment.

We considered trying to drive through town to see the foot prints of the Kool Aid man that were supposed to be transported here from the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, but that just seemed above and beyond even for us and it was so hot.  We accepted defeat and kept heading East.

We hit Lincoln around 3 and went to our first priority stop:  the Roller Skating Museum.  As we drove, we passed a KFC with the signage that said ‘creamy fried gizzards”.  It made M. a little nervous for dinner.  I commented we’ve not found one place that served Rocky Mt Oysters.  M. wasn’t too upset about that.

Since we had the address of the roller skating museum, we found the street.  We drove the whole length of town, found a building with the right number … it looked like the right kind of building - brick, non residential, non profit looking.  But there was no sign - none.  But it was the right address…

With a little trepidation we went to the door.  It opened.  Right in side was a roller skating display - which was good because if not, I would have been sure we were in the wrong place.  Other than the display, it looked like the entrance to an office.  There was a conference room off in one direction and clearly office cubbies in the other.  The sound of a photocopy machine could  clearly be heard.  But there was also a sign that said Museum - with an arrow.

We followed.  After winding around the offices (some roller skating organization, apparently) we arrived in a big room in the back of the building.  Based on some pictures, the building / signage is currently under construction, but you’d think maybe they’d have put up a temporary sign?

At any rate, the museum was fun.  It had everything from old skates, posters, competition outfits and movie memorabilia.  It was better than the truck stop.

In the end, it’s still God awful hot, dinner turned out okay.  We’ll see what we want in Lincoln tomorrow and move on to Omaha most likely.  The ‘pute is acting up - so if we go quiet - it’s probably just technical difficulties - no need to worry.