You are reading the 104th and final post from Marty & Janell's Big Retirement Adventure Blog. We want to thank our faithful readers for joining us on this journey. We've had a blast and have enjoyed sharing it with you. I also want to thank Janell for making this adventure everything I had hoped it would be, and more!
Since departing Livermore 39 months ago The Beast has traveled38,108 miles, we have stayed in 169 different RV parks and campgrounds, and we have explored all 48 lower U.S. States. We are now ready to resume our regularly scheduled lives... or, you might say, our bricks and mortar lives!
For our 48th and final State we visited Omaha, Nebraska followed by one day in North Platte, NE.
From Nebraska it was a 1,500 mile drive home to Livermore by way of Denver where we visited with our sons (one of whom flew in from Dallas). Our adventure ended yesterday, October 31st.
Home at last!
Before we talk about Nebraska, let's hear what Johnny Cash had to say about our adventure:
(and a shout out to Steve Donaldson for the song suggestion!)
Don't go to sleep on Omaha! It has more to offer than you might think:
The Old Market neighborhood comprises roughly 15 blocks in central Omaha.
"At the end of the 19th century, Omaha was in its prime as a great railroad center, connecting the settled East with the wide-open West. The Old Market was the epicenter of the activity, bustling with produce dealers, buyers, and transporters."
The area fell into decline in the 1960's when vendors and wholesalers abandoned the neighborhood for new facilities along the interstate. Sam Mercer, owner of four blocks in the area, instead of tearing down the structures or selling, invited artists to open galleries in the old buildings. Soon shops, bookstores, restaurants, artists' studios and apartments moved in too. By the 1970's the area became a tourist draw and was renamed the Old Market.
I got a kick out of the upper sign and didn't even notice the lower one until sorting photos... Amusing!
This repurposed Big Boy mascot resides in front of Hollywood Candy in the Old Market district. The following four photos are from Hollywood Candy.
In addition to LOTS of candy the store also "features a vintage pinball arcade, a movie theater, plus displays of movie memorabilia and curiosities collected by the owners for decades. More than a store, we're an experience!"
The Old Market Passageway is one of the most photographed locations in Omaha. It was originally an alley where sellers would store produce in the lower level for cooler temperatures. It was covered in the 1970's, "creating a beautiful unique space for restaurants, shops and art galleries.
I was aware of "Boys Town" but did not realize that Omaha was where it started.
Today the organization has 10 locations in seven states. Girls were first admitted to Boys Town in 1979 and today make up half of its residents.
Founded by Father Flanagan in 1917, the awareness of Boys Town skyrocketed with the 1938 release of the movie "Boys Town" starring Spencer Tracy and a young Mickey Rooney. Spencer Tracy won the Academy Award for Best Actor in this film.
Janell and I decided to watch the movie while in Omaha. Here is the trailer:
Boys Town has another claim to fame: the world's largest ball of postage stamps!
Certified by Ripley's Believe It or Not, the world's largest solid ball consisting solely of postage stamps resides in Boys Town! The ball is 32 inches in diameter, weighs 600 pounds and is made up of 4,650,000 postage stamps.
This community garden is in the Dundee neighborhood. Three miles west of downtown, Dundee was developed in 1880. The charming neighborhood is considered Omaha's first suburb and is home to Warren Buffett, the Oracle of Omaha, and the world's sixth richest person.
The beautiful S-curved Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, which opened in 2008...
Bob Kerrey is a former Nebraska Governor and Senator. He also served in the Vietnam war as a Navy Seal and was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in combat.
...spans the Missouri River
...between Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa
I've been telling people of late that Janell and I haven't been more than 40' apart for the past three years! In this instance we were in different states yet still joined at the hip... er, hand...
On the Iowa side of the bridge sits River's Edge Park...
...which has a very cool pelican play structure
Fertile Ground Mural
One of the largest murals in the country, measuring 70 feet tall and 465 feet long, it "tells the story of Omaha from historical references to present-day neighbors, to the far-reaching dreams of the many children in the mural."
Test your baseball vernacular!
Omaha has been the site of the College World Series since 1950. The games are now played in Charles Schwab Field, which opened in 2011. This mural is on a building across the street from the stadium.
The text and graphics in the mural are all expressions used by baseball play by play announcers. How many do you recognize?
Pioneer Courage Park in Omaha's Central Business District
From First National Bank's website (the bank commissioned the sculptures):
The series of sculptures depict four pioneer families and their covered wagons departing westward from
Omaha. Each wagon stands approximately 12' high and more than 40' long
when the oxen, horses or mules are placed in their hitches. Individual
characters range in height from 3' to 7 1/2'. This site also includes
Blair Buswell's Wagon Master that stands at 11' tall and weighs
approximately 2,000 pounds. The Wagon Master served as a crucial element
to wagon trains, guiding their members west and looking after the
families and their supplies.
About Omaha and it's role in exploring and settling of the West (from a plaque at the park):
The area known as Omaha has seen its share of visitors. The name Omaha - meaning "upstream people" - came when the Omaha Indians began using this region as a hunting ground in the early 18th century.
In July 1804 Lewis and Clark passed through, noting that the territory was well suited for fur trading and as a possible military outpost. It was near here that they first met with Native American chiefs on "Council Bluff" overlooking the Missouri River.
After the fur traders, the Mormons were the first non-native settlers to call this region home. While migrating from Illinois, they stopped near present-day Florence (north of Omaha) in an attempt to winter there in 1846. The climate was harsh, the food meager, and disease ran rampant. Of the 4,000 Mormons who made the journey, more than 600 perished.
Omaha's Central Business District as seen from Gene Leahy Mall at the Riverfront
Union Station - Durham Museum
The Art Deco style Union Station opened in 1931. At its peak of service during World War II as many as 64 passenger trains carrying 10,000 soldiers and civilians passed through the station each day. With the decline of passenger rail service Union Station closed its doors in 1971.
Union Pacific donated the building to the City of Omaha and it was subsequently restored and converted to The Durham Museum. The Durham museum is primarily dedicated to telling the story of Omaha and the region. It is quite well done and informative.
Is this how people dressed for Zoom calls in the 1940's?
As seen from the gift shop, located inside the former ticket booth. I hope the sculptor gave the museum a discount on this one...
We learned many things about Omaha, several of which I am happy to share with you here:
In World War II Omaha's Martin Bomber plant employed over 14,000 people and built 2,116 B-29 bombers over four years.The B-29's that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Enola Gay and Bock's Car, were built in this plant.
In 1955 the Omaha Stockyards surpassed Chicago's as the busiest in the world.
Omaha's roots as a telemarketing and call center hub, employing 11,000 people in 1985, can be traced to the Cold War. In 1948, as the Cold War was beginning, the U.S. military opened the Strategic Air Command at Offutt Air Force Base; by the late 1950's the base employed 20,000 people. To support the Strategic Command and military facilities around the world Northwestern Bell constructed a high tech communications network, which included new technologies like fiber optic cables and touch-tone phones. Eventually private businesses were allowed to start using the system too, which resulted in companies from around the nation building support call centers in Omaha.
Look familiar?
Omaha's Swanson and Sons began selling frozen chicken pot pie in 1952, followed by America's first frozen TV dinner: turkey with peas and mashed potatoes (yum!). In 1953 Swanson sold 10 million of these delectable meals!
Union Pacific is headquartered in Omaha. UP is the largest railroad in North America, covering 23 states across the western two-thirds of the United States.
President Abraham
Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act of 1862 to create the Transcontinental Railroad. This act created the Union Pacific Railroad Company to build west from
Omaha and meet up with the east bound line constructed by the
Central Pacific Railroad (which started in Sacramento) at Promontory Point, Utah.
If you want a short refresher on the Transcontinental Railroad check out this article from History.com
The museum includes several fully restored passenger cars from the 1940's and 50's
Union Pacific Railroad’s Bailey Yard in North Platte, NE is
the largest railroad classification yard in the world!
From the Golden Spike Tower website - edited:
This massive yard covers 2,850 acres, reaching a total length of
eight miles. If put end-to-end, Bailey Yard’s tracks would be 315 miles long.
Every 24 hours, Bailey Yard handles 14,000 railroad cars. Of those,
3,000 are sorted daily in the yard’s eastward and westward yards, nicknamed “hump” yards. Using a
mound cresting 34 feet for eastbound trains and 20.1 feet for those
heading west, these two hump yards allow four cars a minute to roll
gently into any of 114 “bowl” tracks where they become part of trains headed for
destinations in the East, West and Gulf Coasts of America, as well as
the Canadian and Mexican borders. Together, these two yards have 18
receiving and 16 departure tracks that see an average of 139 trains per day coming or going.
The on-site car repair facility annually replaces 10,000 pairs of
wheels, many identified through an in-motion defect detector using
ultrasound technology to inspect the wheel. This detector was developed
by Union Pacific and is the only one in the world. Some wheel repairs
even take place without the rail car ever leaving the track, minimizing
down time.
Bailey Yard employs 2,600 engineers, mechanics, welders, inspectors and other positions.
The Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center gives you a bird's eye view of Bailey Yard. The eighth floor is glass enclosed and the seventh floor is an open terrace from which you can hear the workings of the yard.
Each month the fueling
and service center services 9,000 locomotives, repairs 1,200 locomotives, and dispenses 18 million gallons of fuel.
This video gives you a panoramic view of Bailey Yard with three trains moving at one time:
The video below shows you how the "classification" works. Look for three oil tankers rolling down the sloped tracks in the middle of the screen. Listen for the sound of the impact when they couple. The "east hump" is the higher ground in the background behind the three tankers. It is so named because 1) it's a hump!, and 2) it handles the trains heading east. The cool thing is that these rail cars (1-4 at time) are released at the top of the hump and sent to the appropriate tracks with only gravity to propel them.
1,000 miles of our 1,500 mile drive from Denver to Livermore were on Interstate 80. After seeing signs like the one above I was reminded that a large portion of I-80 used to be US Highway 30, the Lincoln Highway. You may remember reading about the Lincoln Hwy in our Pittsburgh, PA post.
My "wanderlust" can be traced to Hwy 30/I-80. In 1962, when I was just shy of five years old, my parents moved our family of ten from White Plains, NY to Sacramento, CA. Moving to California was a dream of my Dad's that dated back to his exposure to California during WWII when he was stationed at Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento.
The migration consisted of half the family traveling by air and the other half, including me, traveling by car. Our route would have taken us on Hwy 30 and the portions of I-80 that were complete at that time. It was fun to ponder this memory from sixty years ago as Janell and I drove home from Denver.
Once again, many thanks for your interest in our blog. Until we meet again! Or, as Edward R. Murrow famously said when signing off his broadcasts: Good night and good luck.
This is Amana RV park, in Amana, Iowa. They boast of having over 450 campsites on 80 acres of gorgeous Iowa land. You can just see the cornfields (the band of gold), beyond those RVs, at the outer edge of the park. It was a nice park, with very spacious sites. There weren't many campers while we were there, so it was very quiet. Apparently one week earlier, it was a different story: there was an Oktoberfest in Amana, and we heard that 65,000 people were in town that weekend! I'm sure the RV park was filled to capacity. At first when we heard we'd missed the Oktoberfest, we were disappointed; but then we heard how crowded it was and decided we were lucky to have missed it.
On our drive out of the RV park one day, Marty spotted these two bald eagles!
Amana is one of seven villages on 26,000 acres, that make up the Amana Colonies. The seven are: Amana, East Amana, High Amana, Middle Amana, South Amana, West Amana, and Homestead.
The colonies were built and settled by German Radical Pietists who were escaping persecution in Germany. When they came to the United States in the 1840's, they first settled near Buffalo, New York. Then in 1855, seeking further isolation, they chose the Iowa countryside, near present-day Iowa City.
For eighty years, the colonists maintained an almost completely self-sufficient community.
From Amanacolonies.com:
In the seven villages, residents received a home, medical care, meals, all household necessities, and schooling for their children. Property and resources were shared. Men and women were assigned jobs by their village council of brethren. No one received a wage. No one needed one.
Over 50 communal kitchens provided three daily meals; as well as a mid-morning and mid-afternoon snack to all Colonists. These kitchens were operated by the women of the Colony and well supplied by the village smokehouse, bakery, ice house and dairy, and by the huge gardens, orchards and vineyards maintained by the villagers.
Children attended school, six days a week, year-round until the age of 14. Boys were assigned jobs on the farm or in the craft shops, while girls were assigned to a communal kitchen or garden. A few boys were sent to college for training as teachers, doctors, and dentists.
In 1932, amidst America's Great Depression, Amana set aside its communal way of life. A ruinous farm market and changes in the rural economy contributed, but what finally propelled the change was a strong desire on the part of residents to maintain their community. By 1932, the communal way of life was seen as a barrier to achieving individual goals, so rather than leave or watch their children leave, they changed. They established the Amana Society, Inc. a profit-sharing corporation to manage the farmland, the mills, and the larger enterprises. Private enterprise was encouraged. The Amana Church was maintained.
The above write-up doesn't specifically state this, but we learned that the colonists did not have kitchens in their homes; there was no need since all meals were prepared and eaten in the communal kitchens. (Sounds pretty organized, but what about midnight snacks?!)
Just in case you were wondering . . . yes, the Amana Colonies have a connection to the Amana Corporation (makers of refrigerators and other household appliances). It was founded in 1934 by George Foerstner as The Electrical Equipment Co. in Middle Amana to manufacture commercial walk-in coolers. The business was later owned by the Amana Society and became known as Amana Refrigeration, Inc. It's now owned by the Whirlpool Corporation.
Our RV park was just 1 1/2 miles from Amana, and we went into town two or three times.
Scenes from Amana:
Amidst all the fall decor in Amana, we truly weren't sure if the overalls and tractor were simply decoration or . . . ?
The following day our question was answered: the overalls were gone from the clothesline, and we saw the tractor drive down the road and pull into the yard, returning from the work day.
One evening we drove into Iowa City to see Ward Davis play at the Wildwood Smokehouse & Saloon. We first found Ward Davis in July 2021 in Helena Montana at the Lewis & Clark Brewing Company, and we really enjoyed listening to the band.
Then and now we noticed the drummer's hair, which was always flying about. We wondered whether the fan blowing on him was to keep him cool, or because it made his hair look cool. My guess is the latter.
Have you heard of Eldon, Iowa?
Eldon is where the American Gothic House & Center is located. In 1930, an Iowan artist by the name of Grant Wood took a tour of the small town of Eldon and spotted a little white house with a large Gothic window. Inspired, Wood quickly sketched the house and returned home to Cedar Rapids to paint American Gothic. When asked why the house caught his eye, Wood said he found the window amusing, and called it "pretentious" for such a small house.
The models Grant Wood used for his now famous painting were his sister, Nan Wood Graham, and his dentist, Dr. B.H. McKeeby.
Three interesting notes about the models and the folks they portrayed:
1. Wood's sister and dentist posed separately for the painting, and neither of them were in front of the house when they posed. Wood painted the house from his sketch and added the figures in afterward.
2. Many might assume the couple in the painting are husband and wife, but Wood called them father and daughter.
3. The dentist did not want to pose for Wood but reluctantly agreed after Wood assured him he would not be recognizable. Wood elongated his sister's face, but he didn't change enough about the dentist; the dentist was instantly recognized by those who knew him, and he was not happy about it.
American Gothic
Outside the American Gothic Center
The house that inspired Grant Wood's painting
The house is open for touring, but there's not much inside. For whatever reason, the management has chosen not to furnish it. Also, tourists are not allowed upstairs, as the staircase is an old and skinny, spiral one. But in the American Gothic Center, adjacent to the house, we enjoyed learning all about the house and the people involved with its history.
It was also fun to see other renditions of the American Gothic couple inside the center.
Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.
Our travels took us through a another small town called Riverside. What might Riverside be known for, you ask?
Of course you know about Captain James T. Kirk, of the starship USS Enterprise?
Perhaps you even knew Captain Kirk was from a "small town in the state of Iowa"?
In March 1985, an enterprising Riverside Councilmember and Star Trek fan, Steve Miller made a motion during a council meeting: What if they changed the theme for the city's annual River Festival, to "Trekfest" -- and they also claimed to be the birthplace of Captain Kirk?
Miller said, "Well, no small town in Iowa has ever claimed to be the birthplace, so we figured it was first-come, first-served." The council voted 4-0 that Monday night to designate Riverside as Kirk's future birthplace.
Miller reported later about the council meeting: "Although they were taken by surprise, the resolution passed unanimously." Miller then told a friend who was a reporter in Cedar Rapids, and word spread from there. Miller said, "It was picked up by the wire services and The New York Times and was even broadcast over the BBC in England. The mayor had to take a week's vacation from his regular job to be at city hall to answer all the calls about it. At that point, we knew we had made the right decision."
And that's all there was to Riverside!
Although we missed out on the big Oktoberfest in Amana, we did get to attend a small-scale one in Iowa City.
There was beer, and there were contests about beer. Just how long could you hold a liter of beer out at arm's length?
There were costumes!
I don't know if these two won any prizes, but they should have! What sports!!
We went to a Renaissance Festival in Middle Amana:
Many attendees were in full "Ren Fest" attire. These two looked to be doing some serious shopping.
We sat and listened to Pictus for a bit. They were pretty entertaining.
Back in Amana: Millstream Brau Haus, with a flag left over from the previous weekend.
