Home From Nebraska

   The family just got home last night from a six-day trip. We left early Friday morning to drive to Sea-Tac airport and fly to Denver, Colorado. From there we met my mother who took our son for the weekend while the wife and I rented a car and drove four hours east to North Platte, Nebraska.

   The reason for going to North Platte was a birthday party for which I was hired to play piano. The party was Saturday night and we were invited to stay through the 4th of July. By the time we got in Friday it was getting pretty late. We drove out to the farm where the party was being held, had a fantastic buffet-style meal (a frequent occurrence on this trip) and discussed logistics for the party.

   Saturday was the party and it was a grand event. 300 pounds of prime rib was being smoked as all the family, friends, church, and the entire town of Maxwell had been invited. We set up the stage and did a soundcheck and then people started rolling in. I don't know how many people actually showed up, but I would guess 400-500 would be in the ballpark. It took an hour and a half to get everyone through the food line. The party was a lot of fun and I did not end up playing very long at all as there were other entertainers booked to play as well.

   Sunday we had the day off, so the wife and I explored the area. I posted about that in "On The Road: North Platte, Nebraska".

   Monday we got up late and headed back out to the farm for the 4th. Despite there being a ton of leftovers, just about everybody brought food, so there was enough food to feed an army. There was still plenty of beer, as well. Everyone chatted while the kids played games, sprayed each other with water cannons, and lit off small fireworks. We ate more food than we should have (and there was still a lot left), had drinks, and socialized until the big fireworks show after dark. As the crowd began to thin out our host convinced me to play a song, which lead to another, and another, until we had a full-on piano bar going on in the barn until about 3am. It was a lot of fun.

   Tuesday we checked out of our hotel and made the four-hour drive back to Denver. We had given ourselves a couple extra hours to meet my mother for lunch and get our son. My mother didn't make it to lunch as there was construction in Vail and then an accident near the airport. In fact, our son just made it to the airport in time to get through security and to the gate. Fortunately our flight was on Frontier. It was the first time I had flown on Frontier and by all appearances they are about as organized as a sock full of gerbils. Our gate had to be changed because of one flight being late and our own flight was delayed about 50 minutes as the first officer was a half-hour late.

   By the time we finally got our baggage and picked up our car it was about an hour and a half later then we had expected. From there we drove to Portland. A close friend from Alabama was in town for a few days and we took the opportunity to visit. It was well after midnight PST by the time we arrived at my friend's place and we had been traveling for about sixteen hours.

   Wednesday morning we had another feast for breakfast, visited for a while, went out to say hi to the cows, and then took advantage of the nice day by taking an historic and scenic drive around the area. I have spent many years in this area outside of Portland, but never really taken the time to view it from this perspective. It was really nice.

   Eventually we had to say goodbye and make the three-hour drive north to home. We got home about 7pm to find the garden had grown quite a bit while we were away and the chickens were very happy to see us.

   It was a fun trip, but I am glad to be home.

On The Road: North Platte, Nebraska

   I am currently in western Nebraska for a gig. I'll do a trip report after I get home, but I wanted to post about what my wife and I did today.

   We got in late after the gig last night, so we got a late start. I had the day off, so we decided to get lunch and explore North Platte, Nebraska. We started at Cody's Trading Post, an obvious tourist trap souvenir shop right off the interstate banking on the legend of Bill Cody's "Buffalo Bill's Wild West" show. There was a lot to look at, though, and it was fun. I picked up a book called, The Wisdom of the Native Americans,  a couple things for the boy (who is stay with grandma in Colorado while we're here), and the wife picked up a souvenir sticker.

   From there we drove out to the northwest edge of town to visit the Golden Spike Tower overlooking Union Pacific's Bailey Train Yard. At two miles wide and eight miles long, Bailey is the largest train yard in the world. The Golden Spike Tower has an open-air observation deck on the seventh floor and a glassed-in, 360-degree viewing area on the eighth floor overlooking the whole operation. The whole thing is very impressive.

   While we were looking around the eighth-floor viewing area, I came across a brochure for area attractions. My wife spotted Dancing Leaf Cultural Learning Center in Wellfleet. After looking up the location of Wellfleet -- about 25 miles south of North Platte -- we called to see what their hours were. The woman on the phone was happy to give us any information we needed and effectively told us to show up and we would get the tour whenever we arrived. We were even offered to join an earlier group for some traditional native buffalo stew, but we were still full from our late lunch.

   We arrived at Dancing Leaf and were greeted by Les and Jan Hosick. After a quick round of introductions and the obligatory explanation of why were hanging out in North Platte, Les took us to a small building across the driveway from their home. I'll admit, as we walked into the the single-room box with a single row of metal folding chairs and shelves covered with bones and artifacts I wondered if this might turn out to be disappointing. After only a few minutes of listening to Les talk about prehistoric Nebraska I was completely sucked in. He told us about prehistoric geography and why so many artifacts can be found in Nebraska using charts, maps, fossils, bones, and plaster casts. He went on to discuss Native American culture and history with an impressive array of artifacts. After almost an hour of fascinating show& tell and Q&A, we took a short walk out of the classroom to the earth lodge Les has built as a recreation of an actual Native American lodge.

  Outside the lodge are primitive racks for drying and tanning, an arbor of limbs and twigs to form a shaded work area, campfire, and a whole new assortment of artifacts to recreate the entire native family home. Inside the lodge was amazing! While Les admitted to using modern hand-tools -- he spoke quite a bit about the fragility of tools made from stone, sticks, and bones and the need for native peoples to be skilled in tool making -- the lodge is an authentic replica. The temperature inside was probably 15 degrees (fahrenheit) cooler than outside. We sat inside around the fire ring and Les told us about family life in and around the lodge and about construction of the lodge itself.

   By the time we made our way back to the gift shop Les had spent close to two hours with my wife and I and every minute was riveting. I picked up an arrowhead necklace for a souvenir and also picked up a book, How Can One Sell The Air?, a study of a speech by Chief Seattle.



   "Wild Bill" Cody, the world's largest train yard, and the coolest history field-trip ever. We didn't even make it to Buffalo Bill's Ranch. North Platte, Nebraska is a pretty cool place!