Nebraska - Day 24 - back to Grand Island

Grand Island KOA, Grand Island

Monday, 24 October 2022

Jimmy is demonstrating that he's gaining energy by clawing a hole in the top screen of the soft-sided carrying case that the nice woman gave me when she caught him at the campground.  I put both kitties in there overnight (who knows what mayhem they could commit if I left them out on their own) and while we're driving (ditto).  I figure now that he's created a small hole, it's only a matter of time before they turn it into a way out.  So I now cover the top with a towel that they'd have to push their way through, and that's helped stop the damage.

They're sitting in front of the heater, getting warm.
Bucky's on the stool and Jimmy's tucked between Dexter's legs.

today's route

We hit the road from Cambridge - a continuingly bumpy road with a very strong wind, resulting in a very uncomfortable drive.

All through the state I've been seeing a fast food chain called Runza, "Homemade Fast and Fresh" and kept meaning to look up what it was and never got around to it.  Now I have and wish I'd done it sooner.  A "runza" is a traditional sandwich brought to this area by German immigrants - a bread dough baked around a filling of ground beef and cabbage, often with cheese.  I've run across similar sandwiches before - in coal mining country, for instance - and would have been interested in trying the Nebraska version, which they sell by the thousands for home games of the University of Nebraska football team.  Another item on the list for the next trip here.

On public radio I heard an interview with the author of a book called Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad.  The title explains the subject matter.  One thing he said that I hadn't heard was about the GI Bill.  That's always been important legislation to me because it allowed my daddy to be the first in his family to go to college, and that education raised our economic status far beyond what we would have had without it.  But I didn't know that the bill was implemented according to Jim Crow laws.  The funding was given to the states to administer (like bloc grants, I guess), which meant most Black service members didn't benefit.  The author said 98% of the government-guaranteed mortgages were issued to white people.  Another book that will go on my reading list once I can have a home again.

Nebraska has a town named Funk, pop. 175.

All along the road today I saw corn, both harvested and un-, as well as huge piles of corn-colored grain, which I think is likely corn.

The equipment at right should give an idea of the scale of this pile.

I passed several of these piles, and finally found one that was visible from a wide shoulder on the highway.  Note those trees in the far background, showing how long a distance you can see in this flat landscape.

US-34 that I was traveling on has been designated Sen. Carl T. Curtis Drive in this area.  He was Nebraska's second-longest serving US Senator.  He first ran on an anti-New Deal platform and was a loyal supporter of both Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon.  But he also voted to confirm Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court and he voted in favor of the various iterations of the Civil Rights Act in the 1960's, as well as to end the poll tax.  Unusual combination.

Sen. Curtis was from the town of Minden, pop. 3,118, the county seat of Kearney County.  Here, and in quite a few other towns in the state, I saw huge silos belonging to the Farmers Cooperative Grain & Supply Co.

I passed a sign saying I was "Leaving Brand Inspection Area."  Not having known I had entered a brand inspection area, I looked this up and learned that about 70% of Nebraska is covered by mandatory cattle brand inspection of each cow when it's being transported outside the brand inspection area.  Ranchers say this helps prevent cattle rustling.

I saw a half dozen cows with horns that look like water buffalo.  I'm pretty sure I've seen these before but can't offhand remember which state that was.  Actually, I saw cows like these several more times, once in a field with horses.  I was surprised the horses didn't seem to be keeping a prudent distance from those long curved horns.

I passed a turn for the town of Juniata and wondered why that name seemed familiar.  There's a Juniata County in Pennsylvania where a number of Amish families live - maybe that's it.

I saw a billboard that said, "It's time to precondition the calves."  I had to look that one up too, and I learned that's a period when calves are weaned onto dry feed, prior to being sold for meat.  Not sure I wanted to know that, but there it is.

In Hastings, pop. 24,907, I passed an enormous Masonic Center.  It covered an entire city block, was 4 stories tall, and was very imposing.  I couldn't get a photo and all those online are copyrighted.  A movie theater in town announced it was the 64th Anniversary of Hitchcock's movie Vertigo, which they were going to show to mark the occasion.

The price of fuel here was $3.45/gallon (the price is going down); US-34 here is called Tom Osborne Expressway, honoring the legendary high school and college athlete and extremely successful football coach at Univ. of Neb.; Hastings has its own softball complex.  It's odd to me to see this emphasis on softball around the state, but I guess it makes sense.  Baseball is more of a professional sport, comparatively, and the only professional sports teams Nebraska has are in hockey.

Coming into Hall County - Livestock Friendly - we came to Doniphan, "Preserving 'The Good Life'."

I crossed the Platte River a couple of times and got back to the Grand Island KOA.  The guy at the front desk greeted me with, "So how are the kittens doing?"  Notoriety comes in many forms.