Nebraska - Day 29 - via small towns to Gretna again

Gretna/West Omaha KOA, Gretna

Saturday, 29 October 2022

Lincoln and Omaha are less than an hour apart so I added a what-you-might-call scenic route to today's drive.  When I came east from Grand Island to Lincoln, I took the interstate because I'd wanted to get to the state museum early.  But according to the map I'd missed a number of small towns on the parallel US highway, so I backtracked this morning to see some of those.

today's route

Remember those odd highway signs in South Dakota, I think it was, that said "Why Die?"?  Telling people to slow down and drive carefully.  Well, I saw one not far out of last night's state park.  For a minute I thought I'd somehow strayed out of Nebraska into South Dakota until I remembered I was closer to Missouri than to Minnesota.

I passed lots of fields where corn had been harvested, and in one of them I saw a half dozen cows grazing.

I came to the town of Seward, pop. 7,643, and the county seat of Seward County.

Seward County Courthouse
built 1905-07

I looked online to see what that dome is made of, and despite finding a detailed description of this building and its construction, including the small domes you can't see in this internet photo that are on each of the 4 corners, there wasn't a word about the most visible part.

I saw a sign in town that said: "Seward, Alaska 3,447 miles →," which I thought showed a sense of humor.

One of NPR's most popular programs, "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," was on - it's taped in Chicago - and they said Chicago had recently been named #1 in the US for its high rat population.  Which, they said, drawing a reasonable inference, showed that the rest of the country is a sinking ship.

I passed through Utica, pop. 861, and Waco, which didn't have a sign but had 296 residents in the 2020 census.  I think I've mentioned before that Nebraska has a real penchant for naming its towns after those in other states, and these three following one after another just prove my point.  Actually, I looked them up and both Utica and Waco were named after the towns in New York and Texas, respectively.  So yeah.

I passed 2 facilities this morning labeled Corteva Agriscience.  After seeing the 2nd one in such a short space, I looked it up and learned it's a publicly traded company that sells seeds, fertilizers, fungicides - you know, farm stuff.

Finally I came to York, which also didn't have a sign but had 7,832 residents.  It too is a county seat, for York County.  I tried to find a photo of this courthouse but the only ones online were of the original, historic version.  I couldn't even find when the new one was built, but it's an uninspiring red brick building that is attractive only for those who prefer brick boxes in the 1970s to 1980s styles.

Gasoline at all stations in York charged $3.39/gallon, compared to most of those in Lincoln that charged $3.64 - a big difference.  Oddly, I didn't see a single grocery store in all of York - or at least the part of York near the main street through town.  They must have them - York is the largest town in the area - but their location is apparently on a need-to-know basis.

Then back to Lincoln on the interstate, where I ran into game day traffic.  Actually, the vehicle traffic wasn't nearly as bad as the pedestrian traffic, because I'd cleverly chosen a route that went very near the stadium, and I didn't know the geography well enough to take an alternate route.

Driving through town, I took the Cornhusker Highway, aka US-6.  I don't know if this is a metaphor for the school or the football team, but it was an extremely bumpy road - hard to drive on and very uncomfortable.

Because of everyone parking at places I'd thought of taking a break in, I couldn't find us a place to stop until we got as far as Waverly, pop. 4,279.  Not even in town, actually, but in desperation I pulled into an unused weigh station just east of town.  At least it gave us a little space for Dext to walk in and for us to have lunch.

We passed Greenwood, pop. 531, and Ashland, pop. 2,453.  After crossing the Platte River and passing Linoma (remember? with the tourist lighthouse?), we came back to Gretna, pop. 4,905.  We passed the campground because I wanted to stop at a grocery store and fill up with gas to get ready for the drive to Iowa in a few days.

At the Fareway grocery, the staff likes to take out your groceries for you (I guess it keeps them from having to retrieve the carts from the parking lot).  The woman who took mine was likely in her 30s and eager to chat.  She told me she'd recently split up with someone, then tried to go back but it didn't feel right.  She said she wanted to feel free enough to fly (and stretched out her arms) and feel joy.  I agreed with her that it was really hard at first, but told her it did get easier and the easier it got the more joy she'd find.  And she hugged me.  You just never know what's going on in the lives around us.

Then back to the KOA for a few days to finish out Nebraska.