York, NE to Scottsbluff, NE

My cellphone died yesterday for some unknown reason, so I left York and headed west on US34 to Aurora, NE and the closest Verizon store.  As it turns out, Aurora is a pretty little place.  There is no WalMart or other big chain stores in the area, and consequently the town has a downtown that actually has all kinds of local businesses in it.  A rare sight these days.  Here are a couple shots of the town square and the county courthouse:

I had to have last rites performed on my cell phone, so after working with the lady at Verizon for about an hour, I headed on west on US34 to Grand Island and the first WalMart I could find.  I spent another 90 minutes getting a cheapie phone and finally got on my way to Scottsbluff around 1:00.  Because I was running so late, I shot down I-80 for about 200 miles to Ogallala, then west on US26 another 130 miles or so to Scottsbluff.

When Pat and I lived in Denver from 1980-1982, I travelled to Scottsbluff once a month on sales calls.  This was the first time I've been here since 1982, and while the town has grown (they, too, now have a Walmart!), the terrain up here hasn't changed.  Northwest Nebraska is known as the "Sand Hills".  The terrain is rolling, although it may climb or dip as much as 1,000 feet or so in a few miles.  The ground appears for all intents and purposes to be sand dunes that are covered with a thin layer of grass.  There are virtually no trees, and the underlying bedrock is very weak sandstone.  All through Iowa and Nebraska until about 50 miles east of Ogallala there were literally miles and miles of corn fields.  In the Sand Hills, there are occasional fields of corn, but the main crops up here are potatoes, sugar beets, and cattle (at about one head of cattle for each 10 acres of grazing land).  There are a few sugar processing plants in the area and a number of meat processing plants.  Much different and much more arid than the rest of Nebraska.

I took a couple pictures near Ogallala of the Sand Hills and Lake Ogallala in the background:

Around Scottsbluff there are a few interesting things to see, most regarding the old Oregon Trail, which ran through the area.  About 30 miles east of here is Chimney Rock, which was one of the "signposts" for the settlers working their way to the west:

I'll be spending some time in the area tomorrow and then on to Denver for 4 days.

Miles today:  379
Total: 2,143

Carroll, Iowa to York, Nebraska

I had a pretty interesting day today.  I left Carroll this morning and headed down US71 to US6, which took me to Council Bluffs, Iowa.  I stopped to see the Union Pacific Museum, which was quite interesting, but...no pictures, please.  Across from the museum, which was housed in the former city library (an Andrew Carnagie library) was a very nice park with a beautiful fountain.  Made you want to stay for a while:

These guys seemed to be really enjoying the fountain:

Well,anyway, the museum was pretty interesting.

I continued on US6 through Omaha (seems like a nice place.  I even thought of Marlin Perkins when I passed the Mutual of Omaha building.)  Omaha is the home of Boy's Town, made famous by the 1930's Spencer Tracy and Mickey Rooney Movie.  I stopped and took in the visitor's center and the "Hall of History."  This was well worth the stop and the story was and continues to be inspiring.  Here are a few pictures:

This was interesting:

There's a story behind this statue, but you'll have to look it up.  Hint:  it's the origin of the lyrics "He ain't heavy, he's my brother" from the 1960"s.

What a beautiful campus and what a wonderful story.

After Boy's Town I continued west on US6 to Ashland, NE for the Strategic Air Command Museum.  SAC was the bomber forces that were constantly airborne and acting as a deterrent to the USSR attacking our country during the Cold War.  SAC was operational from 1946 to 1992.  Here are a few pics from the museum:

My final stop today was the Museum of American Speed in Lincoln. This is another old car museum, but it houses some beautiful examples of vintage racing cars going  back to the 1920's.  Here are a few pics:

This is the 160th Corvette ever produced, a 1953 model:

This is a Bonneville Salt Flats racer that ran from 1998 through 2010, eventually reaching speeds over 325 mph:

As I was leaving the museum, I was talking to the curator, and I told him I was heading to the Salt Flats for Speed Week.  Well, he tells me that Speed Week has been cancelled because of poor conditions on the salt.  I just checked the SCTA website, and sure enougbh...it's Cancelled!  I'm going to have to modify my plans a bit, but there is still a lot to see out here in the Wild West, so I'll do something else.

"Life's a Journey, not a Destination"


Miles today:  264
Total: 1,764

Dubuque, Iowa to Carroll, Iowa

We had some rain early this morning, but by 5:00 or so it was all gone.  When I left Dubuque headed south on US151 and then west on US30, I met several people who said that there had been three large downpours west of Dubuque yesterday afternoon.  Fortunately, the weather has been great all day and is actually about 10 degrees cooler that the last several days.

If you've never been to Iowa, this is pretty much what it looks like:

This was along US30 near Animosa, and I saw this kind of scenery most of the day today.  These are huge corn fields.

The first stop today was the National Motorcycle Museum in Animosa, Iowa.  I had actually been to the previous, much smaller museum once a number of years ago, but the museum relocated to a much larger building about 5 years ago.  It is pretty impressive:

At any rate, you're probably tired of looking at old motorcycles, so I'll push on.

I continued west on US30 until I came to the little town of Boone, Iowa.  Turns out, Boone is where Mamie Eisenhower was born and where her extended family continued to live after Mamie's parents moved to Denver around 1897 or so.  I stopped at the house and there was a little old lady in attendance who must have been one of Mamies' babysitters when she was little...well, maybe not, but she did know Mamie because Mamie and Ike would come to Boone periodically to visit family.  This was Mamie's family's residence when she was born in 1896:

That was pretty much it for Boone today.  I'm in the little town of Carroll for the night and then on into Nebraska in the morning.

Miles today: 263
Total: 1,500

Waukegan, Illinois to Dubuque, Iowa

I left Waukegan this morning and headed up the Interstate to Milwaukee for the Harley-Davidson Museum.  I had been here a couple times before and have always been impressed with the museum and how they present the history of the company and the evolution of its products.  The building was, I think, opened in 2008 and is really impressive:

The statue in front was modeled from a photo of a hill-climber in the 1930's.  The actual photo is inside the museum.

This is the earliest known Harley-Davidson in captivity.  The first motorcycle was built in 1903, but it appears this example is from 1904 due to some changes that were known to have been made between those two years.  One thing you'll note...it's not very big:

There are several hundred bikes in the Harley-Davidson, and nowhere near all of them are on display at one time, but there are a lot of examples from the very early years.  These are examples primarily from the 1910's

This is a 1936 Model "EL", which was their first overhead-valve motorcycle.  These things are worth north of $75,000 today for a good example:

This is Elvis' 1956 Harley Model KH, the predecessor to the Sportster:

Here's a two-seater from 1941:

Yep, that's one big moter-sickle!

I thought I might do mine up like this one, except I'd need to haul around a portable generator to light it up:

And who can forget this one?:

I think I saw Peter Fonda hiding behind the silver column behind the bike.

Anyway, very nice and always interesting.  I headed northwest from Milwaukee to the little town of Hartford, WI.  Hartford is located in rolling farm country, has a population of about 12,000, and is the home to the Wisconsin Auto Museum.  Way back in the day, there were a lot of makes of automobiles manufactured in Wisconsin, and one of those was the Kissel, which was produced from 1909 to 1931 in Hartford.  The museum had over 100 cars on display from 1903 to about 1980 or so.

The oldest car on display was this 1902 Rambler, which was the second-best-selling car produced in the US that year, behind the "curved dash" Oldsmobile.  Looks a lot like it:

Here are a few of the cars that were on display:

This one caught my eye.  It's equipped with an enclosed space behind the rear seats for your golf clubs:

And I thought this baby was interesting.  It's equipped with "suicide seats" on either side of the rear seat area.  I guess that's where you put misbehaving children.  Look closely:

On display were a number of cars of other makes, including this 1950 Nash.  One of the guys I went to High School with had one and he never had any trouble getting a date to the drive in.  The front seat backs folded down to make a large bed in the car...

Here are a couple more cars that I thought were unusual:

And finally, what I think is one of the coolest cars of all time.  A 1949 Willys Jeepster:

Anyway, that's it for today  I'm in Dubuque, Iowa for the night and headed to Animosa tomorrow for the National Motorcycle Museum, than on across the state to Carroll, Iowa for the night.

Miles today:  281

Total: 1,237

Auburn, Indiana to Waukegan, Illinois

I left Auburn this morning and rode up to South Bend, Indiana, about 100 miles, to visit the National Studebaker Museum.  I've been here a couple times before and always enjoyed it.

As you can see from the pics below, this is a really first-class facility, housing over 100 vehicles from 1800's wagons and carriages through automobiles produced up until 1966:

The staff is all-volunteer and they do a very nice job.

Studebaker was in business from about 1850 through 1966.  During the 19th Century, they were a premier producer of all kinds of carriages, wagons, and buggies, winning many prizes at expositions around the world.  You can see some of these vehicles here:

Right around 1900 they started to get interested in producing motorized vehicles and at the beginning, those vehicles were electric. These two are from 1911...looks like you could climb in and just boogie along!

During the 1920's and 1930's, they were producers of high-end automobiles similar to Packard, Auburn, Cord, and Chrysler.  You can get a taste of the styling and quality of these cars:

Studebaker went into receivership in the early 1930's, but produced some beautiful autos after emerging from reorganization up until the start of WWII.  During the war, all production was devoted to military contracts and automobile production didn't resume until 1946.  By that time, of course, the big three (GM, Ford, and Chrysler) steadily gained domination of the automobile market, and, while Studebaker had some success in the late forties and through most of the 1950's, by 1959 the company was losing money and never returned to profitability.  They did, however, produce some "distinctive" cars during this period:

Unfortunately, production in South Bend ended in 1964 and production in Ontario ended in 1966.  This was the very last Studebaker built in 1966:

After exploring the Studebaker Museum, I headed on north and west through Chicago to Waukegan, IL, where I'm spending the night.  I'll be going to the Harley Davidson Museum in Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Auto Museum in Hartford, WI tomorrow, then west into Iowa.

Miles today: 243
Total: 956