Fire and Wind

Another beautiful day in Nebraska but the morning started out with fog.

We saw an information sign by the outlet mall so drove in to see if we could find it.  It must have been an old sign because we couldn't find the information center.  There were maybe four or five stores in this "outlet mall".  We're never impressed with most outlet malls or malls in general.  
A visit to the Mayhew Cabin and John Brown's Cave sounded interesting so off to it we went.  Unfortunately, we didn't check the days and time.  It is not open until Thursday at noon.  

No problem we'll go find out something about Arbor. 
We took a ride through Nebraska City and saw some beautiful old homes.  The trees in this area were huge and I don't remember seeing any anywhere as large.  

As we were driving down the main street of town we saw a big "open" sign at the Nebraska City Museum of Firefighting. We walked inside and didn't find anybody.  After standing around for awhile and not finding anybody we left.  

  These trees are scattered throughout the town.  According to the signage there are 71 in Nebraska City.  As I was taking a picture a woman in the firehouse annex was standing in the doorway and asked if we wanted to take the Firefighting tour.  She walked us back over and asked if we wanted to do a self guided tour or she could give it.  Of course we wanted to have a guide.  What a wealth of knowledge she had.  Admission charge was $3.00

There was a Firefighter Museum in Kearney and we ended up running out of time there.  We were so glad we chose this one to visit instead.

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Nebraska City is the oldest fire department in Nebraska which was established in 1856.

These were original leather buckets.

This was an 1890 hand pulled pumper.

Mike Bauer worked with the fire department for 67 years.  He was quite a character who was also a deputy.  

We were told that this still worked and was the highlight of the museum.  

The photo in the background shows this actual piece of equipment.

As our docent continued to tell us stories of the people and places in town we were amazed at her knowledge.  As it turned out one story about a fire and all the firefighters that were injured, her son was one of them.

We found it hard to leave this interesting place and guide.  She told us of interesting places in town to do and see.  One of her suggestions was to walk down the street a block and see the windmill museum which just opened in April of this year.  

 As we were entering the Kregel Windmill Factory there were three couples leaving.  They told us it was great!
Bill and I watched a short video as we were the only ones there.  It was almost eerie.  

According to the brochure "In Nebraska City, Nebraska a man named George F Kregel had begun producing windmills in a single story wood-frame factory building on Central Ave.  Both George Kregel and Arthur, his son who followed him in business, are gone now, but their factory remains largely untouched since the Kregels were building their Eli brand windmills.

Preserved to reflect a moment in time-the year 1939--the Kregel Windmill Factory Museum is the only surviving intact historic windmill factory known in the United States.  Within the structure visitors will find a time capsule of early twentieth century shop  type manufacturing.  The contents remain in place as if its employees had just stepped out for lunch."  

Kregel also patented a bee hive.

Bill and I had no idea how a water pumping windmill worked other than the wind blew it.  Our guide showed us how they worked and automatically stopped when the winds got too strong.  

 I mentioned the Ledgers books and the guide said they were the largest collection in Nebraska. They are all hand written.  

The guide said everything was left exactly as they found it. 

Bill liked the patch they did on this machine.  

This was a 10 foot windmill.

This is a non-working windmill across the street at City Hall.

This tree photo was taken in front of City Hall.

I thought this was a great idea.  This drop box was outside City Hall.  

We walked into the grocery next to Kregel's.  We were pleasantly surprised at the prices.  

There's a lot to see in this area so we decided to see if we could stay at this park longer.  It is one of the neatest well kept parks we've been to at a reasonable price.  I guess we're not the only ones to like it.  There's a Jayco Rally starting on Friday.  We can stay an extra day but our site is rented for Friday.  

Turtle Safely........

  

We're still in Nebraska

We left Pine Grove RV Park this morning early as we had an appointment in Lincoln at Leach's Camper Sales. I know we'll probably come back someday, maybe even for the testicle festival in the area.   We were suppose to have the satellite coax replaced in the bedroom, the little cover on the keyhole for the door and a crack in the fender.  

We toured the state capital while we were waiting.  

This capital is like none we've ever been in before.  It felt like a fortress to us.

We took the very very small elevator to the 14th floor of the tower.

The doors were very heavy with a narrow walkway for viewing.  I was afraid I wouldn't be able to open the door and get stuck out there.  

This is the narrow walkway in the tower.

You could see Lincoln from all four sides. Of course, there was a chain link fence covering it. 

This was doorway in the tower.  

This was a room in the tower.  We also saw no stairs in case of emergency.  

When we finished exploring the tower, it was time for our guided tour.

These were  mosaic tile artwork.

There was gold in this ceiling artwork.  

This is the supreme court.

This ceiling was hand carved.

One of the interesting things we learned Nebraska's legislature has met as the nation's only Unicameral since 1937.  When they vote, it's so that everyone can see how they voted.  

After the tour we visited Smith Collection Museum of Speed.  The tour didn't start until 2 pm so we decided to go for lunch.  I looked on Yelp and decided on a special place for Bill's 77th birthday.

It was called Buzzard Billy's and was in the Haymarket which is an old warehouse section of town that is a tourist attraction.  Unfortunately, they were doing a lot of construction which closed off some of the parking.  We circled 4 or 5 times and couldn't find any parking.  We ended up driving back to near the Museum of Speed and found a Subway.  

It didn't look like much on the outside and there was no signage to tell you it was there.

I can't remember all the details because the docent had a monotone voice and wasn't very loud.  I think this car set a speed record for 323 miles per hour.

This was Hedy LaMars 1958 Cadillac.

Bill really liked this one.

Now you know why he liked that one.

The ceiling is covered with guitars that were signed by famous celebrities.  The walls are old records.

The second floor was any kind of pedal car you could imagine.

At this point we've been on this tour for over 2 hours.  I caught my leg on a sharp display and cut about a 4 inch long slash (not deep).  It didn't bleed too badly, but at this point we left the tour.  There was no one else in the place and the other displays that we'd seen had all the light offs so we just walked out the door.  

They were just finishing up on the trailer and by the time we left it was 5:30.  Bill's favorite time to drive through a city.  

We drove to Nebraska City and are staying at Victorian Acres.  It is very pretty and we have a nice pull thru with a huge tree that doesn't interfere with the satellite.  

Turtle Safely........

Last Night at Pine Grove

I can't believe how quickly this past week has gone by. We've meet some really nice people.  

Bill said today to put us on the waiting list for the Montana Rally in Goshen, IN. Now I had to promise him we'd spent the summer and fall in the west.  I said we wouldn't cross the Mississippi River.  You know we've had a good time, if Bill suggests going east.  

We are on the waiting list so there are no guarantees we'll be able to go but we'd love to meet up with these Montana owners again.

I think about half left today, the official last day.  It's a shame that there was a very light rain most of the morning but the locals said they really needed the rain.

We did laundry today and it was nice that we were so close to it.  The other nice thing was they only cost $1.50 a load.  

And since there were about a dozen of us left, why not have a potluck?  Once again it was great.  Cathy, owner of Pine Grove RV Park, let us use the clubhouse and the pitchers of beer made the meal even greater.  Cathy then had a comedy video of a Las Vegas show that every one enjoyed.  

Tomorrow we head to Leach Camper Sales to get the coax replaced.  We'll probably spend the night in Iowa somewhere.  

I talked with Sherry and she wants to meet us earlier which will give us about 10 days to go 400 miles.  I think we can do it, if we don't get distracted.  

This blog seems so short after the past week but we really needed a slower pace today.  Hopefully, in bed before midnight.

Turtle Safely..........