Nebraska, Autumn 2010

[mapsedge]

This is going to be an interesting post, from my end of it. I trimmed the front bushes this morning, and my hands, in reaction to the unaccustomed effort, are refusing to work correctly. I can't open my left hand all the way, the thumb won't extend. It feels weird. Here we go:

The main goal of the trip was just to get us out of town and into small-town America for a couple days, and it was much needed.  The beginning of this narrative is going to be an abbreviated version of this article here. 

We left town Thursday evening for the mostly-annual trip to South-Eastern Nebraska. Since Mom died in 2006, my last ties to the area faded away and left me feeling rather rootless. The town of my youth was reduced to "just another place within easy driving distance where we can get away for a night or two", and my last few trips to the area, with visits to the cemetery and old Main Street providing punctuation, have been unsatisfying.

We had a box of pictures - large, very antique, framed affairs, you know the type: huge frame, little picture - that came from my grandfather's basement in Weeping Water. I didn't know who they were except for one, who I thought was Lucius Reed, a distant ancestor. They've been collecting dust and taking up space in my basement since Vic died, so I determined to take them back to Weeping Water and donate them to the town museum and hopefully get them identified along the way. 
Turns out, by marriage at least, at least four of them are related to me. Lucius is indeed Lucius Reed, founder of Weeping Water, Nebraska, and great-great-great uncle to me (by marriage, sort of. It's complicated.) That picture collection is here.

The return of the pictures is fortuitous, since the 1st Congregational Church is celebrating their sesquicentennial this year, and will put the pictures on display. I guess the Reeds also founded the church. And the first livery...and the first bank...and the butcher shop. They were some busy dudes.

In the process I got to visit with Bill and Doris Duff, who I have known since I was ten years old or so. Doris was very kind to me when my grandmother died, and I've kept in periodic touch over the years.

The rest of the weekend's story is a little more prosaic. We stayed at the Lied Lodge, a huge hotel and conference center in Nebraska City. The standard room is a little cramped for my taste, especially with two children, but the facility is beautiful, and the restaurant food, though shut-your-eyes-swallow-hard-and-sign-the-cheque pricey, was phenomenal. Buffalo skirt steak with a raspberry demi-glace was the hilight.

From the right angle, the place looks a little like the Stanley Hotel from The Shining. The setting - on the west side of Nebraska City - is far from the interstate, and surrounded by forest. Not surprising, as the town is the home of Arbor Day and its creator, J. Sterling Morton.

We took the kids to Arbor Day Farm's Tree Adventure, a series of walking trails through a gorgeous forest, with activities along the way. We went twice, doing half on Saturday and half on Sunday before we came home. Nothing like a fifty-foot tall treehouse/viewing platform to give you a great perspective. We will be going back for that. The picture collection for that is here.

Comments

[glesyn.livejournal.com]

"Buffalo skirt steak with a raspberry demi-glace"

dear lord in heaven that sounds amazing.....