NEBRASKA 2014
Brother Scott has been highly complementary of the 4th of July celebration in Sumner, so this year we chose to visit over that holiday.
We left Flagstaff on Tuesday.
Same as last year, we spent the night at this RV campground in Dalhart, TX....
and arrived in Sumner Wednesday afternoon via Highway 183.
Scott was there to greet us, and the visit was ON!
Uncle Dwane lives a few blocks away, so we walked to his house to find he and his helper-in-all-ways Dee pea-picking. Dwane, at age 79, still loves to garden and always has a large one. He generously shares with anyone. When I commented that his garden was large enough to feed a small country he said, "I wish I could".
He recently acquired a new rototiller, is exceedingly proud of it, and handles it with ease.
There was a huge pile of pea vines on a table, so Scott, Ron & I joined in and soon had those and another pile of the same size picked clean. Not only did I eat more than my fill of fresh peas, Dwane gave me a nice sized bag to take back to the house to be put to good use.
He recently acquired a new rototiller, is exceedingly proud of it, and handles it with ease.
There was a huge pile of pea vines on a table, so Scott, Ron & I joined in and soon had those and another pile of the same size picked clean. Not only did I eat more than my fill of fresh peas, Dwane gave me a nice sized bag to take back to the house to be put to good use.
Thursday we met the local aunts and uncles at Tub's Pub for the fried chicken lunch special.
In the afternoon we went to Kearney for grocery shopping and errands. Not only does Scott keep a minimalist single-man's kitchen, but despite being in one of the most agricultural of states, no fresh vegetables or fruits find their way into his grocery cart. Yesterday's peas were a shock to his refrigerator. Ron and I both eat our fruits and veggies every day, plus we needed to stock up on food for three & a couple of upcoming potlucks.
Friday:
We started the day with a trip to St. Patrick's to give flowers to Dad & Mom and Laurie.
We then set our chairs up in the Sumner park for the best view of the parade. It was the epitome of small town midwestern parades. The high school band got us started.
There was an overall theme of "Heros", variously expressed,
horses aplenty,
classic cars,
the local fire trucks and ambulances,
There was an overall theme of "Heros", variously expressed,
horses aplenty,
classic cars,
the local fire trucks and ambulances,
and lots and lots and lots of tractors.
(I know, my collage technique isn't perfect yet.)
After the parade, we enjoyed a lineup of the classic cars. This Zombified version was a favorite.
Next we joined Dwane for a family reunion/potluck for his (and my Mom's) side of the family. About 100 people came. Most were local, but several came from Kansas, we were there from AZ
and the furthest from distant AK.
We walked back to Scott's house for a break, then in the late afternoon joined Dwane and his daughter Amy's family at the Firemen's BBQ/fundraiser.
The final event was a stupendous fireworks show. With daylight savings time in effect, the start time was 10:00 pm. Scott said the town does fundraisers during the year to be able to put on a good show, and do they ever! A solid 45 minutes of non-stop fireworks in a town of 250...it was impressive. Ron got these nice shots.
What a GREAT 4th of July! Everything Scott promised and more.
Saturday morning I went for a longer run and was so pleased to see this farm sign:
Ron Pierce is the farmer who purchased the inherited 1/4 section of pasture from Dwane and us 4 sibs late last year. We were all pleased to make the sale to him, as our great-grandfathers had farmed together when the land was first homesteaded. We all felt selling it to the Pierces was as good as keeping it in the family.
Ron wanted to catch the Farmer's Market in Kearney, so we headed that way.
It was smallish and since everyone's tomatoes, peas, beans, peppers, etc. come ripe at the same time, everyone had pretty much the same thing for sale. It was enjoyable to look and we bought some tomatoes and peppers.
We also visited the Museum of Nebraska Art again. It's becoming a very favorite art museum. It's small enough that museum burn-out isn't an issue, and the art is high quality and interesting.
Debra Salopek was a featured landscape artist. Part of her Artist Statement is as follows:
"The landscape of the Great Plains is often described in terms of the features it lacks. Far from being an empty geography, I have found poetry in its light and subtle lines."
There was a fascinating historical quilt show.
I loved this juxtaposition in the Music of The Meadowlark exhibit:
a meadowlark painting and a meadowlark fiber art piece. (The Western Meadowlark is the NE state bird.)
Sunday Scott hosted a BBQ/potluck for all the local aunts and uncles. Cousin Deb joined us from York as well. I functioned as hostess and didn't take a single picture! The food was plentiful and delicious; the company enjoyable and funny.
Deb is taking over the organization of the Wallace Family Reunion from Aunt Ruth. It will be held next year, and since all the major players were present, we got the basic details worked out.
Monday Ron and I went to Uncle Jim & Jane's place near Lexington to get a chance to see it and partake of some of the delicious mulberries that were ripe on their 24 trees.
It was worth the stained fingers:
During a conversation with aunts and uncles, one of them had mentioned a small local cemetery that might have some of our relatives. Scott likes visiting cemeteries as a hobby and didn't know where this one was. When we arrived home Monday afternoon, he proposed a cemetery hunt. We picked up Dwane, who knew the area where the associated town used to be. We did a bit of driving, then Scott decided to do it the easy way: he stopped and knocked on the door of a local farm. Sure enough, the woman knew exactly where it was and gave him directions.
We ended up here:
and found this headstone. Sell is one of our family names, and we had an ancestor named John. The family genealogy I have can't confirm it, but there's certainly a possibility that this is a relative.
That evening we enjoyed the only storm of the trip. Weather fronts are visible; it looked like this coming in:
gave us a nice shower
and a bit of a rainbow.
We certainly got a bit of everything this trip!
The title of this post is a quote from Scott. Enjoy these photos of Nebraska in Green.
Tuesday we headed home. Our plan was to camp at Ute Lake State Park just across the state line in NM, but not only did we gain time, it was still 100 degrees when we arrived there. We chose to continue on to Santa Rosa Lake State Park.
Without incident, we arrived home Wednesday.
