The March of Time

Alex and I have been enjoying the wonderful weather over the last few weeks.  This has meant pleasant walks in the evenings, weekend adventures, and a variety of experiences that seem tied together by a common, wondrous theme.

One such example are the trees.  At this point, all the trees are completely leaved out and it has been truly wonderful to reflect on the time these trees have seen.  In our community park along the main road, three giant Siberian elms rise up, a reminder of a time during the 1930's when tree varieties were chosen largely for their drought resistance.  Events transpiring four score years prior still mark the landscape.  About 40 yards away, some lacebark elm trees planted after Dutch elm disease took out a large number of American elm trees rise.  It will be interesting to see what changes will take place in the community park with time, whether the ash bores will take out some of the ones in the park, how long the sole remaining American elm will last, what will be planted in the years to come.

We went back to the university we both attended this weekend and marking the passage of time by the trees gave us an outlook on campus far greater than when we attended there.  Outside of Alex's dormitory, we could see the growth of trees planted while we were still students there, and we thought of how the landscape would change during the course of our lifetime.

The Arbor Day Foundation put out some informational signs in front of some the trees, giving such information as when they were planted, appraised value, maintenance costs, monetary benefit, and pounds of carbon sequestered per year.  The information they gave was so illuminating.

There's a beautiful American elm over by what used to be the dairy barns which was planted in the 30's.  Alex reflected that her grandpa would have walked past that elm tree on the way to work at the dairy barns when it was in it's teen years.   The oldest tree on campus is a honeylocust planted in 1850 by a farmer on his homestead, land that would eventually become a public university.  The tree with highest appraised value was a bur oak valued at $108,000.  Some of the larger oaks could sequester 1,400 pounds of carbon every year, about the same amount generated driving from Kansas to New York.

We walked among buildings that seem eternal, limestone structures built as firm institutions of higher learning.  But among those building were renovations and structures built even since we left college.  My stomping grounds, the engineering complex, has received almost a complete overhaul. For all the dynamics of a living system, it is the trees that remain a type of constant that age gracefully-- never going out of style like some of the campus buildings built in 1970s and 80s (aka Bluemont Hall).

Besides trees, thinking about wine has had us contemplating the passage of time.  We watched a documentary last night about wine production, discussing new and old wine, and the history it tells.  Someone interested in such things might be able to tell you about certain vintages of wine, about how the weather and growing conditions get reflected in the flavor of the wine.  Some of the best wines are aged beyond 50 years, locked away in cellars held at constant temperature and humidity, kept away from sunlight.  This is not to lock the wine away from changing, however.  Inside that bottle, yeasts are continuing to metabolize the chemicals present.  Fungus growth is encouraged in the finest cellars so alcohol vapors from the wine can be contained.  In European wine, you have the history of vineyards cared for and cultivated since the Romans conquered the continent; of families working through generations to build a body of knowledge in this area, you have the history of wars wreaking havoc through the areas.  In America, the history is much smaller, but you still have a sense of this tradition being started over, you can see the effects of Prohibition.  We are not wine drinkers, but it was fascinating to think of history seen through the story of wine.

These were our pictures from the 1980s.

You can see the change over a lifetime in pictures.  We went to a volunteer appreciation dinner at our church the other day, where people were asked to share pictures from the 80's.  It was interesting to see the change 30 years bring, and yet how people might yet be identified by some je ne sais quoi.  It is interesting to think of a human lifespan, how things more or less seem to be as they always were, yet over a lifetime those tiny changes add up to a world so different.  A life so fleeting, and yet one life capable of such far reaching consequences.  Trees and wine are just a two examples, but think about it; I was yesterday effected by a tree planted by a homesteader 166 years ago in a way more profound than I will ever be effected by some of the great kings of Europe.  Grandfathers stored wines in cellars so their grandchildren could open it and taste what they strove to produce.

We live in a fast-paced, instant gratification society today.  With the act or planting a tree or making a bottle of wine, the "fruit of the labor" will not be enjoyed for a few decades and many times not by the person who originally put forth the effort.  However it is an investment for the future, paying it forward in a sense, so that in half a century someone can sit under the branches of a large shade tree and appreciate the beauty of such a majestic tree.

It makes me think of 1 Peter, where it talks about the prophets of old heralding a king they would never see for generations they would never know.  It is amazing to think that because our God, unlike people, unlike trees, and unlike wine, is unchanging, actions done in His service will live forever.  It is because of this truth that we with confidence may say Omnia Vincit Amor.

Country Campout

Saturday morning I woke up and sat on the front porch swing with my younger brother Arnold.  I was sipping hot chocolate as he was enjoying his first cup of coffee for the morning.  We sat enjoying the morning, listening to the birds, and chatting about life.  We were on the front porch swing at my grandma's farmhouse.  This front porch swing is iconic.  We have spent hours swinging back and forth while talking at family gatherings or just staring off across the fields on a summer evening.  This morning my brother and I were looking out over bright green wheat fields washed clean after the rain watching the sun rise higher into the eastern sky.  We shared memories from childhood, caught up on our current lives, and even contemplated the future.  We both happened to be on the porch since we were the early birds who couldn't sleep in on a Saturday morning.  We were hosting several friends for a relaxing weekend in the country.  I had been planning this weekend for a while and this moment on the porch was exactly what I had hoped for-- spending some quality time reconnecting with friends.

Over the past year I have taken on a role of social event planner in my circle of friends.  As an introvert I have no idea how this happened but I came to realize that I enjoyed spending time with my friends and this didn't happen spontaneously as introverts so some planning was needed.  It started with a camping trip last summer with a few friends from college and off and on throughout the year we have gotten together for evenings or weekends.  A common theme I keep hearing from friends is that it is difficult to find people our age to hang out with.  Some are from small towns where they are the only young adults.  Others have just moved to larger areas where getting to know people can be tough.  Everyone seemed to crave community and fellowship.  My friend Hillary and I planned this weekend as a way to encourage young adults that community is still possible and as a time to connect with old friends and build new relationships.

All week I watched the forecast for the upcoming weekend predicting rain and a lot of it.  Lately any time I set a date for camping it ends of raining.  Sure enough Friday at work I watched it rain constantly all day long.  My parents suggested that maybe we should add mud volleyball to the list of activities.  The beauty of this "camp out" was that camping was optional.  Since we were hosting it at my grandma's house which my parents have turned into a guest house there was plenty of room for everyone to sleep inside--nice and dry.

Friday evening people started trickling in from across the state after work.  We had chili for dinner (thanks Mom for making it) and gathered around the dinning room table.  About half the group that evening were family so we have eaten a number of meals at this table.  However we could not remember eating a meal that was so quiet with calm conversation that everyone was able to participate in.  We love family dinners but the smaller group was pleasant too.  The rest of the evening was a game night with several rounds of Taboo and a Dutch Blitz tournament.  This crowd was not so quiet and calm under the pressure of competing at Dutch Blitz.  Finally around midnight I hit the hay but I think the party was still going strong.

The next morning started with some porch swing time and breakfast.  We then gathered most of the crew for a Saturday morning run.  A few gals were training for a half marathon and needed to put in 6 miles so Arnold and I joined them.  Arnold isn't an avid runner but I am glad he joined in.  Our SAG wagon drop us off 6 miles north of town and we were to run back.  Arnold and I continued to share memories from childhood and comment on the different birds we saw.  At one point we broke out into a gospel song medley including Swing Low Sweet Chariots and I'll Fly Away which might have caused us to speed up the pace for the other gals a little too much.  Over the final 1/2 mile there was some humorous military style chants to push us to the end.   

The afternoon included napping, reading, some strategy games for those who were so inclined, and watercolor painting.  The watercolors were a result of left over supplies from our Pinterest party the previous week and it was fun to see everyone's creative sides.  I also talked a few people into setting up tents since the weather had cleared for camping.

Saturday evening we moved the party outdoors and cooked a dinner of hobo packs on the fire pit.  Thank goodness we had a whole slew of gals in the kitchen putting together these  packets.  I had the easy task of putting them on the fire and enjoying the beautiful evening while supervising the fire.  As the sun went down it got pretty chilly around the fire so we had to pull out jackets, coats, and sleeping bags to keep warm.  I had brought back a snow suit that we had borrow from Arnold for Arthur's ski trip.  My cousin Eleanor decided that it would be the perfect outfit to wear to keep toasty by the fire.  We sang around the fire and roasted s'mores.  Observing the group around the fire I noticed that some in attendance I had known my entire life.  They often say that you don't keep your friends from high school but that wasn't true in this situation.  Of course many of us went to college together and our friendship has deepened further.  I also saw friends that I have had for several years that I was introduced to by other friends.  I couldn't help but wander about the few people I had just met that weekend if in a few years friendships would grow from the seeds of this weekend-- I hope so.

After the camp fire had died down a few of us decided to stargaze.  The clouds had cleared for the most part and it was relatively dark.  Someone had a stargazing app which was incredibly handy.  You point the phone towards the night sky and it shows the stars and constellations in that part of the sky.  We were able to pick out several constellations but my favorite was probably seeing the planet Jupiter shining the brightest in the night sky.

I talked my friend Delores into sharing my tent with me since my usual tent buddy, Arthur, had to stay home since he had obligations at church.  Delores and I were roommates for 1 semester and shared a (large) dorm room so surely we could share a (small) tent?  Of course I'm not sure I have forgiven her for hiding a person in my closet who scared me to death when I opened the door when I got back from taking a shower.  While it was chilly we made a nest of about 4 sleeping bags and it was pretty cozy.  I didn't sleep great which seems to be a downside to camping-- I like camping and love sleeping but the two just haven't seemed to mix together well yet.

Sunday morning breakfast was delicious-- pancakes, eggs and bacon, and fruit.  While sitting at breakfast someone looks out the window and notices that the neighbors' dog Sarge is running across the yard.  Sarge had spent a good deal of the weekend with us so that wasn't surprising but when we realized Sarge had a wallet in his mouth it got more exciting.  Sarge does have a reputation for carrying off unattended objects when he comes to visit-- rugs, shoes, etc.  Luckily Sarge dropped the wallet in the yard when called and didn't take off to the large mud puddle.  We still don't really know how Sarge got a hold of the wallet since it was zipped inside a tent, but thankfully we saw him or else it would have been a rough way to end the weekend.

When I got home late Sunday afternoon Arthur and I swapped stories from the weekend.  We were both exhausted but had had a good time (he watched the Spurs tromp the Thunder in Game 1).  I commented to Arthur, "Delores (who is a social butterfly) thought it would be fun if we had a get together every weekend."  I mentioned that it is "probably not going to happen but we will do it again sometime.  Just I'm not planning anything for a while."  Arthur looked at me and put his hand on my forehead.  He asked, "Are you sure you are okay?"  Normally I am planning several outings at a time and sometimes I find it more fun than actually doing what I plan.  "No more planning, at least for tonight and maybe not even tomorrow", I replied.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Thank you to Lindsey (aka Eleanor) for sharing all the photos in this post. 

Historic Trails

I spend a lot of time thinking about all the places in the world I would like to visit.  Living in Kansas, many of these places are not a hop, skip, and a jump away.  But we are reminded to "be content in all circumstances, whether near mountains or forests, whether living in Kansas or abroad." (loose translation of Philippians 4:12, emphasis my own).  So lately we have taken the dive into adventures in Kansas- and truthfully we haven't been disappointed yet.  I keep my Kansas travel resources handy, the official 2016 Kansas travel guide, The Kansas Guidebook for Explorers, and my newest (and favorite) addition, The Kansas Trail Guide.  I love planning trips.  Maybe my second career will be as a travel agent or tour guide.  I have a handful of weekend trips lined up for this summer and we started a few weekends ago with a trip to Council Grove.

On Saturday mornings I can't sleep in but Arthur likes a little extra snooze and if our travels don't require an early start he can sleep in.  I wait patiently until I just can't handle the excitement and then run back into our bedroom and jump on the bed, bouncing up and down, hoping he will get up and so we can go "play".  We have recently discussed that we even just enjoy the drive to our destination.  On Saturday mornings we look forward to the line up on NPR with Car Talk and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.  On this particular morning we did get stuck behind an envoy of some large piece of equipment traveling at 15 mph down a fairly busy highway.  After a few miles of this snails pace Arthur decided to hit the country roads to "outrun" this transport before the next country section.

Council Grove is a historic town.  It was the site of the oak grove where agreements were made with the Kaw Nation.  It was also one of the last towns on the Santa Fe Trail.  We started with the historic river walk along the Neosho River.  The highlight was watching a pair of geese with four goslings paddle around on the river.  We spent the morning reading the historical plaques and admiring some of the original buildings.  I was then able to talk Arthur into letting me go to a garden shop right along Main Street which I am sure I could have spent hours perusing.  I limited myself to one basil plant, showing great restraint.

We then moseyed to the historic Hays House. The Hays House was opened in 1857 and is the oldest continually operating restaurant this side of the Mississippi.  It was opened by Seth Hays, the grandson of Daniel Boone.  We ate lunch which included one of the best salad bars in recent memory and my chicken friend steak was glorious.  Arthur had his socks knocked off by the grilled chicken alfredo.  One of our rules when traveling is not eating at chain restaurants.  So far we haven't been disappointed.  We are also working our way through the top 35 small town restaurants in Kansas.  We are currently at 13.  There is a lot of eating ahead of us.

As we were paying we mentioned that we were enjoying learning about the history of the town so the dinning room host asked if we would like a tour of the building.  Of course!  We went to the original cellar complete with original wood beams, meat hooks, and bar.  Upstairs there was  collection of crystal and fancy purses and hats that one of the past owners had donated.  The upstairs was originally a hotel with a few rooms staying intact and the rest has been converted to a lounge area with outside deck seating overlooking Main Street USA.

With our bellies full we decided to hit the trails.  Our first stop was the Allegawaho Heritage Memorial just a few miles out of town.  This is a gem we never would have stumbled upon if it hadn't been for our trail guide.  The land is owned by the Kaw Nation at the site of the original reservation.  There is a monument to an unknown Indian whose remains were found in the area in the 1920s.  There weren't any signs or even information at the area but the trail was maintained.  It was a two mile loop through the Flint Hills and the woods near the creek.  Since we had recently attended a seminar on native trees we marveled at the size of the oak and cottonwoods as well as the different stages of growth in this wooded area.  This hike with the bright green Flint Hills was my favorite part of the day.  

After our warm up hike we hit the Flint Hills Nature Trail that runs just across the road from the Memorial.  The Flint Hills Nature Trail is a rails-to-trails.  They are in the process of converting an abandoned rail line to a multi-use trail that will be about 120 miles in length when the project is finished.  My first experience with rails-to-trails was a bike ride across Missouri on the Katy Trail in college and I love the idea.  In Missouri it has been a wonderful tourist attraction revitalizing several small towns along the trail since cyclists and hikers need water, supplies, and food about every ten miles.  On our hike along the Flint Hills Trail Arthur examined all the trees and we did appreciate some shade and a wind break.  I loved the parts opening up across the rolling prairie.  Our favorite part was at the bridge crossing the Neosho river.  The rail bridge was several feet above the river putting us at eye level with the tree canopy.  We saw a large owl and then watched turtles sunning themselves on the logs below.  We only saw 5 other people out on the trail.  While it was nice to have the quiet and seclusion, we couldn't help but think about all the people who are missing out on this wonderful opportunity to experience nature at a slower pace.

After our 4 hours of hiking we headed back to town to find a cool, tasty treat.  We ended up at the local drug store's old fashion soda fountain for chocolate malts.  Chocolate malts never tasted so good after a warm afternoon of hiking.

On our way home we took a brief detour to try to find the Santa Fe trail ruts.  While we could kind of see the depressions in the ditch this was probably the let down of the trip.  It is interesting how something that was traveled by hundreds or thousands of wagons and people each year can slowly disappear.  History can seem to fade.  That might be what was special about our day in Council Grove-- making marveling at what has withstood the test of time all the more wondrous. We, too, will someday fade, but our lives have consequences that live long beyond us; in fact, our Lord promises that they hold eternal significance.  This should motivate us all to live out our lives in love, for truly, Omnia Vincit Amor.

Sourdough Update

Our faithful readership has, I am sure, been sitting white knuckled waiting in anticipation for news on Arthur’s sourdough project.  Alex too has looked on in great interest and constantly worried about what happens when she leaves Arthur alone for a few hours.  You will be happy to know that both man and yeast are doing quite well. 

Arthur had been hoping to see evidence of activity about 2 days from the beginning of the experiment.  It took about 4 days to see signs of microbe life.  The first evidences of life appeared as a small thin layer of foam on the surface of the flour-juice combination.  We stirred once again the next morning and large bubbles appeared on the surface.  When lifting the plastic wrap to stir the concoction it smelled of freshly baked bread (kind of).  Who would have thought that the wonderful smell that I have loved for so long was actually “yeast farts”?

Eventually the flour and liquid would settle out.  I'm fairly sure the liquid layer was basically straight hooch, which apparently indicates the yeast had pretty much used up their food storage.  We would finally be able to get to some bread making.

I "fed" my yeast some more flour and enough water to maintain the consistency and gave it 24 hours. Then it was time for typical bread making, with a 24 hour rise time thrown in.  Commercial bread yeast obviously has been bred to decrease rise times, so my sourdough took a lot longer.  The advantage sourdough is supposed to have is in the variety of microbes active; the hope is this will result in a greater variety of flavors, the most apparent being a strain of yeast that produces lactic acid and is responsible for making sourdough sour.

Anyway, the bread was a great success.  I had nice hole size in my bread, very comparable to what I would have obtained with baker's yeast.  Using just flour, sugar, and salt, the flavor was far from bland.  It was all I could hope for.

Since then, I have made sourdough biscuits, and while tasty, I probably didn't use good baking soda and got a poor rise.  We'll see what the future holds.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

r.

Gourmet Cooking

Friday afternoon at work I was discussing weekend plans with a patient.  She asked what I was doing that evening.  It just happened that one of my friends was hosting a Pinterest Party.  My patient was a member of an older generation so I had to describe the wonders of Pinterest to her-- Betty Crocker, Good Housekeeping, and the Farmers' Almanac all rolled into one resource, along with more frivolous items such as crafts and home decor, fashion ideas, and random workout suggestions.  I described that at a Pinterest Party a group gathers to actually complete some of the items that they have "pinned" in their virtual world.  In the past we have done sewing projects, homemade gifts for Christmas, and painted quotes on canvases.  Tonight our plan was to make some of the recipes that look delicious but are too much work to actually be practical to cook most of the time.  She thought this sounded like a wonderful idea and for once I think some one was a little jealous of my social life.

My friend Hillary hosts one of the gatherings every other month and it serves as a good time to catch up with everyone as well.  Rachel and Felicia were both able to come for the evening as well.  For appetizers we had fresh guacamole and hummus with carrots and sliced peppers.  We made bruschetta and crostinis.  My job was to grill the crostinis on the George Foreman-- this is gourmet I can handle.  The bruschetta was excellent.  I'm usually not a huge fan of straight up tomatoes but these were delightful.  The cream cheese spread may have helped because after all everything tastes better with cream cheese.  Our main entree was stuffed chicken.  This involved beating chicken breasts to smithereens which was a wonderful way to release some aggression for a few of us after a long week.  We stuffed the chicken with guac and cheese, bruschetta, or feta cheese and pesto.  Our side dish was twice baked potatoes.  My job was to scoop out the potatoes.  This tasked reminded me of making dugout canoes although it was decided that most of my "potato boats" wouldn't be sea worthy.  As a person whose goal is to spend less that 15 minutes of prep time on dinner each night most of these dishes were fairly time consuming but working with a group of friends and trying new and exciting "food adventures" made it a lot of fun.

The crown jewel of the evening was Rachel's homemade angel food cake.  I watched her at her craft-- sifting and sifting again to ensure the cake to be light and fluffy, making sure to get every detail just right.  When she presented the final product it was a lovely piece of art-- bright white and "it's so fluffy I'm gonna die".  We topped it off with fresh strawberries and freshly whipped cream.  Heavenly.

Our craft project for the evening was doing watercolors.  Over the past few months I have been learning the art of watercolor and have been using watercolors to make greeting cards.  I gave a few quick tips to remember to make watercolors fun and not so frustrating since I have had plenty of frustration with this medium recently.  It was fun to see how quickly everyone caught on and how we each have our unique tastes.  The beauty of getting together to work on a craft is that we can work on something while talking.  Most of the time we lose track of time which results in my husband calling to see if I am ever going to come home.  I actually left right on time this time and even brought him a slice of angel food cake as a piece offering for leaving him at home by himself.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Bees and Trees

Our exciting weekend activity this past weekend was attending a county extension seminar on beekeeping and raising fruit trees.  I must admit I have been pretty excited about this event.  Driving out we weren't so sure how many people would also be interested about these topics but we turned the corner and saw that the parking in the field was filling up with a group of around 30 people gathered.  It is always reassuring that we aren't the only crazy ones out there.

The first item of business was donning the beekeeping veils and checking out the hives.  At first it was a little strange to stand around with bees flying this way and that.  It was a cool day and they had smoked the bees both of which calmed the activity in the hive.  A frame was pulled from the hive and was covered with a living mass of bees.  We could examine the honey comb, brood, and worker bees hurrying about.  We also got a chance to see a queen bee since they had ordered a new one for a new hive and the queen had just arrived in the mail.  As with any new skill or hobby there is a whole new language of terms to learn to discuss-- drones, queens, workers, supers, frames, Africization, brood, etc.

The next speakers talked about diseases that may occur with bee hives-- mites, viruses, colony collapse disorder.  I must say I have never before been so interested in an entomology presentation.  There was discussion about the increase in disease over the past 30 years in bees.  Some might be due to pesticide use but also bees from different parts of the world accidentally or intentionally being transported to the US.  Honeybees aren't native to the US and most bee stock is European in background.  However Asian and African strains are beginning to show up and introducing different diseases.  Another presenter shared the process of how to put the hive boxes together to get started and other general tips to get started.  Beekeeping sounds like a hobby that might take a little bit of skill and knowledge but doesn't require a ton of time if you don't want it to be so involved which is pretty attractive to us.

The last demonstration was from one of the county extension agents on planting and caring for fruit trees.  I have heard this gentleman speak about horticulture topics many times over the years since I was a kid in 4-H.  Arthur has previously talked about the beauty of craftsmanship and I have the same appreciation for someone who is an expert in the field sharing a wealth of knowledge.  In a computer age we do have the benefit of using tools like Google to find information but this doesn't replace asking an expert directly.  For instance, one of the attendees made a comment about a tree that had some bark split during the winter.  The expert knew what type of tree they had planted, what mistakes they had made a few years ago while planting the tree-- turning it into the wind rather than keeping it in the same orientation as at the nursery, and a simple fix to solve the problem all in a 2 minute response.  I had a similar experience with a patient a few months ago.  He had owned a greenhouse and nursery for 40 years so we were discussing gardening.  I made a comment about using grow lights in the basement for spinach, lettuce, and kale and that I couldn't seem to get the spinach to grow after replanting a few times.  His response-- it won't grow because it has to be at about 48F to germinate (our basement is cool but thankfully not that cool) so no matter how hard I try it isn't going to happen.  That was kind of a "well duh" moment for me but I am sure I would have made that mistake a few more times before giving up in frustration.  Experts just have invaluable experience that can save us all from making those mistakes ourselves.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-13/bee-in-an-apple-blossom/7085178

While right now bees and fruit trees are not in our immediate plans since we have our hands full with our worms and a blueberry plant, maybe someday we too will achieve the dream of a backyard apiary.  Omnia Vincit Amor.

Weekend getaway... to Nebraska

When my co-workers saw that I had a blank schedule for Friday they started asking questions about where I was going on vacation this time.  They give me a hard time because I do spend some of my downtime at work planning vacations and adventures.  I also hadn't missed work for several months so it is out of the usual for me to take any time off.  When questioned about my destination a few seemed disappointed with my answer... Nebraska, our new favorite vacation spot.  Ever since we took a weekend trip to Nebraska last fall Arthur and I have been excited to go back.  This time we planned a trip to the zoo in Omaha with his family.  Arthur can't seem to get enough of the Omaha Zoo.

We took off fairly early on Friday morning since we wanted to make sure we had time for everything on our schedule.  After a few hours of driving Arthur commented about how a self-driving car would be awesome but if he wasn't driving he would be paying attention to his surrounding or appreciating the day.  It was a beautiful spring morning with flora in various stages of bloom driving through rolling farm country.  We were tuned into Nebraska Public Radio which was relatively pleasant despite it being the spring pledge drive.  Our first stop was Nebraska City and the Lewis and Clark museum.  The museum was on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River where Lewis and Clark camp on their trip.  The museum had a lot of information about the plants and animals they found and documented for the first time ever. How in the world do you describe a prairie dog, badger, or bison.  It also shared some about the daily tasks- navigating and making maps, recording in journals, how they ate or handled medical needs.  It always astonishes me that 31 men cross the country that was basically unknown for 2 years covering 8000 miles and only one man lost his life-- to a ruptured appendix which would have been fatal even with the best medical care possible at that time.  The museum had a few trails to wander about on so we went down the bluff to the overlook of the Missouri.  Let's face, we really don't have any concept of rivers in Kansas.  Even most of the biggest rivers in Kansas don't have water in them a certain times of the year. After enjoying a few of the other trails we headed off to lunch.

Lunch was the main event for our day.  Ever since last fall when we had brunch at the Lied Lodge Arthur and I have been thinking about the meal, especially the smoked salmon.  While salmon wasn't on the lunch menu we both really enjoyed our chicken sandwiches.  The dining room was quiet and elegant with classical music softly playing-- making us feel pretty fancy and genteel.  As we were enjoying the fine dining experience it started to rain and hail just a little bit.  This was going to put a damper on our plans of hiking the trails around the Arbor Day farm.  We sat by the huge fire place for a while waiting to see if it would clear up and Arthur may have dosed off in the comfy leather chairs.

The weather continued to look iffy so we ventured on to Ashland, home of Mahoney State Park, which was our stop for the night.  On our drive I had read about all the wonderful things to do in Ashland, most of which are outdoors in this small community, in the Nebraska Tourism Guide-- I can't pass up a map or a tour guide.  One of the listings was for an art gallery with a museum of taxidermy wildlife and waterfalls.  This sounded intriguing.  It was an art gallery for a local artist and another man had donated his hunting collection to be on display.  It was like a miniature Cabela's diorama complete with caribou, moose, polar and grizzly bear, a jackalope, and baby alligator.  We chatted with the ladies working at the gallery and found out there were several other galleries on the two block Main Street.  I found out one of the artists did watercolors which I was interested since I'm trying my hand at watercolors these days (more on that later).  He was in the gallery working on a project and he talked to us for quite a while.  He is a former art teacher and decided to open a gallery here since it is half way between Lincoln and Omaha.  He gave me several tips about getting started with watercolors and told us about some of the techniques he had used to create the works hanging around the shop.  Even though we didn't plan on poor weather the side trip to the art galleries was a highlight for me.

Later in the afternoon the skies cleared up so we headed to the state park.  We were staying in the lodge for the night but decided to take a hike to the observation tower before settling in.  The state park is on the banks of the Platte River (yet another sizable river) with the tower overlooking the river and the surrounding valley.  Truthfully we didn't take in much of the view for the 70 foot tower because the wind was causing it to sway enough we stayed pretty close to the railing.  On our hike around the park we kept running into a herd of 6 deer.  Later that evening they hung out just outside our balcony.  After the hike Arthur settled in to an evening of NBA basketball and was as happy as a clam.  His parents, sister, and brother-in-law rolled in later that evening after their drive across the state.

Saturday morning we rose and got ready for the day.  We started off right with the breakfast buffet at the lodge dining room.  It it the spot-- especially the bacon and apple crisp.  The gang loaded up in the minivan and it was off to the zoo.  This zoo is really one of the best in the country and we wandered around it for 6 hours admiring the variety of animals.  Some of our favorites were the penguins, otters, sea lions, giraffes, sloths, jelly fish, and kookaburras.  My favorite animal on this trip was the frogsmouth, a bird from Australia that had the grumpiest glare on it's face.  This picture is close but doesn't quite capture the disdain in the bird's expression at the zoo.

https://frankeeg.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/025-tawny-frogmouth.jpg

After the full zoo tour it was time for a steak house.  We headed back out of Omaha to a restaurant, Round the Bend, I had found that was a few miles off I-80 in the middle of nowhere.  We pulled up about 4:45pm and the parking lot was already full.  Luckily we were able to be seated right away.  Arthur had a sirloin and reports that it is the best steak he has had in his life.  Once again he was a happy camper after being well feed.  It was a fun dinner to share with Arthur's family before we had to go our separate ways.  We thoroughly savored our drive home as the sun was setting driving through rural Nebraska and Kansas.  Yet again we tuned into public radio for The Prairie Home Companion and an hour of Irish folk music.  It is a wonderful feeling to take pleasure in the journey and not just the destination.  Overall we had a fantastic weekend in Nebraska and can't wait to go back because each time we run across new things to explore that we just don't have time for.  I also think there may be more Fridays off in my future because even a short vacation is relaxing (maybe even more so that our regular vacations that leave us worn out with blisters and sore muscles).  Omnia Vincit Amor.