Archway Memorial and Golden Spike Tower

 

This morning Travalon and I went into downtown Kearney, where the streets are made of brick.

There was a shop that wasn't open on Saturdays for some reason, and I saw a rosary in there. Bummer! Then we went to the Archway Memorial, which goes over the interstate. I have passed under it several times on road trips with Tiffy, but my coworker found it on a website of cool things to see in Kearney, and I'd always been curious, so Travalon and I went to it. It's the history of the wagon trail that eventually became Interstate 80, and it has a lot of exhibits to make you glad you live in modern times, like this simulation of a covered wagon abandoned because everyone on it died:

This is an actual Tin Lizzie from the early days of the automobile.

This map lights up to show the path that became Interstate 80.

This was a little fake diner. The windows looked out on the highway, so you could watch cars passing beneath you.

Outside, there were more exhibits to make you appreciate your own life. Check out our new summer home! Just kidding, this is what people used to live in back in the day.

This is a picture of the Archway Memorial.

I bought a hat there with my gift certificate for doing healthy stuff, and the day warmed up to over 80 F, so I was wearing the hat and my bright tie-dyed T-shirt from the Omaha Zoo. I was quite the walking advertisement for Nebraska tourism! We stopped for lunch at Runza, a local chain that makes runzas, which are somewhat like Cornish pasties. Then we drove to North Platte to visit the Golden Spike Tower, which is an observation tower eight stories above the largest rail yard in the country.

Sorry if you are not a train geek like we are, because these are just pictures of the rail yard.

I love the graffiti on a lot of the train cars.

Travalon shot a lot of footage, which I will edit into a movie after our vacation. I will do the same with his footage of the cranes from last night. He filled up his sim card in his camera, so when we went for a walk at a park with a pond, and there were herons nesting in the trees, we couldn't get a good photo. We'll have to buy another one tomorrow. Then we parked downtown and found we could walk to a church called St. Patrick's, which seems to be the name of a lot of churches I visit while on the road. Is St. Patrick trying to tell me something? He is something of a patron saint of mine, since I was baptized on his feast day. From there it was just a couple of blocks to a Japanese restaurant, where for some reason they gave us free green tea ice cream after our delicious dinners; I had seafood yaki noodles, and Travalon had teriyaki steak. If you are in North Platte, Nebraska, we highly recommend the Japanese restaurant by St. Patrick's church. Travalon got Japanese melon soda, and oh my was that ever tasty! Then we headed back to Kearney, which we learned at the Archway Memorial is pronounced "Car-nee," as someone from Night Prayer kept telling me, and not "Kyeer-nee," as we had assumed from its spelling. So now we know he was right.

Famous Hat