July 5 Westward Ho! driving through Nebraska

    Nebraska is across the Missouri River from Sioux City, IA., my hometown.  I haven't been on the road we took today since I moved away 41 years ago.  The first town is So. Sioux City, where cousins, Aunt and Uncle and grandparents lived.  Bess was born there.
    Some of the roads are being fixed!  We could cut the fog with a knife this morning.
    Homer - town of about 550.  Aunt and Uncle and cousins lived there.  We rented some kind of a hall there for our wedding reception in 1969 - it cost us $5.  Dad helped my uncle convert a church into a home for his family of 7.
    Winnebago - on the Winnebago Indian Reservation.  There were 12 different tribes.  There is a large Indian hospital and a newer school now.
    Driving through the Omaha Indian Reseration.   Miles and miles of beautiful, green farm fields.
    Walthill - Aunt and Uncle and cousins lived there.  For several years he owned a grocery store.  There was a lot of alcoholism among the local Indians.  Even as a teenager I found it hard to believe that some would be so desperate for alcohol near the end of the month when they were about out of money that they would come into his store to buy men's hair oil, such as Vitalis, which contained a form of alcohol, to drink.  There are only a handful of small businesses open now and we didn't see a grocery store.
    (The death of American small towns) I read an article this week about how sad it is to watch so many small towns dry up.  And they said often the nail in the coffin is when the grocery store closes.  People don't want to or simply can't drive 10, 15, 25 miles to a nearby town to buy food.
    Pender - In the late '60's my parents owned a grocery store here.  Brenda attended 8-10th grade here and has recently reconnected with several of her classmates.  Last weekend was the town's 125th anniverary celebration.  She couldn't attend, but said her friends told her a lot of farmers have painted quilt blocks on their barn and there was a tour of them, like in an area around Des Moines, IA.  Today we saw 6 homes that had a piece of plywood standing next to their front porch with a quilt block painted on it and the words Pender Quilts, 125 years.  There was a small quilt shop in town.  A few businesses are open and there is a small factory called Blue Ox which makes RV parts.  We didn't see a grocery store.
    When my family lived there, there were 3 grocery stores.  It was a crime - for many years families had charged their groceries at them and at the gas station.  The gas station owner died being owed countless thousands.  Families would charge hundreds of dollars of groceries per month and then come in and pay $20 on their bill for the month.  Many people would come in only to buy meat from dad, an excellent butcher.  They had to give it up because there was never enough capital to keep ahead.
    The year Tom was in Vietnam I worked as a keypunch operator in So. Sioux at IBP's headquarters and shared an apartment with 2 friends.  Most Friday nights I drove to Pender and helped in the store on Saturday.  When my roommates had to move out, I quit my job and worked for several months for a man in Pender who sold the brand new thing for farmers - tractor cabs.  I enjoyed it and still worked Saturdays at the store.
    New veteran's memorial in Pender.  The City donated the land and citizens donated $200,000 for the memorial-I left them a note in the donation box that it was the nicest one we've ever seen.
    West Point-a few miles from Pender and has a nice grocery store.  Wahoo-  As kids we had a marble game called Wahoo and wondered if it was invented by someone in this NB town.  Drove through a few other small towns.  Highway billboard:  A one pack a day smoker spend $1752 per year on cigarettes.  How much do you spend?  (This would be based on under $5 a pack).  Interesting places
we saw were a big Kawasaki plant and an Abengia Bioenergy plant.  Flags flying everywhere still today.  Remember when I said that on the last holiday?  That was 5 weeks ago!  Recycled tires - 47,000 of them- were used as part of the interstate in a 5 mile stretch, per sign.  Bumper sticker on a liquid gas truck:  Passing gas.
    SAC (A.F. Strategic Air Command) Air and Space Museum - near Ashford, outside of Lincoln.  I am sitting in the camper in the parking lot and was able to get a connection.  Tom just came out and said it was a neat museum.  In August there will be several navigators, Pearl Harbor survivor, WWII veterans, Ernest Borgnine, a Navy gunner from 1935-1945, a Navaho code talker and a Tuskegee airman, etc. here for a special day. 
   We're ready to drive a few miles to the state park where we will stay tonight.  It is at least 80, totally overcast and very humid (muggy, as we Midwesterners say).  At least it hasn't been in the mid 90's for quite awhile, which is fine with us.
    When we arrived at the very nice park, we could anyone who was outside fanning themselves to keep the mosquitoes off.  I had gotten 2 bites on my ankles in Pender in the early morning and they were still itching.  We never sat outside tonight-has happened often lately-either too many bugs or raining.