After nearly two years in the West, it’s amazing how humid it is here.  Even though it’s only in the mid 70s at night, the humidity can approach 100%, making everything sticky.  Yech.

This morning we left the Walmart of Crete and drove into Lincoln where we visited the National Museum of Roller Skating.  As a former USACRS member and competitive speed roller skater, I was interesting in touring the museum:

We spend some time in the lobby area viewing the displays:

To get to the museum, we passed by the offices of USA Rollersports (formerly USACRS):

The museum had a ring organ.  It was really loud!

Jam Skating display:

Roller Basketball and Roller Soccer, who knew?

Off-road rollerblades:

Speed skating:

There was also a collection of old rink stickers:

Modern skate variants:

Motorized skates, boot skates, etc.

I’ve always thought of inline skates (AKA Rollerblades) as a modern innovation, but they’ve been around from the beginning:

We left the museum and drove to Omaha, where NPS has a small visitor center for the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.  B as Lewis.  Or Clark:

The kids completed the Junior Ranger workbooks and received their patches:

The Omaha regional office also houses administrative offices for the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.  We had already been working on the Underground Railroad Junior Ranger workbooks, which are not associated with any particular location.  The kids were able to able to hand the workbooks in here and receive their badges, which tied in nicely with our visit to Nicodemus National Historic Site yesterday:

From the NPS offices, we walked across a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Missouri River from Nebraska to Iowa:

Views of Omaha:

Welcome to Iowa:

The bridge walkway surface indicates where the border is:

We drove north to overnight at the Walmart of Blair, Nebraska, which puts us in position to visit DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge tomorrow.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Today we drove east to Nicodemus, Kansas, the oldest African American-founded community west of the Mississippi and the site of Nicodemus National Historic Site:

The town, once with a population of 700, was decimated by the great depression and today has a population of about 30.  The park service leases the township hall and uses it as a visitor center:

The town has a fascinating history and we enjoyed learning the story of post-Civil War African American migration and settlement.

The kids completed the Junior Ranger workbooks and received their badges:

On our way out of town, we drove by three original buildings, the hotel, a church, and the old school:

Continuing east and north, we reached the town of Crete, Nebraska, where we spent a couple hours visiting with my college friend Steve and his wife Ann.  It was so much fun to catch up of the last twenty years and tour their lovely home.  Unfortunately, we have no photographs from our visit.

Tonight we’re overnighting at the Walmart of Crete, Nebraska.  See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.