Day 666: De Soto NWR and the National Music Museum

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Ben

This morning we awoke to a rainy day that was unpleasantly warm and muggy:

We drove a few miles to DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge:

The main attraction here is the housing of the artifacts from the steamboat Bertrand, which sunk here in 1865 and was found in 1968, her cargo still intact:

This vast roam displays a fraction of the 10,000 cubic feet of cargo recovered, supplies for the gold fields in Montana:

The Bertrand’s paddlewheel flange:

This keg of nails rusted together, then the barrel rotted away, leaving the mass of metal behind:

Miners need lots of shovels:

General goofyness at the visitor center:

This poster shows various birds’ wingspans to scale:

This facility manages both DeSoto and Boyer Chute National Wildlife Refuges, so the kids completed the joint workbook and received both badges:

Continuing north, we arrived in South Dakota:

We stopped in Vermillion, South Dakota to check out the National Music Museum:

The museum has room to display only 7% of it’s collection, which includes this massive drum:

The string collection was especially impressive:

This Amati was made in 1595 for King Henry IV of France and was later owned by Jean-Baptiste Cartier:

A Lira da Braccio:

Many of the instruments had impressive internal scrollwork:

A carved neck:

The cello on the left has seam lines near the top of the belly, showing the original profile of the instrument, a viola de gamba made by the Stradivari family in the 1730s:

A Stradivarius violin:

This Stradivarius guitar has its maker’s name carved in the neck:

18th century clavichord:

An armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin:

Bohemian bag pipe:

A Balalaika:

A Serpent:

The Hurdy-Gurdy was my favorite instrument at the museum:

An elaborately carved shofar:

Portable violins for dance instructors:

The bent instrument is an A clarinet:

Harmonicas:

There was a gallery dedicated to Asian and African instruments:

This phonograph played two-minute was cylinders, which were made obsolete by records:

Elaborately engraved bell:

A theremin:

We stayed at the museum until closing, then drove north to overnight at Royal River Casino outside of Flandreau, South Dakota. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 665: Roller Skating Museum, Underground Railroad, and Lewis and Clark NHT

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Ben

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.

Day 664: Nicodemus NHS

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Ben

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.

Day 663: Dust in the Wind, by Kansas

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Ben

This morning the weather was great, so I went for a morning flight here at Snowflake outside of Denver:

This was my 50th post-training flight:

My last flight was in Escalante, Utah about a month ago, so today’s goal was to reset the “last flight date” counter to zero. I took off a little past three hours after sunrise, so the air was plenty bumpy. I just did one lap and came in to land:

We said goodbye to Roger and Pat (thanks for hosting us!) and drove east into what I usually think of as the boring half of the country. We’re now firmly east of the Rockies for the first time in nearly two years:

Trish continues to make jewelry for her online jewelry store:

We are overnighting at the Walmart of Colby, Kansas. Our last Walmart overnight was in January! See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Look Before You Live!

Monthly Archives: June 2015

Day 666: De Soto NWR and the National Music Museum

Day 665: Roller Skating Museum, Underground Railroad, and Lewis and Clark NHT

Day 664: Nicodemus NHS

Day 663: Dust in the Wind, by Kansas