Sunday 5-3-26 New State, New Park and Site Seeing

 

Kansas welcome sign

We had a beautiful day.

The sun was shining and there was a lite wind. There were no clouds until 4:00, when they rolled in but we didn't have any rain. The morning temperature in Crete, Nebraska was 52 degrees. The high temperature in Belleville, Kansas was 79 degrees.

Tuxedo Park in Crete Kansas was a great park to spend the night. It was very peaceful and the kids weren't noisy at all. We didn't notice when the kids left their prom. Today we decided to move on.

Tuxedo Park

I woke up at 8:00 and got dressed. We weren't in any hurry. We put things down and secure. Then we had a quick breakfast. After breakfast Larry unplugged us and we were on the road again by 9:00.

Today Larry drove 95 miles, mainly two lane highways through small towns. We saw a lot of farmfields. We started in Nebraska and ended up in Kansas. 

Before leaving Nebraska we stopped in at Hebron. In their city park they have the World's Largest Porch Swing. The original paint was red, white and blue, it was built 1985 and moved in 1991 from the Hebron CC Camp, it has a capacity of 16 Adults or 24 Children. It is very cool. It's very heavy and you can still swing on it. The park has a very nice playground and a memorial statue of a bear. The bear was in memory of Marcia Virgin Williams Class of 1959. The high school mascot is a bear. 

World's Largest Porch Swing 

Sitting in the middle of the porch swing

Playground

Memorial Bear

After swinging on the World's Largest Porch Swing we were back on the road. 

Our destination was Belleville, Kansas, we arrived about 10:30. We wanted to visit the High Banks Hall of Fame, which is the National Midget Auto Racing Museum. It did open until 11:00 so we had some time to kill. We drove to the city park to check out the RV park where we planned to camp for the night. 

Afterwards we went to Love's and had lunch at the Subway. We shared a 6" Spicy Italian sandwich and chips. While eating lunch two ladies showed up with a horse trailer with two beautiful horses. They unloaded the horses and walked them. Then they took the blankets off them and brushed them down. One of the ladies walked their dogs and the other one swept out the trailer and put covers on the horses legs. They weren't there too long but we had free entertainment.

After lunch we drove back across the street to High Banks Hall of Fame (National Midget Auto Racing Museum). It was a free museum and the gentleman, who is in charge of it was very nice and knowledgeable about the cars on display. He walked around with us and explained the background of the cars: who drove the car, when they drove the car, how successful the driver was and who owned the car. He wasn't a racer but his father was. The museum had two rooms. It was a great museum and had a lot of midgets and sprint cars on display. We were glad he took the time and walked around with us and explained each car.

Sign you can see off the highway

      Entrance to the museum

Carved Model of a Midget by John Boyer

Carved Model of a Sprint Car by John Boyer

Midgets on display

Shupp 97 (owner and driver Robert Shupp)

More cars on display

8 Ball Midget (built before WWII and raced until the mid 50's)

 

#98 car is a mid 1930's Sprint Car

Larry checking out the Nance Titanic Sprint Car built in 1992 (last one built)

Belleville High Banks 1/2 mile dirt race track (built in 1910 and still being used)

After the tour of the museum we went to City of Belleville Rocky Pond Recreation Area. We didn't have any problems finding a spot for the night. Each site is full hook-up. Some sites get a view of the lake. We decided not to get one of them because there were already people in some of the sites and we didn't want to crowd them. It's a great park with a dog park, fishing pond with a fountain, day area with picnic tables and bridge that takes you on the other side of the pond. It has bathrooms with a shower. It is $20 dollars a night. Each site has a gravel pad for your RV. The sites, that look over the lake are pull-throughs and the other ones are back-ins.  It's very well maintained. 

We set up the Minnie for the night. We may be here another night. Then we walked around a little bit and I took pictures. The locals were fishing off the dike of the pond and people were having picnics. While in the Minnie we saw a constant flow of people using the dog park.

City of Belleville Rocky Pond Recreation Area

The dike to fish from

The lake

The fountain on the pond

Larry finished reading a book he started yesterday. I read for a couple of hours. I continued reading The Curse of Pietro Houdini.

Relaxing with a good book

I played my games. I did the Daily Challenges of Solitaire and Mahjong from yesterday and today. The event was Event: Two Game Tango Mini of 10 games (5 Klondike and 5 Tri Peaks). It took me 38 minutes and 35 seconds, which put me in 18th place in my group. I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2. 

I didn't feel like walking around after dinner so I ended up doing 3,000 steps. Just having fun.

    

   

Saturday 5-2-26 Great Plain Museum, Sheldon Museum of Art, Capitol Building & More

Entrance to the Nebraska Capitol Building

We woke up to the morning temperature of 30 degrees, the high was 70 degrees in Lincoln Nebraska.

I crawled out of bed at 8:10 am. Larry let me sleep in because we weren't in any hurry. Today we were going to do more touristy stuff in Lincoln and they didn't open until 10:00 am. I got dressed and we started to put thing away. Then we had a quick breakfast. We wanted to be in Lincoln a little early to find a place to park the Minnie. 

Lincoln was seven miles from Sandhills Global Event Center. Larry had programmed his GPS to go to one of the museums we were going to visit but roads were closed due to a special event going on. We drove around for bit. There were plenty of parking garages but the Minnie won't fit in the garage. We finally found a place to park the Minnie. It was on the street with a parking meter. We put enough quarters in for three hours ($3.00). We walked to the first stop, which was Sheldon Museum of Art on the university campus. We were almost there and Larry wasn't sure if he locked the back door of the Minnie. We walked the 1/2 mile back. He had locked it. Then he added another two quarters because we weren't sure how long we were going to be. We had three hours to be back. It was 10:30 so we had until 1:30.

We walked back to the Sheldon Museum of Art. It was a beautiful museum and very roomy. The museum was on two floors. The galleries we walked through were Americans Aboard, Collection Gallies of Rohman Family, Sarah Pearson Campbell, Woods Family and Henning Family. They had a lot of beautiful art and photography. The museum exhibits are nineteenth- twentieth century art and houses over 12,000 artworks. They have a sculpture garden. It was a free museum but donations are welcome. We gave them a donation. The lady, who welcomed us was very nice and explained how the museum is set up. We had a great self-guided tour of the Shelton Museum of Art.

Sheldon Museum of Art entrance

Makanyara by Jackie Nickerson 2013

Horse of the Khedive-Egypt by Henry Ossawa 1990

Anne, Lizzie and Kate by Fairfield Porter 2013

Selection of Polaroids by Andy Warhol 1976-81

The Country Agricultural Agent by Norman Rockwell 1947-48

Burning Down the House by Leslie Wayne 

Left Sartorial Anarchy #21 and Sartorial Anarchy #30 by Ike Ude 

Dana Rose by Aaron Holz 2011

Roadmenders' Camp by John Steuart Curry 1929

 

Sandy In Defined Space by Richard McDermont 

Next stop was across the street, which was the Great Plains Museum. It was about the Great Plains art and is run by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln 's Center for Great Plains Studies. It contains sculptures, paintings, drawings and photographs from John and Elizabeth Christlieb collection, which they donated. The exhibits are typically rotated several times per year and includes permanent collections, guest-curated exhibitions and traveling exhibits. It's a small museum but very nice. The exhibits aren't cramped together. Some of the works are by Albert Bierstadt, William Henry Jackson, Frederic Remington, Charles Marion Russell. Olaf, Lyman Byxbe, John Philip Falter, Michael Forsberg, Veryl Goodnight, Jackson Pollock, Norman Rockwell and Grant Wood. The exhibits are on display on two floors. We had a nice time looking at the exhibits.

Great Plains Art Museum

Lewis and Clark sculpture in front of museum

Native American girl holding a flag sculpture 

Blizzard of '88 by Herb Mignery 1994

Dust Bowl by Jeff Gottifried 2020

They/Them by Angela Babby (Oglala Sioux Tribe) 2022

Chief Wolf by Frank A. Rinehart 1899-1905

Left Town in the Ozark by Jackson Pollock 1930 and 1938 and Wyoming Autumn by Thomas Hart Benton 1974

 

El Texan Vaquero by Charles Brinton Cox 1898

Mexican Vaquero by Charles M. Russell 1908

Garden of the Gods by Dwight Kirsch 1977

Cherokee Nation Walking the Trail Shawl by Meredith Radke-Gannnon 2024

 

Sunset by Gwen Westerman (Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate? Cherokee Nation Plains 2016

Not Forgotten by Tyra Shackleford Chickasaw 2020

    The Chase and I'm Outta Here by Delmar Pettigrew 2007

After touring the Great Plains Art Museum we went to Panada Express to have lunch. We wanted to try out Blaze Pizza but the line was too long so we decided on Panada Express. We shared a bowl, which had fried rice and orange chicken. It was very good.

Our lunch

After lunch we walked to the Capitol Building. We didn't do a guided tour because we were getting short on time. We walked around the Capitol Building and saw a lot of beautiful paintings about the history of Nebraska. We saw the senate chamber but the house of representatives doors were locked. We walked up to the second floor and looked over the railing and got a very nice view of the whole building. We couldn't go up to the top of the dome because it was closed for construction. A lot of doors were locked so it didn't take long to walk around. We had a great time.

Chief Standing Bear sculpture 

 

Entrance when you enter the front doors

Railroad coming through Nebraska

The doors to the House of Representatives

The Senate chambers

The floor mosaics represents Cosmic Energy

Lighting for the dome

After walking around the Capitol Building we walked back to the Minnie, which was about a mile. 

Once there Larry programmed our final destination, which was Tuxedo Park in Crete, Nebraska, about 30 miles away. The drive was a two lane highway. Before leaving Lincoln we stopped at Casey's and filled the Minnie with gas.

Tuxedo Park is a beautiful park with a creek, that runs along 10 of the RV sites. It has a great playground for the kids, big buildings to hold events, baseball fields, Go Kart track, a couple of bridges (one takes you to the baseball fields and the other one takes you to the Go Kart track. They have a bathroom and shower. It has an old Settler's Cabin.

 

Old Settler's Cabin

Baseball Field

Bridge going to the go kart track

Go Kart Track

Playground

Tuxedo Park use to be Nebraska Chautauqua, which brought culture and entertainment to rural America. In 1883, the Crete Chautauqua acquired this site and within a decade twenty buildings had been erected. It was the largest such assembly in the country and had up to 5,000 people camped here. Below is more information about it. 

Nebraska Chautauquas

In the evening we had entertainment because the local high school was having their prom in one of the buildings. The girls were dressed in formals, that were long, short and mid-length. The boys were in tuxes. It was fun to watch them arrive.

 

I played Angry Birds Friends and Angry Birds 2. I had trouble getting online to play the Daily Solitaire and Mahjong so I didn't play them. It was able to finally get online late in the evening so I only did 18 games out of the 20 games in the event, which was Event: Spider Adventure of 20 games. I played it for 2 hours, 16 minutes and 42 seconds, which put me in 11th place in my group.

By the end of the day I did 15,000 steps. LIFE IS GOOD!!!