Ride with Me! Memorial Day 2016

Memorial Day is meant for remembering the fallen who have died in service to our country. At Niobrara, Nebraska, a long overdue memorial to the 74 sailors who perished on June 2, 1969, was revealed and dedicated.

            

On that date, while doing maneuvers in the South China Sea near Vietnam, the USS Frank E. Evans destroyer collided with the Australian aircraft carrier Melbourne. The Evans was split in two by the much larger aircraft carrier. The front portion of the ship sank within three minutes taking the seventy-four doomed seamen with it.

Niobrara was selected for this marker because of the three Sage brothers who all perished in that fateful collision. Gary, aged 22, Gregory, 21, and Kelly, 19, were from Niobrara and were all stationed together on the ship per their request.

Numerous attempts by the survivors and family members to have those seventy-four seamen’s names engraved on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. have failed. There is still a concerted effort to make this happen, but until then the names of the seventy-four are engraved on two slabs right off of Highway 12 in Niobrara.

 

During the ceremony, a survivor of the sinking gave his perspective about the experience and reminded the family members in attendance that he and the other survivors were dedicated to getting the seventy-four names on the Wall in Washington D.C. They read off each name in alphabetical fashion and tolled a bell for each man. Governor Ricketts was scheduled to appear and speak, but “scheduling problems” kept him away.

            

The fallen men were accorded a twenty-one gun salute, and members of area Legion Riders held flags throughout the ceremony to honor the sailors.  I was one of those Riders, and I was happy to stand in the heat holding a flag to honor these poor men who died so tragically at such young ages. I can't even imagine the anguish those Sage brothers' parents must have gone through when they learned of the loss of all THREE of their sons. I'm glad these markers now exist, and I will think about those boys every Memorial Day from here on out.                  

Prior to my ride up to Niobrara on this beautiful Memorial Day afternoon, I attended the services in Neligh where my father, a retired Air Force man, took part in the color guard and helped render the twenty-one gun salute. He also helped put up and take down the flags that peppered the town.

 He's the one on the far right.

My daughter, who will be a senior in the fall, played her flute with the school band in her final tribute. My son used to play "Taps" when he was in high school since he was a trumpet player. It was bittersweet knowing this was the last year to watch one of my kids play in the Memorial Day service.

 She's the one in pink.

Here's the guard and the band in all their glory: 

Here's a couple photos of some of the bikes prior to the dedication at Niobrara.

 

All in all, it was a great Memorial Day doing the things that the day was intended for. We did also have a cook out, so we had a little of what most of the rest of America was doing this day, but I plan to always keep this day set aside to remember those who gave of their times and often of their lives that I might live safe and snug in my modest house in my modest small town smack in the middle of this vast, great country.

Roam With Me! Nebraska Passport Stops and St. Joseph

 For the past four years, I've taken part in the Nebraska Passport program, and for the past couple of years I've attempted to persuade my mother to see if she could get her antique store featured in one of the tours. I finally succeeded, and the powers-that-be selected her store, The Country Junction in Neligh, as one of the stops for 2016.

The Passport is officially divided into ten tours with eight stops in each tour. Her store is a part of the Prairie Treasure Tour. The program officially kicked off on May 1st, and she has already had a number of people stop in her store to get their stamps and look at the cool stuff she carries. Passport stamp books can be picked up from any of the eighty participating places across the state, so naturally I got mine this year from my mom. Oddly, though, I forgot to have her stamp it, so her store was not the first stamp in my book! Oops. I'm determined to get all eighty this year, so I'll get hers very soon.

My boyfriend joined in on the Passport fun with me last summer and at the tail end of the summer of 2014 after we met, so he's right there in the action with me again this summer. Because of his need to go retrieve a new trailer for our bikes in St. Joseph, Missouri, we managed to cross off the three stops in the far southeast part of the state.

The entire twenty-four trip was quite eventful.

I first had to drive to Norfolk to pick him up. Along the way, I saved a black cat from being flattened on the highway. It foolishly started to cross the road directly in front of an oncoming car, so I honked like crazy at it, and fortunately it turned and ran back into the ditch instead of across the road in front of me. I would have hated to see a cat that looked just like my own house cat get killed or seriously harmed.

After we got onto the interstate in Omaha -- I HATE interstates, especially at night, so he was driving -- we had to maneuver all the nasty construction outside of Council Bluffs. It was a moonless night, the lines on the road were very dim, and the signage was minimal and popped up at the last minute, so we missed the exit to remain on I29 south and had to backtrack a bit. Eventually, the road widened and became a legitimate interstate.

Not far from St. Joseph, we stopped for a stretch in a McDonald's parking lot, and by golly there was another black cat out wandering in an area heavily populated with moving vehicles. He was hot footing it pretty fast, though, across the lot, so I think he was pretty experienced with dealing with jeopardy. I watched him disappear safely into the bushes, and then we got in my vehicle and finished the drive to St. Joseph.

We had a room at the Radisson, and we arrived at 11:00 p.m. I looked across the street and was surprised to see this:

 Turns out he had just delivered a concert at the arena across from our hotel. We were surprised to see two large semi trucks like the one in the photo and three large coach buses lining the street. I never did catch sight of him, though.

We checked in and then took a short late night stroll around the area. I was delighted to find a bar that doubled as a bookstore! We went in, and I browsed a bit, but I didn't buy anything -- even though I was very tempted. Instead, we returned to the hotel bar for a nightcap and got there just as the bartender was trying to close. She said she could make us something to go, so I ordered my standard Bloody Mary (wow, did she make hers potent!). While we were waiting, a couple ladies came in, and when the bartender told them the same thing, they were disgruntled and said that they'd come there to get away from their kids! They wanted to know how many drinks she could make them to go and were then delighted to hear about a pitcher of something I didn't quite catch, so they ordered two and planned to sit in the lobby drinking until they finished off both of them! We didn't find them passed out in the lobby the next morning, so I can only assume that they eventually went back to their kids.

We learned that we just happened to be in town the very morning of the Apple Blossom yearly parade that goes through downtown St. Joseph, so after checking out, we drove a few blocks, left my car and double checked with a police officer about the parade route. A weathered older man was sitting on a low wall nearby, and he noticed my Harley-Davidson t-shirt and asked if I had a bike. I turned to tell him that I did, and then I noticed the very large H-D logo tattoo he had spread entirely across the top of his bald head. I inquired after his own bike only to then be met with his sob story involving arthritis and other maladies that prevent him from riding a conventional two-wheeler, so he now has a trike. Naturally, I bit my tongue and stopped myself from telling him that perhaps if he gave up smoking what I will only assume was a couple packs a day by the sound of his voice and discolored look of his skin along with the dangling lit cigarette in his hand, then maybe he'd get back on a real bike again someday. 

We then walked a couple more blocks to an area that would clearly be on the parade route. It hadn't reached that point yet, so we found a little coffee bar called Pony Espresso and enjoyed a Latte (him) and a tropical smoothie (me). That place reminded me a lot of the fictional Central Perk from the TV show "Friends" because it had a sofa and comfy chairs meant for sitting and visiting with friends. It also had a large selection of books to read while you enjoyed your beverage and quiche or bagel.

We found a couple of chairs and sat down to await the parade. As soon as we saw the color guard at the front of the parade, he and I both stood, as everyone should do, out of respect for our flag. We were appalled to see that only a handful of people along the entire block rose to join us. Almost every one of them remained seated with their hats on! It took a lot for my boyfriend to not chew some Missouri ass right then!

We had to leave the parade before it was over to meet someone, so we did. This is what we went to St. Joseph for: 

Not the dusty Trailblazer -- that's been my car for eight years now. See the lovely Harley-Davidson colored trailer? That's our new baby, and we'll be using it to haul our two bikes, my H-D and his Indian, when we want to go places for longer than a day or that are far away.

Then it was time to head back to Nebraska, and since I hate interstates and wanted to get our first Passport stamps, I convinced him to take some back roads. Little did I know from the maps on my phone that the road I was taking us down was about to turn into an unpaved one! When we encountered that with a brand new trailer behind us, he was hesitant to continue, but I could see that it would become paved again, so off we went. At first, it was fine -- a bit dusty, but flat. Then we came around a bend and encountered a veritable mountain with the crushed rock road running straight up the side of it and no place at all to maneuver a turn around. There was nothing to do but forge ahead. I was hoping it would flatten back out after that first tall hill. No such luck! Hill after hill after hill. On one side of us was a dense foliage that was part of Monkey Mountain Conservation Area, and on the other side was a drop off that led to a huge open expanse of farmland. Surprisingly, there were a few homes along the way, and we couldn't help but laugh as we wondered who would want to live where their house could only be reached by such a horrible road, especially in the winter or during heavy rains.

The road did turn into pavement again, though, as I knew it would. We guessed it was about five miles of nastiness, but we survived it. It was Road 400 off of Highway T in Missouri in case anyone wants to check it out. However, that cut across led us to Forest City and one of the best little small town diners I've ever set foot in. It was appropriately named "The Diner!" 

It's open from 5:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. only, and it mostly caters to duck hunters along with the locals. We had the best iced tea I've ever tasted there, and the pork tenderloins with gravy and mashed potatoes were huge and delicious. They also apparently have great pie, but we were too stuffed from the meal to try any. However, a good old boy local guy pulled up out front, got out of his pickup truck, came in, sat down at the counter on an old-fashioned stool and proceeded to ask the waitress to read him the pie flavors of the day which were written on a white board because HE COULDN'T SEE THEM! I repeat, he had just driven to the diner, but he couldn't read the words on the white board! Ugh.

We headed to Falls City for our first Passport stop of 2016. After we crossed back into Nebraska,

we started to see the haze that I'd heard was coming all the way down from the horrible Canadian fire that is out of control up there. It is hard to believe that the smoke can come this far, and it's even harder to believe how much damage the fire has caused already.

We finally got to Falls City, a town neither of us had ever visited. That's what I love about the Passport program -- it takes me to places in a state where I've lived my whole life yet still haven't managed to visit. We stopped at the John Philip Falter Museum in downtown Falls City. Falter was an illustrator, and he drew over a hundred covers for the "Post" among other things. 

Those are some of his covers, including ones that feature Falls City in some way. The museum is located in a former bank, just like my mom's store in Neligh is. 

From Falls City, we briefly visited Indian Cave State Park for stamp number two. We had to navigate a horribly pot-holed road, but we got another good laugh to see a barn along the way that was freshly painted up only as far as the painter had been able to reach! We got to the park entrance only to find that the one-way loop road in the park was closed for construction. I was disappointed because I've been there before, but my boyfriend never has, and I wanted him to see that road; however, it would have been difficult to traverse it pulling our trailer, so we will just have to return another time when the construction is over. We did get our stamps in the office, though.

Afterwards, we headed to Peru, another town I'd never set foot in before. The State College library was Passport stop number three, and we managed to get there shortly before it closed and also after the college graduation was over, so our timing was perfect. The campus is small but lovely. Here is the exterior of the library: 

We had to get to Omaha for a graduation supper, and we managed to arrive with time to spare. If we'd had a little more time, though, we could have checked off a few more stops, or we could have spent a little more time exploring Peru. Oh well, the whole summer awaits us along with 77 more stops on the 2016 Nebraska Passport Program. If you haven't got your Passport yet, be sure to stop at the Country Junction in downtown Neligh to pick one up from my mom. Tell her that Tammy sent you!