Roam With Me! Paleontological Nebraska and a bit of Iowa).

 My daughter is about to start her final year of the Master's Degree that will allow her to be a full-fledged paleontologist -- a dream she's had since she was in junior high. It began on the day we visited Ashfall Fossil Beds, which is in Northeastern Nebraska. We'd visited it a few times prior because it's not too far from our home, but on this particular visit there were interns from the University of Nebraska Lincoln working in the rhino barn -- the active dig site -- and I struck up a conversation with one of them. While the intern and I visited, my daughter was listening, quite attentively as it turned out. When we left, she said to me that she wanted to do that when she grew up.

She never wavered. She attended UNL and majored in biology (she preferred that to geology, which is the other undergrad major a future paleontologist can choose). While at UNL, she spent two summers interning at Ashfall and also worked for the collections department of UNL's museum and learned how to become a preparator in a laboratory, which is what she wants to do. Now, she is in her master's program majoring in paleontology.

She recently came home for a short visit, and in that time, she and I revisited Ashfall and we made a fast trip to western Nebraska to visit three sites in two days. Her trip culminated in Cherokee, Iowa, at the Sanford Museum, which houses an assortment of fossils found in Turin, Iowa, years ago. Her thesis is about these fossils, so she spent two days photographing and measuring a lot of fossils. Now, she can work to finish her thesis, so she can graduate and become the paleontologist she's always wanted to be.

I, myself, never had a huge interest in fossils, but that has definitely changed over the years in which she has been studying them. I don't pretend to know a lick about them, though, but I will share here some of the interesting places in Nebraska that you can visit if you want to see them and/or learn more about them.

Let's start where her journey began.

Ashfall Fossil Beds is located north of the tiny town of Royal, Nebraska. It's been open since 1991, and the site contains a large collection of rhinos that have been left preserved in-situ. You can visit this link to learn more about it: Ashfall Fossil Bed. On that page, you will see the following photo of my daughter working there a few years ago. If you visit the site, you can even buy a magnet of this same photo!

When she and I visited Ashfall a couple weeks ago, she had a pleasant talk with her former boss, Rick Otto, who has been the caretaker of Ashfall ever since it opened. 

Naturally, I had to take a photo of her where it all started for her. I think she wanted to climb back down into the rhino pit and start digging like she did for those two summers.

Her professors in Tennessee have asked her many times if she'd been to Agate Fossil Beds, which is in Nebraska, too. She said that she hadn't because it is on the opposite side of the state and a good six hour drive away, but while she was home, we decided to make a fast trip out there. To make even more use of the drive out, we also planned two other important stops.

The first was to Trailside Museum, which is located inside Fort Robinson State Park. Trailside Museum belongs to the University of Nebraska, just as Ashfall Fossil Beds does. Trailside is famous for the mammoth display it contains. It's called "Clash of the Mammoths," which is a fossil display that features two bull mammoths who died with their tusks locked together -- most likely while battling. The fossil was found a few miles from where the museum that now houses it is located.

The two mammoths were named Cope and Marsh for two dueling paleontologists who were at the heart of the Bone Wars. Here's a little video about them if you are interested: Cope and Marsh

There are other interesting displays in the museum, and it's a very small museum, too, so it doesn't take long to visit it. There is a gift shop in the basement, too, that has a lot to offer. 

Not too far from this museum is Toadstool Geological Park. If you visit, prepare yourself for fifteen miles of gravel roads to get to it. I wasn't expecting that, so it was a surprise to me -- thought I'd forewarn anyone reading this. I think I'll be cleaning dust from those roads out of places on my car for years to come! Because of how dry it's been this summer, there was a veritable dust storm behind me as I drove out there and back.

We also visited on one of the hottest days of the summer with temperatures over 100 degrees. It couldn't be helped because we only had a small window of time in which to visit, but the heat did make it a bit unpleasant -- at least for me. However, we still walked and hiked around a good part of it -- naturally, on a cooler day and with more time, we would have done more (or at least my daughter would have if she hadn't had her old mom dragging her down!).

Toadstool is smack dab in the middle of nowhere. In fact, having not met a single car on those 15 miles of graveled road, I was actually surprised to find others at the site, and more arrived after us. We took our water bottles and headed down the trail. First we attempted to do the hard part, but then we backtracked and took the flatter trail around the backside and up into the formation.

Proof that I actually did go into the park.

We spent the night in the tiny town of Harrison, which is only a few miles from the Wyoming border. Even though it has fewer than 300 inhabitants, the town has everything you need -- a couple motels, a gas station, a saloon/restaurant that serves excellent pizza burgers and is definitely the social hub of the town, the county courthouse, and the county school. There's also a general store and a museum as well as a library and other things I'm sure I missed.

We had to visit Wyoming while we were that close, of course.

The next day, we drove to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, which is about twenty miles south of Harrison. Remember that I said that Toadstool is smack dab in the middle of nowhere? So is Agate!

It was another hot day when we went there, but at least there was an air-conditioned building staffed by friendly park rangers to visit and escape the heat for a while. Agate preserves the Miocene mammals that were found in the area as well as the relationship that was fostered between a rancher named James Cook and Chief Red Cloud of the Lakota.

Through the window you can see the raised area where the fossils were discovered and to which we hiked after touring the museum.

My future paleontologist in her element.

There is an interesting book by this that explains every image depicted on this.

Before going outside on our hike, we viewed the twelve-minute movie about the site. My daughter knew three of the people in it because she worked with or met them while studying and working at UNL in the collections department. The movie is a bit dated, but it is still very informative and well done.

There is a two-mile loop walkway that takes you up to the two peaks where the fossils were discovered years ago. Once again, lucky us, it was 100 degrees out, but we did the trek anyway. We had our water and the couple shaded benches that are located along the way to cool us a bit as needed. The hike is well worth it, in my opinion. 

From the top, you can see forever it feels like. The Niobrara River valley stretches as far as the eye can see, and the view is spectacular. My photos don't do it justice, but I will post some. I enjoyed knowing that same Niobrara River that runs not far from where I live was responsible for the magnificent views.

We begin the long walk.

See those peaks behind us? That's where we're going!

A tiny bit of wetlands in a vast expanse of dry area.

At the top. Checking out the original discovery site.

One of the two peaks.

There are also signs that say there are active rattlesnakes, so I was on high alert for the sound of any rattles. Unfortunately, there are the noisiest grasshoppers I've heard that abound here, and they make this crazy rattling sound every time they take off. It's really loud, and I realized that I wouldn't even have been able to hear a rattlesnake's warning anyway! Thankfully, we didn't see any snakes, and thankfully the entire trail up is paved and well maintained.

After driving back across the state, we had a few days of rest before heading to Cherokee, Iowa, for two days prior to her return to Tennessee.

She spent those two days in the basement collections area of Sanford Museum where she photographed and catalogued a bulk of the Turin fossils. I spent that time in the Cherokee Public Library and in the independent bookstore there called The Book Vine -- it sells books and wine.

The museum is a nice small museum that also has a small planetarium. 

One of the many oddities that are housed in the basement of the Sanford Museum. 

So, if you are interested in fossils and you live in or will visit Nebraska, be sure to visit Morrill Hall at UNL, but also go to the far-flung parts of the state and see Ashfall Fossil Beds, Agate Fossil Beds, Trailside Museum, and Toadstool Geological Park. Be prepared for a lot of driving, and take lots of water with you for the hikes.

If possible, take along a paleontologist, too. It makes the trips a lot more interesting! 

Roam With Me! Nebraska Daytrip July 9, 2022

Earlier this week a friend texted to see if my boyfriend and I would like to do something with her and her husband on the weekend. I asked what she had in mind, and she turned it back onto me and asked if there was anywhere I'd care to go for a daytrip. I hadn't been planning to do anything much at all over the weekend since the forecast was calling for pretty extreme heat, but I also enjoy getting out of the house and doing new things, so I looked online to see if there were any festivals going on in the area.

John C. Fremont days were taking place in Fremont. Initially, I wasn't that interested because I've been to and through Fremont many times in my life, but I checked out the list of events and saw there was a huge car show. I'm a sucker for a good car show, especially such a large one, and when I saw that there was also a Backyard BBQ in which we could pay a few dollars and taste some ribs and chicken, I knew my boyfriend would totally be on board for going because he loves to barbecue.

Thus, we ended up at the car show where this gorgeous blue 1967 Belvedere GTX stole my heart. My guy lost his to the Coupe below -- I think it was a 1935, but I don't remember for sure. 

I didn't get any photos of the Backyard BBQ because we were too busy eating ribs and chicken, but I was surprised that there weren't more entries. As it was, if you weren't there right at 3:00 like we were, or shortly thereafter, you were out of luck at getting to sample much, but what we had was all excellent. 

It was a hot day, but fortunately many downtown businesses were open, so people could get out of the heat periodically to cool off and shop. We stopped in Five.O.Five Brewing Company for a drink. It's a stop on this year's Nebraska Passport, so I'd "discovered" it about a month ago and knew it was a nice place. Surprisingly, despite the crowds outside, there was still plenty of inside seating open, so we were able to cool off before heading to the BBQ. My friends decided to join the fun of getting stamps in the Passport program, so they got theirs from the brewing company and then headed across the street to add ones from the Nebraska Quilt Company.

No trip to Fremont is ever complete for me anymore without a stop at Amy's gravesite. I added another rock to my little box there to show I'd stopped by. I have another one at home to add once the current container is full. It was never meant to become a thing, but when her mom didn't permanently remove the first couple rocks I left, I decided to get a container to keep them in, so when they need to be removed for groundskeeping reasons, Amy's mom can just pick them up all at once and replace them later. Sadly, though, somebody keeps stealing the flags that her mom changes out regularly for seasonal and holiday events. Thus, you can see that the flag holder is empty when it should have a flag representing the 4th of July on it. Needless to say, but Amy's family and I are quite pissed about this. How low do you have to be to steal from a gravesite?

After we left Fremont, we drove toward Columbus, and somewhere along the way, my friend -- the  husband and driver -- asked if we wanted to do supper somewhere or just go home. I pulled out my phone and opened the maps app and searched for restaurants. Directly south of us as we drove was a placed called Nowhere Special Steakhouse and Saloon in a tiny town called Linwood. Since we'd never been there, or even heard of it before, we headed down through Schuyler to cross the Platte River and then drove back east to Linwood to check it out.

We arrived a few minutes before it opened at 5:00, and what you see in the photo above is all that comprises the downtown area of Linwood. There isn't a paved road to be found in the town, yet there is a very large and busy restaurant that serves great food. Apparently, according to the waitress, people come from all over for their chicken fried steak, but I had their extreme BLT -- it was filling and yummy.

While paying, we were told that we should check out District 10 while we were in the area. What is District 10 you ask? It's an old rural school house that's been turned into a bar, and it's literally in the middle of nowhere. There is a house next to it in which the woman who runs it lives, and there is a corn field across the road.

Inside are some of the things that were used when it was still a school, but at the front there is now a bar. The walls have chalkboards on which visitors from all over have written their names, and if you ring the bell, you buy everyone a shot. There were sixteen other patrons inside, besides us, and a few more outside sitting at the array of tables there.

Need a restroom? Well, just like in the olden days, you have to go outside, but unlike the olden days, these aren't outhouses -- thank goodness. Notice the interesting floral use of the old toilet between the doors.

I enjoyed what they'd done with this old wagon. Those feet and legs in the photo don't belong to anyone in our party, so you can see that the place does a healthy business even though it's off the beaten path.

After a long day that took us down roads we hadn't planned to travel, we returned home with memories of simple, yet interesting, places that can be found right here in Nebraska. While I love to travel far and wide, it's nice to know that there are still plenty of new places to see nearby.

As I headed out for my nightly stroll with my dog, this sunset-filled sky greeted me and gave me one last lovely sight for the day. I love to paint with watercolors, but I'll never be the artist that the sky is. Every evening, it's a new and beautiful show.

Read With Me! Audiobooks while driving.

 In January and again in April, I made the twenty-hour drive to visit my daughter. Yes, flying is faster, but I prefer to drive as long as it's possible to do so. Driving that far in a day or two does wear on a person, though, but listening to audiobooks helps the time pass much more smoothly.

In my day-to-day life, I rarely listen to audiobooks because when I'm home, I prefer books I can hold, but I do appreciate audiobooks on a long drive, especially when I'm doing that drive by myself with no one to talk to. Because of those long drives this year, I've listened to more audiobooks in 2022 than in all the prior years combined. It still isn't that many compared to the number of audiobooks that others consume, but, as I said, I tend only to listen to them on long drives.

Some books don't work well as audiobooks, and some narrators are far superior to others. One thing that I don't like about audiobooks is their pacing -- I can read the physical book faster. In fact, the pacing of the narrator of "The Great Alone," by Kristin Hannah, became so tedious to me that I stopped listening to it and checked out a physical copy once I'd arrived at the town where my daughter attends college. Then, I flew through the rest of the book. Since it's such a long book, it would have taken over 15 hours to listen to the complete audiobook, and even though my drive was longer than that, I don't like listening to the same story for 15 hours straight.

Hannah does an excellent job of pulling her readers into the setting of this story. Alaska is by far the most important 'character' of the story. I hate snow and ice and cold, so this novel made me shudder for many reasons.

On the flip side, I listened to "The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek" by Kim Michele Richardson in its entirety on the drive home because the narrator was phenomenal. Katie Schorr narrated it, and her voice really pulled me into the story. This novel grabbed me more than the "The Great Alone," too, because it's a story about books and their importance upon the backwoods' people of Kentucky years ago. It's also about a unique blood condition that made certain people have blue-tinged skin.

Another novel that's about books is "The Lost and Found Bookshop" by Susan Wiggs. I listened to the audiobook, and enjoyed Emily Rankin's narration, but I need to find a physical copy to look back through it for all the great book commentary and recommendations that I couldn't take note of while driving. I love reading books that are set in places I've visited, so this book kept bringing up great memories of my trip to San Francisco from a few years ago, and it made me want to get back there again.

My least favorite audiobook this year, so far, was "Bastard Out of Carolina" by Dorothy Allison. As a literary person, I'd often heard of this book, but I'd never thought to read it. Then, I happened to see it on my library's bookcase of audiobooks to check out as CDs. I listen to some audiobooks that way while driving, and I listen to others via my phone and the Libby app. I was a bit surprised to find that book in my small town's library of audiobook selections, so I checked it out for my drive. 

What a crazy, horrifying story. It's semi-autobiographical, which makes the things that happened to the girl in the story even worse. I almost stopped listening numerous times, but I powered through in the hopes that there would be some sort of satisfying resolution at the end of the story. There is not.

I do believe that this is a novel I should have read in its physical form instead because it gave me no pleasure as I drove, which is one of the things I like about audiobooks.

My favorite audiobook, by far, this year has been "Never Have Your Dog Stuffed: And Other Things I've learned" by Alan Alda. I loved it so much because Alda narrated it, and I absolutely adore him as Hawkeye on M*A*S*H*. It's not a novel, but rather a memoir, so listening to the author share his own stories was simply heartwarming and quite comical at times. I learned a lot about him and his fascinating upbringing. 

This was a book I could easily listen to over and over. It's also very short with only four and a half hours of listening time needed to complete it.

I've long wanted to read a novel by Lisa See because I had a connection with her mother, the author Carolyn See. It was a small connection, but it was a meaningful one. Carolyn wrote one of my favorite books for writers: "Making a Literary Life: Advice for Writers and Other Dreamers." In it, she recommends sending out "charming notes" to editors, agents, publishers, writers, etc. five times a week. While I haven't been able to make myself do that (yet), I did write one to her years ago telling her how much I loved her book. And then she wrote back to me!! I've kept her postcard in a special place since then because of her kind words to me. 

Sadly, Carolyn passed away a few years ago. I sent Lisa a note saying how special her mother's postcard was to me and how much I love "Making a Literary Life." Lisa wrote back to me, too! Like mother, like daughter. Lisa is a much more successful author than her mother was, but Lisa writes almost exclusively about Asian women and culture, and I've never been interested in Asian things. However, I wanted to read at least one of her books because of how much I appreciate her mother, so I listened to the audiobook of "The Island of Sea Women."

I did enjoy this book because of the swimming aspect of it, but this story is full of tragedy, and I did get tired of that. I'm perfectly okay with things going wrong, but I like a bit more balance in stories. However, this novel is based upon the very real "sea women" divers of South Korea, and what they do is fascinating.

Another long audiobook I listened to is "Truly Madly Guilty" by Liane Moriarty. 

This story is set in Australia, and that was perhaps the most interesting part of the story for me. It was simply too long at over 17 hours of listening time, and I would have preferred reading the physical copy of this one. However, I think this would have been one of those novels where I just would have skipped to the end to find out what had happened at the barbecue to get it over with. Moriarty took up a lot of time to build up to something that wasn't really all that interesting, in my opinion.

While I didn't listen to the following audiobook this year, it's still my favorite audiobook I've done so far. 

"The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown is about the University of Washington's rowing crew and all they went through in their quest to get to the Olympics in 1936 and win the gold. While I probably would have enjoyed the print version, hearing Edward Herrmann narrate the audiobook kicked the story onto a new plane. He had an amazing voice, and his many acting years helped him hone it perfectly. If you don't know who he is, here's his photo from a while ago: 

If you've never heard of the book or only read it in print version, I urge you to get an audiobook version of "The Boys in the Boat" and give it a listen. 

With half a year remaining of 2022, I'm not sure how many more audiobooks I'll listen to because I'm not planning any long drives in the foreseeable future, but I have been listening to my book club's current selection through the Libby app. I started it that way and had fully intended to read the physical copy when the library got mine in, but I was so enjoying the audio version that I've just kept listening to it.

It's "The Fountains of Silence" by Ruta Sepetys. The reason I'm so enjoying the audio is because it's set in Spain during the time of Franco's dictatorship, so there are a lot of Spanish words sprinkled throughout along with historically significant moments that all pertain to the subject I used to teach. I enjoy hearing Spanish whenever possible to keep myself fresh. 

The Valley of the Fallen in Spain is mentioned a lot in the book, and I've been there. Bullfighting has a small part in the story as well, and I've been to a bullfight in Spain -- I don't plan to ever attend another one, but I wanted to have the experience at least once. The nice thing about this book is that the chapters are all extremely short, so I can listen to entire chapters in a matter of minutes while driving short distances or while doing my morning yoga.

The Libby app has made it easier for me to try more audiobooks, but I still prefer, and will always prefer, physical copies of books. However, I've come to see and appreciate the value of audiobooks more and more this year, so I expect that many of my future longer drives will be passed while listening to a book or two.