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.