Monday, April 22, 2024, Overnight in Omaha, Nebraska

I wanted to visit Omaha, NE, on our way north to see where my family lived when I was a child. It worked out well to overnight at the Cabela's on the south side of Omaha to break up our trip into more manageable drives. Today was only 199 miles but the wind made it more tiring than usual. Still, we arrived early enough that we could get in a Costco fix and have a leisurely meal at Cracker Barrel before hunting down my old digs.

First up was our apartments on Frederick Street. We lived here from when I was 2 years old until I was about 9. The place had a facelift but was easily recognizable. The door second from the right was a two-bedroom we rented until my sister was born. We then moved into the three-bedroom which was the second door from the left.

The in-ground trash receptacles I remembered were gone and the A/C units were certainly not there way back when. The swings and the sandbox I fondly remembered were gone and, of course, everything seemed so much smaller.

I have several photos of us kids and the grandparents sitting on the porch steps whenever they visited. It's hard to believe how little they have changed in 60 years.

I followed my memory of walking to school and found Jefferson Elementary exactly where I remembered. It had a facelift too, but still looked pretty good for a building that must be close to, if not more than 70 years old.

My parents bought their first house when I started the fourth grade. That house was also still standing and looked much better than I remember it. Dad was transferred to Tennessee within a year and the house buying/selling left some rather unpleasant memories for my mom.

Again, I tried to remember walking to school from the house and this time found Belvedere Elementary. If it changed at all I could not say - it looked the same as I remembered.

The weather forecast indicated a possibility of rain so we hooked up the car and settled in for the night. As it turned out, we were the only RV overnighting in the parking lot (there were many semi trucks parked for the night) so we were able to get an early start the next morning without bothering anyone.

April 17 thru 21, 2024, Junction City, Kansas

We continued north but wanted to take our time to avoid any surprise cold weather. So our next stop was a Corps of Engineers campground, West Rolling Hills on Milford Lake near Junction City, Kansas. The 229-mile drive was entirely on secondary roads but they were nicely paved More importantly, there was very little wind. I guess it was pretty early in the season since we were nearly the only ones in the park. 

The next day 30 mph winds were creating white caps on the lake - I sure was happy we had no immediate plans!

Junction City did not have a lot of attractions so we paced ourselves. The "Atomic Cannon" was on display outside Fort Riley Army Base. It was one of only three manufactured and was never fired before being decommissioned in 1963. Fort Riley is home to the 1st Infantry Division officially nicknamed "The Big Red One". 

It was a nice hike to the top of a hill to check out the Atomic Cannon. David was a bit underwhelmed by its size.

It was designed to fire an 11-inch shell more than 20 miles. It was high on a bluff overlooking the base. The soldiers did train with live rounds that we were able to hear from our site more than 5 miles away.

On the path up the hill, Joani spotted an extremely colorful lizard. He posed nicely for me but I definitely need to get better with my focus.

Further down the path, we found a much smaller lizard with no color. 

The wind continued for several days. While we had rain, radar showed snow in Kansas west of us. Our temperature stayed above freezing and eventually warmed up again so we could hike around the park. We discovered an abandoned campground loop. You can just make out the sign for the Nature Trail below.

The loop pavement was not holding up well against the elements and finally devolved into loose gravel before it disappeared completely where erosion had swallowed the road completely into the lake. Of course, Joani had to see if there were any interesting rocks along the shoreline.

Not a single interesting specimen.

I spotted another red-headed woodpecker but he eluded my camera. I was lucky with the heron (I definitely need a lot more practice following wildlife) and the pelicans posed nicely.  

With plenty of time during our stay, Joani was able to plot out the next couple of months of travel and make reservations. We have never been booked so far in advance!

April 10 thru 16, 2024, Stillwater, Oklahoma

Long ago, I visited Stillwater, OK, for business and remembered it being a nice college town. Joani's research found plenty to see there so she booked us a week in Wildwood Acres Campground. It was only 299 miles from Steve's place. I fought powerful headwinds most of the way. One heavy gust actually made the coach downshift just like we were going up a hill.

In particular, I wanted to revisit Eskimo Joes. I think it has grown in the last 30 years. Joe has multiple parking lots along the street and we barely found an open spot.

The "sweet pepper bacon cheese fries" were recommended and they did not disappoint! I had the Fire burger as well laced with habanero peppers and an excellent spicy wing sauce.

The restaurant goes through 6000 pounds of potatoes a week thanks to the popularity of their signature fries.

Another day, we dined with Eskimo Joe's cousin, Mexico Joe. Yet another excellent meal and now we have to start thinking about returning to some sensible eating.

We visited the Oklahoma State University campus a couple of times to stroll around. It was very pretty and almost deserted. The lack of students led me to believe the classes were over.

We visited the OSU Botanic Garden. I had the sense they were just getting started and it will be growing in the coming years. Of course, not a lot was in bloom this time of year. There was a garden resident who politely slithered across our path 

The G&M body shop in Stillwater must be owned by a Transformers fan. He had a replica of Optimus Prime at his east side shop and Bumblebee at his west side shop. They were each impressive, I guessed at least 20 feet tall, and obviously took a significant amount of time to build based on the detail we saw.

 

We spent one day in Oklahoma City. Unfortunately, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and the Oklahoma Railway Museum we wanted to see were both closed on Monday. The Myriad Botanical Gardens were open and quite nice. It was overcast and cool so we spent most of our time inside. Curbside parking was limited to 2 hours, but we could have easily spent twice that amount of time admiring the gardens.

Inside the Crystal Bridge Tropical Conservatory were some of the most wild and wonderful flowering plants we have seen in a while.

We included a few of our favorites...

There are 28,000 varieties of orchids.

This is my favorite goofy orchid center.

I see an eagle in the center of this one! Can you see the reflections in the drop of water?

This one seems to have laser beam eyes.

Plumeria 'Orange KLS'

Dogbane Family Apocynaceae

Several days we noticed Woody the Woodpecker right outside our window attacking a colony of crickets under an old tree stump. I was able to sneak a few shots of him between bites.

The wind ruffled his normally swept-back crown feathers

On our last day, we visited the OSU Art Gallery. It was small and had only been open for 10 years and had rotating exhibits. Kerry and C. Betty Davis had collected 67 works of African American art on a postman's salary over 35 years. They owned a modest home in Atlanta, Georgia that housed the collection: "They happily sacrificed material goods and comforts in order to surround themselves with the drawings, paintings, prints, and sculptures they loved."

OSU students watched our every move as we viewed the artwork. I think they were noting our reaction to the individual pieces or maybe they were making sure we didn't touch anything. The torn paper collage below was my favorite. The oil on canvas below that was Joani's favorite.

Alvin D. Loving, Jr. (b. 1935-2005)

Crotch of Fire, 1980

Torn Paper Collage

Stefanie Jackson (b. 1957)

Exodus, 2007-08

Oil on canvas

Monday, April 8, 2024, Total Solar Eclipse, Bluff Dale, TX

Steve and I studied Google Maps and an eclipse website to find an appropriate site to view the big event. The ranch was close but at 99.98% totality, I wanted more. It would have been about a 2-hour drive to the centerline and 4+ minutes of totality, but the clouds were threatening so we might not have seen anything. That was not worth the gamble so we found a much closer location (30-minute drive) that gave us 1.5 minutes of totality. It was a large parking area outside Glenn Cemetery on the outskirts of Bluff Dale. The news led us to believe there would be wall-to-wall people everywhere for the eclipse so we were pleasantly surprised to find we were alone at our selected site.

We drove the last 3/4 mile on a dirt road. It was secluded and ideal.

The cemetery proved to be an interesting diversion while waiting for the moon and sun to align.

The parking area also provided us with some beautiful shade under a large live oak tree.

We were fortunate that the clouds cooperated and gave us clear views throughout the entirety of the eclipse. I replaced the telescope tube with my camera on the tracking mount. I mounted a mylar filter on the Sony a7iv and 600mm lens using a 3-D printed part my son, Jon designed. It was serendipitous that it fit both my telescope and the telephoto lens.

I used a remote app on the phone to control exposures on the camera and I took a lot of exposures! (700+)

I could not be more thrilled when I saw the solar prominences during totality - I was not expecting that with my basic mylar filter. Some of us simply chilled in the shade and marveled at the neat effect of the crescent solar disc imaged through the pinholes between the tree leaves.

I love the pinhole effect during an eclipse. 

Totality ended around 2:00 and we were hungry. Just a few miles down the road in Stephenville was Hard Eight BBQ, a place Steve had wanted to try. It was fantastic!

Angie treated us to great BBQ! It was memorable.

I would have to say the day could not have been more perfect.