2012 New York Road Trip: 6 July (Day 4)

2012 New York Road Trip: 6 July (Day 4)

            9:25AM I slept in and did not get an early start today.  I checked out, gassed up, and drove two miles to . . . .

            9:33AM The Nebraska Prairie Museum.   This was a great find.  It is definitely off the beaten track.  There is a restored railroad prison car in front and a hedge sculpted to look like a buffalo, and a prison watch tower.  The museum itself is a very plain looking warehouse-type building.  But inside . . .  it was amazing.  They had displays for just about any aspect of life on the old prairie you would like: displays of dresses, quilts, lots of barbed wire displays, a room with old farm equipment – including an actual (huge) threshing machine.  Displays of dolls, children’s toys, washing machines from a modern one all the way back to a metal tub that rocked back and forth – and wash boards. Gun displays, stuffed animals, war stuff.  They had a mock town consisting of a gas station, dentist office, doctor’s office, general store, land recorder office, toy store, dress shop, post office, police station.  A huge display of buggies.  And . . . it turns out the Holdrege, Nebraska was a POW camp during WW2 where they kept German POW’s – hence the railroad prison car in the front.  I think this was about the longest time (90 minutes) I have ever spent in a single museum – with the possible exception of  The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.  This was definitely worth the 25 mile detour.

            1:00PM Lunch at the York, NE Applebees.

            4:30PM Checked into the Bellvue, NE Microtel.  At 4:30 it was a crisp 107 degrees.  At 7:30 it was still a crisp 107 degrees.

            Miles driven today: 214