10/8/22

A Day Off in Nebraska

It's a chilly morning, my friends. Another reminder that we need to get ourselves home before snow starts to fall here on the Great Plains. It's our last morning in Beatrice. A little later, we'll be moving west to North Platte. There, we expect to see the Union Pacific Bailey Yard, which is the largest railroad classification yard in the world. There are some other items of interest there too, including a railroad museum.

We had a nice day off yesterday. Even the kitties took advantage of it. Sadie enjoyed the morning sunshine from her window hammock.


Smitty kept an eye on passing woofies from his catio.
 

I finished up Block 6 of my slow-stitching project.


Finishing this block was October's


and so I'll link up there when the party starts at the end of the month. With that finished, I went straight to work preparing Block 7. In addition to this one, there is one more large block and four smaller ones to finish all the blocks in this quilt.


Also, I had just enough ingredients left to make Chocolate-chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries for One (or Two). We had those with our afternoon cup of espresso.


It was a nice day for a walk. As I've mentioned, the park here is lovely. There are sidewalks that lead to the river. There is another campground at the end of another trail, and yet another one will take us into the town of Beatrice.


We walked along the river for just a bit. This is the Big Blue River, which we believe should have been named the Little Green River. Looking east, it looks like this.


This is the view looking west. I suppose you could give it credit for being blue if one counts the reflection of the sky. 


A little farther up the path was a small boat ramp. This would be a place to launch a canoe or a kayak.


There on the ramp, I spied this little Pearl Crescent butterfly. It was tiny. From wing tip to wing tip was no larger than a quarter.


Earlier, I mentioned the acorns falling from the oak trees. The squirrels are hard at work on their winter storage.


The acorns are littering the sidewalk, and they crunched under our feet as we walked along.


We walked as far as this bandstand.


Here's a sign about its history, and it's worth a read. It's great when a community pulls together to maintain these physical bits of its past.


There was a small monument to the man who gave the bandstand to the city.


On the other side was this memorial to someone else.


There were pretty gardens all around the base of the bandstand.






From there, we walked back to the RV. As we walked along, I wondered why two identical trees are different in gaining their autumn foliage. The tree on the right has begun to turn, but the identical tree on the left is still green all over.


Walking past, I turned to take another picture of them.


Back at the RV, I took the first stitches on Block 7.


Dinner was leftovers from the night before, and so it was a relaxing day from beginning to end.

We have a 250-mile drive ahead of us today. We're hoping to get an early start to see the railroad station before it closes at 4:00 today. So with that, I'm off to make breakfast. I'm expecting to have internet access on the other side (although that is never assured), and so I'll see you on the other side.

10 comments:

Barbara said...

My early childhood memories center around this typical American country store and life in a small American town, including 4th of July celebrations marked by fireworks and patriotic music played from a pavilion bandstand. ~ Frederick Reines

Kate said...

Looks like a wonderful place to walk and enjoy the views. Safe travels today.

Julierose said...

What a lovely spot to rest for a day....Your stitcheries are mounting up--so pretty--nice work on these--hugs, Julierose

piecefulwendy said...

A relaxing day for all of you - perfect, or should I say purrrfect! Safe travels on your next leg!

Cheryl's Teapots2Quilting said...

A day off. No wonder you had time to write 3 blog posts yesterday. Drive safely today.

Sara said...

The railroad switch yard in North Platte is very interesting. I drug my husband there on the way to Denver this spring and he was glad that I insisted. I had been there once while doing some work for the Nebraska Dept of Ed some years ago. Enjoy!

Jenny said...

Such a pretty river walk. You may be interested to know that the town of Beatrice is etched in my mind after watching the TV show of the Beatrice Six murder trial. After conviction and jail time, they all eventually got off, but who done it? The question lingers.....

SJSM said...

What a nice relaxing day! A good rest for the long road ahead. The acorns falling jiggles a little memory up I can’t grasp when I was walking and heard the crunch under my feet. You bring words together that evokes many memories.

You stitcheries are rolling out on a regular basis. You will be ready for machine sewing on many projects when you arrive home.

Karen said...

The more I see of the rework stitching, the more I want those patterns. Designer ? I've gone back to try to see where you first mentioned... Sigh.
fall is a wonderful time for trees. Beautiful colors !!!

Magpie's Mumblings said...

I'm sure you're glad you've built in some days for relaxation during your trip. Nice for both you and the kitties.
That little flutter-bye is gorgeous and might be difficult to spot among the acorns.