So, for September 11, rather than watch politicians talk, I decided I’d rather take a nice long drive around a nice, long state.\u00a0 As always, click to enlarge.<\/p>\n

I saw this car gassing up in Blair.\u00a0 There was a classic car show that morning in Herman, and the owner was driving it up there.\u00a0 I suppose I should have known this, but the engine doesn’t bear any resemblance to the original.\u00a0 In fact, it has nothing whatsoever to do with it at all, except that it fits in the same space, more or less.<\/p>\n

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Who knew?\u00a0 I would have guessed Solvang<\/a>, but no, it’s in Blair.\u00a0 There are these little enclaves all over the country.\u00a0 Central Nebraska has a Swedish settlement, and there’s even a Czech-Slovak town up north.<\/p>\n

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\nThe war memorial in Tekamah.\u00a0 I hate to say this, but the Sherman was a fast, and very vulnerable death-trap of a tank.\u00a0 I wonder how many names on that stone served in tanks like that one?<\/p>\n

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Another car headed for the rally.
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I think this is still open (the For Rent sign is for an apartment), but I like the way they put the advertising right on the building.
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\nThe side of the VFW Hall has a little homage to the Lewis & Clark expedition, although it’s missing Sacagawea.\u00a0 The portraits aren’t bad, though.\u00a0 The guy all the way to the left (appropriately enough) is Jefferson.
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Flags out for Patriots Day.\u00a0 A lot of the small towns along the way had their flags out on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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People think Nebraska is flat.\u00a0 Parts of it are, but not the parts near the Missouri.<\/p>\n

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There’s an Omaha Indian reservation north of, ah, Omaha, and they and some government agency or another have collaborated to put up a Missouri River overlook.\u00a0 This is a close-up, and you can see on the other side of the far line of trees where the farmland is still drying out.<\/p>\n

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And this is a panorama.<\/p>\n

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Why?\u00a0 Why not?
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When I was in Arizona, driving through the Navajo reservation, I noticed one of their high school teams was also called the Indians.\u00a0 Can we please<\/em> just give University of North Dakota a break already?
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The Winnebago tribe has put up a little sculpture garden, with statues representing the various clans.\u00a0 I’m sure there are schoolkids who take away a great passionate yearning to be an ethnologist from this, but with only a sentence or two to each clan, it seems to me to be the worst combination of too little and too much information.\u00a0 But it’s a pleasant spot, the trees will grow, and the statuary is appealing.<\/p>\n

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An ethanol train, pausing for a stop at South Sioux City, which if you say it fast enough, sounds like a classic DC restaurant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Turns out that BNSF has a partnership of some sort with Ferrocarril Mexico.<\/p>\n

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Another interesting storefront, in Jackson, NE.<\/p>\n

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Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway, call your office.<\/p>\n

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Turns out it’s collection of classic windmills, re-assembled and restored by some maniac, who then donated them to the county landfill.\u00a0 No, really, that’s where they are.\u00a0 But who knew there were so many different designs?<\/p>\n

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Newcastle, NE had a community picnic that afternoon.\u00a0 I asked, and it was unrelated to The September 11th, it was just a nice day for a community picnic.\u00a0 Kids still ride the fire truck.
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A detour off of NE-12.
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A grim reminder that the violence was not, as the textbooks would have you believe, all one-way.<\/p>\n

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Gavins Point Dam, which controls – in some sense of the word – the Missouri River down past Omaha.\u00a0 Had they opened it earlier, there’s a chance that some of Omaha, many farmers, and at least one set of travel plans, would have been spared.
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No way, no how Sage would have done this.\u00a0 He hated the car<\/em>, and it was enclosed.\u00a0 This dog was having a grand time.
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A marina on the South Dakota side of the river.<\/p>\n

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Coming up on sunset, approaching Blair again, this time from the west, I noticed the texture of the land.
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And waited around for the sunset.<\/p>\n

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