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Sunday, July 10, 2022
We watched the Wimbledon Men’s Final before embarking on the relatively short drive to Omaha. We planned to stay with Deborah’s cousins for the next few days. The problem was that they were flying in from Boston today after touring some colleges back East with their son, so we didn’t want to arrive too early. To kill some time we went to a corn festival. We walked through the market. They were selling all sorts of fresh fruits and vegetables along with home decorations. To participate in the festival you had to pay $9.00 per person. It didn’t look interesting enough for us to spend that much.
We drove into the town of Valley and had lunch at a very nice place called Simply Delicious. On Sundays they have a brunch menu. Deborah had some scrambled eggs with biscuits and gravy. I had a “Popeye” (spinach and swiss cheese omelette). All the food was freshly made and cooked to order. The sausage gravy was particularly good. My omelette seemed more like a frittata but tasted great. The women who owns the restaurant encouraged us to see the gallery next door. Apparently she owns it as well and painted many of the pictures hanging on the walls.
To kill some more time we decided to tour the Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum in nearby Ashland. Nearby Offutt Airforce Base had been SAC’s primary home during its existence from 1946 – 1992. The museum , originally opened in 1959, moved to its present location in Ashland in 1998. It is managed by the Smithsonian Institute.
When you drive up there are a number of large rockets and airplanes outside the building. We were anxious to see them but decided to go inside first because we had just three hours before the museum would be closing. The entry price of $16.00 per person was a bit of sticker shock.
When you walk in you can’t help seeing an enormous SR-71A “Blackbird” suspended from the ceiling with its nose pointed directly at you. It’s a very dramatic effect. There are about 75 planes to see in total spread across two large hangers. There are also a number of informational displays and a movie theater with very dated films about SAC and some of its most famous airplanes.
They had a beautifully restored B25N “Mitchell” Bomber. You could climb up to see inside the cockpit, and walk into the open bomb bay. It was a lot of fun. They had a B-36J Convair “Peacemaker”, the largest mass produced piston airplane ever built. We’d never seen one before. There was also a lovely B-29. For us the most interesting plane may have been the Fairchild C-119G “Flying Boxcar”. It was made in Hagerstown, MD in January, 1953. It’s likely that Deborah’s grandfather helped build that plane.
We arrived at Jon and Judith’s house around 6:00 pm and had a lovely dinner. It was nice to catch up with them after not having seen them since 2015 in Phoenixville, PA. We were particularly pleased to meet their two dogs – and, oh yeah, to see how much their three sons had grown.
Monday, July 11, 2022
We must have been exhausted because we slept late. Judith had already left for work and Jon was on his way out. We decided to go out for breakfast and go to Target for some necessities.
Later, when Judith came home, we went out. We wanted to take a tour of Jon’s church but needed to kill some time before the day’s business was complete. We decided to go to a famous local place called Hurts Donut. We split three different donuts and then got a dozen to take home. Unusually all of the donuts were cake and none were raised, which I prefer. In spite of that the actual donut was soft, flavorful, and delicious.
On the way back to the church Judith drove us past the first two incarnations of “Bethany Lutheran Church”. The third version, on N204th Street in Elkhorn, is around ten years old and much larger than its predecessors. We were treated to a tour of a chapel, several multi-purpose rooms, the main chapel, and a lot of the backstage areas.
Tuesday, July 12, 2022
We drove over to Boys Town, the well known organization founded by Father Flanagan as an orphanage in 1917. Father Flanagan purchased Overlook Farm in 1921, the present location of the organization. Eventually the area became known as the Village of Boys Town.
Our first stop was the visitors center. A very friendly lady gave us an overview of the property and told us what buildings we would be able to visit. The visitors center contains a lovely gift shop and some interesting novelties including the largest Ball of Stamps in the world, and portions of Father Flanagan’s baseball collection. We purchased four Father Flanagan four cent stamps that were issued by the US Post Office in 1986. They will fit in nicely with our collection of stamps from all of the European countries that we’ve recently visited.
Next we visited Dowd Chapel, a Catholic Church that features beautiful stained glass windows and a chapel where Father Flanagan was interred.
Adjacent to the church was a lovely little park featuring plantings that were mentioned in the Bible. The trees / bushes were all labeled and contained biblical quotes that referred to them. A few steps away we visited the Boys Town Hall of History, a museum detailing the life of Father Flanagan, the development of the organization and information regarding the way that it trains and educates its pupils. It was very interesting and contained many artifacts and pictures of Father Flanagan with famous people. Father Flanagan died in Berlin, Germany in 1948. At the time he was making recommendations as to how to deal with the post war orphans of Europe at the request of President Truman.
We got back in the car and drove a few blocks to Father Flanagan’s House. There we received a guided tour of the house that he lived in during his latter years. The guide promised us that the tour would last no more than 25 minutes. The problem was that we kept asking questions and he kept telling stories. Over an hour later we literally ran out of the house to try to get back to the visitors center before the cafe closed at 1:30 pm. It was a very interesting tour.
The cafe’s special of the day was a rueben sandwich. I got one with onion rings and Judith got one with cabbage soup. Deborah got a bowl of Wisconsin cheddar soup. The food was very good and was reasonably priced. It was the perfect end to a perfect visit. Before leaving for the day we drove around the extensive grounds. We finally got to see some of the housing that is provided for the kids. Each house is run by a couple who supervises up to eight students. The houses were large, in excellent condition, and seemed fully equipped including outdoor furniture and sports equipment.
On the way home we tried another local delicacy: Dairy Chef. It’s not a chain and can only be found here in Omaha. The place has burgers and such but we went straight for the ice cream. Our choices were chocolate, vanilla, and twist soft serve along with a variety of toppings or mix-ins. I ordered a medium twist cone. Deborah had a small dish of vanilla with caramel sauce and Judith had a small “breakup” (a dish of chocolate ice cream with chocolate brownies, and Oreos mixed in). The portions were enormous and the ice cream smooth, creamy, and delicious. Sadly there won’t be time to go there again before we leave tomorrow morning.