Racing the Geese South; A Stop in Nebraska

On our drive from Sioux Falls toward Nebraska, we noticed that most waterholes were occupied by geese.  Assuming that they, like us, are en route south, we feel a bit of camaraderie with them and confirmation that it IS time to leave the north.  We made our own 'waterhole stop' in Lincoln, Nebraska.  And it wasn't a KOA this time, but the accommodations were very similar--gravel sites and mostly gravel roads, although some of them were paved.

Sightseeing attractions in Lincoln are limited.  We visited the capitol building, and took several pictures inside.  The interior is very colorful with mosaic murals everywhere.  The lighting was so low, however, that the colors are very muted in the pictures.

Outside the capitol, a statue of Abraham Lincoln stands in front of a carving of the Gettysburg address.

 Lincoln, Nebraska is home to the University of Nebraska and its football team.

We sent a picture of the stadium to family in Ohio (Buckeye fans, of course), to let them know that we were in enemy territory.  No worries, though, since Ohio State had just soundly defeated the Huskers with a score of 63 to 38!

Omaha is a short drive from Lincoln so we checked it out one day.  Bronze statues of a wagon train accompanied by a few buffalo and a flock of geese stretch over a series of city blocks in downtown Omaha.  It was fun to walk through, and, of course, we took lots of pictures.

The Missouri River forms the eastern boundary of Omaha, as well as the state boundary between Nebraska and Iowa.  Along the river, a bronze sculpture has been erected to honor the working man.

 

They have included some flood-level markers to help get a feel for the river's historic highs.  We've added our own scale marker in the form of SheM to show how much the river rose to be at the point of the hand and hammer in 2011.  The flood of 1952 was much higher than that.

 

 

One thing we noticed when driving through Nebraska's farmland is that almost every farm has an extensive irrigation system installed.  HeM commented that there must be a really large aquifer below Nebraska to support all that irrigation, and we wondered whether it was wise to be using so much of it this way.  A couple of nights after our drive, we saw a show on the History channel that reported on the Ogallala aquifer in the Midwest US and how its existence is being threatened by all the farming irrigation.  Our concerns were confirmed.

Our next 'waterhole stop' is Kansas.  We'll race the geese there.