Day 10 – Kearney NE

It was a hot but pleasant day in Kearney. We started out at 9:45 and went down the road to Ft Kearney. It is a pretty park, with a visitors center. We watched a 20 minute film about the western expansion that was a little disjointed. We wandered through a few exhibits they had, and then we headed outside to a blacksmith shop. Bill went on to look at more exhibits while I stayed in the building to watch the barn swallows. They were flying through the blacksmith barn like greased lightning.

From there we went into town to the post office so I could mail my niece’s birthday present. Thank god for internet directions. Then we went to the Rails and Trails Museum. We got on the beginning of a guided tour with a grandmother and her two grandchildren. An old codger led the five of us through an old steam engine, some out buildings that have been moved to the site (boarding house, church, school, log cabin). He was slow and difficult to hear, but there was a lot of neat stuff in the buildings. It is sad to think that things I am personally acquainted with that are now considered archives! It was hot, and none of the buildings were air-conditioned, but we made it through an hour’s tour.

Then it was time for a taste of Nebraska. We had read about a fast food restaurant called Runza that serves runza sandwiches. These are fresh hot white bread rectangular buns filled with ground meat, cabbage, and onions. I got the one with cheese on it, and Bill got a swiss and mushroom one. We brought them back to the RV, and they were really quite tasty.

We sat out under a tree for a while, and it wasn’t too bad in the shade. We both got some naps in. And then we had the final treat of the day. Bill had found a Thai restaurant on Yelp on his phone called Wild Rice. It was just a little nothing building on a side street in Kearney, and we had a wonderful dinner. When the summer rolls arrived, the garnish was a work of art with carrots and lord knows what else. My Tom Khar soup was to die for. And the Pad Thai was good as was Bill’s pineapple fried rice. The garnishes on these plates were equally beautiful. I asked the waiter who had done them, and he said the female owner, and he would relay my appreciation of them. When we went to check out, the older female owner was by the cash register, and the waiter pointed her out. I conveyed my awe at her work, and she took me back to the kitchen to show me a carrot rose she had just done. I took photos, and then she showed me her brother in the back who was carving a watermelon. It was incredible. He said he was just learning, but it sure didn’t look like it. I took a photo of him and his work. It was the first time I had been invited back in a kitchen. We had been the last diners, so they did have the time.