A Tribute to the Transportation

In this post, I (Ryan, at Michelle’s request) bring to you 3 contrasting views of transportation in America.

First, “Transportation in the Pioneer Era”
On Pioneer day we camped down in Scottsbluff, NE, and hiked a half mile along the Oregon/Mormon Trail. Here you can see Michelle and Helen in front of a covered wagon replica with the imposing Eagle Rock portion of Scott’s Bluff in the background. The trail passes right beside this bluff, and to the pioneers it marked the end of the plains and the beginning of the mountains.
Here're Helen and I with an official Oregon/Mormon Trail marker.
Here’s a view of Chimney Rock, the most well known landmark on the Oregon/Mormon Trail. You can also find it on Nebraska’s commemorative quarter.

Second, “Transportation as Art”
Yes, you guessed it, those ARE real cars arranged and painted in a replica of Stonehenge. Titled “Carhenge”, this work of art was created in 1987 in a cornfield outside Alliance, Nebraska, by a farmer who wanted to pay tribute to his father. Someday I’m going to give a copy of this photo to Jane to put in her high-school graduation display, to serve as a tribute of a father’s love for his daughter that he would take her to such a rare site. I mean, millions have been to visit Stonehenge, but how many get to visit Carhenge? For any doubters or the curious, here’s a side-by-side aerial comparison of the two sites for your review.


Last, “Transportation at the County Fair”
Chadron is the county seat of Dawes County, and that means we’ve had the pleasure of attending all the festivities at the Dawes County Fair. For a good time on Wednesday night I took Helen to the “Tough Truck Contest”. The grandstand was packed for this event, as every farmer in the county battled to showcase their suped-up pickups and their mud-sliding, ramp-jumping, and obstacle-avoiding skills.
Most all of the trucks were no match for the water pit, and Helen got really good at shouting “Help, please, tractor!” as each truck got stuck. She also recognized that the tractor was the wrong color. I told her it was because all the respectable John Deeres were too busy out working in the fields while this tractor was left here to play.

Dawes County Fair and More Fun

Today we went to the Dawes County Fair and it was a good time! Actually, watching the judges deliberate for 15 minutes about the short hair cat winner wasn’t exactly thrilling, but everything else was. Here are some pictures of Helen (and Ryan) enjoying the livestock. I am pretty sure that I have never seen such clean farm animals in my whole life. Even the pigs were picture perfect.

Helen got a big kick out of the roosters’ cock-a-doodle-doing. Clearly, they had no idea that the sun had been up for hours.

Helen was also not one bit convinced that she wanted to get that close to the sheep. Ryan told her that the sheep was smelling her and that she should smell it back. I am not sure how this particular training is going to play out in other aspects of our life. Maybe she’ll start going up to the kids in nursery and smell them instead of saying ‘hi.’ Parenting is a powerful thing.

I saved some old pictures of when we went to the Fur Trade Museum and the Dawes County Museum. If there is one thing that we have learned it’s that toddlers and museums don’t mix. Especially if the displays are out in the open just waiting to be touched and have Do Not Touch signs on them.

Here is a particularly fine collection of barbed wire. It covered the wall, so I was only able to capture a fraction of it.

Below I captured the big storm that we had. I really didn’t do it justice. We had golfball size hail and tornado like wind that knocked branches down and destroyed the windows, screens and paneling on the west side of all unprotected houses in town. Luckily our car already had hail damage, a little bit more doesn’t bother me. I think that it adds character really. Like a good scar from your childhood.

I found some cherry trees on one of our walks and asked if they were selling the cherries and the teenage boy said no, take as many as you want. His sister proceeded to get me a couple of bags to hold them. What a lucky day! I could think of nothing better to do than make some delicious jam.

Here is a picture of Helen in her sleeping bag- you will note that she is wide awake, cute, but awake. I guess some things are just meant to be enjoyed.

We have to apologize for the lapse in fun-filled documentation of our time in Chadron. Last weekend I forgot to take our camera with us to Scottsbluff and we had to buy a disposable camera that is still getting developed. We will have to come back to Pioneer Day weekend.

This weekend we went back out to Ft. Robinson State Park, but this time we camped. As I lay in my sleeping bag listening to Helen singing at 10:30 at night, I wondered if it’s possible for children to actually fall asleep in tents in less than 3 hours. Is there some trick I don’t know about? I remind her that we have to be quite while we’re in the tent. Ryan’s technique is a little different. He just lies down beside her and sets a good example. Ryan and Jane are by far our best sleepers when camping.

Here is our campsite right next to the graveyard. Luckily there was a fence to keep all those solders in.

We went for a nice hike, which is one of Helen’s favorite outdoor activities. I am not sure how we’ll keep Helen moving along on our next hike, as we have run out of “bait” - chocolate animal crackers. But I know that she doesn’t trudge up and down the hills for the animal crackers alone, she’s soaking in the nature, appreciating the waves of grain, the buttes, forest glades and wildlife of all kinds.
There was a nice little nature center at the Fort. Here is Helen with these fine longhorns. I didn’t realize that longhorn cattle were indigenous to the area, but these horns look pretty old and we saw some on our hike as well. They’ve probably been here since the ice age.


Here is a cute picture of Jane, she just keeps getting more and more fun. She even helped us measure this big tree we found: 5.75 Hacketts in circumference.


Last but not least, we would like to dedicate this video to Craig. We arrived at the Crawford Fiddle Competition 2010 just in time to see the banjo event. I am pretty sure that you are all jealous. Both of the girls were asleep though, so we only stayed only long enough to snap a picture and get this video. What else do you need really?

This week we did one of my favorite things ever. We climbed on rocks! Ryan has Tuesdays off, and we spend them exploring the local fun things to do. Our Tuesday destination last week was Toadstool Park. It is cool enough that it’s even found in our big atlas. I perhaps should have been emotionally prepared for 20 miles of gravel road, as the line reaching the park was a faint grey color on the map. Luckily, no popped tires. Helen and Ryan got a good look at a sod house, the kind the homesteaders of 100 years ago made to start their life on these desert plains.

Then we went for a little hike around the rock formations. Helen is a great hiker, inspired by the trailmarkers and rocks that she could climb up “all by herself.”
This week we also went out to the Hudson-Meng Bison bone-bed. Helen tried to abscond with the bison tail that they had on display. Kids are really fun to take in public.
Afterwards we went to a recreated settlers town which was reported to have the best homemade pies around. It was delicious!

How do you say 125 year celebration?

Quasquincentenial. That is what we celebrated this week in Chadron. Please do not be tempted to think that because the star on the map is big, that this is actually larger than any of the other cities on the map.
This weekend Helen, Jane and I got to go to a parade while Ryan stitched everyone up who came into the ER. We sat next to a young set of grandparents who taught Helen all about waving to get candy. They also encouraged her to dart out in the street to get all the candy she could. Everyone had a great time. Helen’s favorite parts of the parade were the necklaces and the little plastic basketball that she kicks like a soccer ball. I have about 4 pounds of tootsie rolls to work through.
Here is a picture of the best tractor/farmer combination we saw. The adopted grandparents were really impressed that Helen knew all about tractors.
I am also including a picture of the representatives of United States Forest Service and Nebraska National Forests and Grasslands. I had never seen a mule wagon in a parade before and thought I would include it for a good time.
Here is Helen with our 1978 Candy Land Bingo game that I picked up at a garage sale. Clearly she loves it.
Jane just seems to be getting chubbier and chubbier. She was at the 90th percentile for weight at her 2 month visit and appears to be continuing just fine along that curve. I am surprised to have such a chunky baby since Helen clings to the 3rd percentile.

Chadron State Park

This week we decided to take a sampling of the ticks found in Chadron State Park. Our methodology was fairly simple - we just went for a hike. We came up with 10 ticks between the four of us in a couple of hours. Ryan discovered a simple way to keep Helen moving on the trail, the ol’ carrot in front of the donkey technique. She would do anything for chocolate animal crackers.
I learned from this hike why Mom was always had reservations about the exciting hikes that Dad liked to take us on. I don’t think that the pictures adequately capture the steep drop off on one or both sides of our trail. Ryan acted as the buffer and we had no incidents.
Helen was oblivious and I was slightly terrified. I knew that Ryan and I could stay on the trail; I have no such assurances about a two year old.

It's tough to get a picture of Jane on these hikes because she is burrowed in next to me and usually asleep. So here is a picture of Ryan and the girls in our little apartment.

Greetings from Chadron

Greetings from the vacation destination of Chadron, Nebraska! What are we doing here you might ask. Was it the proximity to the first State Park in Nebraska? Perhaps it was the restored Fort Robinson where “The World’s Greatest Horsemen Have Passed”? Did we win the lottery and decide to hide in a small corner of the world? Is Michelle comparing the diet of pronghorn antelope with bison? Although all of those are completely reasonable guesses, the truth is Ryan is working at the local hospital for two months, and the girls and I decided to come along to keep him company. It will prevent Ryan from overdosing on sloppy joes and Oreos.

The hospital provided a two bedroom apartment for us and we have the best back yard ever in the front of our house. It is a large city park with lots of lovely trees and more slides and swings than one girl could test with just one visit, although Helen gave it a valiant effort. The girls and I already scoped out the library which is about the size of a postage stamp, but it has a great children’s section and storytime will be a semi-weekly event for us. This weekend we went out to Fort Robinson State Park to relive some of my childhood memories. I have to be totally honest, I don’t remember very much about the last time I was here. I know that Brice and Hannah didn’t exist the last time we came based on my 100% accurate childhood journal. In that particular entry, I wrote about the first backpacks Emily and I used and the “dinky” bags that Amber and Craig used on our first family backpacking trip. I think that was the time that Dad got us ready for backpacking by hiking us down the street with flour or sugar bags in our backpacks.

Pardon the trip down memory lane. Ryan and I learned a lot about experiencing nature with a toddler on this trip. I realized that if grass comes up to my knees, it will hit Helen right in the face, making hiking a possible blinding event. Regardless, she had a great time hiking. We found a little creek off the beaten path and had a great time throwing rocks in and building rock towers.

Jane is getting to be more fun as she grows. Now she will smile and coo for a couple of minutes after nursing and before she tumbles into sleep again. Here she is working on her pushups.

Jam Season

Last week Helen and I picked cherries off a tree in a friend's yard. She had a great time with the branches within her reach. She is not what one would call a picky picker, i.e. if it's round it goes in the bag regardless of color or texture. Luckily, deer do not frequent the area... That night Helen helped us wash and pit the cherries so that we could make some delicious jam.

Here is a picture of the fabulous steal I got at a garage sale. I told the grandma selling the Tupperware that orange was my favorite color and she told me that it was hers as well and pointed to her orange shirt. I assured her that the tangerine colored Tupperware would be treasured at my home.

Helen went to the doctor this week, and here she is demonstrating what doctors do for Ryan. I guess that she felt he could learn from her technique.

Jane is doing well, all of her hair that fell out is growing back in very nicely.

For Father's Day Ryan became the proud owner of a fondue pot. It's hard to tell if Helen or Ryan was more excited. It was one of the other treasures that I got at a garage sale.

We went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and Helen worked on her animal communication. I think that she is telling the goat that he needs his hair brushed and the bird that she should try the seeds on the popsicle stick.