Art Adventure in Lincoln

On my last day in Lincoln, NE, my friend and I had a quick breakfast and then headed off to the Great Plains Art Museum. I've never been to this museum even though I have visited Lincoln many times.

Outside the museum we found sculptures related to the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Inside we found two major exhibits. The first was called Narrow the Horizon and featured art that shows the Big Sky of the Great Plains.

Here is an example of the art we saw. I regret I didn't do a good job of documenting the artist for this piece.

The lower level of the museum has an exhibit related to the making of Western movies.

One piece which took our eyes was this sculpture called He Who Taunts the Enemy. The sculptor is Michael Boyette. One very interesting thing about this sculpture is how some parts are also painted.

For example, above is a moccasin.

And the delightful piece above is a Remington.

From this museum we walked across the street to the Sheldon Art Museum.

The first exhibit we saw was created by ///. This photographer has done photographs in Guatemala over a period of about 40 years. One interesting part of this exhibit showed the same people from two different times. The signage explained he made prints of his 1970s work and then went back to Guatemala recently to find the same persons.

Then we walked across the hall to another gallery which featured the work of forgotten women artists.

Interestingly both had Minnesota connections. Laging arrived in Lincoln when her husband obtained a faculty position within the Department of Art at the University of Nebraska. Her work centered on human figures.
Her first position was within a psychiatric facility in Lincoln. Thereafter, she always retained an interest in working with persons with disabilities even though she later became part of the Interior Design faculty at the University of Nebraska.

Another exhibit was called Things Speak.  Because we both like quilts we were intrigued by this one made from silk cigar wrappers.

Below is a close up of a section of this quilt.

The quilt is attributed to Henrietta Smith Nance and Mildred Nance Behrendt, whom I am guessing are mother and daughter.

Another interesting part of this exhibit related to telephones. A man who ran a mortuary was very upset when a friend died; he had promised to do this person's funeral. However, the operator connected the call from the family to another mortuary. This caused the mortuary director to begin the quest for telephones to dial to specific number rather than having an operator connect the phone call.

From the Sheldon we walked to restaurant called Sebastian's Table. This is a tapa restaurant -- tapas being something neither of us had tried before.

Our last stop was within a fairly new park in Lincoln, called Union Plaza. We wanted to examine the sculpture there better than we had been able to see why driving by.

It took me a bit of internet research to find out more about this. The name is Colossus and it the work a New York City sculpture, James Tyler. It is made of 300 specially shaped bricks.

Antelope Creek flows through this area. This is part of a flood control project in Lincoln. And this got a good test a couple days before my arrival when Lincoln received 9 inches (229 mm) of rain in 20 hours.

All in all a great day in Lincoln, made even better by lovely autumn weather and good company.

A Weekend in Nebraska

My friend in Nebraska asked me to shop for tulip bulbs when I passed through Schiphol airport. Last year she purchased some there but the squirrels ate the bulbs and she didn't see any flowers. So I had a successful shopping trip there and then the question began to be how to deliver them. At first I thought I might drive, but in the end I decided to fly down and back.

So Friday morning I set off to the airport via the Light Rail.

I connect with the Green Line one block from my apartment building and then ride it to the Downtown East station in Minneapolis. There I change to the southbound Blue Line which has the major destinations of the airport and the Mall of America. Once arriving at the airport one goes up two levels via escalators or elevators and then connects to a small blue tram that runs back and forth between the far distant location and the baggage level of the airport. Once there Delta has a two counters where one can check bags immediately. Then it was up through TSA security. My flight went out the C concourse. It had been a very long time since I had taken a flight from there. At the beginning of the C concourse I took yet another small tram which would take me to gate C24. I was amazed to see the digital display, new since my last time on that concourse displaying how many seconds before the next train would arrive.

The flight to Lincoln, NE was uneventful -- good news since before departure the pilot had told us to expect a bumpy ride due to the gusty winds in the midwest.

My friends met me and we went to a nice restaurant that featured flat breads. It was a great lunch. Then we were on to their home.

Our late afternoon activity was going to see their grandson perform a test for a Tae Ka Do level belt. This was my first experience in a gym for this and I was most impressed by the team work among everyone there.

From there we headed to Panera restaurant in downtown Lincoln, a destination selected for a quick supper because it was right next to the Lied Center where we were going to a performance of the Lincoln Symphony.

The Symphony performance was a quite different experience. The first hour featured a presentation of Beyond the Score media show created by the Chicago Symphony. Beyond the Score included pictures, music, and information designed to help us learn about Tchaikovsky as a person as well as the social and economic times surrounding the composition of the Symphony No. 4 in F Minor. I liked this very much and I think classical music groups might have more success if they would do more presentations like this before performing major works. The second half of the evening was a performance of the Symphony No. 4. Quite an outstanding event! 

On Saturday morning we really were lazy. There was mention of going to the Farmers' Market the evening before, but when the time was 11 AM and it closed at 12:00 and we were 30 minutes away, it seemed like a good thing to skip. Instead on this lovely autumn day, my friend and I took a neighborhood walk. Our primary destination was to see the renovation on the church they attend.

Upon return we headed off to find a new restaurant in Lincoln called Zoup. This apparently is a restaurant that began in Michigan. Franchises operate in 16 states plus the District of Columbia and Ontario, Canada. My state is not one of the 16 so this was a new place to me. This restaurant has 12 soups per day. Some varieties are there every day and others are only daily selections. I had a tomato cabbage soup with a lovely spring salad. It was a very nice lunch. Then we shopped for some groceries. If you know anything about Nebraska you may know the joke that the third largest city in Nebraska is the Husker football stadium. Nebraskans are great football fans, as evidenced by the large cookie I found at the grocery store.

The evening activity, of course, was watching the Nebraska-Michigan State football game, a game for which Nebraska came strong finally in the fourth quarter but not quite enough to win.

On Sunday morning my friend and I went to church -- held in an alternate location because their church is not ready for "prime-time" yet due to the renovation project. It was a very nice service. Home again, for a lunch with their son and a chance for me to meet his girlfriend. During the afternoon we watched the film, Book Thief. I had neither read the book or seen the film, so I enjoyed this very much.

Early Sunday evening found us at a soccer game to see my friends' young granddaughter play her last game. The game time was 6:15- 7:15 and so sitting there we saw quite a light show put on.

The combination of the  late afternoon sun and the clouds were quite dramatic. But soon I looked to the east and there was the moon.

And of course in the west was the dramatic sunset.

Home again found us enjoying a nice supper and then finding some favorites to enjoy on TV.

On Monday one of our major activities was designing a quilt my friend plans to put together as a gift for an upcoming baby shower.

Tuesday turned out to day of art in Lincoln, but that is another story that will be presented in a separate post.

Walking in Long Prairie

Yesterday was a day for cleaning the parking garage in my building and we had to have our cars gone from 9 AM to 6 PM. So that seemed like a very good day to go for a walk in place that was a good distance from here. So that is why I chose to do the one in Long Prairie, MN.

I wanted to do this walk primarily so I could mark off Todd County is my Walking the Minnesota Counties book. It is named after John Blair Smith Todd who was a commander at Fort Ripley. (This is now called Camp Ripley and remains an active site for the training of National Guard, primarily from Minnesota but also for other states.) The route map says he was a cousin of Mary Todd Lincoln, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, but this fact is not noted in the Minnesota Geographic Names book. 

Long Prairie began as an Indian agency town. It is named for the Long Prairie River which flows through it. And the above book says the name came from the long, narrow prairie about a mile wide and 20 miles long that borders the river.

I meant to leave home around 7 AM, but frittered away time until nearly 8 AM. It was slow going on the freeway at rush hour in a rain shower. Then in the northwest side of the Twin Cities area I hit a big slow-down on the freeway. I spent about 30 minutes going at the speedy rate of 5 miles an hour. An ambulance went by so I thought the problem was a traffic accident. But when I finally got to the end of it all the slow-down was because the right lane of the three lanes heading west was being shut down for the road construction project. I had planned to get gas along the way, and for a bit I began to worry that I would run out gas in the midst of all this, but I successfully got to a gas station!

So the promised drive of a bit over 2 hours actually took most of 3 hours. And the promised weather of low 60s and sun didn't come true. Instead the temperature was in the low 50s and no sun, only clouds.

This walk started from a Super 8 motel. Again the desk attendant knew exactly what I wanted. I was walker # 54. The walkers ahead of me were from Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Because I had a late and then slow drive and then had about 100 miles to drive to get back home, and because of the weather, I was interested in only the 5 K route. This did get me stamp, too, in my Lakes and Reservoir book, but other "things" I am collecting were on the second 5 K.

But within 5 minutes of walking I was the city water tower.

The rule for this is that one must be able to see the water tower from the route and I surely did. I went back at the end of the walk and stamped off my Water Towers book too.

I turned towards the west on a quiet residential street and soon discovered what I was sure was a community garden, gardens now clearly becoming dormant. .

And when I got to the end of the block I found I was indeed correct.

 

Near this corner I turned to the south to walk to Lake Charlotte. A bit of this walk was through a residential neighborhood and then onto a bike trail. 

This was such a pleasant walk.  As I progressed I realized part of it had been constructed just this year for there was bare ground on both sides of the path. 

It was nice to see the fall colors up close. 

Soon I was down to Lake Charlotte. 

This lake has a different appearance since there is wetland right along side with cattails and other plants. My names book says this lake is named for Charlotte O. Van Cleve. It further explains she came to Minnesota when she was a few weeks old. Her parents were attached to Fort Snelling and she continued to grow up on Army posts. She also married a military officer. The name book continues that as an adult she lived in both Long Prairie and Minneapolis and they she "was much loved." 

The walk took me by shelters, a bit of beach, a playground and finally to last shelter. Here I had to find who was remembered by this shelter -- a name to report as a "check point." 

From there I turned around and followed the bike trail back to the community garden. There I turned towards a walk way into Harmony Park. The route map said to admire the tile works. I had no idea what I was to find. 

First I found this planter. 

Below is a close up of some of the mosaic I found on this. 

I turned left to walk around a pond-- a sign at the start of the park called it an "existing pond." 

Then I found a long piece of tile works. 

 

Here is a close-up of the mosaic on this. 

 I particularly liked the baseball cap on the middle figure. 

A few steps more I found another planter. 

 If you look carefully you will see the piece of mosaic below says, "Walk with me." Seem highly appropriate! 

 

The trip home went much faster than the trip out. Got home at 4:30 and found I could still not enter the garage. Drove to park and hung out for awhile. Came back and still locked out. Went to buy some cough drops and drove around the garage and still locked out. Finally a few minutes after 6:00 I was able to park again. Glad to get this walk done and check off Todd County in my book. 

 

Walking in Kimball

On Friday I left early in the morning and went to my auto dealer for an oil change on my car. When that was done, I went for a late breakfast and then headed towards Kimball, MN to do the walk there. I wanted to do this one primarily to mark off a K city for my Walking Minnesota Cities A-Z.

Its original name was Kimball Prairie when it was established as a railroad village. As the city's web site says, the coming of the railroad was a make or break action. It made Kimball Prairie and killed nearby Maine Prairie. Today the city's population is about 770 persons. It is a very pleasant community. My guess it is a "bedroom" town for those who work in nearby St. Cloud or perhaps even the Twin Cities.

The walk information directed me to the walk box at the Kimball Golf Club. I didn't quite know what I was going to see when I walked through the door. It turned out to be a small snack bar area, and the person at the desk knew exactly what I wanted when I asked for the walk box. But a funny thing happened while I was reviewing the route map and getting organized for the walk. A man walked up to me and asked, "Are you doing payroll?" I assured him I had a different agenda in mind.

From the Golf Club I was directed to back track to the high school and park there in the parking lot. I thought how different this was from some of the schools in this country that are being turned into police zones complete with military equipment. 

I walked along Spruce Street for a bit and then used a marked cross walk to cross over Minnesota Highway 15. From there I continued along Spruce for a bit.

I spotted a red house.

This is a infrequent color for a house in Minnesota. I think it looks great in autumn, but haven't seen one in the spring to see how it blends with colors for that season.

I walked to street that was a major west-east street and then turned to walk on Hazel. Shortly I walked by the elementary school where I also got a good view of the city water tower.

Hazel was a up to Highway 55 and then back to the cross street where I turned left and walked to Linden.

Here the map directed me to find an animal in a stone as a checkpoint -- a checkpoint being a report to prove one was at the place during the walk. Wondered how I would find this and it turned out to be very obvious!

It was up to Highway 55 and then back as well on Linden. By this point the day was getting very warm and I was looking for a place to stop for a bit of break and dig out my water bottle. This street didn't have a sidewalk so I tried stepping into the grass on the side only to discover this was very wet for some reason. Finally at the end of Linden I found a electric terminal box that turned out to be a good place to sit for a minute and enjoy some cold water.

From here it was only a short walk to Main Street where I turned left. An interesting thing was the Diva Salon. It has a great mural on the side of the building.

And here's the diva herself.

Now I had to wait for one of the North Dakota oil trains to roar through town. The oil boom is bringing a lot of money and social problems to North Dakota. What we see in Minnesota are these trains which have an unusual rate of derailing and bringing chaos to little towns.

Willow Park was the next destination. Here I found an amazing baseball field.

A sign explained this field was funded by the Minnesota Twins with additional funding from Toro and Land o Lakes.

The route map directed me towards a veterans' memorial.

From there the route map said to walk around the grassy knoll.

Then it was back to Main Street where I went by the historic City Hall.

The city hall was built in 1908 and today at least holds the public library for Kimball, plus perhaps other offices. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

From here it was a short walk back to Spruce Street and then the high school parking lot where I left my car.

This was a great walk to do on wonderful autumn day.

Walking in Glencoe

Yesterday I walked a Looong 5K in Glencoe. This walk seemed much longer than 5K because there wasn't much to keep me entertained.

Glencoe is the county seat of McLeod County (think MCloud to pronounce it). McLeod is named for Martin McLeod who came to Minnesota from Montreal after immigrating there from Scotland. He was interested in fur trading, and the Minnesota Geographic Names book reports he did something quite remarkable. In 1836 he arrived at La Pointe, Wisconsin along Lake Superior. From there he walked during the autumn and early winter all the way to Pembina, a location then to be found on the Red River, a river that divides Minnesota and North Dakota. Imagine walking 600 miles during that season! McLeod is one of the founders of Glencoe, named after a historic valley in Scotland.

This walk also started from a Casey's gas station and convenience store. From there I walked down Hennepin Street for 8 blocks. I noticed a building along this street that had some interesting detail.

This is a bank building and had a clock showing the temperature was 67 (19 C). I had encountered rain sprinkles during my drive to Glencoe so was carrying my jacket in case I had to put it on quickly.

By the time I found the tree below I was getting warm in the sunshine combined with the exercise of walking.

My route took me into a city park and I was glad to find a picnic table, both to sit and rest as well as to have a place to stuff my jacket back into my backpack. The route map told me to look for a walkway into a wildlife area.

I

I was walking back and forth across Buffalo Creek. My names book is silent on how this creek got its name.

Then I came to fence as I had expected from the route map. But the route map said I would be seeing animals on the other side. This was such a large area and I walked a long distance without seeing anything other than grass that I wondered if something had changed since the route was designed. I got out my phone just to see where Google Maps would say where I was.

Kept walking with the fence on the left and finally glimpsed some animals inside the fenced area. Well, the animals spotted me too and one came running.

I stepped to the right to try to try to take a picture through the fince of other animals, and this little lady stepped to the right too. We did quite a dance.

Kept walking and found some goats. Loved the ears on this one.

 And then I found a sign for this place.

Next I continued through this area of park land and athletic fields. Found a memorial to the county's veterans.

 I was to note the name of the Glencoe high school teams from the stadium sign a checkpoint to prove I had really done this walk.

Thought Brewers was a strange name for a high school team.

The route back tracked on some of the same streets I had walked. I had "bookmarked" a coffee shop in my mind. Went into Gert and Emma's to have a coffee and muffin. There I noticed signs that indicated the name of the high school team is Panthers. I don't know who the Brewers are!

From this walk I only stamped my event, distance, and Minnesota county books. The other things were on a different 5K loop.  I had started late on this walk and had an evening meeting at home starting at 5:30, so skipped doing another 5K.

Walking in Litchfield

A sore foot and then a bad respiratory infection has put walking on the back shelf for the past couple of weeks. Yesterday I thought I was in good enough shape to try the walk in Litchfield MN. I started Google Maps after stopping at a nearby gas station and from that location Google Maps surely took me on a journey, winding on county roads through Hennepin County. Sometimes one shouldn't believe Google Maps! On the other hand I've driven west so many times this summer it was nice to have a change of scene.

Litchfield started out being called Ness, a connection to Scandinavian immigrants who came here. It was re-named Litchfield to honor three brothers who were prominent in bringing the railroad to Litchfield. Now in the 21st century we may forget how important a railroad connection was -- it was truly the mark of whether one's town would live and prosper or would wither and die.

Litchfield is located in Meeker County. Meeker County is named for Bradley Meeker, who was an associate justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court from 1849 - 1853.

The walk started from a Casey's gas station and convenience store. This chain hosts many of the walks in Minnesota. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. I'm always surprised when I walk into a place like this and ask for the "walk box" and the person at the counter knows exactly what I want. Looking at the registration pages, I found I was walker 42 for this route.

I turned right out the store and then turned right again going to Swift Avenue where I simply walked straight then for 12 blocks. I love this kind of route -- one doesn't have to think about turning here and there and trying to figure out exactly what the person who designed the route really means by statements such as "make a slight right" or "turn on 4th Street (no sign)."

The area had homes that appeared to be built in the mid-20th century.

I was glad that I was doing this part first, for while the route was easy, it wasn't very interesting.

I did find a water tower.

That makes #5 for this walking season, and I think I will find a few more before the walking season really shuts down on October 31. 

Then I saw a huge factory in front of me.

Closer I found a small park area across the street with the logo and flags.

Later at home I searched and searched for E9a -- what I thought the logo said. Only after extensive searching did I find these letters are to be FDA for the First District Association. This improbable name is for a dairy association in this area of Minnesota. This plant makes cheese and also uses the milk for whey and lactose products, but doesn't sell any fresh milk. While here I saw two big tanker trucks leaving the factory and then later in the afternoon I saw other tanker trucks arriving into the town.

Further down I laughed at this wooden figure in someone's garden.

I couldn't decide for sure if this related to the golf course that was across the street.

Soon I came to the end of the street and turned left walking by a picturesque pond. Having spent all summer really in Poland it still startles me that summer is over and I came back back to autumn in Minnesota.

The route directed me to start walking towards Lake Ripley. But before the map said to enter a garden through by the green poles. What a lovely surprise -- the Anderson Garden.

It was a a lovely place to sit and rest for a bit.

Then I wandered down to the Lake Ripley Beach Deck, as this was a checkpoint for this walk.

This lake got its name from an unusual circumstance. It is named for Frederick Ripley who froze to death by this lake during the winter of 1855-56.

Now the route went back by the gardens and up Sibley Avenue, which is also Highway 22. The first puzzling and interesting thing I found was Rosemary Hall.

It was built by Dorothy Kopplin. Wikipedia tells me that Kopplin was Minnesota Mother of the Year in 1949 and also author of a book, Something to Live By. Interested readers can find more about this book by searching the internet. Kopplin built Rosemary Hall to "provide housing for nursing students and professional women." There was nothing about the residence to tell me if it is currently in use. Rosemary was Kopplin's daughter who died at 6 years from leukemia. Anybody who knows more about this place -- please comment.

Soon I saw the county hospital.

Then I reached the corner of Highway 22 and Highway 12 and recognized something I had seen on my drive  into the town.

Then I walked through the business district which is regarded as a historic site.

On the other side of the street was a very traditional movie theater, but showing right up to date films.

The route directed me to the city park and the GAR building. This building is also listed on the National Historic Register.

GAR stands for the Grand Army of the Republic. This was a group of veterans from the American Civil War which banded together to continue friendship, honor fallen comrades, and provide support to widows of fallen comrades.

Nearby was the Trinity Episcopal Church, also listed on the historic register.

Really enjoyed this walk.