Anniversary Road Trip

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Vivian and I have been married for one year now, so over the weekend we took a four-day anniversary road trip across Nebraska and South Dakota to celebrate!

We headed off west on I-80 and stopped at Pioneer Village in Minden. For those of you who haven't visited this attraction, it's something of a personal museum created by the late Harold Warp, a somewhat eccentric collector and pack rat. His collection includes a genuine steam engine that you can climb up inside, dozens of antique cars, and historic buildings filled with various memorabilia. He even managed to buy the one-room schoolhouse he attended as a child in the early 20th century, leaving such things as the original schoolbooks intact on the shelf from the last day of classes in 1938. If you're the sentimental type and have a few hours to kill while traveling on I-80, come down and check this out.

Vivian and I continued on our journey to the panhandle, avoiding congested traffic and construction on I-80 by taking the old Lincoln Highway. The scenery was much more interesting along the old road, and there were far fewer cars as we drove along through the tiny whistle stop towns running parallel to the railroad tracks.

We passed through a brief rain shower in time to see beautiful Lake McConaughy. I never knew such a beautiful body of water existed in Nebraska. As we traveled into the panhandle, we started seeing more evidence against Nebraska being all boring, flat farmland. We spotted Courthouse Rock and Jailhouse Rock from a distance along Highway 26, and then drove up next to Chimney Rock for some photos at sunset. I was surprised at the lack of signs directing us to Chimney Rock. Considering what an iconic symbol it is (it's on Nebraska's state quarter after all), I expected there to be at least some kind of sign directing us to the best spot to take a picture. Instead, we followed a lonely dirt road with nobody around for miles to share in the moment. I felt almost sorry for the old monument.

Vivian and I spent the evening in Scottsbluff and managed to get some more photographic evidence that Nebraska is not made entirely of perfectly flat cornfields. We headed up to Alliance to check out Carhenge, a Nebraska landmark I'd heard about ever since my family moved here in 1995, but we'd never actually made the trek out to the panhandle to check it out. We were surprised to find a number of other amusing pieces of automotive art, including a covered (station) wagon and a large fish.

We continued north across the border into South Dakota and stopped for lunch in Hot Springs. It was a picturesque little town with a beautiful little waterfront that included a waterfall and a fountain of fairly potable spring water.

We finished off the day by visiting a couple of South Dakota's most well-known monuments. First was Crazy Horse, which we learned is privately funded and has been under construction for half a century. The original sculptor Korczak Ziółkowski spent half his life just getting started on it, and they only just finished the face some ten years ago. They have Ziółkowski's original model for the finished monument on display, but Vivian and I aren't entirely sure it would be finished in our lifetime. It's still quite an impressive piece of work, and Vivian and I were quite happy to see it under construction.

Next up, of course, was Mount Rushmore. Vivian had never seen the four famous stone faces, and the last time I'd seen them was back in middle school. They've done some serious construction since then, and you can now walk up much closer to the mountain, and even follow a walkway underneath. It's quite a site to look straight up George Washington's nose.

We spent the night in Rapid City at the Alex Johnson hotel, a historic old place with interesting Native American symbols used in their lobby decor (obviously predating the Third Reich by at least a couple years). The next morning, we headed off and spent some time at Wall Drug, a tourist attraction well-known for its free ice water widely-distributed billboards. We checked out an animatronic t-rex, rode a Jackalope, and took a couple goofy pictures, then bought some ice cream and souvenirs before hitting the road again.

I had another surprise stop along I-90 for my wife: the tiny town of Vivian, South Dakota! I discovered this "census designated place" while hunting for attractions on Google Maps and knew we had to stop by. Little did we know Vivian had a town named after her with its own fire department, park, and Lutheran Church! If we were hungry, we could even have stayed for lunch at the Vivian Junction Lounge and Restaurant, but we had to hurry along and settle for sandwiches at Al's Oasis in Chamberlain.

Of course, no trip across South Dakota would be complete without a trip to the Mitchell Corn Palace, home of Cornelius the corn cob and a wide variety of corn-related memorabilia. The palace theme this year was "America's Destinations," and it was amazing to see what kind of art they could create using a mosaic of multi-colored corn cobs. Our friends know what big fans of corn Vivian and I are, so we had to grab a couple souvenirs before heading on our way.

We spent the evening in Sioux Falls, and celebrated the anniversary of our wedding night with a dinner at Red Lobster. It was the first time we'd had lobster since our New England honeymoon last year.

Of course, Vivian and I had to stop by Falls Park before leaving Sioux Falls the next day, strolling among the beautiful red rocks and roaring waterfalls before heading South for home. We drove into a series of rainshowers along the way, which made things a little wet and cut short our visit to Ponca State Park. We wrapped up our anniversary trip at Bob's Bar in Martinsburg, a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in a town of barely 100 famous for its giant burgers.

By the time we arrived home on Monday, we'd driven over 1400 miles across two states, but the time passed quickly because we found so much to see and do along the way. It was a great trip, and I never knew we'd have so much fun so close to home. I've had a wonderful year with my lovely bride and I'm looking forward to another year together here in Omaha!

Happy Anniversary, Vivian!

Goodbyes and encore birthday parties

Vivian and I have been keeping seriously busy this July (and we're going to be even busier in a week or two. More on that later). At JNO on Friday, we said goodbye to Anna Baker, who's going to be living up in Sioux Falls teaching swing dancing with our friend David Tritel for a year or so. We had a "goodbye jam" for her, and then Sarah Porter sang "Fever" as the rest of us danced after the Shim Sham. (And by "rest of us," I mean everyone except the two or three dozen who had cameras trained on her the entire time.)

Because one is never enough, our friend Dennis decided to throw a second surprise birthday party for his wife Kara over the weekend. Vivian and I and a bunch of our mutual friends gathered on Saturday to spring the event on her. Dennis did an amazing job with the decorating, food, and keeping this event secret for the last couple of months. We all had a great time and managed to burn off a sugar high climbing a tree and doing a little swing dancing before heading home.

On Sunday, the Omaha Jitterbugs were dancing outdoors again for Lindy in the Park. Vivian spent most of her time working on my laptop, while others of us chased a photogenic monarch butterfly and scrawled chalk graffiti all over the steps before calling it a day.

Be sure to tune in time, when Vivian and I will take a road trip across Nebraska and South Dakota to celebrate our one-year wedding anniversary! Chimney Rock, Mount Rushmore, and the Mitchell Corn Palace will all guest-star in our next episode.

Fourth of July Weekend

Vivian and I had another fancy, fun Fourth of July weekend together. It's always nice when the Fourth falls on a weekend so you can have three solid days of explosive mayhem. We went shopping at a couple fireworks pavilions down in Sarpy county for an array of fireworks to set off, and then we joined our friends up at Jenny's house for a pre-Independence Day party. We had an extended game of keep the volleyball in the air as the sun went down, then had fun like little kids with sparklers, Roman candles, and artillery shells. We also had plenty of dancing, of course, and Vivian got to do some sweet Charleston kicks with Sarah Little on the deck.

On Friday, Vivian and I had a "day date," going out for pasta at Lo Sole Mio and then watching the Wolverine movie together. That evening, we'd hoped to watch the fireworks at Rosenblatt Stadium on tenth street with our friends from GAMe. Unfortunately, the skies decided to unleash their wrath upon us after sprinkling lightly all day long. I was prepared to tough it out under a large umbrella, but everyone else was fleeing for cover and the police opened the street to traffic once we were gone. I hoped the city would have the good sense to delay the fireworks until tomorrow, when people could actually stay to watch them, but they decided to set them all off anyhow. Most of them were likely extinguished on their way up anyhow.

After we dried off, Hugh invited a bunch of us to hang out at his house and watch Liar Liar while eating grilled cheese sandwiches -- a lovely "lemonade" moment if ever there was one.

On Saturday, Vivian and I headed down to Ralston to participate in their annual Fourth of July parade with the Omaha Jitterbugs. Vivian was content to float around with Cliff taking photos and video this time around, and that gave her the chance to nab video of Debbie and me performing and arial for the grand stand at the apex of the parade. It was loads of fun, and the weather was just right: around 70 degrees and drizzling all the way. I'm not sure if I was wet mostly from sweat or precipitation. Naturally, we all crammed into a couple booths at Dairy Queen down the street to replenish whatever calories we'd managed to burn off.

We rounded off the day watching fireworks over Harrah's Casino in Council Bluffs from the picturesque view of the new Pork Barrel pedestrian bridge. The weather was downright chilly for July, and I actually had to bring a hoodie, but the view was magnificent.

Video highlights from the weekend

Birthdays, Macbeth, and Baseball

Vivian and I have been having more fun with our friends as we rounded out the month of June. On Friday, we had a surprise birthday party for our friend Kara. She and Dennis live in Blair but work in Omaha, and he was able to convince her that they needed to stick around to help someone with car trouble. We grilled up some steaks, Angie whipped up some potatoes, and after stuffing ourselves a bunch of us got to watch The Sandlot on a makeshift big screen at Chad's house next door.

On Saturday, Vivian and I went to Elmwood Park to enjoy Shakespeare on the Green and their production of Macbeth with some of our friends. We arrived early enough to save a spot fairly close to the stage and killed the hours before the show playing Apples to Apples and trying on some renaissance outfits. I had the rare opportunity to put on a chain mail hood, fake a horrible Scottish accent, and be all Elizabethan with Lady Vivian. Forsooth.

The show itself was marvelous, with some fun lighting effects once the sun went down. I had never seen Macbeth performed before, and was only vaguely familiar with the story, but enjoyed it all nonetheless.

On Monday night, Vivian and I went to see the Omaha Royals play the Albuquerque Isotopes at Rosenblatt Stadium. She's been wanting to go to a baseball game with me for as long as I've known her, and I was able to get some free tickets (and free hot dogs!) at work in honor of Disability Awareness Night. I'd never actually been to a baseball game before, so it was an especially memorable night for me. I even managed to win Vivian a promotional Kraft Cheese Towel that was tossed into the crowd. How very fitting. I also had a major "Dan Wondra Moment" before the night was over. When Isotopes player Chin-lung Hu hit the ball and ran to first base, I made sure to tell Vivian, "Hu's on first."

Grand Marquis and Father's Day

The Grand Marquis came to play at Jitterbugs Night Out over the weekend, and Vivian and I were happy to enjoy dancing to a live band at the Eagle's Lodge again (especially since we'd missed the Prairie Cats a few weeks earlier debuting with some songs from their new CD). We had a lively crowd as usual and made our trek out to Village Inn afterward for some much-needed skillets and pie. It's always fun to see what fun a little sugar and silly friends can provide at two in the morning.

We had Vivian's parents over for a special Father's Day luncheon on Sunday afternoon. We decided to make an "Alaskan Salmon Bake" with a recipe taken posthumously from Vivian's paternal grandfather "Pops" via an old home movie. While on a fishing expedition in Alaska, one of Pops' friends baked wild-caught salmon with onions, lemon, ground pepper, and Parmesan cheese, so we decided to make some for Vivian's dad the same way. It came out quite well, and Vivian served it up with broccoli and some creamy mashed potatoes that left us stuffed for the rest of the day (or at least until going to Panera).

In other news, the air conditioning broke at work during our first week of temperatures pushing 100 degrees. Our CEO let us wear shorts and had her husband bring in a bunch of electric fans to keep the place cool. I took the weather in stride by going Hawaiian for a day, which made the sticky heat just a little more amusing in the end.

Back in the swing of things

After Vivian and I had a chance to recover from our trip to Nashville, we enjoyed catching up with some of our friends back in Omaha. On Friday night we went on a double date before JNO with Onion-Boy and Sarah. We went to McFoster's "Natural Kind Cafe," a vegetarian restaurant between Harney and Farnam on 38th street serving tiny sandwiches, pungent ginger smoothies, and the absolute worst chocolate cake in the world (non-dairy made with rice flour. Blech.) I found the history of the restaurant more interesting the food, since it was originally a service station along the old Lincoln Highway.

On Saturday, Vivian and I went to an evening church service and meet up with a couple friends at Village Inn afterward. Then we stopped by Hiro Sushi in West Omaha for some "happy hour" specials after 10.

On Sunday, we headed downtown for another afternoon of Lindy in the Park. I have to admit that the turnout is much better now that our outdoor dance is held only once a month. The strange fountain bucket sculpture was running for the first time in years, giving us the same amusement as a large drinking bird throughout the afternoon. The weather was still downright pleasant, and a bunch of us decided to drop in at Ted & Wally's for our traditional after-dance ice cream binge before going home. Some of us definitely enjoyed the sugar rush.

Cookout in Nashville: Aftermath

Early Sunday morning, Vivian and I said goodbye to a few comic friends and headed on back to Nebraska. We stopped for lunch at Midway airport in Chicago and got some Chicago-style hot dogs. I dressed mine up with a little ketchup just to annoy a certain someone back home. Seriously, what hot dog is complete without a little of the red stuff?

It was a great weekend in Music City, and I got plenty of photos and video to share when we returned home. Here's a ten-minute video montage from our trip:

It was great seeing some long-time friends from our online comic world, and I hope we get to see some of you all again soon. There seemed to be some doubt about there being a Comic Genesis cookout next year, but who knows? Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Cortland can bring it on up to Omaha.