'Don't Let Me Forget"i

It's Thursday morning, May 28 and those Kansas City skies opened up and shared more rain with us.  Heavy rain with thunder and lightening.  This was a travel day for us, so luckily the storm moved away from us by 9:00 AM.  So we began to prepare the RV for travel.  We're getting faster at that each time we do it.  Just before we pulled out Buck came in the RV for something and said to me, "Don't let me forget to pull in the TV antenna.  I was busy inside and I replied "OK."

Well, we both forgot so we pulled out of the uptown campground onto a street with many trees growing near the side.  Suddenly, there was a huge "POP," and Buck knew immediately what we had forgotten to do.  We couldn't stop in the street with traffic all around, but we knew our antenna was probably stuck in a tree somewhere in Merriam, Kansas.

We drove onto the interstate and began our trip to Nebraska without a TV antenna.  When we stopped at a rest area to change drivers we saw some young people with possibly their father having a snack at a picnic table.  Buck asked the man if one of the guys could climb the ladder at the back of our RV and walk on the roof where the antenna was originally connected.  Buck's right knee was not strong enough yet to place all his weight on it like he'd have to do on a ladder.  So the guys were a life saver.  Buck was concerned that when the antenna was torn off, a hole may have been made in the roof.  But that was not the case.  The young guy found the cord that was still connected to the motor home, but no damage had been done to the roof.  Buck spoke with the guys about where they were headed; Yellowstone National Park for an end-of-school trip.

We traveled on to Minder, Nebraska.  This campground was the opposite of the one in Kansas.  It was at the Pioneer Village Historic Museum Campground with wide campsites.  It wasn't crowded at all and we had WIFI!  Yippe!  We thought we would not have TV reception since the antenna was still back in Kansas.  But we did have it.  As stated before, the cord to the antenna was still connected to the roof, and that cord provided us with TV service.  I was so glad that we could continue to keep track of the weather.  It hasn't rained on us in route to any of our destinations, but it has rained and sometimes stormed at each of the places we've camped. In fact, it rained that night in Nebraska.

The next day, without breakfast, we headed to the Pioneer Village. It is the world's largest privately owned and funded collection of authentic Americana.  It's the story of America and how it grew since 1830.  More than 50,000 items from every field of human endeavor are on display.  These items are contained in 28 buildings on 20 acres.  These authentic originals are arranged in their order of development.  For example twenty rooms of the past, show kitchens, living rooms, and bedrooms of each generation on display since 1830.  As you view them, you see the development of the culture, the dress, and mechanical items throughout the years. All of the mechanical items are in operating condition.

This includes the auto collection.  Hundreds of antique autos, airplanes, street cars, tractors, motorcycles, airplanes, and bicycles are on display.  Several buildings are devoted to the transportation transitions.

We visited a school building where the main subjects were math and religion.  Children learned all the other subjects through the study of the Bible.  Talk about a school with integrated curriculum!  WOW!

The village maintains a fire house, depot, sod house, china house, church, merry- go-round which is the oldest in the US and is run by steam, horse barn, antique farm machinery building, livery stable,blacksmith shop, pony express barn, pony express station, hobby house.  There's just nothing like it anywhere!

The village was truly a wonderful step back into history. I recognized many items used in my childhood.  Amazing!  Guess that shows my age!!!

Harold Warp, owner of the village was a descendant of a pioneer who settled in Nebraska.  He is no longer living but during his lifetime his major goal in life was to provide a collection of these items to show how life has changed.

 We left the village around 2:00 PM and found a restaurant for a combination of breakfast, lunch, and supper.    And that was our stay in Nebraska!

I took about 500 pictures in the village, but only a few are shown below.

Telephone switchboard
 for the "Party Line."

Pioneer Village Church 1884

Antique Car

Kitchen in the 1800's