Wofford Travels – 2019-10-18 – West Point, NE
Greetings,
Well, we are in day 3 of our USA travels, looking for an “uneventful” day by now, but it was not to be. Yes, the blog again. I suppose you would get “rusty” with 11 months of non-use. Remember the “Save Draft” rectangular bar that I said I originally forgot to depress? Well, I depressed it the second time, but (lesson learned here from past travels) I took photos of my text before turning off my computer…you know, just in case.
So, this morning when I opened up my dashboard (the administrator’s access to the WordPress blog), it was not there. (You see, just in case!) Now, I did write it in this box called “Quick Draft.” I wasn’t sure what that was exactly, but, obviously, it was wrong. A clue that it might not work was that it was in the upper right hand corner of the page, whereas my previous writings were on a full page. Gave it to Tom, of course, (fairly often he can wade through some of the “techie” stuff and fix or find things, but he too had no luck). So-o-o-o, it was a rewrite (but at least this time I had the text), OR (cross my fingers) we could do a Copy from Word to a Paste in WordPress. And, Eureka! The latter worked. So, now, I could review it one more time, and send it off. I decided I would write all of them this way because I can have all my texts in Word and not have to access them on the Internet. …Take a deep breath…!
Ok, shall we continue with our day? We headed out from our hotel about 9:45 and crossed the Missouri River 10 minutes later. Forty-five minutes after that we stopped for gas ($2.29)…did our walk routine, and then continued to Omaha. Our meal schedule was being altered because we figured we would have more selections in Omaha than in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and that brought us to lunch/dinner (?) earlier in the day.
A little background on the latter: Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie (don’cha’ love it!) County, Iowa, United States. The city is the second most populous in Southwest Iowa, and forms part of the Omaha Metropolitan Area. It is located on the east bank of the Missouri River, across from the city of Omaha. Council Bluffs covers a unique topographic region originally composed of prairie and savanna in the Loess Hills with extensive wetlands (and we did see extensive wetlands) and deciduous forest along the Missouri River. Council Bluffs was known, until at least 1853, as Kanesville. It was the historic starting point of the Mormon Trail.
We arrived in Omaha around 3:00 and thought we would walk around and find an eating establishment. We settled on The “World Famous” Spaghetti Works, but the name is deceptive because it had a full range of food selections. One feature was the “Truck Salad Bar,” yes, an old-time truck cab with a salad bar attached to it. And yes, that was both of our selections. For a small amount more, you could get meat and other toppers, and we each selected a couple. The restaurant and full bar was very eclectic with interesting and odd old-time décor. You could definitely spend a few minutes reading the prints and viewing the displays.
Some Omaha background: It is the largest city in the state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 10 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation’s 40th largest city, Omaha’s 2018 estimated population was 466,061. Approximately 1.3 million people reside within the Greater Omaha area.
Omaha’s pioneer period began in 1854, when the city was founded by speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa. The city was founded along the Missouri River, and a crossing called Lone Tree Ferry earned the city its nickname, the “Gateway to the West.” Omaha introduced this new West to the world in 1898, when it played host to the World’s Fair, dubbed the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. During the 19th century, Omaha’s central location in the United States spurred the city to become an important national transportation hub. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the transportation and jobbing sectors were important in the city, along with its railroads and breweries (we saw 2-3 breweries just within several blocks of each other). In the 20th century, the Omaha Stockyards, once the world’s largest, and its meatpacking plants gained international prominence.
Some Omaha inventions include: the “pink hair curler,” Butter Brickle Ice Cream, the Reuben sandwich, Duncan Hines cake mix, Raisin Bran, the ski lift, the Top 40 radio format, and the TV dinner.
We thought we’d walk a bit more, but not so late as to get into rush-hour traffic, especially, on a Friday. We came across the “Iron Décor and More,” Mexican Imports for Your Home and Garden, highly colorful metal works and those of other mediums. It was like walking into a fantasy shop, with much of the art ware on the street. “We” made one purchase and “I” made 3 more…the non-shopper vs. the shopper.
Then back to the car by 4:30 and well on our way to West Point. We arrived at the Horizons Inn & Suites by 6:00 PM – ODO 19,072 (1,322 miles), unloaded our car, and settled in with phones, iPad, and laptop, awaiting what Wi-Fi had in store for us. All worked beautifully and I was finally able to get my first 2 days of Wofford Travels posted.
Tomorrow, we anticipate a beautiful wedding. Are they not all though?!
Tita