My Beloved is a fan of astronomical curiosities…read more
We've driven hours towards the desert to watch the Perseid meteor shower, and we're planning a 2018 European trip, probably to northern Norway, to watch the aurora borealis. For this year's Christmas and Valentine's gifts, I gave her a total solar eclipse.
To be more precise, I gave her a weekend in Denver, and then a week-long road trip that began with eclipse-watching at a spot in western Nebraska that was in the "path of totality", followed by a week of driving around the prairie, looking for good steak and corn, nice people, and whatever interesting things we might find.
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Several small Nebraska towns, some partnering with larger neighbors, formed the 2017 Nebraska Eclipse Coalition to attract and entertain tourists like us with events, speakers and promotional materials that guided our decision to visit.
We left Denver at 4 a.m., stopped in Scottsbluff for breakfast at Shari's Café & Pies - a sort of mashup of Denny's and Marie Calendar's - then crossed the highway to wait for darkness in the parking lot of the local Target store.
I must thank Target's management for allowing our group of 30-or-so cars to tie up space for the couple of hours it took for the eclipse to happen. Not only that, Target was good to their employees, allowing them to step outside during totality so they wouldn't miss the remarkable event. The topper: their group took a staff photo, all wearing their eclipse glasses.
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Some other notes:
- We discovered a couple making very drinkable wines in north-central Nebraska, at Niobrara Valley Vineyards.
- I'd previously swapped email with Robert Joseph, owner of the Peppermill & E.K. Valentine Lounge in Valentine. He's a smart, funny businessman whose understanding of social media is effective and entertaining. We made it a point of stopping to visit with Robert and to enjoy a steak dinner - one of the two best I had in a week that featured five such meals.
What's more, as I told people in other parts of the state that we'd eaten at the Peppermill, located in a town of 2000 people in north-central Nebraska, several of them knew the place, and had eaten there.
If I thought I had anything better to offer Robert, I'd ask him to come help me with marketing, but frankly, though we have better winters, I think he's got the better gig.
- Omaha was cool. Seriously. Like Buffalo, Baltimore and Milwaukee, it's an older, formerly industrial city that has been revitalized by "clean" business, and, along the way, its architecture, dining and other social markers have improved, even as the locals have preserved the best of the old stuff.
I particularly enjoyed a great cortado at Culprit Cafe and Bakery, where I was happy to meet pastry chef/owner Luke Mabie and especially his chef, Ben Jordan, formerly of San Diego's Prepkitchen, a coincidence that opened the door to a nice chat about here and there.
- I'd gone to the prairie expecting lots of Trump-related nonsense, but found little public idiocy. The most offensive thing I saw all week was at the Nebraska State Fair, where the right-to-life whackjob exhibit at the Expo Center covered a table with plastic models of fetuses. This was done in a way that children would see, which went beyond inappropriate, edging into disgusting. But 1A, so whatayagonnado?
- The Nebraska State Fair is a no-carry event, a fact that earned it a spot on the "Unfriendly Business List" compiled by the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association.
These are the same armed dickheads who gripe when they can't take a gun into their endoscopy appointment. It's ok with me that they boycotted the Fair. It made the event feel less 'Murica and much more American.
- Finally, surprisingly, we played hell finding sweet corn, in the country's third-largest producer of corn. I finally found what I wanted at the Nebraska State Fair, at a stand called "Manny's Sweet Corn On-A-Stick". Manny sold elotes, which is comfort food for me, and which, I imagine, must seem a very strange and magical thing to Nebraskans.
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Shari's Café & Pies: https://www.yelp.com/biz/sharis-restaurant-scottsbluff
Target (Scottsbluff): https://www.yelp.com/biz/target-stores-scottsbluff
Niobrara Valley Vineyards: https://www.yelp.com/biz/niobrara-valley-vineyards-nenzel
Peppermill & E.K. Valentine Lounge: https://www.yelp.com/biz/peppermill-and-e-k-valentine-lounge-valentine
City of Omaha: https://www.yelp.com/biz/city-of-omaha-omaha-2
Culprit Cafe and Bakery: https://www.yelp.com/biz/culprit-cafe-and-bakery-omaha
Prepkitchen: https://www.yelp.com/biz/prepkitchen-little-italy-san-diego-2?hrid=9kr8SXXu6KYmubepFhUuuA
Nebraska State Fair: https://www.yelp.com/biz/nebraska-state-fair-grand-island?hrid=XsNGzA2CjYFzPOlrDVVD5g
Nebraska Firearms Owners Association: https://nebraskafirearms.org/wp/unfriendly-business-list-3/
Manny's Sweet Corn On-A-Stick: http://www.statefair.org/business/mannys-sweet-corn-stand