Ted and I took a five-day road trip last weekend and spent some time with his sister, Mutzie, and with Kathy and Annette.  We went to Grand Island, NE first and had a very enjoyable time with Mutzie.  The weather was beautiful, so we went to the Eagle Scout Park and walked around Eagle Scout Lake.

Then we went to Kearney to visit the MONA–Museum of Nebraska Art.  The displays were very good.  One room featured heroes.  John Falter, a native Nebraskan, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943 and was commissioned to create recruiting pamphlets and posters, as well as a series of twelve portraits of war heroes.  The war hero portraits and their accompanying stories were published in Esquire magazine in 1943-44.  The portraits and stories were very interesting, but probably not found in any history books.  Each story described an “ordinary” soldier (if there is such a thing) who did an extraordinary thing simply because that’s what needed to be done.

There were some playful exhibits as well.  I especially enjoyed these two.

It was Lisa’s birthday, so Mutzie took Lisa, Doug, Ted, and me out to dinner for a celebration.  After dinner, we went to Lisa and Doug’s new home for a tour and for more conversation.  Their house is beautiful and they have plans to make it even better.  As usual, the time to leave came too soon.

It took us seven hours to get from Grand Island, NE to Kirksville, MO and it seemed like a very long drive.  We are used to driving only three hours to Kirksville.  Before leaving the state, we had to take a picture of a “Nebraska skyscraper” in Nebraska City.

We had a good time with the girls too and never ran out of things to talk about.  Annette made one of her specialties and one of Ted’s and my favorites–potato soup.  It’s a winter comfort food, but it was cool and rainy and the soup was a perfect choice.  We ended the visit in our traditional way with dinner at Pizza Hut.  It was a happy ending to a short road trip.