The Wife And I Going Beyond Van Gogh

Yesterday the Wife and I got out of the house and went to Council Bluffs to visit the Beyond Van Gogh Exhibit at the Mid-America Center.

Our experience started off on a weird note when we went to use the washroom before we went into the exhibit.  By the snack bar in a lounge the dulcet tones of Guns-N-Roses "Sweet Child of Mine" ... on piano ... wafted through the air.  The Wife and I agreed that it was so wrong.

We entered the exhibit and passed through the first part, a history of Vincent Van Gogh, the jobs he worked at, and failed at, before becoming a painter.  We learned about his relationship with his brother and the sad ending of his life.

A colorful explosion of art all around us.

You left this section, passed along a dark corridor that opened into a large hall.  Van Gogh artwork was projected on the four walls and the floor.  The projections were animated and full of flowing motion morphing from one piece to another.

Van Gogh enjoyed painting nature.

The Wife and I wandered around the floor taking in all the show enjoying everything.  The movement of the colors, especially on the floor was a bit disorienting.  The Wife got dizzy a few times.  The show continued for a long time.  We noticed the long loop repeating so we exited through the gift shop, leaving with a t-shirt and a magnet for our collection.

A sweeping seascape.

You can see pictures I took in my 2022-06-30 Beyond Van Gogh Google Photos album.

How I see the Wife and I in the future - in a small hamlet in Europe.

Weekly Ephemera #8

• Everything went well with my medical procedure last week.  Everything looked good.  Other than a non-cancerous polyp (that was removed) there were no abnormal findings.  Yay.  Barring any unexpected changes to my health my next colonoscopy should be in five years or so.
• I walked twice this week.  It would have been three times but on Wednesday the windchill was below zero most of the day and I decided to stay inside where it was warm and watch season four of Disenchantment instead.
  
  

  

  A graffiti character I am
  seeing all over Omaha.

  The two walks I did do totalled around 22 miles (35.4 km) so I met my weekly goal.  This coming week I hope to get back to the three hikes a week since the temperatures are going to be springlike.
  
  I've been seeing more interesting graffiti and street art on my walks lately.  Or to be more accurate, I have started to notice what's always been there.  The character to the left is all over the place.  These three are on the Big Papio Trail not far from my house.  I have seen others in the Dundee, Benson, and downtown areas of the city.

• 

  This little guy is
  promoting Breast
  Cancer awareness.

  When I'm home, and not doing chores, I've been doomscrolling on Ukrainian Twitter.  I am totally confused by Putin's rationale for invading Ukraine, totally surprised at how poorly the Russian armed forces are doing, and totally encouraged by how well the Ukrainian people are fighting the invading forces.  I'm also totally disappointed with how some so-called patriots here in the US are providing support to the Russian invasion and how reluctant our government and allies are to place really painful sanctions on Russia.  Sometimes you have to sacrifice your comfort for your principles.
  
  To help minimize misinformation and disinformation I'm doing most of my doomscrolling on a curated Ukrainian list on Twitter.  If you are curious, here is the link to the list.  Some of the posts are in Ukrainian or other languages beside English but the Google Translate website and app works wonders.  I especially like the app's camera mode that magically changes the language on signs.
• Today the Wife and I joined my Mom and my favorite Uncle and Aunt for lunch at Longhorn Steakhouse in Council Bluffs.  While the steaks appeared to be tough (I had the chicken) the conversation was interesting covering the Appalachian Trail, travel, war, politics, and the one topic that becomes more common as you mature, aches, pains, and general health.

Weekly Ephemera #5

• I did my three hikes this week which, frankly, was better than I expected to do.  I did 23.63 miles (38 km) which was in my desired range of >20 miles.
  
  The first hike at the beginning of the week took me through a few places I hadn't been to for a while where I came across some cool street art including a mural by Dany Reyes.  I also came across more pieces of Watie White's '100 People' art project.  The digitally enlarged black and white woodcut prints can be found all over the Omaha.

A portion of a mural by Dany Reyes

Another of the '100 People' by Watie White

My mid-week hike was at Hitchcock Nature Center.  I'd hoped the warm weather we've been having would have melted the snow and the temperatures in the teens the day of the hike would have frozen all of the resulting mud.  What I didn't expect were all the patches of ice mixed in with the frozen mud.  The ice made portions of the trail, especially the downhill grades, a bit treacherous.  I did fall down on one particularly steep downhill but it was a slow motion fall which resulted in me sliding three or four feet down the trail.  I've hiked Hitchcock when the trails were muddy and I'm not sure which is worse.  The muddy hills are as slick as ice but I have to say that snow and ice results in less dirty falls.  I shortened this hike to just over three miles due to the icy trail conditions.

• I visited Mom on Thursday.  We were thinking about going out for lunch but it was a bit too cold that day.  I left Mom's place with a pile of stuff from our time in Guatemala.  She has been shedding stuff for the last month and all the stuff is so cool and full of memories I can't say no when she offers it to me.

Photographs: Faces

These faces are on, of all things, a parking structure in the Benson area of Omaha:

Faces.

Happy US Thanksgiving!!!

 To all my family and friends in the United States, I wish you a Happy, Socially Distant, and Safe Thanksgiving.

I am thankful that, as this trying year nears its end, there are signs of hope on the horizon.

An iconic image of Zuri Jenson 
by Anthony T. Peña

Social Distance Art

On my walks around the city, I sometimes come across driveway art.  Many are the art of children but some are really nice ... like this parrot.

Chalk art Parrot.

It seems social distancing brings out the artist is some of us.

Photograph: "Patterns"

"Patterns"
by Bruce H.

A close up photograph of "Wind Sculpture III", an art piece by Yinka Shonibare, outside the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Snowman And Snowmen.

I went for a city walk today and passed a few snowmen.

We have a painting of the Abominable Snowman painted on the side of a defunct grain elevator:

A green faced abominable snowman.

 Along another part of my walk I passed a sleepless art student's temporary art installation of eighty-four Snowmen in Leavenworth Park.  The student worked from 10:30pm to 8:30am the next day to hand roll the snowmen.  He returned to color them later.  He calls his creation "Love Army":

Alec Paul Johnsen's "Love Army".

Another view of the "Love Army".

Look at the pretty colors!

Some Vermin Caught My Eye The Other Day

On my walk earlier this week I walked past the Modern Arts Midtown gallery.  While I've never gone in, and I didn't go in this time either, something in the window caught my eye.  In the window were a bunch of four inch tall figures of humans in all sorts of situations.  Engraved on their backs was "Vermin.Me".  In front of the gallery are several sculptures including a large metal sphere with a few of the little figures apparently working on the structure.

The work is by Jaime Burmeister.  Many of his pieces of sculpture include the little vermin, as he calls them, in different situations.  I'm not sure what it is but his work really peaked my interest.

Vermin.Me working hard.
(part of a work called "Eggs" by Jamie Burmeister)

I'll have to go in some day to see his other work up close.

Happy International Unicorn Day!

Have you hugged your Unicorn today?  Why Not?  It's International Unicorn Day!

Happy International Unicorn Day!

Photograph: "Chalk Art"

A picture of chalk art outside a storefront in the Benson neighborhood of Omaha, NE.

"Chalk Art"

by Bruce H.

One So Close ... Another Better From Afar

What a wonderful weekend.  The past two days have been chock full of good things.

Friday I went to the clinic and got blood drawn for my annual exam (no results yet).  This was followed by a rather short walk (12.4 miles) that ended with some chocolate truffles.

In the afternoon, the Matron of Honor (MoH) and the Best Man (BM) showed up, the first of the gathering trivia masters.  Friday night The Wife and I, along with the MoH and BM, joined the Brother-in-Law, an assortment of nieces, a fiance, and one of The Wife's co-workers to become the return reigning champions of Skutt Catholic High School Trivia.

The trivia contest went swimmingly ... assuming swimmingly meant swimming upstream being chased by a bunch of hungry alligators.  Several of the teams were obviously gunning for us, trying their best to put us in jail while we doggedly bought our way back out.  The eight rounds of eight questions were a lot tougher this year as well.  We especially fell short of the subjects of Cars, Oscar Best Movie Winners, and identifying album names from their covers (we got only one out of eight - I mean really, who buys albums anymore?!?).  The last set should have been an easy win - name the bars using only a picture of the fronts of the buildings.  With team members either in or recently out of college, we all thought it would be a shoe in.  Turns out the young bar hoppers on our team had more discerning tastes in drinking establishments when they all pronounced that the bars pictured were all dives not worthy of their patronage.

Despite the aggressive nature of the competition and the difficulty of the questions, we ended up ... in second place.  We missed winning first place by a single point.

During the trivia contest I stuffed my face with bread sticks with marinara sauce, chocolate chip cookies, and twizzlers.  This came to bite me in the behind Friday night as i felt myself bloat up like a dead hippo rotting on the riverbank.  I knew I was in trouble when my burps started tasting like twizzlers dipped in marinara sauce.  I felt terrible in bed most of Friday night as I slowly deflated.  I was a bit worried when I woke up on Saturday morning and I still felt a bit bloaty but fortunately I felt better for the afternoon festivities.

Saturday, after meeting the Wife and MoH for lunch (they had just finished having facials), we headed to Village Canvas and Cabernet.  This is one of those places where you drink and learn how to paint.  Some are held in rented bars.  This one is in a studio.  The artists walks everyone through the process of creating a masterpiece.  To make things easy, everyone paints the same thing.  In this case, purely by coincidence, the subject was poppies, a flower that I saw along the Camino back in 2011 and which I have unsuccessfully tried to grow in my old hiking shoes.

When I started I really thought my painting would be a disaster.  I can be a little heavy handed at times and sure enough, my very first brush stroke was loaded with too much paint.  Faced with a large, ugly, orange splotch near one corner of the canvas, my chances of surviving this were looking dim but, by the end, everything turned out fine.  The ten of us (the same group as our trivia team with one substitution) all ended up with satisfying results and we all kind of agreed that our paintings were great ... when seen from a distance.  My painting, for no real reason, turned out to be the only one that showed motion.  Here it is:

"Windswept Poppies"
By Bruce H.

If you are seeing this post on a computer, step away from the screen and if you are seeing it on a tablet or phone, hold them at arms length - the painting will look better.  If you are on Facebook you can see the other nine awesome paintings from the rest of our group.

After painting we went to the Benson area of town and ended up at the Benson Brewery - because a night of drinking on Friday and drinking while painting simply isn't enough.  We picked this place because it wasn't as crowded as other places along the street (it was Valentine's Day and the beginning of Omaha Beer Week) and it wasn't as noisy (because old people like us don't like noise!).  It was kind of a random choice but it turned out to be a great one.  The place served good enough beers for the beer nuts in our group and the food ... the food ... it was really delicious.

We all left the place with smiles on our faces and ready to regain our Trivia Masters position next year.  The Wife and I spent the rest of the evening at home exploring deep subjects with the MoH and BM.  Not sure I could have picked a better ending for a great couple of days.

Well ... winning would have been nice ... just sayin'

Tickle The Ivories

Last August on one of my training walks through South Omaha I came upon this:

Public Piano Art in South Omaha.

I thought it might be a local art project.  It was an interesting idea.  There wasn't anyone playing it at the time and I didn't know how to play so I just took a picture.  I wish I'd seen someone playing it.  It turns out it is not just a local project.

Last week I came across an article talking about the pianos.  They've been put on streets in over forty-three cities in several countries.  The article was written by someone I met on my first Camino (Niamh).  You can read her article, "Play Me, I'm Yours — Street Pianos Pull People Together" on www.OZY.com.

Cool idea.

"Only A Blister" By Sara Zaleski

After I posted Sara's last poem, GeekHiker suggested in a comment that she write one that mentions the walker's nemesis: the blister.  She went to work and this week she provided a poem that includes mention of a blister.  This was very appropriate since on Friday, after a 13.83 mile (22.26 km) hike, I returned home with a new blister on the ball of my right foot, a result of not wearing the cushions I mentioned a few posts ago.

So, without further ado, I present to you "Only a Blister":

Only a Blister

by Sara Zaleski

My heart thrives on the crisp morning breeze,

The starless sky that stretches 

Between the setting moon and awakening sun.

With each step I am further entranced

As my feet crackle over the ground

Hidden under miles of botanical life.

Yet, my stride lengthens as my mind tries to forget

The pain that has left me stricken,

Sent a shockwave through my veins.

Every moment of shifting weight,

This unmerciful dagger shoots further in

Just as a pin seems to thrust from within me.

It is as if the world herself is plotting my destruction.

I can no longer contain my vengeance

I am prepared to take down this raging nemesis,

This enemy that seems to seek my demise.

But when I gather my breath to fight,

To bring upon the earth peril unlike any other,

I look down and realize

That it is only a blister.

"There Is A Freedom In Walking" By Sara Zaleski

The wife knows me.  She has seen how the Camino has changed me and how important walking has become to my life.  She brought home the Steven Wright quote that's in the sidebar of Homer's Travels - it's sort of my motto.

This week she brought home a poem written by one of her students.  It captures a lot of how I feel when I hike.  So on this day when I walked 14.09 miles (22.7 km), with the permission of the student, I'm posting the poem:

There is a freedom in walking

by Sara Zaleski

There is a freedom in walking

A freedom not shown to those who wait

A freedom that allows life to be lived

That gives meaning to this world.

It is a freedom to learn life lessons

To experience breathing as never before

And accept love and seeing as new,

It is a freedom to find peace where it lies

and to take in the mystery of existence.

There is a freedom in walking.

Photograph: Princess

When I go hiking I have a couple of choices to make.  One is to find a park and hike in the wilderness.  The other is to do a walk around the city.  The first choice usually has a lot of beauty associated with it.  The other can be a bit sterile ... unless you take the graffiti into account.  I'm not a fan of tagging (the act of writing your signature or sign on a surface) but I am a fan of artfully done graffiti such as the one I saw on an electrical box in downtown Omaha:

"Princess"
By Bruce H.

Note: The artwork was not signed and I took the liberty of naming it.

Friends, Junk, and Continuing Aches

A few things have happened over the last week.  GeekHiker visited for a couple of days.  I let him do laundry and catch up on bills and stuff that inevitable come up during long trips.  We did the same hike I did a few weeks earlier.  On Friday GeekHiker, continuing on his journey of self-discovery, headed east.

On Saturday the Wife and I went to Brownville, NE for their biannual flea market.  We bought a few small things including a metal truck for the garden - an early birthday gift for the Wife.

On Sunday we drove west to the Loon Whisperer's home for the Junk Jaunt.  We picked her up and did a small part of the over 300 mile loop of flea markets/garage sales.  It was fun and the weather was perfect for it.  I didn't buy anything (I tried but did find anything that grabbed me) but the Wife and Loon Whisperer both found some inexpensive treasures including two folk art chickens made of seed (I use the word art very loosely here).  I did slip a bit and ate too many cookies and ice cream.  We failed to find pie for the Loon Whisperer ... maybe next time.

A close up of a folk art rooster made of seed.

Yesterday I went back to the Doctor as my aching leg has not improved.  He sent me to a physical therapist in the afternoon and I worked up a sweat stretching and strengthening muscles in my legs.  I'll be going back on Thursday and probably twice a week until I can get myself straighten out.  The physical therapist said it was okay to ride bike so I will probably restart my riding (I stopped thinking it might be hurting my leg - it wasn't).

That pretty much catches you up an what's been happening here at Homer's Travels.  I've been spending a lot of time massaging Camino posts , though all the junk related trips took me away from my writing.  I guess I'll have to catch back up this weekend.

Art Walk

This week I walked around the city instead of hiking.  I decided to walk to a couple pieces of public art - one that I've seen from afar for a few weeks now and one that was unveiled this week.

A Journey Of A Thousand Miles ...

My path to the first piece of art took me past garbage with interesting stencils and an interesting Serbian Orthodox Church.  I walked past a suburban horse/donkey/goat ranch right in the middle of a residential neighborhood.  I passed a beef packing plant where I saw large bins heaped full of cow hides, still rather ... raw on one side.  What almost got me to pull my camera out was a dump truck with a big sign that said "Inedible. Not for Human consumption."  It was parked under the end of a conveyor belt sticking out the side of the building spewing all sorts of disgusting guts into the back of the truck.  There were people standing around and I was afraid if I took pictures I would look like some tree-hugger vegan taking incriminating pictures for some PETA publication and they might chase me down and beat the crap out of me.  Or I may just have a hyperactive paranoid imagination.

The first piece of public art on my itinerary were displayed on the side of a large abandoned grain elevator just off the interstate. Huge canvases have been draped on thirteen of the silos.  The canvases are part a project/contest called Stored Potential.  While most of my pictures came out, it is easier to see the pieces at the website's gallery found here.  They were all pretty cool but I particularly like the ones called "Bacon" (The small sign under the strip of bacon reads "Amen") and "Corn As Commodity".

One end of the Field Club Trail starts at the elevator.  The trail used to be a train right away which serviced the elevator among other places along the line.  The trail is tree lined cuts through the land - It feels like you're walking through a canyon.  Most of the trees had lost there leaves but there was still some color.  Leaves, dislodged by the wind, rained down on the trail.  The grass on either side of the trail was carpeted in leaves.  I resisted walking on the grass, shuffling my feet through the crunchy leaves, making the noises I associate with fall.  I should have just given myself up to the urge.  I suppress my inner fiver year old boy too much at times.

Me In 20 to 30 Years ?

After reaching the end of the Field House Trail, I turned west and made my way, via a stop at a fast food joint for some unhealthy 'food', to the next piece of public art.  I'd seen a segment on the local news the night before the walk talking about the statues and sculpture at the Children's Hospital and had added it to my walking itinerary.  On the corner of the building statues of children with umbrellas smile at all the cars passing by on Dodge.  The statues are very similar to the ones near the Quest Center which makes since since all these bronze statues were made by local Omaha artist, Matthew Placzek. The statues stand in front of a glass stairwell with suspended umbrellas that light up at night.

Girl with umbrella.

The rest of the walk took me through residential areas and eventually took me to the Big Papio Trail.  I followed this trail, fighting the wind blowing in my face, to 72nd street before turning south and heading back home.

I was pretty exhausted by the time I got home.  This walk wasn't as long as my last and didn't have as much elevation but, at 19.42 miles with 3,127 feet of total ascent, it was up there in length.  It was also a really warm day and I was a stinking ball of sweat by the time I got home.

I enjoyed this walk.  The Field Club Trail still had that fall feel and there is something about the fall that makes me feel content.  I guess it's my body telling me that it's time to start hunkering down in preparation for winter.

Strangely, the weather has not really been very fall like lately.  On the day of this walk the high temperature was 72°F, just one degree below the record, with a warm southerly breeze.  Three days later, the temperature is in the 40s and it's rainy.  Crazy weather this year.

Catching Up With The Week That Was

I've been a little unmotivated when it pertains to posting lately.  Everything seems too trivial to post about so, to break the six day silence, I will combine all my trivial activities into one summary post.

Last Tuesday I went to Peru, NE.  When I walked the steamboat trace last may, I'd promised myself that I would return to take more pictures of the Roland Sherman carvings.  Using my new camera and a tripod that I'd brought, I took pictures of all the carvings.  Most of the sculptures appeared unchanged but the genie of Genie Hallow was is very poor shape.  The genie is a combination of carved stone with concrete additions and most of the concrete additions had fallen off.  Not sure if this was a result of all the rain and weather we've had this summer or of vandals.  I haven't uploaded any of the new pictures.  The pictures are of slightly better quality than the ones I took in May but the lighting and poor contrast of some of the sculptures limited what I could capture.

On Friday morning I had blood drawn for another lipids test.  I moved up the blood work so that I could let loose a bit this weekend.  I know, not the best thing for me.  We were joined Friday evening by T_E and J_A for an high school football game at the Wife's school.  Unfortunately the overcast, drizzly, dreary day was not conducive to sitting on wet bleachers watching a game.  Instead we went out to eat at the Nebraska Brewing Company.

I have to say that I cannot recommend the Nebraska Brewing Company.  The food was okay but not spectacular.  They brewed their own beer so I ordered a root beer.  Home brewed root beer is usually pretty good.  Theirs ... well, I'll never know because they were out ... on a Friday night.  We should have took the hint when we found the place rather empty for a Friday night.  T_E ordered an appetizer ... that never arrived.  The waitress was very apologetic and offered them a free dessert.  They chose the Chocolate Cobbler.  Seeing the dessert when it arrived, I ordered one for myself.  Five minutes later ... "Sorry, they're out of chocolate."  WTF. Here I had my blood drawn early so that I could splurge on some sweet root beer and a decadent dessert and I end up with bupkis. *sigh*

Saturday turned out a little better as we all went down to the farmer's market, ate a good lunch, and ended up at Maggie Moos where I consumed four scoops of Better Batter ice cream with cookie dough mixins.  Yep, it made up for Friday.  After a stop at a used bookstore (Everyone bought books except me) we went home and watched college football.  Okay, I admit that while I watched some football, I spent more time on the confuser playing on-line Scrabble.

After the game T_E and J_A went home and the Wife and I went to the Holland Center to listen to Anthony Bourdain.  We've been watching his show, No Reservations, for many years now and really like his irreverent take on thing.  He was surprisingly funny, interesting, and entertaining.  While he is not as irreverent, he's now married and the father of a three year old daughter - things that have mellowed him out a bit, he often took his foul mouth commentary to the bleeding edge.  The high point was when he was taking questions from the audience.  A guy walks up to the mike, tells him that his wife thinks he's sexy but thinks Bourdain's friend Eric Ripert was sexier and asked him what he thought of Ripert's lips.  Very funny.  People thanked that guy for asking the question as we left the Holland Center.

So that's it.  Today is a chore day - laundry and lawn mowing.

Hiking Nebraska: The Steamboat Trace - Part One

The Steamboat Trace, a rails-to-trails project, stretches approximately 21 miles from just south of Nebraska City to the nuclear power plant just south of Brownville.

I'd loaded my pack Friday night.  I'd weighed everything, measured things carefully, and estimated a pack weight of about seventeen and a half pounds.  When I actually weighted it, it was nineteen and a half.  I have know idea where that extra two pounds came from.

On Saturday morning the Wife dropped me off at the Arbor Station trailhead approximately six miles south of Nebraska City (N40° 37.210' W095° 47.891').  The morning was overcast and still a little cool but I expected that to change quickly as temps in the 80s were in the forecast.  The first half-mile runs along the train tracks on the west and a gravel road on the east.  The tracks cross the road and head over to the Omaha Public Power District power plant and the trail splits off from the gravel road.

Being a railroad trace, the trail follows the base of hills staying as flat as possible.  For the next five and a half miles the trace follows a steep forested hill on the west and a forest/grassy/marshy area on the east.  Unlike the Wabash Trace, this section feels much more wild.  The land adjacent to the trail shows little evidence of agriculture and civilization in general.  The few building you do pass are old, decrepit, and in disrepair.  Based on my GPS map, some of the buildings may be remains of Olson, now just a ghost town.  One odd little building near the location of Olsen mystified me.  I suspect it to be a play house but there is no evidence of any houses nearby.  Odd you would tear down the original house but leave the playhouse intact.  The building, along with several others, were behind an electric fence (not sure it was hot or not - you don't think I'm stupid enough to touch it, do you?!?)

About six miles from the trailhead, just past the camp creek bridge, the scenery changes abruptly.  The trace exits the forest/marshy areas and runs through farmland.  For the next six miles there are no trees, no benches, and very little scenery.  The trace blends into the flat farmland so there really isn't anywhere to sit down to rest except on the ground.  The only place I found to sit was a large metal drainage pipe about halfway across this farmland-desert (for some reason I kept hearing America's "Horse with No Name" - strange how the mind wanders).  Fortunately for me the sky was still overcast, otherwise this stretch would have been unbearably hot.  Someone really needs to plant some trees along this section.

At the twelve - thirteen mile point you arrive at Peru.  Peru is a college town, home of Peru State College, Nebraska's oldest college.  I did not go through the campus as it was on the opposite side of the town that I was walking through.  It's a surprisingly tiny town.  I was expecting more for a college town.  I did find the one open restaurant, Cotty's, where I ate a filling Cotty's Double Cheeseburger, Fries, and lots of water and soda to drink.

Starting in Peru and extending some three and a half miles, the trace once again runs through a forested area.  Along this part you pass through the Roland Sherman Memorial Area.  This section of the trace is bordered by a sandstone cliff where students have carved their names and have proclaimed their love for one another - the usual college graffiti.  Mixed in with this mundane fair is the more interesting sculptures of Roland Sherman.  I couldn't find much about Mr. Sherman except for this newspaper article from the Lincoln Journal Star.  Some of his sculptures are pretty good.  Here are some examples of his art.  My favorite is the Genii of Genii Hollow 12.  The hollow is about 300 feet of the trace and would be an awesome place for a picnic.

After leaving the Roland Sherman Memorial Area, the trace snugs up against the Missouri River.  A fence keeps you on the trail but doesn't obstruct your view of the swift flowing river.  At the south end of the river fence are a couple benches and a table (made from an old cable spool) which turns out to be a fine place to stop and rest.  The benches are less than ten feet from the river's edge and the sound of the water is relaxing.

A little further south and the forest once again ends.  The trail passes through smaller farm fields and winds around hills.  As you exit the forest you can catch a glimpse of the Searcey Grain Company elevator in Brownville.  It appears closer than it really is as you still have about five and a half miles to go.  When I came out into the open, the wind, which had been muted by the trees, really began to blow.  I'm guessing it was blowing in the 30 MPH range.  I even had to use my dork strap to keep my hat from blowing off.  Walking into the wind slowed me down a bit and I had to stop at a bench near the Honey Creek bridge.

The next two to three miles have very little shade and spotty wind cover.  I was getting really tired of it when the forest returned some two and a half miles from Brownville.  The Trace follows hills and marsh land, passes close to the Missouri River again, and passes the elevator before entering the town.  The Trace usually passes under the Brownville bridge but they are working on the bridge and the trail is diverted around the work-site.

A half mile further and I arrived at the River Inn Resort.  I checked in, peeled off my sweaty clothes, took a shower, and laid down for a needed nap in an air conditioned room.  Later that evening I walked back into town (a half mile) and ate a Prime Rib dinner at the Lyceum Cafe and Bookstore.  I thought about walking around town a bit but I thought better when I remembered that I still had another 20 mile hike in store for me the next day.

This first day was approximately 20.77 miles.  My average walking speed was 3.4 MPH and my overall speed, taking breaks into account, was 2.5 MPH.  This seems to be my natural pace.  The Wife calls this racing pace but, what can I say, this is my comfortable pace.  Slowing down feels awkward.

I went to bed early Saturday night.  I had trouble sleeping, worried about the hike back, I suppose.  I rolled and tossed a lot and I had some heartburn from the big evening meal.  I still managed to get close to ten hours of sleep.

To be continued ...