Kearney, Nebraska 5-16 to 5-20 and Ashland, Nebraska 5-21 to 5-24

What a nice surprise! This is the view from our RV site in Kearney.  Always nice to enjoy the beauty of nature!  Kearney is the Sandhill Crane Capital of the World.  From late February to early April 600,000 Sandhill Cranes converge on the Platte River in Kearney.  Sadly, we were too late.

Sights of Kearney's famous Archway spans all four lanes of I-80. The Archway tells the stories of the pioneer adventurers and innovators who traveled west on trails through Nebraska. The exhibits include things like the Oregon Trail, the pony express, and the building of the transcontinental railroad.

Downtown "on the bricks" is in the historic district.  The bricks refers to the streets paved with bricks. This area features boutiques, shops, fine dining, pubs and more.  Here is the beautiful interior of Alley Rose where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch.  We had so much to eat with our order of Prime Rib Burnt ends and Fries, that we took home a Smoked Turkey, Apples and Melted Brie on a Pretzel Bun sandwich. We enjoyed it during our golf game the next day. Can't believe I forgot to take photos of the food!

This is Meadowlark Hills.  Just had to share the beauty of the grass in this part of the country.  These farmers know how to grow grass!!  And notice that all the tee markers have been creative metal ornaments.  No sticks painted on the sides to denote the different tee placements.

I didn't miss food photos at Cunningham's Journal.  This restaurant is downtown, on the bricks.  We enjoyed Journal bites (marinated steak) and a skewer trio of bacon wrapped shrimp, bacon wrapped marinated sirloin, and Jim Beam Chicken.  The best part for me was the Strawberry Banana Colada!!  It was absolutely the best, ever! 

Mark is really enjoying his new electric bike.  Here are the sites from a ride through the bike paths.  Lots of great views of the Platte River.  The Platte gets its name from the French word plat meaning flat water.  The river originates in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming and Colorado.  The bottom right is a sod house.  A Prairie Grass sod brick could weigh almost 70 pounds.  These were very popular here when Abe Lincoln signed the 1862 Homestead Act. It gave anyone 21+ years old, 160 acres if you lived in a home measuring at least 12 x 14 for five years!

Mark was hankering for a beer flight so we headed to Thunderhead Brewery for some stone fire pizza and beer.  I drank the prairie peach.  Mark finished off the rest.  We even had some pizza left for lunch the next day!!

Obviously, we have enjoyed lots of food and also lots of golf.  But, most all the theaters are still closed.  We found The Kearney Community Theater was offering "Noises Off."  The term noises off is a theater phrase for the noises that come from offstage.  This play has three acts with the stage in front, for acts 1 and 3. The middle act had the stage completely reversed and you saw what is going on behind the stage.  The actors were amazing going in and out of all the doors and changing the lines in the exact same play in all three acts.  Everyone was amazed at how well they knew what door to enter or exit and all the different lines of this play as they changed from act to act.  The seating was perfect with tiered rows and carafes of water.  I laughed through the entire production.  It was great fun!!

We had a great time in Kearney but its time to move on to Ashland, Nebraska

Starting with the best!!  Golf at Quarry Oaks was a huge "Oh Wow!!"  This course was designed by the man who worked on the re-design of Augusta National.  From the quality of the grass, the quality of the fairways, the tiered tees, and just the overall beauty.  It was a fantastic day on the links!!

Had to include Mark's favorite view of this tree outside our window at the RV park.  I loved the golf boy statue and the pretty purple wild flowers at Quarry Oaks.

What a fun evening we enjoyed at Glacial Till Cider House and Tasting Room!!  We started with a wine tasting and a charcuterie board with aged gouda, brie and stilton blue cheese.  We finished it off with a hard cider flight and a desert of vanilla pot de creame. Fabulous!!

This stop is just filled with great highlights!  We found the Bluebarn Theater in nearby Omaha.  The show was a musical called Sunset to Starlight, a celebration of American Musical Theater.  The playbill was a QR code to scan on your phone.

This is the list of songs performed from the online playbill.  I thought it was very creative.  I loved "Travel Song" from Shrek.  The singers were just amazingly talented and there was even a great tap dance.

We always seem to find new friends when we are on the road.  Sherri and Jeff overheard that we were full time RVers when we were seated at the theater. As usual, they had loads of questions.  Jeff's company was in the World Trade Center and provided costumes for Broadway, Movies, etc.  They recommended the restaurant next door, Via Farina.  By coincidence, they came over  to the restaurant. We enjoyed a fun lunch together.  The fungo, stone fired pizza was great, but the egg yolk ravioli was incredible.  We thought the day just could not get any better.  But, when we got home and watched Phil Mickelson win the PGA tournament it was the icing on the cake!

Two other unique food choices.  At Parker's Smokehouse we had a trio: BBQ rib tips - these were the best!, Georgia pulled pork and Texas Beef Brisket.  We added an extra cornbread and steamed veggies.  It was yummy.  A trip to BW's Bar and Grill downtown offered fried portabella mushrooms.  They were so tasty.

Ashland has a nice downtown.  I especially like the sculpture of the kids in front of the Ashland Library.

Sadly, its time to leave Ashland as there was more to do in this area than we expected.  But, its time to move on to N. Sioux City, South Dakota.