2005 Conference - Day 2: The Tour!

I always enjoy the tour day at ASDAL. Not only do we get to get off campus and see some interesting things, it's also good for getting to know the other librarians that are here in a way that you just can't do sitting in meetings all day long.

And this tour day looked very interesting. Gen and I get to the bus in plenty of time, but we are intercepted by Chloe who needs some help bringing the lunches from the cafeteria to the bus. And since we all love lunch, we're only too happy to help.

Our first stop is 45 minutes down the road in Nebraska City at the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Trail & Visitors Center. So there's a bit of napping happening on the bus early in the morning. When we get to the Center, I'm impressed right away by the design of the building, which looks like an arrow pointing the way to the West (I assume it's pointing West), and by the keelboat model out front that you can actually board. As we go inside, they also have a full-sized canoe, or "pirogue," which we can also board. Sort of gives a good feel for the realities of the voyage. Must have been alot of work to move those huge, heavy boats up the Missouri River. The museum seems to be aimed more at children, but it's fun for us too. We are given a piece of paper which we can get stamped at the various displays, and then we'll get a replica of the Jefferson Freedom Medal embossed when we finish. It's a fun thing, and gives you a sense of accomplishment to actually get all of the holes punched.

Then we're off to the Arbor Day Farm & Arbor Lodge to see some trees. OK, so it's much more than that. They grow & harvest apples, make apple cider, and promote growing trees all over the world. They're even going to give us our own trees when we leave that we can plant. After the initial introduction and tour, we get our lunch, but many of us augment it with cold apple cider slushies and slices of hot apple pie from their food shop.

The Morton mansion on the other side of the street is open for tours, so Gen and I (and many other tour members) go there next. Morton was the guy that actually started Arbor Day (it was his son started Morton Salt), and apparently was responsible for bringing many more varieties of trees to the Nebraska and Great Plains area. He even served as Secretary of Agriculture for awhile. The mansion is incredible. It started as a four-room house, and it just kept expanding and grew much bigger, taller and more ornate. He even put a one-lane bowling alley in the basement! It's fun touring these older houses.

Then we go back across the street to see at least part of the interpretive trail and the collection of movie scenes featuring trees. We don't see the full film, but enough to see that they did some nice editing. There's one section in particular that I liked, they showed Alfalfa from the Little Rascals singing a song about a tree, and managed to intercut scenes from one or two other movies that used the same song. The effect was very interesting.

We have just enough time left to go on the paved trail and see the treehouse. The trail has some nice educational signs and things on it, and the treehouse is more of a platform on a tree than a house. But it's fun to go up in it, anyway. Just as we're finishing the tour, we see a wild turkey playing around in the dirt near a new construction area. That was certainly interesting. At least he's safe from being hunted, there.

Then we board the bus and head off to Peru State College to see their library. It's an interesting building with an interesting history. Originally a church, then a gym, and now a library, it's very interesting how they've used that space. The main floor has a nice, open feeling, owing mostly to the fact that the floor can't take the load of too many books. But they've turned a problem into an opportunity and created some nice reading and learning spaces on that floor. They've also made a nice Nebraska reading room in a balcony area. I liked the chairs in the window the most.

We get back on the bus for a short trip over to Brownsville so we can board the boat for our evening dinner cruise on the Missouri River. But we're about a half hour early, so we head into town to see what's open. We find an actual health store that has all kinds of dietary supplements, vitamins, some health foods and books on health. Not sure how a town this small supports a store like this, but it's interesting to see out here. We buy some smoked almonds just because we find it hard to resist smoked almonds. And we'd like to support the store, at least a little.

Then it's back to the river. The thing that strikes me right away is how fast this river flows. Someone told us earlier that it's about 9 miles or knots or whatever an hour, but you don't realize how fast that is until you see it. It's quite fast. The boat is not exactly the Southern Belle (but that may just be a growing Tennessee bias on my part, which is scary to think about), but it's a fun cruise. The food is good, and I probably take more than my share. But I did go through line nearly last and don't have seconds until everyone else does. So I don't feel too guilty. We eat on the downstairs deck, but after we're done, we go upstairs to enjoy the rest of the voyage in the open air. It's very nice. Conversation, piano music, and the occasionally singing makes for a good time.

Sabrina hands out our trees on the bus ride back. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with mine, but I'll find something. Just hope I don't kill it. Maybe I can keep it on my desk in a pot for awhile. It's a white pine, so I probably won't be able to do that for long.

After we get back (and not too late for once), Gen still has a meeting. This time to work on the panel presentation she has to be a part of on Friday. But Black Adder is on BBC America, so everything is good for me!