10-13-08 On The Road, Part Three

Years ago on The Tonight Show, Nebraska-born Johnny Carson commented about how cold it was in Los Angeles. And with his usual impeccable timing, sidekick Ed McMahon would ask, “How cold was it??” And after a slight sneer from the host, Johnny would reply, “It was so cold outside that the Early Bird was seen using a can of Sterno to warm his worm”. And you thought Mark Twain had the market cornered when it came to weather lore.

Monday morning here in Kearney found the temperature to be 25 degrees colder than the previous morning. Add to that a very heavy rainstorm that went thru the area overnight.

Here I was this morning going back to Gibbon Junction to get a couple of more pictures and I had what turned out to be a tire pressure indicator light on the dash of my 2008 Dodge Avenger. So I drove back to Kearney and came across the great folks at Kearney Auto & Tire Service on 25th Street and sure enough, they found the left front tire to be 3 pounds lower than the rest. KA&TS recommended having the tire inspected to make sure there was no nail or whatever in the tire. Hey, with 3 more states to cover on my adventure, why not?? I returned for a 3:30pm appointment and a suspected nail was removed and the tire patched. Kudos to Dodge for an ingenious little option. Thanks to Tracie, Joe, and Marv at KA&TS for their efforts.

Back to Kearney. Talk about a unique city in the middle of Nebraska. On the main drags, east-west U.S. Route 30 and north-south Nebraska State Route 83 are divided boulevards. All nicely done in concrete fashion and very well laid out as far as left-hand turn-offs go. Of course, if the place of business you are looking for is across from one of those divides, you have to go up to the nearest left-hand turnout to head back to where you want to go. If not, you might be meeting those aforementioned great folks at Kearney Auto & Tire Service.
For the railfan, you have one of the best spots to watch trains. It is a municipal parking lot near the Central Avenue grade crossing on Railroad Street.


On a cool day like today, you can appreciate the natural warming of the due west afternoon sun.

About that grade crossing. It and another one just west of here has a unique feature. There are directional train horns on either side of the crossing. Why, you may ask?? Back in 2002, a sound ordinance was put into effect stating that no train could sound its horn at the two grade crossings in downtown Kearney. So Union Pacific, with the help of railroad vendor Union Signal & Switch, came up with the idea of placing these large outdoor loudspeakers on the crossing gates that playback the 2 long, 1 short, 1 long toots that an engineer would sound whenever he or she approached a grade crossing. Concentrated sound aimed at automotive drivers and not the omni-directional sound from the lead locomotive of a train to wake up the whole neighborhood has pleased the city fathers and residents. And as an extra safety feature, there are square signs with flashing red Xs mounted at the top of steel poles next to the crossing gates. See a flashing red X: no horn. No red X: the engineer sounds the horn. Of course, any emergency situation where the locomotive horn must be sounded is a given.
Now if you follow Central Avenue into the downtown area, you wind up with the picture below.

This is the main shopping district in town. There are many small stores, some of them most likely mom & pop operations from previous generations, and banks with the original mid-western names like Wells Fargo. The avenue and some streets nearby are laid with brick. And how about this: diagonal, front-end-in-first parking?? A delight to anyone who detests parralell street parking, including this writer.

Up on Route 44, the one thing that you notice is the absence of brand names you associate with the East Coast. Gas stations are Cenex or Conoco. You do have your Best Western and Holiday Inn but what you do have are these old style motels and inns. Some have these ornate concrete designer block walls, such as Western Inn across the street from Kearney Auto & Tire Service and the Midtown Western Inn where I am staying. When you go to your room here at Midtown, you open up a storm door, just like what you would have on the front of your house. The main door key to your room key is just that: a key attached to one of those long, diamond shaped, round cornered tags with the room number stamped on it. But don’t be deceived by these looks. Once you open the main door, your room inside is well furnished with cushioned chairs that you can lean back into and are complete with a built-in pop-up footrest. The showerhead is the older type that gives you a full head of water. The carpet is deep plush. The bed is king size. Add in a 25-inch Zenith color TV with full cable and you are in business. Did I happen to mention the mini-fridge for your convenience?? You gotta love it.

Anyway, it has turned out to be a beautiful fall day here on the prairies. And not a cloud to speak of. Blue skies are redefined out here. Tomorrow we head deeper into the prairies with our next stop at Cozad. We’ll see how the train traffic will be. And as mentioned earlier, we will visit AM 880 KRVN out there in the middle of those ubiquitous cornfields. And about them cornfields??

I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Kearney, Nebraska.