Trails, Rails & Little Mexico

Day 10 in Nebraska....

We stayed at Aunt Sonya's on Tuesday night. We were going to head back to Holdrege when we woke up as Brent and Sonya both had to work, but Tanya (Sonya's sister and a very god friend of mine) was staying there also with her 3 kids, John, Zack and Kate. As you may know these are the kids I babysat/ sort of nannied for throughout high school and was very close to. And yes, our Zachie's name inspiration was none other than Zackery Michael Andrew Bachman. We used to do everything together. He still to this day remembers tractor rides, hay bail jumping, chasing cows and cats and going to ball games and church. Ut always amazes me how old and mature he is getting every time I see him. The little mischievous boy in pull ups is al grown up.   :-( 

Tanya and I stayed up half the night catching up and talking like old friends do. It felt like high school all over again. Sometimes that is just what you need. It did not however make for an early exit from the house and when Tanya suggested the Trails and Rails Museum down the street we all eaerly agreed.
She lined the kids up in a very specific order they had to stay in the entire time and bought all of our entry into the museum.

John, Tanya, Luke, Zach, Emily, Kate, Andy, Michael, Zack

As you can imagine the boys just ate it up. Not only did they have trains that we got to tour, but they also had an old school, an old homestead, a church, a so house, a barn filled with old transportation and many other very interesting pieces.

engineer's supper

checking out train portion of the museum 

Someone lies here w/ rattler

"Ductor" Luke

inside the train, a bunk

equipment

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after checking out the engine

passing the water bottle

I only wish I would have grabbed my good camera instead of relying on my iPhone which went dead with all the pictures I took. They were lesser quality as well, but it will still be a good memory.

The Haunted House.......

 The tour guides said the house is rumored to be haunted and has even been featured on "Ghost Hunters" or a similar show, I can't remember which. Michael overheard this and when in one of the upper bedrooms he opened a closet to find a mannequin and screamed! He was really freaked out and it made everyone laugh hysterically.

Michael freaked out!

The School...

The Church....

The Log Cabin Homestead...

The Barn and Some other views.....

We headed back to Sonya's and picked up McDonald's fairly new 20 piece chicken nuggets for $4.95!!! And I tried their new Strawberry Lemonade Slush!!! YUMM!!!!

I love Brent & Sonya's table & chairs, I plan to order some one year.

After Brent got home he did some tat touch up for me on my ball and chain then covered my finger that I had done in honors english freshman year of high school with my ex's initials. That was the one reaction I had gotten from Wayne upon coming home with the ball and chain "You got all that done and you didn't get your finger covered?" Didn't know he cared, but you can bet it was next on the agenda! I decided on a purple "Duster" or tornado for Holdrege Dusters and my tornado chasing obsession.

My "Flower"

Sonya & Emily

Later  that night Mom and Dad met us for Little Mexico... my most favorite restaurant ever! They left after Braden's Tball game and got about 10 miles North of down before realizing they forgot to go back home and grab Gage from Tiff so she could go to work. Ooops. So the boys and I went to Hobby Lobby to grab some crochet stuff and look for a frame. While we were in there Brent & Sonya had decided to go to Hastings music and book store next door to Hobby Lobby to rent some movies. They seen my van and vandalized it. I didn't notice till half way back accross town, then couldn't get it off. The next day after it had rained that night Andy seen it and said, "someone put a pretty flower on your van mommy!" ....why yes they did, didn't they.

Dad's bolt in a tire

Kearney Little Mexico, google image

 We engorged ourselves with chips and salsa at Little Mexico and had the best smothered burritos ever created along with sopapillas filled with honey. It was well worth the 10 day wait. MORE LIKE ONE YEAR WAIT!!!! As we sat there and ate mom got a message from Aunt Liz that the owners of the Little Mexico on the lake sold the restaurant and it was to become a burger joint! NOOOOO!!!! Dad told us there were 4 siblings that had been left the small family owned chain of restaurants; Choo Choo's in Hastings which had gone bankrupt and closed years ago, Old Mexico Restaurant in Alma who had sold out and could no longer use the same menu, the Kearney one and the one on the lake and one more in North Platte. Well we are unsure who mans the North Platte one or if it is even still a "Little Mexico" or open at all, but this could leave only Kearney for the greatest Mexican Restaurant ever. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE KEARNEY, STAY OPEN!!!!! We will be devastated if you are no more. There is no menu that can match the taste of your homemade salsa, smothered burritos and sopapillas!

Full moon half covered with clouds on the
Haunted Funk - Odessa Road Nebraska

The boys were getting on my nerves on the way home to Mom & Dad's so I decided to take the Funk-Odessa exit and the Funk-Odessa road which is another known haunted place ;-) It has made the Haunted Heartland book and many other superficial sitings. If you remember right from an earlier post, there s supposed to be a Jesus looking man who asks for a ride over the Platte River, or just appears in the back seat for the ride over. I told the boys this and they were quite for a long time. They then started incessantly asking questions and Andy nearly had a conniption..... that back fired. To make it worse on a superstitious person, the moon was full with black clouds quickly rolling before it and a black cat crossed the road in front of me. Need less to say I was happy to leave the extremely black non shouldered 2 lane highway for the main drag into town.