A day off in McCook Nebraska! Nice getting up leisurely at 7 AM and getting breakfast served at the hotel. Had a great nights sleep on a cozy bed after a delicious pork ribs dinner at the Taste of Texas BBQ restaurant. Feel again like a normal human being! Several of us set out at 9 to explore the town. The houses to the North of the town were very nice- we saw George Norris’s house, a former Senator of Nebraska, and the beautiful park facing his house. I ate a runza at the Embers Bakery on the main drag.
A runza is a pastry filled with meat and cabbage, apparently a Nebraska thing. Not a ton of flavor but it was OK, just like the Russian pirozhkis that the Russians would serve us in the mornings along with coffee when we had meetings out in Moscow. the High Prairies museum opened at 11 and we visited that. Interesting memorabilia from the early 1900s, an old printing press, photos of train wrecks, old washing machines, stoves, a setup of an entire old pharmacy with the wooden floors, stacks of chemicals in bottles and mortar/pistels. There were interesting maps of the rail lines which were built up, an amazing network covering the whole Plains area from Chicago to Denver. Rail transportation really dominated that era. We visited an interesting Art Museum called the Art Bank, in what used to be a bank building- a very eclectic collection of art from various locals and regional artists. Quite cool. We wandered down to the rail line and the huge grain silos owned by the Frenchman Valley Coop alongside the tracks that dominate the landscape for miles around. The coop has the capacity for 40 million bushels of grain!
Had lunch at a Mexican restaurant in town, with a really good pitcher of margaritas. Taking it easy for the rest of the afternoon, maybe a little nap, before dinner at the Coppermill Steakhouse tonight. Ahhhhh, it is good to have a day off!
Biking across the USA with Mike 
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