What a great museum

Wednesday, October 21, 2026

We visited the Archway Museum before we left Kearney (pronounced Carny). Was it ever great! Louise recommended it. Yay, Louise. It tells the story of western expansion along the Oregon, Mormon, California, and 49er trails. It is all built into an arch that goes over Highway 80 – the interstate that goes all the way across the continental US. They had great shirts that said, “I’ve been under it 1000 times; I finally stopped!” I would have gotten one if I had ever been under it!

You take a big escalator up to the museum – right into a covered wagon. The museum people worked with the Disney people to make their vignettes look good. I loved the first room – the fort – because a thunderstorm started right after we got there. Keith and I were all alone throughout the museum, until one girl popped up in the last room with us. I could listen to the audio guide without having to quietly hold it up to my ear (Keith’s went right into his hearing aides).

After the railroad successfully went across the country, wagon trains almost immediately died out. Makes sense to me. We learned about the advent of cars and highways and motels and drive-ins and diners. It was so interesting and well presented.

I could have spent a lot of time watching the radar of vehicles’ speed from the window overlooking I-80. I actually did spend quite a bit of time.

Downstairs we found an old Coke machine. It was such fun.

It’s a private museum so admission and gift shop purchases are its main support. We bought a bag of dirt with “gems” in it to use in our panning for gold. What a fun time we had! It was worth every penny!!

In the lobby, there was a talking buffalo on the wall (I wonder where they got that idea?) and a rocking buffalo. Kearney is the center of the universe for sand hill cranes, so they were represented well here, too.

We had to drive back to town so we could actually drive under the arch on our way east. The ramp right at the place was already east of the building.

We stopped in Lincoln for lunch. We went to a restaurant named Toast. We did not have toast. Keith had meatloaf and I had chicken with sweet chili sauce. Most importantly I had a drink – amaretto, blueberry puree, simple syrup, and sour. It was DELICIOUS! I was immediately very, very happy and my arms were very heavy. SO. MUCH. FUN. I told Keith I was surprised he didn’t get me cocktails more often. I think I am very pleasant when I have had a cocktail.

Next stop was Elk Horn, Iowa, to see Fjord the troll. Yes! A troll! She was absolutely beautiful. She is on the grounds of the Danish American museum, which sadly had closed at 4 and we arrived at 4:30. That meant once again, we had the troll to ourselves. I will never be sad about that.

Lots of helpful signs made it easy to find her.

Keith did all the driving, and I did all the falling asleep while we were listening to our audio book, The House in the Cerulean Sea. We made it home about 10:30pm. There was plenty of room for a little black car in the garage.