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COYOTE ARCHIVE
Dick Prosapio aka, Coyote is a member of the TMC Advisory Council, ceremonialist, psycho-
therapist (ret.), author, leader of men's experiential workshops, & Co-founder of The Foundation for Common Sense. He lives with his wife and daughter in Stanley, NM
For more info about Dick Prosapio, visit his web-site:
Spirit/ Earth Path
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Lookin' at North Platte
by
Dick Prosapio © 2003
Whenever we're on-the-road I tend to collect a few of those glossy handouts from the racks set up in restaurant and motel foyers. It's always the "quirky" ones that attract me, those that seem incongruous or laughable given the reality of the territory. It's not that most of these places aren't worth seeing, it's just that many of them are a bit less than "awesome"... even by the notoriously low standards used by teenagers to give value to just about everything.
Some of these things are just a single 4" x 9" sheet, usually printed on both sides. One-sided flyers are hardly worth picking up. I have one from Liberal, Kansas that says, "Oz-Some Airplanes!" It's about the "Mid-American Air Museum" in Liberal which, as it turned out, really is worth seeing, the tortured reference to Dorothy's home base notwithstanding.
Some of these things get pretty hefty; the one touting Abilene, Kansas goes on for twenty-one pages. One page is devoted to the Russell Stover Factory Outlet. This seems a little out of place in a travel brochure.but then again; tourists do tend to indulge themselves more while on vacation so why not? But if you're not up to ten-pound boxes of mixed chocolates, how about, "The Greyhound Hall of Fame"? You'd stop for that right? Or, "The Museum of Independent Telephony". (That's what it says here.) What could they possibly have in their vast collection? They feature ""extended hours in the summer in case you get lost while exploring.
By the way, Abilene has a museum dedicated to Dwight Eisenhower who was born there. It's small and has an odd collection including a typical staff car from WW ll. It even features the measurements of the car mounted behind it. I never figured out why anyone would care to know what the wheelbase or bumper-to-bumper dimensions of a 1940 Dodge four door might be..but in case you do, you can get the details there.
The Wisconsin State Park System hand out is nicely done with lists of all the state parks, forests and recreational areas in the state. What they don't tell you in this one is that if you want to camp there you'd better call ahead..about a year ahead. It's totally useless as a last minute camping guide for the traveler.
I also collect these things with the idea in mind that if or when we come back we will be better prepared to see more of what there is to offer. Take North Platte for example, the folks there put out quite a piece of work. It's nineteen pages full of information about things you wouldn't know about North Platte even if you bothered to get off Interstate 80. Everything is located well back in the town. There's the "Buffalo Bill State Historical Park", "Cody Park", which has a railroad museum and Wild West Memorial. There's the "Golden Spike Tower and Visitor Center" which allows one to oversee the "worlds largest and busiest railyard" "Every 24 hours (the yard) handles 10,000 railroad cars." And they replace "10,000 pairs of wheels yearly" in the repair shops there.
Now com'on, you didn't know that did you?
There's "Dancing Leaf Cultural Center" which is set up to show how the indigenous people of the area lived 1500 years ago. These people were ancestors to the Pawnee.
So, North Platte is has some stuff to see, if you just happen to be in the area and are longing to kill time.
By the way, North Platte is famous for something that isn't talked about in this brochure or anywhere else for that matter. During WW ll., the citizens of North Platte and the surrounding territory set up a canteen for the troop trains that passed through there. The people dug in to their own pockets and made up meals; coffee, cakes, sandwiches, donated magazines and books, even held a short dance session for the guys who were going through day after day on the trains. This went on for the four-year duration of the war and ended with it as well. Even the station is gone.
I usually keep these brochures till the next road trip and then, for some strange reason find that I've gotten rid of them in some kind of clear-the-clutter campaign prior to departing, then I have to start all over again.
We were motel shopping one late afternoon somewhere in Nebraska as I recall and stopped at a rather large motel located in a very small town. Another couple was just going out the door as I approached and I heard from the man, "That's an outrageous room price for such a dinky little town!" The clerk suddenly got a spark in her eyes and replied, "We don't think of ourselves as a 'dinky little town' sir."
"Well that's what you are. A dinky little town!" he shouted back as the door closed.
He was right of course, but it was cruel of him to point it out I thought. After all, every little town needs to have some kind of claim to fame and thus not be totally forgotten as the Interstate rushes people from one spectacular kind of town to another. I'm sure that town must have had at least a town character that everyone talked about. If they did I didn't find a brochure about them anywhere though.
Just now in this little pile I've found the flyer for the "Sternberg Museum" located in Hays, Kansas. It says, "For a Rip-Roarin' Good Time!" and then goes on to talk about the great fossil collection they have there. That's the only brochure I found on Hays, which some might classify as "dinky"..but the next time I'm in the vicinity I just might check out the Sternberg. I'm a big fan of underdogs and small towns.
Dick Prosapio ©2003, All Rights Reserved
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