Our original speaker, Bruce Trautwein was unable to attend. You know that every Rotarian has a story to tell and some have many to tell. Duane Tappe told us one of his stories, using a quilt that his wife made from T-shirts, about touring Nebraska via car with several other people traveling in their cars. The CARN tour was started in 1998. Duane said that we all know that many of you have heard about riding your bikes through Nebraska, well these tours used cars instead and visited many Nebraska towns. It did exclude Lincoln and Omaha because a lot of people travel to those two towns often. These were small to medium size towns. Duane and a friend of his, Don, help set up these tours. The first tour started in McCook, into Norfolk and several small towns as they traveled 500 miles. They planned their motels, food, etc. Duane a member of the Veterans sometimes contacted the VFW groups in towns and they furnished the meal for the group and it was a Fundraiser for the VFW. They did travel to Yankton, SD, Lebanon, KS and a into Wyoming, but mainly stuck to Nebraska.
Some of those towns included: Scottsbluff, North Platte, Hebron, Red Cloud, Lexington, Kearney, Hastings, Nebraska City, Greenwood, Royal, Bassett, Chadron, and Norfolk just to name a few. They visited an Indian Reservation, waterfalls, Buffalo Bill Ranch, and museums, churches, or something of great interest in those towns. They never started in the same town nor did they ever go through some of the same area. One town they visited Ely, NE where there were four buildings and one church. The buildings on main street were empty, and only one person lived in the town. When they did come back to that town to visit the church, they were welcome with cookies, a church service with the pastor, and took up a collection of $100 to give to the church. It is a cowboy’s church and always open.
The last tour that Duane did was in 2008. They have seen and visited many interesting things on these car tours. At one time they did have 93 people which was the most they ever had. They did cut down on the trip and made them shorter.
So, if you want to go on a trip, just get into your car and start driving in any direction and you might be surprise what you might find – something that you didn’t expect. There is a lot to see and visit in Nebraska.
Thanks Duane for a tour!