19 Oct - Omaha - Boys Town and Rosenblatt Stadium

We left Lincoln, Nebraska, headed to Omaha. James spotted a really unusual water tower on the way in and had to make a photograph – it is the teapot. Really unusual. Our first stop was Boys Town. James and I remember seeing the movie about Father Flanagan starting a home for young boys and the struggles he faced financially and the issues he faced with the community not wanting “those boys” in their neighborhood. I think most people will recognize the statue which has become the symbol of Boys Town – a young boy caring another boy on his shoulders and saying, “He’s not heavy, he’s my brother.” We toured the history museum (the first museum we have gone through on this trip.) It is so inspirational. The figures are actually casts of boys in the home. The museum shows the struggles, the advancements, and the honors. Lots of famous people have donated items to the museum (Hank Aaron’s bat being one of those.) Also, the designer Faberge’ designed an egg for the museum. It shows the symbol in gold. At the end of the tour is a wall with the names of boys that have come back to Boys Town and supported the efforts there. They include doctors, lawyers, senators, scientists and more. Father Flanagan is known for his quote, “Our young people are our greatest wealth. Give them a chance and they will give a good account of themselves. No boy wants to be bad. There is only bad environment, bad training, bad example, and bad thinking.” Boys town includes religious training but does not require they go to Catholic training. They have a protestant chapel on the grounds and a Catholic chapel. The only requirement is that the children visit one or both and then make a decision and stick with it. Needless to say, we were impressed. We also went through the gift shop and found the world’s largest ball of stamps (the boys made it.) The ball is recognized by Ripley’s Believe it or Not. Boys Town is now a REAL village. They have a post office, zip code, police and security department, etc. We actually mailed some post cards from the post office so they would have the post mark of Boys Town. After we left there we went to Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha. That is the home of the Omaha Royals (minor league team) but is better known as the stadium where the NCAA College World Series is played every year. This stadium is the largest minor league stadium in the nation and is scheduled for destruction next year. This stadium “only” seats 24,000 and the city is building a stadium that will seat 30,000 for the College World Series. In turn, the Omaha Royals are building a smaller stadium in the area for their games. Basically the city’s new stadium will be used two weeks out of the year and it is estimated it will pay for itself within 5 years. We were lucky to get a private tour of the stadium since the Royals have completed their season. From there we headed to Nebraska City where we had been told there was an outlet mall. We never found it (even the GPS couldn’t find it) and we figured it must have gone the way of the Boaz mall. We drove to St. Joseph, Missouri for the night. Another really good day – the sky was clear, the temperature was in the 70’s, traffic was not bad, and we had seen some really inspirational things.