Learning about her state
By Mallory Trudell

Traveling, to me, is about seeing new places and remembering where you’ve been.
I’m always saying, “Oh, this reminds me of…” I think it’s human nature to try
to associate new things with familiar things, to help wrap our minds around
things. What’s funny, to me, is when the new place or experience is part of
something you’re all too familiar with – your home state.
I’ve lived in Nebraska since I was two years old, or just about. My parents are
from Nebraska, and after some moving around due to my dad’s job in the Air
Force, they finally moved back home. So, Nebraska is really all I’ve ever known
besides my travels. But I’m often faced with how little I really know Nebraska.
When it boils down to it, I’m from Omaha; I know Omaha, but I don’t really know
Nebraska.I’ve been to Kearney a handful of times for crane watching, but I always go to
the same part of Kearney and only come in for the cranes. I’ve been to Fremont
and Tekamah to visit family; my dad’s shown me Kennard and Blair and other
places from his childhood; I’ve been to Lincoln for school field trips and
Husker games. But I don’t really KNOW these places.
Well, this week, I got a little more familiar with my home state. On our way to
Wyoming to visit family, my mother, sister and I stopped in North Platte. We
originally figured it’d be a way to break up our drive and get a little extra
vacation time in- we could leave after work on Wednesday rather than waiting to
leave Thursday morning. My mom, though, decided to look up what there was to do
in North Platte and stumbled on some Buffalo Bill attractions.
Buffalo Bill, from what I’ve recently learned, was a Pony Express rider, killed
thousands of buffalo, and started the Wild West Show with Bailey of Barnum &

Bailey fame. North Platte was his homestead, which has been turned into a
museum. First, we stopped at the trading post, which in addition to being an
awesome gift shop with incredibly nice employees, has a miniature Wild West Show
show. And when I say miniature, I mean miniature figurines of the different acts
and attractions that people used to see at the Wild West Show. The miniatures
put on their show every half hour for about 5 minutes, and are awesome. Roping,
knife throwing, Native American dancing- it’s all there!
The actual museum is much more dignified. You get to take a tour of Buffalo
Bill’s home, which has rooms set up to look how they would when he was living
there, as well as more informational displays on the upper level. In the barn,
there’s a collection of old-timey transportation- horse-drawn sleighs, covered
wagons, surreys, and more. If you can fight off the moths, you can go upstairs
in the barn, where a few yokes and plows are on display.The best part (besides the gift shop!) was just driving through North Platte to
get to the different attractions. It’s fun to see the different neighborhoods
and homes, to see new places that see familiar. On different streets, we’d be
saying to each other, “This reminds me of Fremont,” or “This reminds me of
Ralston.” Wrapping the new around the old to act as an anchor in our memories.
While I’m still no expert on Nebraska, I’m at least one city closer to really
knowing my home state.
