This is the third post in a series of images from my travels for the Wheels on Walls motorcycle scavenger hunt sponsored by Team Strange Airheads. For it, I need to collect photos of my motorcycle and rally flag taken in front of outdoor murals. The primary goal is to get photos of murals featuring wheeled vehicles. I can also collect up to ten that don’t feature wheels in them. Finally, there are several “special” locations around the world. The winner of this year’s grand tour will get a lovely plaque and bragging rights for the year, and everyone who finishes will get an enameled pin.
On this ride, my friend Mike and I rode an area south of I-80s between Kearney, NE and York, NE.
July 15 – Mural on a small store in Minden, NE. It wasn’t the mural I thought I was looking for. Possibly it was painted over the old one, or perhaps there is still another to be found.
There were two murals in Hastings, NE – one from 2013 featuring the people in town on a community building, the second from an older section of town celebrating the area’s German heritage.
July 15 – This mural was painted by members of Hastings community as a part of the Mid-America Mural Project. Click on the photo for more information about this project. Notice the silhouette of the steam locomotive in it.
July 15 – This is the “Guten Tag” mural from the south side of Hastings on the side of an old store. Notice the horse cart in the middle of the street.
If you need a hearty breakfast while traveling through Hastings, I would suggest a visit to the Goldenrod Cafe. Mike and I enjoyed our meal. Be advised – You will need to bring cash as they don’t take plastic. Mike talked to a couple of gentlemen at another table who were able to point us to the Guten Tag mural’s location.
Fairmont was one of several places we stopped where we only knew of one mural in advance, but quickly found several others. Given that I’m only allowed to use two per town, that’s all I included here. But public art seems to spread through these small towns once it gets started.
July 15 – This mural of a covered wagon and an older car was the one I was looking for in Fairmont.
July 15 – This one of the WW II bomber was the bonus mural we found nearby in Fairmont.
Exeter was another town with multiple murals.
July 15 – This older mural on the side of the Exeter, NE fire department was a little worse for wear around the edges, but was still a great bit of public art.
July 15 – This was a patriotic mural honoring veterans in Exeter. Love the airwoman in the upper right who reminds me of the badass dropship pilot out of the movie “Aliens.”
The three final murals from this Saturday ride through south-central Nebraska were all community-themed ones with the name of the town featured prominently.
July 15 – On the side of a downtown building in Shickley, NE.
July 15 – This mural from Carleton features the omnipresent steam engine, but also an image of the dry-lands crop milo/sorghum, raised as animal feed. Click on the photo for more information on this alternative grain.
July 15 – We closed out our mural hunting for the day with this one from Davenport, NE featuring a combine and other farm equipment. We also had an excellent lunch at RW’s Dining and Drinks in downtown Davenport. Click on the photo for more about this bar and grill. (And if you are out motorcycling, they serve an ice-cold Busch non-alcoholic beer that did a good job of dealing with the hot weather we had been riding through all day.)
You can view all of my Wheels on Walls Grand Tour posts here.