So post COVID, post-Trump presidency, post- Trump indictment and, most importantly for us, post Henna’s graduation from HS and then her first year completed at college, we head back west for a small trip before our bigger trip.

First part of our mini-trip involved us camping at Ledges State Park (lovely park- cool canyon that you drive through with lots of small stream crossings that will make you nervous) then Niobrara State Park to Fort Robinson State Park to the KOA in Duboise, WY where I sit finishing my breakfast as we speak.

Honestly not sure what to expect. Would the Hunan Rights sticker on our car cause us trouble? Would riots break out in rural Nebraska once the dumb orange guy was indicted (and I don’t want to get too preachy here but really, he treated our national secrets with as much care as my dad treats the sports page)? The maintenance guy at Fort Robinson wore a Trump hat when he came to our room to drop a cot. And we saw a few Trump signs along the way. Less though than you would expect. Maybe the oddest sign of our times was in Fort Robinson where the Post Playhouse (coolest summer stock theater out there) posted a notice regarding the content matter of their plays. Seems that the Nebraska State Game and Parks Commission insisted that they now place a rating for each of their musicals. This of course is nonsense. Plays do not get ratings. But they played along and asked their directors to assign an appropriate rating.

The musical we saw was pretty edgy. It had attempted fratricide, unwanted sexual advances and an innocent baker executed by the state. Despite all that the audience was its usual mixture of northwest Nebraskans and tourists (the latter of whom were mostly older, fit and looking like they just got off a horse which for many of them they had just done).

But mostly everything felt the same as before. People were still friendly and inquisitive. Surprised to hear we were from Chicago but polite enough not to pass judgement.