Welcome to the second episode of Sheila's Shout Outs, bonus content from the Growing Small Town Nebraska podcast. My name is Sheila Jenkinson, and here I'm going to talk about my favorite places, spaces, food, events, activities, and more that I've discovered, either growing up in Nebraska or traveling throughout the state. You can find pictures and more details of the places I talked about in Sheila's Shout Outs on our website. That's growing small town N E (for nebraska).com. Just click on Read for more content. And don't forget the Growing Small Town Nebraska podcast regular episodes come out on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. That's where we interview business and community leaders about what they're doing to revitalize their small towns throughout the Cornhusker State.
In this episode of Sheila's shout outs, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about some of the Nebraska Passport stops, Norfolk Community Theatre's dinner theater, our Nebraska honeymoon. That's right we honeymooned in Nebraska. And , I'll also shout out some fish fries and places to grab some corned beef and cabbage. My first shout out goes to GROW Nebraska for the Marketech conference that was held again in Kearney this year. Market tech 2024 did not disappoint. So I do want to do a shout out to them. It's just a great time! They have a good lineup of fantastic speakers and vendors and just those connections that you make there are terrific. I can't wait to talk to the people that I met at Marketech this year, follow up with them...great time, and GROW Nebraska had as our centerpieces...they were edible. So a big shout out and a thank you to everybody who provided the amazing treats that were on the table this year. Oooh, I munched my way through the day and then some, so thank you to Boxicanyon caramels, HR Poppin' Snacks Gourmet Popcorn, Poppin' Delights Gourmet Popcorn, Wicked Good Foods Pop Corner, Popcorn County, Barb's Buttery Toffee, and Baker's Candies as well...man! Thank you. The treats weere fantastic. I'm still munching on some because, I snagged 'em. I have some pictures of some of those great treats for you as well. And those are all available in the GROW Nebraska store, which is great to know. You can order online as well. And then after Marketech, this year, I went to the like after party and that was at McCue's Taproom in Kearney downtown. McCue's Taproom in Kearney was a great time. Very unique and just goes along with the theme a lot of great shops that are in downtown Kearney, so make sure you check that out.
So folks, it is Nebraska Passport season for 2024. That's right, the Nebraska Passport stops have been announced. I always think it's a super exciting time, because I know so many businesses and places and locations apply to this. And so then that announcement of who was selected each year, that is exciting stuff. This year, I have some major goals of getting to these passport stops. They are celebrating the 15th year now of the passport program. And there are 15 Bonus stops this year. It's running as like a mini passport along with the summer program. So it's going to run from May 1 through September 30. And again, it's separate. All right, you have a separate prize entry sheet for that one. No digital stamps or selfies on the bonus stops. But every stop has a unique collectible sticker for everybody who participates. My piano students know I love stickers. So that's going to be super fun. The bonus stops this year include Chimney Rock National Historic Site in Bayard, Our Lavender Company in Big Springs, the Museum of the Fur Trade in Chadron. I was just thinking about the other day! Fort Robinson State Park History Center in Crawford. And those are some of the places I'm actually going to talk about in this episode during the honeymoon portion of Sheila's shout out today. So anyway, that's just a few of them. Make sure you are looking up the new selections for the 2024 Nebraska Passport. I'll talk about it throughout Sheila shout outs and you'll hear us speak of that periodically on the Growing Small Town Nebraska podcast and on our Facebook page as well.
Another shout out goes to Norfolk Community Theatre. They just hosted their dinner theater fundraiser and I was able to go to that we actually gave away tickets this year thanks to a wonderful donor and those close winners, Katey Huntley was the winner. They got to sit front and center they got appetizers, drink tickets, along with their meal, and the theater tickets themselves. So it was fantastic. This year at the dinner theater...they don't always do this. But so they don't always even do the dinner theater, so it's special when they do...it was held at the Divots Event Center in downtown Norfolk. And I'll tell you, that was a great venue, fantastic location. It seemed like everybody worked very well. It was nice and cozy, but not too cozy. You were like in the stage, you are just part of it. Basically the show itself kind of surrounded you as cast members came through it and then up on the stage. So I'd like to congratulate Josh Rajee, who was the director, he did a great job with that, and cast members...you were fantastic. Truly, truly enjoyed that show. If you have a community theater in your community in Nebraska, I'd love to hear about it. I'd love to see what you guys are doing, hear about that more and maybe do a shout out about it. So make sure you let me know if your area has a community theater that you are proud of, please, please let us know about that.
And here we go with the main part of the shout out this episode. And that is the Nebraska honeymoon. So listen, you guys, I like to post the extra pictures on the blog post, they're not going to be the best this time. For one thing, Clark and I got married many moons ago now. And I did not have a digital camera. So these are from old photos. And not only are they from old photos, but they were pasted into an album. So many of you know that I'm a big scrapbooker and I made this little album for Clark after we got married. I don't know I think maybe I made it for our first anniversary. I really can't remember. I've been scrapbooking for a long time. So this is clear back when what I used for scrapbooking was construction paper. You know, scissors, sometimes I had the scissors with the fancy edges. And I use things like templates and whatever adhesive I used back then let me tell you it didn't work. Because I dug this thing out. And I'm flipping through it. And all of my stuff is like flying off the pages. So that was kind of sad. So just so you know, scrapbookers for years and years. Yeah, the adhesive. I hope it's better. It seems like it's better. I used new adhesive to fix this album. So here's hoping. And yeah, I was gonna do a flip through, but it just turned into kind of a disaster. So I will post what pictures I'm able to, they might be a little grainy.
So we'll be celebrating 24 years of marriage this fall about 26 years together are both from small town, Nebraska. So I am from Plainview, Nebraska, where I was born and raised and went to Plainview High School. Clark was born and raised in the...well. I don't know if he's born in that area...I'm gonna have to check on this. I know we've been married a long time, I should know these things. But he was raised first in the Genoa area. And then Columbus and Clark and I actually met at a dance. We both loved country dance, which works out well for us, right?
We met it at a dance in the Norfolk area. And I'm gonna save that story for another another time. Another time. Big story. But we both lived in Columbus at that time. I was at KLIR101. I was on the morning show. It was called The Young and the Reinhardt and then I was also their news director there. And I think I did some midday too...I really can't remember.
Clark. He was the service manager at Phil Spady Chrysler dealership in Columbus.
Anyway, let's get to some of the places that we stopped in on our honeymoon. Back to the scrapbook situation and this album. While our marriage has stood the test of time, clearly adhesive did not.
Anyway, Clark and I we got married, and we had talked before we got married about where we were going to take our honeymoon. So we talked about maybe going somewhere tropical, maybe taking a cruise, I adore water... Clark, well he's warmed up to it over the years. We talked about Hawaii, maybe going to Europe, Disneyworld, we looked into all of these places. And then at one point, I finally said to him, Clark, why does it really matter where we go on our honeymoon? It's our honeymoon, right? So we're going to be excited to spend time together, no matter where that's at, or what that looks like, Why start out and spend all this money on a big honeymoon. Now if you have done that for your own honeymoon, you know what, that is great! Clark and I love to travel. So we understand saving up and spending that money on a fantastic trip. But at this point in our lives, I just didn't see why we were going to do that. I thought maybe we could save those travels for later. And we're starting to do that more and more. So what we decided to do was just get in Clark's truck and head west and not have any plans. We did not plan out our honeymoon. So I have a lot of pictures of some places that I don't actually know where they are. Because I did not do a fantastic job of journaling. So I'm a little sad about that. So I'm hoping that once in a while, maybe I can post a picture on our Facebook page, or you guys can look at it through the blog post. And maybe you can tell me where these pictures are from. Or maybe I can use the new Google search. I don't know, I haven't tried that yet. So I have some pictures. I'm going to kind of flip through. So you might hear a page turning here and there. I'm flipping through my little album here. There are some pictures in here that I'm not going to be sharing. Just for I don't know, some of them are just bad. I don't I don't know what to tell you. Also, I don't know...our hair, his hair, my hair. I don't know why people didn't tell us what our hair looked like. But you know, that's what it's like when you look through old pictures, right?
So one of the first things we did was like we got up early in the morning. We actually didn't leave the night of our wedding, because we stayed and had a great reception. We had a small little wedding and a big reception and a fantastic turnout. But we were tired, right? We had to clean up and so and then I'll tell this part. So then, of course after the reception, when we get to our home, we lived in a little trailer is where we started our first years of marriage out there. We get there, and I have I'll bet you I had no less than 90 bobby pins in my hair. I don't know how y'all spent...and I don't want to hear about it, but our first night of marriage was spent with about an hour and a half of Clark picking the bobby pins out of my hairdo.
So the next morning, we jump up and we get in Clark's Dodge truck from... I'll have to share that picture. It says Phil Spady on it, which is where Clark worked at the time. And we jumped in. And there's a US92 sticker because that's where I worked apparently at that time. I worked at KLIR101 When we met, that's right. And then I had just started working at US92 In May of 2000. And then Clark and I got married that August. So yes, this picture has Phil Spady on it and US92. So that's just kind of cool.
So we jumped in the truck and off we headed, and we had zero plans. So we just started driving. And I actually had a Nebraska, like a magazine, I'm pretty sure it was Visit Nebraska. I'll have to look into that. Because I'm not sure how long Visit Nebraska has been around. But I know it was the nice magazine like what they put out now where it has great articles, and it has sections of Nebraska and what you can find there. And where. And in the back, there's like a directory, right? So that was our travel guide for our honeymoon. And I was looking at that thing and reading that thing as Clark is driving and deciding where we're gonna go.
Our first stop was in North Platte. So North Platte was our first honeymoon stop. We visited the museum there. So I have some pictures to share from that. And we had let's see here, Clark really liked all the equipment and the old stuff like gas pumps and things like that. So, you know, I kind of found that out thought - Oh, great. No, no, it's all good. I like museums a lot now too. So it was super hot in the afternoon. On that first stop that first day. So we actually went to a movie just to cool off. And what's really funny, and I'll share this page. I have the ticket stub. We went to Space Cowboys. I don't know what all was playing and why we chose Space Cowboys. But that is funny to me because there's no way we would choose that now. All right, so we found out you guys that were in Buffalo Bill country right. So we learned a lot on that first stop in North Platte about Buffalo Bill Cody and I took all these pictures of the signs. And the ginormous like cut out sign of Buffalo Bill there. We went to the Trading Post in North Platte. That was exciting and fun. And I have some pictures from that as well see here then we went to Scouts Rest Ranch. And I don't know if you've been there but it's very interesting. I'll share some photos but not a lot about it. I have to be honest, you guys this was years ago and I don't remember a lot about all this stuff. But we do have plans one of these times to jump in...probably my vehicle will probably take that SUV this time instead of a pickup because we're older now but we plan on following our trek and going again, and like revisiting our honeymoon spots. And hopefully they're all there. So I'm only gonna get partway through our honeymoon this episode as far as where we stopped, because we stopped in so many places. And I wanted to do a little research on where some of these places were. I want to make sure and provide you with a link to areas when I can. So the blog post is also going to be a little late. So if you're listening to this, and it had been pre recorded and released a while back, yeah, you're probably going to find the blog post. But if you're listening to it as it's released, first of all, thank you for doing that. We do appreciate it. But it's gonna take me a while to get this blog post put together. I have a lot of pictures. Well, not a lot. You guys, it was expensive. You know, I had to like, you know, you took the picture. And then you took the roll of film in and you just hoped for the best and you got what you got. Right. And sometimes they were great pictures. And most of the time they were not.
Flipping through. I have pictures that are missing because of Yeah. Because of the adhesive. It's been super long. So we go and in the back of that, what I think was the Visit Nebraska catalog, under like places to stay. I found this place called the Flying Bee Ranch. And it was right next to Chimney Rock. So we called the day before we stayed in North Platte. We call to make a reservation. Okay. And when we arrived, it was the coolest thing ever. But when we arrived, they had a little card for us...well, they had to meet us. because it was a private cabin on like a ranch. They met us and then led us out to where we were going to stay. So we get in there...cutest little cabin ever. And we have a little card in there from them. And it says congratulations. It's a little wedding card because I had told them we were on our honeymoon. And so I have some great pictures there and a picture of one of the owners standing with Clark on the cabin that I'll share...on the porch of the cabin. We did things like we played horseshoes. There was...there were horseshoes there, so we played horseshoes behind the cabin until some ginormous flying insect. Which is funny because it was called the Flying Bee Ranch. Right? Well, it dive bombed me so we made a beeline (bah, bah, bah) Yeah, it was bad...a beeline for the cabin. That drove us inside but only for a little bit. I've got pictures of the views that we had from our cabin. And we were told you know, go ahead and explore. Walk around. Make sure you wear cowboy boots, which we both had because we country dance. And the reason to wear the cowboy boots was we were in western Nebraska and rattlesnakes. It was hot. It was the end of summer and we did heed that advice for sure. I have pictures of the cute little kitchen and they spoiled us. I have all these little journals about this. So I'm just gonna read it. It was all so cute the bedroom had a queen bed and two bunk beds. There was a little bathroom and a small dining area in the kitchen and an adorable little porch, a grill, and picnic table outside in the little fridge when we got there you guys we found home grown beef, farm fresh eggs, cheese, green peppers, onions, sodas. On the counter. There was like oil for frying stuff up. Chips, bakery buns, bakery buns, honey, oh and fresh lettuce from the garden in the fridge, too. You might wonder stayin at this cabin on his honeymoon. You know we're trying to save money right and just be where we're at, however that it looks in Nebraska. might wonder what that set us back. I saved the receipt.
I saved the receipt it says for Mr. And Mrs. Clark Jenkinson, which was exciting to see right because we were newlyweds...one night cabin honeymoon package she called it plus tax. The total $24.20 You heard me! They let us stay there for $24.20 and we loved it so much, we asked and they let us stay at that wonderful rate for an extra night. I'm gonna continue on on the next Sheila shout out, because these are supposed to be short little episodes. Next episode, I'll talk more about the Nebraska honeymoon. I'll tell you a little bit about our close call and all of that coming up on the next Sheila's shout out.
Meanwhile, I'm going to finish up by shouting out some fish frys. Fish frys in Nebraska. I just love them. I think we should just do them every week, all year long, all the time, because I was raised in a home where we fished a lot. My dad was a fishing guide for a lot of different people. And so we ate fish all the time. And no one makes it like my dad. I'm sorry, just nobody does, and they never will. It is the best. But I do really like to go to fish frys. And the ones that we've visited would be Stanton, of course, at the VFW, fantastic fish fry. They always make the fried and the baked and then you have a zillion salads and desserts and all that and most of the fish frys that I'm mentioning are going to be like that. Some of them have some unique items, but we have been to the one and Howells. We've been to Madison, which everybody talks about go I don't know if I should say go early anymore because I think for a while everybody started going early. These fish frys they're going to be busy, and we want them to be busy, right? Just be patient, get in line, go some friends and hang out and have a good time. Yeah, Madison, Stanton, Battle Creek, Howells we've been to all of those so far. If you have a great fish fry, feel free to share that with me.
And I would love to tell people about it. And then corned beef and cabbage. This is March and Clark and I adore corned beef and cabbage. So some of the places we've had fantastic meals for that include the Norfolk VFW. Maximus in Columbus is a great place to get it. At least we always used to go there. And we also went to a place called the Red Fox. I'm trying to find my information on that. I will post that on the blog and put a link in the notes. The Red Fox that was near Lincoln, that was a fantastic place and we checked that out last year and it looks like they are going to celebrate St. Patty's Day once again with their corned beef and cabbage.
On the next shout out you're going to hear more about some of the 2024 Nebraska Passport stops. I'm going to finish that story of the Nebraska honeymoon and our close call. And I'm going to talk about some great places in Potter, Nebraska. And much more.
Don't forget to listen to the Growing Small Town Nebraska podcast. And to help support us you can share it you can like it, you can review it, catch it anywhere you listen to your favorite podcast episodes. We have new episodes out the second and fourth Tuesday of every month and Sheila's shout outs on the off weeks. And as always, thanks for listening
