Second leg of our trip home

Yesterday (Wednesday), we drove from Chadron, NE to Sac City, IA, a distance of about 450 miles, all on US Route 20. It was smooth sailing all the way. We stopped in Bassett, NE, a town we had never visited before, to eat lunch at the Range Cafe, which is connected to a hotel which is on the National Register of Historic Sites. I read aloud for much of the trip from Chesapeake Requiem, a book John gave me for Christmas, about the gradual disappearance into the sea of Tangier Island, due to a combination of factors: the rising of the sea level due to global warming, the sinking of the island due to ancient geological forces going back to the ice age, and erosion of the beaches and marshes of the island due to the action of waves, especially during heavy storms. It is a fascinating, detailed study of the island and its people, the bulk of whom are "watermen," i.e., fisherman who are harvesting the blue crab which is abundant in Chesapeake Bay. There are still about 450 people on the island (about a tenth of whom are Crocketts, one of the founding families of the island), but the population is declining as the island grows smaller. It will probably be no longer viable as a community in the next 10-20 years. The author lived on the island for a year and deeply researched it. We are enjoying the book very much.

Last evening , #8 UNC played #1 Duke. I got to watch the game at our motel, the Sac City Motel. The game was hyped as "the greatest rivalry in college basketball," and it exceeded expectations. A key Duke player, Zion Williamson, slipped 33 seconds into the game, his foot burst through one of his sneakers (literally - the shoe exploded!), and he injured his knee. He left the game and never returned. His loss disheartened the Duke team, which was expected to win handily. UNC fully exploited the situation, and despite the fact that it made only 1 three-point basket out of over a dozen attempts,  it totally ran over Duke "in the paint," and in rebounding and won 88-72. Duke never led the entire game. They will play again in two weeks, on UNC's home court, and maybe we'll find out then if UNC can win with Zion Willamson on the court (if his knee is ok by then). It was quite a game.

The Range Cafe in Bassett,  NE

A mural in the cafe.  The town of Bassett was made wealthy by cattle shipping

The lobby of the hotel

The hotel in the 1950s

UNC/Duke game