My July 4th was a day of back roads, rolling hills, river valleys, highways and city traffic. To cap the day there was a really intense thunder storm in downtown Lincoln, but nothing more. It was all about destination – with scenery.

A day of many surprises and lots of different surroundings. That is the best way to describe my July 5th 2023.

It started with me searching for motorcycle accessories but only finding a new helmet. But while doing this chore, my text message was answered my Rob, he is my cousin. Whom, informed me that his whole family were gathering in Lincoln these next couple days. I was invited to have lunch at his mother’s home. I had him send me the address link, and my afternoon was laid out.

We had a great time, that is me talking and telling stories and them trying to get a word in edge-wise! They are so patient and polite to let me ramble on the way I do. There is nothing better than family in this world.

After I said my farewells, hugs, and extended goodbyes, I headed to Omaha at around five p.m., it is only a fourty-minute ride. I was on my way to meet Rob’s sister at my hotel downtown, for supper. She – Penny, with her husband, eat, and chatted the evening away until the staff politely turned up the house lights as a polite signal that they wanted to go home.

After they had left the lobby to drive across the Missouri River to to their home, located just into Iowa. I had reached my room and felt like it was early enough to maybe seek something to do in the busy downtown of Omaha. The problem was I had failed to do my due diligence of recons, I had no idea what there was, to entertain. T

hat’s when my phone rang out, It was Penny, she said that as they were leaving the parking garage, they could hear the music coming from a few blocks away. That perhaps if I venture to the south of my hotel, I would find the source!? That source possibly being the orchestra that had been rained out on the Fourth of July. It was possibly rescheduled for tonight, that’s all we new.

You must understand, I had earlier in our conversations, mentioned my true appreciation for the classics when it came to my musical taste. So they knew I would really want to find the source. I hadn’t yet settled in for the night, I turned to the door, down the elevator and through the Lobby I went.

As I turned to my right, onto an all but a vacant one-way street. I turned right once again, now I was southbound. What hit me first was the Fireworks that filled the eastern horizon, cresting over the Missouri River in spectacular fashion. Then I notice the crowd, they were arranged all along the boulevard, for blocks they were spread out, hundreds of heads, all turned up to the night sky.

I continued to walk now amount the crowded street, gazing up at the spectacle to my left. As I left the substantial bulk of my hotel facade just at my right shoulder. I could see just ahead and to the right side of the street, a building facing me, just across the mall river walk, about a block away. The entire building, wall to wall, and sidewalk to ceiling, was a superimposed video with a waving American flag. It was a most impressive panorama.

It was at this point when I started to hear the faint sound of an orchestra, to my the right and farther down the mall walk. I turned at the end of the block and followed the music until I found the Omaha Symphony. An ensemble of at least fifty musicians, all in perfect synchronized melodic perfection. Playing under a shrouded canopy that was also brightly lite up with another superimposed video of the Old Glory waving like a beacon of hope. It was a magical end to a wonderful day.