Omaha!

I flew to Omaha to see a former colleague who now runs an agricultural news service. I thought his experience would be informative.

It was exciting for me to be there because that is where great-grandfather Guy Spencer lived and worked as a political cartoonist at the Omaha Daily Herald.

I spotted this reproduction of the Herald at the airport, with one of Guy Spencer's cartoons on the front page.

His signature was just legible.

I hailed a cab, appropriately named.

I had the taxi driver take me by the Omaha Herald Building. It is new. I didn't have time to figure out where the newspaper was housed when Guy Spencer worked there.

Then I had the driver take me out to Carter Lake, where Guy and his family lived.

Carter Lake is a horseshoe of water - called an oxbow lake - left behind when the Missouri River changed course. This is an aerial view from the days when the Spencers lived there. My grandmother, Lois, grew up there and my dad spent time there as a kid.

It looked lovely at night.

I was only in town for a night and a day. Omaha is still a small town, dominated by a few big companies.

Before I left, though, I had another driver take me back to Carter Lake. Omaha is full of attractive open spaces. This is a park across the lake from the residential side.

I thought maybe this structure was a reference to the old boathouse that is now long gone.

This is a picture of the boathouse in the old days, with the Carter Lake Clubhouse in the background. Dad says he remembers the clubhouse, but it, too, has disappeared.

Dad remembers walking from his grandfather's house to this mock ship, which belonged to the Boy Scouts. It is no longer there.

But this might be what is left of the Boys Scout camp.