Stanton Lake

Stanton Lake a small lake at the edge of Falls City in Nebraska. A wide parking lot in front of the lake has hookups for RVs. At one end of the lake is Candlelight Cabin - an authentic log cabin with a remodeled interior.

Jo grew up in Falls City. On previous trips we have driven past their various homes. And her elementary school. And the Pizza Kitchen where she worked.

It is here by Stanton Lake that we spend a week each summer (I skipped last summer). By day we sit under RV awnings or in the shade of the big trees in the park. Nicolle books the cabin for the weekend - where the extended fam and friends meet and eat. We grill at the park. And we eat crunch cones (soft serve ice cream covered with a crunchy mix that looks like crushed granite) at the Frosty Queen. Sometimes we swim at the new Falls City swimming pool.

I'm probably the only person from India in the county. My nieces and nephews are the only black kids and my sisters-in-law are the only openly gay women I've seen up here. But coming back here feels like returning someplace comfortable. I feel like I know everyone or know someone who does. And except for the surly teenage girls manning the cash register the swimming pool, everyone is very friendly. And even more so after they trace my reason for being here to the Burns/Schwang families.

People start showing up unannounced a few hours after we arrive. Cousins and aunts and uncles and friends trickle in and stay for awhile. They bring pies and goodies and chairs to sit on. Their kids take Vivian and her New Braunfels cousins under their wing and run around the park. When Vivian says she needs to go potty, Nicolle's friend's mother takes her to the bathroom. Evan is handed off from woman to woman. I see my kids once a while (like when Evan poops on Kim :-).

Evan and Aunt Francis facing off

Evan and Hatch

chatting on the screened-in porch of Candlelight Cabin

On Saturday morning, Brian and Tracy and Kim and Amy and Aunt Anna take us for the customary farm tour and to see Uncle Tom's new shed and get the kids up close to the corn.

the new shed

the old shed

the barn

weed growing wild

Even to my very untrained eye, there is a lot of corn this year. Falls City and the farms around here show signs of modest prosperity. The new Vision Inn is fully booked up. There are no hookups left at the RV campground. There is a new library, hospital and swimming pool. The old Stevenson Hotel is being remodeled and re-opened as the Grand Weaver Hotel. New grain silos, barns and sheds are popping up in the fields and along gravel roads. We joke "Falls City - the New Disney World".

Vivian and Evan, I hope you continue to come back to Stanton Lake.