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Greetings from Mountain Time

Published August 2, 2019

I, Bernie Harberts, did not use generative AI to write or illustrate this article. Spell check and grammar check, yes. AI, no.

What used to be 10p is now 9p. We’ve fallen back an hour, like losing Daylight Savings Time. The mules Brick and Cracker and I have entered Mountain Time Zone.

Mules Brick and Cracker grazing outside Seneca, Nebraska after crossing into Mountain Time Zone
Brick to Cracker: “Eat fast. We have one less hour of grazing tonight”. (outside Seneca, NE)

Today (August 2) the mules get a well deserved day off – along with grain and a double dose of carrots. Tomorrow we head toward Whitman.

Mule Brick inspecting Glen's 1981 Ford pickup truck at Mullen, Nebraska fairground during cross-country mule ride
Brick checking out Glen’s 1981 Ford Pickup. Glen was hauling tires for an event at the county fairground. (Mullen, Nebraska)

We crossed The Line outside Seneca, Nebraska. Last night we spent the night at the fairground outside Mullen. Thanks to everyone at the fairground (Val, Glen and Lucie and all the others whose name I’m blanking on) for hosting us. Also George Most for letting the mules cross his yard on our way from Norway to Seneca.

Some Photos from the Day

Dawn Mallory and friends welcoming Bernie Harberts mules at Mountain Time Zone crossing outside Seneca, Nebraska
Moments after our Mountain Time arrival a van pulled up. Dawn Mallory (light blue shirt) and a bunch of friends and family poured out to have their photo taken with the mules. What a great Mountain Time welcome!
Seneca, Nebraska post office serving population of about two dozen open two hours per day
Seneca: population, according to a resident, “about 2 dozen”. They still have a post office which operates 2 hours per day.
Abandoned homes in Seneca, Nebraska showing rural depopulation of small Nebraska Sand Hills town
Like so many mid-western towns, Seneca is facing severe depopulation. Here, what appear to be uninhabited homes just off Seneca’s equally deserted downtown.
Remains of old bank vault standing in Seneca, Nebraska after bank was torn down
At first I thought this was an adobe structure. Not so. A Seneca resident told me it was the remains of a vault that stood inside a bank. The bank was torn down. The vault remains.

Return to Seneca and Manifold Menus

This wasn’t my first visit by mule to Seneca. I dropped by 11 years ago for the “Lost Sea Expedition” Public TV series. While there, I met Senecan Gene Hansen. He worked for the BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) railroad and came up with an industry-specific way of cooking — on a locomotive engine.

Eugene Gene Hansen holding his Manifold Menus locomotive cookbook in Seneca, Nebraska
Eugene “Gene” Hansen with his Manifold Menus cookbooks. (Seneca, Nebraska)

Gene wrote two cookbooks on how to cook on a BNSF locomotive. You can download both for free right now: Manifold Menus Part One and Manifold Menus Part Two.

A line out of his book reads, “put on at Ravenna taken off at Seneca, 3 hours at 8 throttle with 3 units placed on a 6000 GE.” Ravenna and Seneca are towns in Nebraska. “8 throttle” sounds like something you don’t have on your oven. You might have to use your regular oven instead of a giant locomotive (that would be the “6000 GE”).

You can hear the interview I did with Gene during my 2008 visit by clicking on the audio player below.

How I Learned About Cooking on a Locomotive Manifold

Here is how my mule Polly and I met Gene and learned how to cook on a locomotive engine.

More on the North Carolina to Idaho ride.

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