Travel Day Three.

Madge, my borrowed GPS said that I was just under 8 hours away from Laramie. This was good news. If I could do 11 hours the last two days, 8 hours should be doable. Besides, I'd promised Briony I would take them to dinner. And when a teenager asks to to hang out with them, you really want to make it happen.

I started out, and things were going well. Until I missed the only geocache between where I entered Iowa and where I exited Iowa. It was only an 8 mile backtrack, so I thought that was okay. Until I then missed the turn to the geocache, and ended up on a back road, where I tried several times to back up, but was unsuccessful, so had to follow it until it circled back... up an 80 degree incline on a snow packed, single lane gravel road. It was slow going, but my car handled it and the decent was nerve wracking, but bearable. I drove back around to the road I should have taken, and it was a partially plowed single lane road. I got to the top and parked pretty much in the middle of the road, and had only a short walk through ankle deep snow to get the cache, which was thankfully an easy find.

After finally getting the geocache, I headed back the way I'd already gone, and saw a guy on the exit with a sign that said "Traveling, anything helps." I rolled my window down and offered him a handful of granola bars that I had packed for my trip. He was very grateful and polite. I won't give money, because you never know who it is, or what they want to buy with the money. And I rarely have food on me, so this was a nice opportunity to share. He was so grateful that I knew he really needed it, versus just needing money for alcohol or cigarettes. He was also on a rather desolate stretch of highway, which just seemed sad.

I entered Nebraska, and missed getting a photo of that sign as well. What is there to say about Nebraska?

1. It's too big. I crossed from one end to the other, and it would have been a long journey anyway, but I had headwinds that kept my speed down to as low as 45 mph, which was quite annoying, and made the day go on forever. Especially after my 1 ½ hour long detour back through Iowa for the geocache.
2. There are a lot of Canadian Geese. Flying, sitting on frozen ponds. Everywhere. I dislike Canadian Geese immensely.
3. Weatherbug said it was 36 degrees. I had to take my coat off when I got out of the car, and even had the air conditioning on for part of the day it was so hot inside the car.
4. I love truckstops. They are like little Walmarts with gas. I filled up my tank every time I got to half a tank, so I saw a lot of truckstops. It's just fun to look at all the crap they cram in there.
5. Lincoln sounds like a nice little town. But it is stop light after stop light after stop light, and at each stop light is a crosswalk, made of brick. Not a great ride for a car pulling a u-haul trailer. I don't know why Madge took me through the center of this town.
6. There were a couple of museums I saw along the way, including the Military Vehicle Museum, of which I saw part of it on the way that looked interesting, but not interesting enough to ever come back to Nebraska for.
7. I had no internet for most of the day, which is an nTelos roaming on Sprint, which doesn't exist in some of these states, so I was roaming on Verizon, which doesn't allow me to have data. Frustrating, but I'll have to get used to it, as there is no Sprint in Laramie either.
8. The sunset lasted for nearly 45 minutes because there was nothing on horizon to block it
9. For the second half of Nebraska, and into Wyoming, I had the sensation of going downhill, but I was actually going up hill. I do not have a reason for this, and have not had the ability to google it to see if it's an actual thing, or just me, but it is a weird sensation, especially when you feel like you should be rolling down, but you are actually struggling to maintain speed going up.
10. It was so dark out. It was a full moon the night before I left, so I have traveled on the three darkest nights of the month. 
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

Today's journey that should have taken 8 hours, took 13. I never got too tired to drive, but I was so ready to be there already. I had asked Cale to look up pet friendly hotels so that I wouldn't bother my two roommates when I arrived late, but then I found out that the other two sublettors fell through, so I have the three bedroom apartment to myself, for only my (1/3) share of the rent and electric. This was actually a bit of a relief since I wasn't sure how Bearette would do. My six o'clock dinner with the kids didn't end up happening until 11pm, since I had to meet a girl to pick up my key, then unload enough of the car, including dog crate, so that they could fit in the car. It was a tight fit, but it was a short trip to Applebees. We all enjoyed our meal, and catching up. We took Cale home, then Briony came with me to the apartment to spend the night. We had to unload enough of the car and trailer to have sheets and blankets and pillows, so it was after 1am when we got to bed, and I was sooo tired.

Addendum:

The highlight of the night had to be sharing an audio clip with the kids. I listen to film reviewer Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo every Friday on BBC5Live (well, I download it every Friday). I had written in about my journey and Briony's Birthday and they read out my letter! On the way back from dinner I played it for them and Briony said it was the best Birthday present ever! I am going to try to get it uploaded to post here.