Road trip day one... we had planned to push off by 7 a.m., but thought we'd try to get an earlier start if possible, hinging on the hopes that we could get up early and get our packing finished. The day started at 5:30 a.m. with Trevor asking from outside our bedroom door, "WHY am I the only one up?!? Our lack of initiative in leaving early is upsetting."
A half hour later, we were all awake and getting our stuff together when there was a boom outside and our power went out. OK. Showers by candlelight, we can do that. Not a big deal otherwise, except for throwing off the rhythm of the morning. Trevor thought we should in no way be affected by the outage but was nervous anyway. "I hope the placebo effect of this doesn't make us more late."
We pulled out at 7:12 a.m. Not bad.
Because of the logistics of the trip, we were to rent a van in Omaha, a couple hours into our trip, and leave our car at the train station there, awaiting our return by Amtrak in 10 days. When we arrived at the Hertz rental counter, the rep was all, "Hmmm. Well. [clicking on keyboard] We actually don't have a minivan here." I reminded him that I had a reservation for a minivan, and nearly launched into the Seinfeld sequence about the importance of HOLDING the reservation. (Anybody can just take a reservation!) I love that scene. I should've let it rip. We started shopping other options with the neighboring rental counter, when lo and behold, a minivan was miraculously returned to Hertz, and we were once again on our way.
And on our way we were! Did you know the speed limit in Nebraska is 75 mph?? THANK YOU Nebraska! And you know the rule of thumb that you can go 10 mph over the speed limit without getting pulled over? NOT true. Thanks also go to Officer Obrien for letting me off with a warning.
Nate kept us entertained by directing us to interesting roadside attractions. We enjoyed a coffee pot water tower, a mobile chapel in a converted semi trailer, a two-headed calf from the 1940s (taxidermied), a weird sculpture in the middle of a rest area pond, another weird sculpture of a dream-granting monkey (?), and some geocaches. The Buffalo Bill Trading Post (home of the 2-headed calf) also featured eclectic shopping. Nate bought a jackalope figurine, and Trevor bought a ninja throwing star, over my objections. He dropped it once, almost impaling his own foot.
Things we found today:
a driver's license of Sandra Olsen, left in our rental van glovebox; raffle tickets belonging to Cathy Kloch in a rest area bathroom (sorry Cathy, it's not your lucky day); 2 geocaches; and an extra hour! We thought we were crunched for time until we realized the time change refunded us an hour. Awesome. Even had time to stop and see Dennis's Aunt Carole in Greeley, CO.
One day, 700 miles, +4300 ft in elevation, and we're in Denver for the night. In the morning we visit a college here before heading across the mountains and into Utah. Stay tuned.
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Coffee pot tower:
mobile chapel:
rest area competition. I didn't notice the background PDA couple until much later. C'mon people!
oh, believe it.
I don't know either.
Cathy, it's too bad you took the time to sign all of these, only to leave them in a rest area bathroom. Wait, why did you take them into a rest area bathroom??
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