Road Trip, Day One, Colorado to Omaha

I'll admit I'm going to tease John again some day for always double checking everything before we leave on a trip, but he knows it really gives me a feeling of security. This time it gave us both more than that. I sat in the Tahoe and waited. And waited. Finally he arrived, looking rather smug. It seems he found a plugged drain by the air conditioning vent that had already backed up but hadn't yet reached the carpeting. It would have been a disaster to come home to find the basement under water.

As we drove off, a Mama deer and her twin fawns made a dash across the road, and we respectfully stopped to say goodbye for now. I suppose they'll have lost their spots by the time we return. Darn. Oh, well. There's always next year.

We took Route 76 through Eastern Colorado through rolling pasture lands, with cattle, dairy farms, and lakes just often enough to surprise a traveler. This route isn't as flat as further south, where I've heard you can sit on your back porch and watch your dog run away from home for three days.

I spotted Manitoba license plate at a gas sation in Nebraska earlier and stopped to talk with the gentleman while John filled up the car. He said, "You lived in Churchill, eh? That's up there, you betcha." He sounded like he was from Northern Michigan. I play the license plate game. Today we found the license plate for 31 states and 3 Canadian provices. Thats pretty good.

Despite a short and beautiful lightning show that was a real treat in the sky ahead of us, we gained about 40 degrees in temperature and 40 percent humidity as we traveled from Colorado to Omaha, Nebraska. We carted the important stuff into the room (like guitar, suitcase, computers and cooler) and I immediately took a cold shower. Neither of us was hungry enough to brave the heat to find a restaurant, so John ate his last half of a sub from lunch, and I had some cheese and crackers. Since there was juice in the cooler, too, I was happy. Also, we had some cappuccino in our Oxo travel mugs - (Thanks, Pat. Great tip!) Those things not only don't leak at all, they keep drinks really hot for about six hours. They're the greatest on the road.)

I had one strange thought on the trip today - well, maybe I had more than one, but I'll just relate one. While crossing the Platte, I flashed back to a book I read a long time back - can't remember the name - that detailed the tribulations of a group of pioneers. At one point they were mightily tested while trying to forge "the mighty Platte." I don't know. Maybe they couldn't find the bridge we used. John and I didn't have any trouble at all.