Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Nebraska's Nice

Okay, I'm giving this blogging on the road a try - and without the benefit of Dramamine. I'm so daring!

Today has been good, but long. I always plan our days with 500 miles in mind, but take into account different factors such as the weather, the state (The speed limit along I-80 in Nebraska is 75), and how much sleep Rick and I got the night before, and then make necessary adjustments. I prefer to call ahead to find hotels that accept pets, and last night it was a bit difficult to find one on this stretch, so I ended up pushing our day to cover 581 miles to make it to our pet-friendly hotel. We're no big fans of pushing ourselves to the brink of exhaustion and insanity on the road, so today will be a longer day than we prefer, but it was an easy drive. My hat's off to all you truckers out there.

We didn't pass anything truly remarkable on the drive today. I took notice of three things: The Precious Moments Inspiration Park and Chapel in Carthage, Missouri, President Truman's birthplace (I was driving and didn't write down the name of the town...I'll have to google it later), and I was struck by how nice a town Lincoln, Nebraska seemed to be as we drove through. Granted, we only saw a small section of it, but what we saw was nice. As I typed this we passed a van on the road pulling a statue of a man with a rifle resting on his shoulder. I took a photo of it, hope it turns out. Oh, and as we exited near our hotel we saw The Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles. Very neat!

While I was driving today my new friend in Alaska, Julie, called me to see how we are doing. It was nice to hear from her. When Rick applied for the Alaska job I got on MySpace and searched for women my age that live in the area to get a feel for life there. I found Julie's space and sent her message asking if she would mind answering some question for me and she so graciously complied. We began IM-ing, and then eventually chatted on the phone. It's great that I'll know someone when we get there.

Later ~

We're all settled in the room and it's comfortable. Unfortunately, guests with pets are put on the third floor, so we had fun hauling all our stuff up. The doggies aren't too happy with their potty spot...gosh they're so hard to please! haha. Regardless, we are thankful for a bed, shower, and laundry room. I'm sure we'll sleep great tonight.

While Rick showered this evening Bren and I walked across the parking lot to a fast food joint (yuk) and picked up some chicken. When we are all tired we get irritable and start snapping at each other, so we left Rick to decompress in peace and quiet while Bren and I talked and laughed over a meal. Blogging is relaxing for me and helps me to feel connected to my family and friends. Bren IM'd with a friend back in Virginia for awhile.

When we saw my sister, Sandy, in Arkansas, she gave Bren some MadLibs which helped kill the last hour on the road today. I leave you with the one that made us laugh the most:


This Evening, the famous orchestra conductor, Daisy, will present a program of classical forts at the old music center. She will conduct the Head Phone Symphony Orchestra, which is noted for its excellent string and freezing wind sections, considered by many sweat pants to be the world's most bronze ensemble. The program will begin with Debussy's "Clair de Toilet Paper", followed by Mendelssohn's "Ditzy Song", and Strauss'"Tales of the Vienna Double-Wide. Then we will hear Rachmaninoff's "Tuba Concerto Number 427," but only the daft movements. After intermission, the second half of the program will be devoted to a playing in its entirety of Beethoven's "Fifth Barstool." Tickets are now on sale at the Water Pump Office.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

wondered how many people would have thought the man with a rifle resting on his shoulder was real and not a statue would make some people do a double take

Anonymous said...

Are we there yet? :-)

Zack

Donna said...

Jen, not sure, but I thought he was pretty neat. I wonder where he was off to?

Zack, ask in about a week ;o)