I am sitting in a hotel room in North Platte, Nebraska, which is a town I have driven through many times before. What I had not done before is drink thirteen ounces of so-so wine at Ruby Tuesday, which is what I did tonight - I was having some deep thoughts about Spinster Honeymoon, and by that I mean that I thought about journaling and instead spent too much time messaging people on twitter. But twitter is part of the plot of that book, so let's call it research and move on, shall we?
When I woke up this morning, I was still in Iowa. But it didn't take long to get ready to go - and it was all v. desultory since I wasn't on a specific timeline. So, that gave me time to have breakfast with my parents (my dad made hashbrowns in addition to the usual bacon and eggs, so I think he really does love me!). Then I said my farewells to them and headed west (well, north first, then west for hours and hours). The Iowa portion of my journey was entirely uneventful. Right after I crossed the Nebraska border, I discovered that tornadoes had passed through there recently - I saw some pretty gnarly remnants of what used to be machine sheds twisted into post-modern art shapes, and I had to take a detour because some of the electric poles had been blown into the highway. It's incredible what a tornado can do - one of the poles I saw had been snapped at the base, but then deposited, still vertical, in the field nearby, and the lines hadn't been severed. Bizarre.
After that, things got super boring - Nebraska is kinda the worst for scenery, and as I've said before, Nebraska has the longest stretch of interstate that is perfectly straight (seventy miles that doesn't deviate by more than three inches). But I took a break when I got to Kearney to see the museum inside the Archway - I've driven under it many times, since I-80 passes underneath it, but I've never stopped. They had some good exhibits about the history of the North Platte trails - the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails all went through Kearney (then Fort Kearney) to Fort Laramie, where they split off to their different destinations. And the transcontinental railroad and I-80 followed in the same path - so many decades of western expansion went through there, and they did a decent job representing it. It was a little heavy on theatrics and light on facts, but it was really nicely done and I'm glad I stopped.
Then I drove to North Platte, where I decided to spend the night - I could have pressed on, but I was tired and the pickings between here and Denver are slim (although I like Ogallala as much as the next girl, I guess). So I checked in and walked next door to Ruby Tuesday, where I ate some chicken and drank the aforementioned wine, which was better than I expected and not as good as I wanted. Then I came back here and talked to Katie for an hour, since it was too much to expect us to wait to start catching up until we see each other tomorrow. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!
When I woke up this morning, I was still in Iowa. But it didn't take long to get ready to go - and it was all v. desultory since I wasn't on a specific timeline. So, that gave me time to have breakfast with my parents (my dad made hashbrowns in addition to the usual bacon and eggs, so I think he really does love me!). Then I said my farewells to them and headed west (well, north first, then west for hours and hours). The Iowa portion of my journey was entirely uneventful. Right after I crossed the Nebraska border, I discovered that tornadoes had passed through there recently - I saw some pretty gnarly remnants of what used to be machine sheds twisted into post-modern art shapes, and I had to take a detour because some of the electric poles had been blown into the highway. It's incredible what a tornado can do - one of the poles I saw had been snapped at the base, but then deposited, still vertical, in the field nearby, and the lines hadn't been severed. Bizarre.
After that, things got super boring - Nebraska is kinda the worst for scenery, and as I've said before, Nebraska has the longest stretch of interstate that is perfectly straight (seventy miles that doesn't deviate by more than three inches). But I took a break when I got to Kearney to see the museum inside the Archway - I've driven under it many times, since I-80 passes underneath it, but I've never stopped. They had some good exhibits about the history of the North Platte trails - the Oregon, California, and Mormon trails all went through Kearney (then Fort Kearney) to Fort Laramie, where they split off to their different destinations. And the transcontinental railroad and I-80 followed in the same path - so many decades of western expansion went through there, and they did a decent job representing it. It was a little heavy on theatrics and light on facts, but it was really nicely done and I'm glad I stopped.
Then I drove to North Platte, where I decided to spend the night - I could have pressed on, but I was tired and the pickings between here and Denver are slim (although I like Ogallala as much as the next girl, I guess). So I checked in and walked next door to Ruby Tuesday, where I ate some chicken and drank the aforementioned wine, which was better than I expected and not as good as I wanted. Then I came back here and talked to Katie for an hour, since it was too much to expect us to wait to start catching up until we see each other tomorrow. And now I need to sleep - goodnight!
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