Who said Nebraska is boring? It’s so funny what just happened. Those things only happen on a roadtrip. :-)
Ok after Starbucks back on the Interstate. As I said it’s really windy here. Around 35mph winds and they come from the south so it makes the car move quite a bit. The car gets hit from the wind on the side. Anyway everyone is starving (only had ice tea at Starbucks) and see sign for McDonalds (no other option guys). Get off the Interstate. It said it’s 3 miles north in the town of Aurora. Earlier we were reading some fun facts about NE on some website and it said the strobelight was invented in that town. I don’t know if it’s true. Ok, travel north and it was so nice and quiet and peaceful. No longer that hurricane from the side. Didn’t take long and it said construction. Didn’t I just mention construction in Grand Island? This time there was even a flagman. Only one side of the road was open (one lane in each direction). So we had to wait even more. Then it got even more fun as they had a detour and that sent us in the wrong direction basically back home. But we got a tour of the strobelight town. :-) Very small tiny streets. Then finally hit a main road again and going into the right direction (east). In the distance you could finally see the Golden Arches. Had lunch or late lunch. We couldn’t go back the same way. So we took a road to the next town which was about 4 miles north of the Interstate. Wow what a road. You got to see Nebraska. All that farmland. Fun Fun! People were waving in their cars. That tells you how small it is. Made it into the next town called Hampton. 432 people live there. Then there was a road which went south back to the Interstate. What an adventure this was. Absolutely fantastic. I got to see even more of Nebraska. :-)
Archive for April, 2010
Aurora, NE / Adventure
Things along Nebraska
This is really amazing. I can’t write everything down which I have experienced so far today, but it’s been an amazing journey. I’m going to keep it short as I have to go again. Way behind schedule, but who cares right? Haven’t even made it over the Missouri yet. Right now I’m at a Starbucks in Grand Island, NE. That Starbucks is like 10 miles from the Interstate. It’s the closest one. I love their Internet connection. It’s so good! It’s really windy outside. You have to watch out you don’t get blown away. This town has lots of traffic! Construction all over the place.
Earlier stopped at an old Pony Express Station in Gothenburg. Then came the Great Platte River Road Archway. It’s a museum which puts you back in time. You start off with pioneers and their wagons traveling the US. You learn about the Indians. As you travel through time, you come back to the early roads and then the Interstate system. Absolutely beautiful. Well done. I love this kind of stuff. Traveling back in time, hearing old stories, learning about those times. I will post pictures hopefully tonight. After that I visited the Nebraska Firefighter Museum. That was so cool. There were four old fire trucks. It would be cool to drive around in one of those. :-) I even got to be a firefighter. I put on their gear. Well parts of it. That was fun.
Who knew all this stuff existed? Ok gotta go. Here are a couple pictures. I liked the old LIFE magazines they had in the Fort I visited this morning. Very interesting. Didn’t have my birth year though. And a picture of the archway from the outside.
On the I-80 somewhere in NE
Got up at 7:28am today. You should be all proud for me that’s 5:28am CA time. :-) Had a small breakfast. I can’t eat much after waking up. It’s like I just woke up from a coma. Went to check out the Fort Cody which was across the parking lot of the hotel. Then right across the street was Starbucks. Couldn’t get any better. The employees in there were all joking around. That was fun.
Now on the road again. Going to Ankeny, Iowa. Another new state for me. Plus will be crossing the Missouri River. I hope they built a bridge there otherwise it’ll be time to perform the flying car stunt. :-)
While entering the street for the destination in the GPS. I said oh that’s French. It was spelled like that in Google Maps: Se Convenience Blvd. 2 seconds later I realize no that means South East. The lower case E threw me off. It was funny though. Got some good laughs out of that.
Pictures from Day 3
I can’t believe the incredible day I had. In the morning I started to wonder, the drive through Utah was really amazing. Can I have another great day like that? Sure enough. Going through the Rockies was spectacular. It’s almost May and I couldn’t believe how much snow there still was. I really love roadtrips, because all I really know is where I’m going to end up at night. But I don’t try to plan every detail of the day. I simply let it happen and enjoy the adventure. Along the drive you’ll see something which you like and you check it out. Those funny things which happen along the way are incredible. I thought it’s like a mini-life. You complete the mini-life in one day. :-) You really can’t plan every detail of your life. I like to write out the details, because I love to share them with you, but I will be able to remember more of it if I check it out in a year again and all those memories will come back up. All those little details you can’t remember. There are many other fun/interesting things which happen which I can’t even write all down.
I didn’t have time to write about Vail, CO. It was the first stop. It’s a big ski resort. Right now they are closed so there wasn’t much going on except for the part that I had to have a snowball fight. You can see that in a picture. I saw a guy dressed in shorts and t-shirt. The temperature was 50F (10C). I guess he thought it’s summer. :-)
For some reason I’m quite tired now. It’s midnight around here and I still have a few things to do before I can go to bed. So I’ll keep this short and post the pictures. There isn’t much to talk about North Platte. There are 11 restaurants according to TripAdvisor. Starbucks is listed as number 8 and Coldstone (an ice cream shop) as number 7. So that tells you there are even fewer places you can actually have dinner. Went to Applebees (never been to one before). I was trying to have something without meat, but that’s like impossible in small towns. So I ended up with Grilled Shrimp & Island Rice. It was good.
I also forgot to mention that if you haven’t seen Food, Inc., then you should watch it as that will explain to you what I was talking about “meat producing facilities”. For the Europeans, I don’t think Food, Inc is available there. Don’t feel like checking up on that right now. Now I think the air here has that smell everywhere. Not as bad though. It really was horrible. I’m not sure if my words can really describe what it was like. I even saw one cow standing on a huge mountain of manure.
Bathroom Story/Nebraska Smell
Entered Nebraska at 7:07pm CDT (Central Daylight Time) I feel so tired an hour was stolen. Ha Ha. Still around 30min to go. Had too much fun in Colorado.
But I have to tell the bathroom emergency story. There is usually at least one with me on a roadtrip. Ok in Denver the Interstate 76 went really north of downtown. It wasn’t pretty. Mostly industrial facilities. There were no signs for places to eat or anything. Remember I said I’m hungry and I have to go. 5 minutes after that I see in the far distance a home depot. That’s all I could see. I said: let’s go there they have at least a bathroom. The only problem with home depot they usually hide them and you have to walk a mile in there to find them. I wasn’t sure I was going to make that. :-) Turns out as you get closer it’s a huge brand new shopping center. Lots of stores. Really pretty. There was also a Super Target. Target usually puts the bathrooms close to the entrance. Perfect so I got taken care of. I saw on the way into the mall a Heidi’s Brooklyn Deli. Never been to one or what it really is, but I felt good about it. Ordered a fresh tomato mozarella sandwich. Finally I could eat a non-meat meal. You also got a cookie and a choice of chips/potato salad/cole slaw and a pickle. The sandwich maker girls were really nice. At the cash register there was a funny sign and a cute sign on the tip jar which said “Karma Insurance”. I have a picture later. I put two bucks in it. On top of that they had free Wi-Fi. We sat outside. Absolutely gorgeous day. There were not a lot of people either. That was simply amazing how everything unfolded into such an incredible happy experience. I had no idea what my bathroom emergency was going to create. :-) Loved it.
Ok I have to mention that as I’m really laughing here. As I was about to write (finally no meat). I had my nose stuck in the phone and all of the sudden there comes this smell. I say like: Who in the hell shit in the car!? Sorry about the language but that’s the only way to really describe the issue. Right next to the Interstate there was one of those meat producing facilities. You can’t believe the smell. I tried to cover my nose, but nothing helped. Imagine dumping a lot of fresh shit inside a car and you might get the smell. The fact about the poor cows is not funny. Only my experience is funny as I had no idea what was going on. It felt like you got shit dumped onto you and you had no idea how or why it happened. That was a really nice welcome Nebraska!
Many times you see though happy cows which are grassing in big open fields.
Denver, CO
Going through Denver right now. Looking for something to eat and I really need to find a restroom soon. :-) On the I-76 now.
Frisco, CO
Really very cute town. Finally found a Starbucks which is open. Lots of are closed here due to shoulder season (not winter or summer season). Here I got again: 10 pumps??? Yes Yes!
Somewhere in the Rockies
I slept like a baby last night once I finally made it into bed. I don’t feel sore from my waterslide adventure. No emergencies this morning. Left pretty much on time after a quick breakfast. Found a Starbucks inside a safeway. I think my coffee tastes so much better than the one yesterday. Going to North Platte, Nebraska. New state for me. Now going through the Rockies. Went through a cool gorge. Very tight. Train tracks, Colorado river, a bike path, and the Interstate. The westbound lanes they actually built elevated. Quite some engineering. Impressive. Also went through a few tunnels. Not as long as some of the ones in Austria though. Will be hitting the mile high city in 3 hours or so. Also an hour will be lost again today. I’m curious how Nebraska looks like. From what I hear it will be boring and very flat.
Pictures from Day 2
Wow what a day! It was filled with amazing beauty/joy/fun. I’m going to share some pictures below. Hope everyone enjoys them. They really do not do justice to how things really looked. I hope my blog entries are able to share some of the joy I had.
After the post “Pictures along I-70”, the road got more and more spectacular. Then there was an exit sign for a viewing area. Wow the view was incredible. Really amazing. The whole area is called the San Rafael Swell. As you can see in one of the pictures, I overstepped and I had to hold on for dear life on one of those rocks. It went down quite far. I would not have made it, if I hadn’t managed to grab a hold of the rock. Then I had to wait an agonizing hour or so for the search & rescue team to arrive with the helicopter to pull me out of this misery. I sure was able to build up the muscles in my arms in that hour long wait. Hey I got a free helicopter ride out of that. Not too bad. Ha Ha ha. You know I’m kidding? From the look of my face in the picture, it doesn’t look so serious right? It’s all an illusion. I won’t tell you the trick though. :-)
Ok then made it into Glenwood Springs, Colorado. I was starting to get tired and really starving. Those 2 calories tic tacs just don’t last long. I wasn’t in the mood to be adventurous with dinner so a quick easy dinner at Pizza Hut was just perfect. Filled everyone up and tasted 1000 times better than the horrible hamburger. Green River was like the first town after 100 miles or so. Well Glenwood Springs is definitely a mountain town. Interestingly enough it’s even smaller than Cedar City, but people are not as friendly. I think it has something to do that it’s more of a tourist town. The front desk girl really had an attitude. What’s cool is though right next to the hotel there is a Gondola which takes you up the mountain to Gleenwood Caverns. They offer cave tours and you have to crawl through very tight spaces. Looks like fun. Your clothes may even get torn apart. Follow the link above to see how you could look like in the end. There is also a sling shot which shoots you out over the Colorado River around 1300 feet above. That looks scary. I’d do it, if someone else were brave enough to do it with me. :-) I don’t have time this time so I might have to come back someday. Sure looks like it could be fun.
So after dinner, back at the hotel I had to go check out the slide. The room is ok for one night, but the waterslide makes up for everything. Oh my I had so much fun! Around 9pm I went into the pool area and there were two small kids in the kids pool and their parents were watching them. The little ones said Hi to me. I turned the water on for the slide and I first checked the water temperature. It felt cold. Who cares. So going down the first time, I like froze to death as the water felt cold. I figured that’s not going to work. I went into the jacuzzi. I knew afterwards going back the shock would be really bad, but it usually warms you up and then you are fine. I was warm enough and yeah it was fricking cold to go down on the slide. But only the first time. Afterwards, the water temperature felt perfect. I don’t know how many times I did it, but I think at least a 100 times. I was training to be like in the Olympics. :-) I had it all figured out. In the 2nd curve you really had to keep your body extremely tight, because you had some serious speed and you’d hurt all kinds of things, if you didn’t. At the end you had to lift up your legs or you’d hurt the right ankle and as soon as you went into the water you had to make sure you blew air through your nose. There was also another way and that was to turn your body to the left at the end and you’d slide across the water with the belly. That was more fun than having to lift your legs and blowing air through your nose. I left like around 10:30pm. Pretty much the whole time I went up and down. For a few minutes I sat in the jacuzzi, but that’s it. It was so cool as I had like my private pool and waterslide. There was no one there anymore. You could run up the stairs for the slide and there was obviously no wait. I had so much fun with that. But I knew I would. Where I pulled all that energy from? I don’t know. I didn’t sleep much the night before and I thought I was tired, but that waterslide woke me up. I actually don’t remember when I have been the last time on a slide. It’s been a while for sure, but it woke the little kid up in me. I felt like I was 10 years old or so. :-)
Enjoy the pictures!
