Chicago Roadtrip

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.

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.