Day 9

Day 9 – Tuesday – July 26, 2011

0630 Darby wakes me up. Get dressed, walk Darby, get my coffee and check emails, etc.

0740 Wake kids up.

0805 Breakfast

0837 A call from Vic’s Tree Service to see if we still want the cherry tree trimmed.

0843 Leaving the hotel.

0911 A train blasts his horn. Yikes! What is it with these trains trying to give me heart attack?!

0916 A train pulling mostly cars of automobiles.

0924 An ambulance passes us.

0931 A six engine train. The train before this one had one engine and just three cars. There sure are a lot of trains on the tracks today.

0938 Platte River

0945 Fort Kearny

1039 Leaving Fort Kearny.

1046 A swarm of large bugs flies right into my windshield. Thump, thump, THUMP! Yikes!

1049 Gas, $3.97. I don’t think so! That is not even close to the $3.69 price on the sign so we go to a different gas station.

1051 Lawnmower crossing in the crosswalk.

1053 Stop at Burger King. They do not have the pork sandwich I am looking for but they do still have breakfast food available. The guys working give me directions to find a Caribou Coffee shop nearby.

1102 Boogaarts Food Store. Really? A food store with a name that looks like boogers?

1105 Gas, $3.79/gallon. Clean windows too!

1124 I cannot find the coffee place. I am giving up and going back to the highway.

1126 Found it! It’s next to the gas station and across the street from Boogaarts. So that’s why I missed it the first time – I was distracted by the boogers!

1128 An older couple from out of state parks in the lot next to us. They have a hanging clothes rod in the back seat. I haven’t seen one of those in years. I commented on it and Felisa told me that Grandma Ford has one. I bet it’s the same one I remember from all those years ago!

12:00 p.m. Museum of Military Vehicles. Ryan wants to stop. I told him maybe next time.

12:21 p.m. Arrive at the Sod House Museum

12:50 p.m. Leaving the sod house. 258 miles to Grandpa Ford’s house… Our favorite parts of the museum:
Ryan-barbed wire statues
Felisa – how the walls are made of grass
Bella – the house
Sheila – the house

12:54 p.m. Platte River channel bridge – the water looks pretty high

1:11 p.m. North Platte Visitors Center sign – looks like a good place to visit on future drives.

1:23 p.m. South Platte River

1:25 p.m. Burger King in North Platte – pork sandwich, yum!

1:38 p.m. Felisa tells us that we have to be careful with Grandpa Ford. He’s a trickster grandpa!

1:39 p.m South Platte River

1:40 p.m. Darby ate one of Ryan’s chicken nuggets. Oops! Someone forgot to be careful and someone else got a treat as a result!

1:41 p.m. Truck of pigs pulled over by the police.

1:43 p.m. Haystacks! Very unusual – usually you see the rolls and occasionally the large bales.

1:52 p.m. Old West Vacation Trail… that sounds interesting. Might have to look it up!

2:01 p.m Mountain Time Zone

1:09 p.m. Fur Trade Museum, 170 miles. Apparently a little off our route but maybe something for another time…

1:13 p.m. Kenney Chesney’s bus just passed us going East. I wonder if he was really on board.

1:18 p.m. A news story about how the “Smurfs” are in danger of heatstroke during the movie premier event in New York City.

1:24 p.m. We are off the Oregon Trail.

1:45 p.m. Colorado

2:13 p.m. Thinking about what other stuff we can get rid off as we unpack.

2:36 p.m. I’m craving a wagon train book after all this Oregon trail following and pioneer site visiting.

2:38 p.m. I should call Scott to see if he’ll come down to the springs.

2:59 p.m. Jo recalculated… and on the very first try came up with the route I want to follow rather than trying to get my to u-turn my way back to her original route. Will wonders never cease!

3:01 p.m. No gas for 75 miles!!! Uh oh. Guess we’d better turn around and go back the other way for a couple miles before we get on this highway!

3:06 p.m. Gas, $3.64/gallon. It smells like stinky cows out here in Brush.

3:25 p.m. Big scary truck with an oversize load met us on the 2-lane highway. Yikes!

3:30 p.m. Did I hear that correctly? Is there a new Toby Keith CD coming out?

3:47 p.m. Lightning ahead

3:49 p.m. Last Chance, CO. Last chance for what?

3:52 p.m. Let It Rain is playing on the radio just as we appear to be heading into a rainstorm.

3:54 p.m. Ryan comments on how we are all alone out here in the prairie. No cars ahead of us nor behind.

4:00 p.m. Passing through a windfarm and there is more lightning.

4:11 p.m. There are signs posted that say No Snowplowing 7 p.m. – 5 a.m. I wonder why?

4:14 p.m. It’s raining!

4:22 p.m. Just as I think we are headed out the other side of the rain storm, it starts to rain even harder.

4:24 p.m. Minor flooding on the roads in Limon.

4:28 p.m. A mobile coffee shop trailer for sale. Anyone need a job?

4:29 p.m. Wet cows lined up along the fence, staring at me. What do they want???

4:33 p.m. A llama with a dangling lead rope is roaming the field. That seems dangerous to me. Isn’t he going to get caught on something?

4:43 p.m. Half of Ryan’s tooth fell out. Apparently the other half is still in his mouth, still hanging on.

4:47 p.m. Trucks with red flashing lights are driving on the other side of the highway. They don’t look like police or fire. I wonder why they have red lights. I thought those were only for official business.

4:52 p.m. El Paso County – yay!

5:05 p.m. I can see Pikes Peak – yay! We’re almost there!

5:26 p.m. Dad called. He’s home from school. What’s taking us so long?!

5:31 p.m. News story – about 240 Air Force Academy cadets have been quarantined with the flu. Because basic training isn’t hard enough already…

5:37 p.m. Academy Boulevard. The new Woodman Road overpass is finished – very fancy!

5:42 p.m. Made it to Grandpa’s house.

We were there for less than five minutes when Darby came in from the backyard with a rawhide bone he had found. He seemed quite pleased with himself!

6:21 p.m. I go out to pick up Papa Murphy’s Pizza for dinner. Yummy! For whatever reason, I didn’t get to have any on our trip last summer.

The kids play Wii before and after dinner. Darby continues to find more and more bones but this time they are unidentifiable animal bones. We let him keep the rawhide but confiscate the others.

Time to watch the weekly episode of Scooby Doo (thanks for recording it for us!) and inflate the air mattress to get ready for bed.

10:00 p.m. Bedtime!