Day 915

We were up at 7 and on the road by 8:10.  We would have made it by 8 except I had trouble hooking up.  That goddamn hitch has to be lined up perfectly in order for it to hook up.  Even an inch off and it won't connect.

The first part of the trip was a 150 mile run up to I70.  It went pretty good except for a little traffic coming through Wichita and a stop in the middle because of Ellen's asshole.  Mileage was 10.8.

We gassed up at I70 and continued north to I80.  The road wasn't an interstate any more, but it was built like one.  There were 2 lanes and interstate style exits.  The only difference was it ran through several towns on surface streets at reduced speeds.

We fueled up again at I80.  Mileage was a little over 10.  I'm not sure why there was a difference.  We went 40 miles on I80 and then turned off on a secondary road towards South Dakota.  We went 70 miles on it in a NW direction.  The road was two lane and a little rough, but we made good time.  Miraculously we didn't get held up by slow traffic anywhere along the way.  We did have to slow down for a few small towns.

We got to our destination, Broken Bow NE, about 2:15.  It's a town of about 4,000.  It seems bigger.  We fueled up, parked the trailer, and unhooked.  The park is a city park, but it has about 16 really nice full hookups.  It's better than some private places we've stayed.

We went back into town and drove around.  There were a lot of cool old buildings dating  back to the 20's.  The place is small, but it's very much alive.  We drove 3 miles out of town to a brewery that had a sign on the highway.  Unfortunately Monday is the one day of the week that they are closed.  So we drove back and had a really early dinner at a restaurant boarding the town square.  It was over 80 and we sat outside with the dog in a place that was only partially shaded.  It felt fine.  I'm going to freeze my ass when we get to Oregon.

When we got back we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening surfing.  We did take the dog out about 8:30 so she could do retrieves.,  She did a whole bunch and was really happy.

I do need to make a note about Taiko.  He's close to the end.  In fact, we're not sure if he's going to make it to Oregon.  He can barely walk and isn't eating much.  Injecting him with water perks him up for a little bit.  It's sad, and we really miss him sleeping with us and meowing at us in the morning about breakfast.  We'll probably have to put him down as soon as we get home.