Day 5 - Nebraska

Miles driven: about 420

So, I'm not the biggest fan of Nebraska today. The steady wind of about 25 mph, paired with temperatures in the high 80's and the completely dry air, was just not pleasant. How in the world anything grows in this state is beyond me. It took us nearly 4 hours to break down camp this morning because I was just dragging. It may have just been me, but this weather stinks.

K and I took a walk to the lake from camp. It was a difficult hike through a thick collection of thousands of sun-bleached and dead trees. It was interesting, however, to take a look at all the footprints on the ground. Some I had never seen before, including some sort of giant bird. After we packed the car, we finally waved goodbye to the campground with our parched skin and lips and with our shoes and feet full of prickly burs. We were ready to get out of there and be anywhere else.

We got hungry for lunch near the city of North Platte and stopped at the Fort Cody Trading Post, a Buffalo Bill historical site complete with a mechanical diorama of miniatures and an unbelievable assortment of Western and touristy paraphanelia. C was in heaven as she gazed at the collection of pelts and animal parts. They had skeletons, horns, rattlesnake tails, and furs from more than a dozen different creatures. Jessey was amazed with the collection of knives, nearly all of which are illegal in California, but were for sale here for dirt cheap. The girls had a really tough time deciding what to buy but A settled on a wolf picture printed on a slice of tree trunk, C chose a skunk pelt and some chocolate rocks, and K got a coyote tail and face mask. J bought himself a knife although I'll have to drive it home for him.

 

We had lunch and got back on the road and I was really dragging by this point. I searched for a Starbucks but had to wait about 100 miles and then drive 6 miles through town to get to it, but it was SO worth it! The next one wasn't for another 85 miles or so, but one did the trick. At lunch we were surprised to see that somewhere recently we had lost another hour and it was 4pm. We are seriously losing touch with time and space, and for some reason even our electronics are confused, randomly jumping hours and changing at different times, which really isn't helping.

After our not-so-pleasant experience with the campground last night, I made a reservation at a KOA near Omaha and thought we'd try that out. The place looked posh and had a ridiculous amount of activities for kids including mini-golf, pedal carts, a swimming pool, horseshoes, and a jumping pillow. Of course we won't get in there until super-late (again!), but just the fact that it has grass and shade is a huge plus at this point.

We had one last stop for the day as we made our way to our first Little Free Library of the trip. There were a few in Salt Lake City that we skipped over, but (not surprisingly) there haven't been any more until now. In case you don't know, the Little Free Libraries are just a box that someone puts in their front yard where the local community can take and leave books for each other. There are a few back home, but they are all over the world and we thought we'd check some out on the road. All the boxes are different, and it gives the kids something new to read in the car. We leave a book and take a new one (or two or three). We're hoping to hit a lot more, but here's a picture of the one in Lincoln, Nebraska.