Cumberland Calls Us Back - Part 2 - Nebraska

Hey folks,

The Nebraska leg of our trip deserves a post of it's own just to describe our troubles.  Not game changers by any means but for a traveling couple, plus 8 paws on board, troubles just the same.

First, the flies. They must be the state bird because they are everywhere. Any decrease in speed below 30 mph gave them admittance into Hank and LuLu.  We swatted and swatted but still they found a way in.  I do believe we delivered a squadron of them to Tennessee in the end.

Second,  the stickers in the grass.  Whenever we walked the dogs we would spend 20 minutes cutting sharp sandspur type hitchhikers out of their fur.  The quality of the turf made no difference.   I'll bet not one Nebraskan runs around outside without shoes, even on a golf course.

Third, a boneheaded move by me.  When parking a trailer overnight, and not unhitching, it's best to lower the front hitch jack for better stability.  This I did.  It stands to reason though that in the morning it must be lifted up before driving off.  This I did not do.  I'm a stickler for checklists to avoid these incidents but on this occasion I got in a hurry.  First rule of RV'ing, don't get in a hurry.  Luckily no harm was done, except to my ego.  It slid about 6 inches but did not bend the jack.

Fourth, the bee incident.  Margo was walking the dogs at a rest stop when she felt what she thought was one of those aforementioned nasty stickers in her paw.  When she looked she noticed it was actually a yellow jacket that had gotten lodged between her foot and flip flop.  She's allergic to bee stings so we had a few minutes of anxiety about a reaction.  In the end though it was painful and itchy but no breathing issues.  She did get short of breath but that was from all the profanity.

*&%@ bees!!!!!

Fifth, state parks in Nebraska don't have water on their sites.  This is not advertised in the four color brochures.  We pulled into a really nice state park near the mid-state town of Kearney right around dusk and picked a great looking site.  I lined up on the power pedestal and backed her in.  Soon Margo was going through her inside routine and I the outside all the while fighting off the local housefly population.  As I went to hook up the water hose I found there was no where to hook it.  An inquiry with the locals revealed that water is not a part of the Nebraska state park camping experience.  We both got "short of breath" this time, packed back up and headed to an RV park down the road; where the above referenced number 3 incident occurred the next morning.

Sixth, the tornado.  As we approached Lincoln a classic plains weather system was setting up for an afternoon of mayhem.  As we traveled east we had a huge storm in front of us by a few miles and another a few miles behind. We pulled over several times to keep from driving into the one in front only to have to start up again and run from the one behind.  The weather radio and phones were screaming about a tornado warning and the radar was showing it all in technicolor.   We're lucky to have a Verizon MiFi so we have internet while traveling.  I do believe it saved us that day.  We were able to keep clear but did suffer a casualty to our truck topper back door. It caught a gust from the side that blew it up all the way over the top shattering the glass with a terribly loud bang.  Thankfully that's all the damage we sustained.  We arrived at a Walmart parking lot as things were settling down but the store was on lock-down due to that same storm so buying a tarp had to wait.  In the mean time the rain came down hard and the wind blew but nothing got ruined since Margo insists on keeping everything in the back of the truck in plastic bins.

Hank takes a hit.

Sopping wet we limped into an RV park in the border town of Nebraska City where we licked our wounds.  We were now just a couple of miles from the Missouri border and would uneventfully cross over the "Mighty Mo"  (Missouri River) the next morning.

Victorian Acres RV Park, Nebraska City.  Refuge

A new beginning

Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee await in our final installment coming soon.  We find a really cool RV park, pass the Gateway Arch via a wrong turn in St. Louis and meet Superman in his hometown.  Ahh, the suspense is palpable.