Stephen H. Long Trail 1819 — 1820

Day 11: September 3rd, 2008 Omaha — Grand Island

Map Omaha to Grand Island

I have breakfast again at the Village Inn. The breakfast is quite okay, whereas I could have taken something else than the Canadian Style Bacon. It looks like a slice of cold meat, which has been put in a pan. But at least I have enough coffee, because around here they put a whole can at your table.

Around ten I pay and drive over to the next gas station. There they even have free air, which fits perfectly right now. All in all I am already missing 2psi in my tires. Just when I want to start a lady approaches me and asks for a couple of dollars for a gallon of gas. Otherwise she has no clue how she can make it back home with her daughter. They live in Council Bluffs, which is not too far away. This old Ford Full–Size Truck does not really look like money. Therefore I hand her over 5 Dollar. She says thank you and I take care of my tires again. When I look around after a short while they are already gone. I am really wondering how they could gas up this fast. But maybe it was a scam…

I fill up my tires, then I hit the road. Obviously I get lost first when I try to get on I–80. Somehow the directions around here are as weird as in Kansas City, where I also always get lost. But finally I arrive at the Interstate.

The silly thing here is that my great GPS software is annoying me with an error message, which I am not able to read while driving. Therefore I just confirm it. Stupidly, now the whole route is gone and you can see nothing on the map because it zooms out to the whole day trip. Great, I could really smash the DeLorme programmers against a wall…

Eventually I am able to pull out of traffic on Highway 75 and can take a look on what is going on. There the program is annoying me that there are too many waypoints. I really ask myself which idiot has limited the number of waypoints to 100. In that case I can go back to my handheld device and don’t need the laptop anymore. But all swearing does not change a thing and I must delete a bunch of waypoints until it is working again. But this only works as long as the software does not have the idea to add some additional waypoints on its own. It seems to be the best to not use more than 80 of the possible 100 waypoints.

Slowly I learn to work around all the issues with this software. Only my charred power connector for the laptop is causing me some headaches. But as soon as the laptop battery is fully charged, the connector works without a problem. Maybe it works for just this year and next year I can think about a workaround.

CR32, NE

CR31, NE

CR31, NE

Just past Fort Calhoun I am finally back on the small backroads.

N 252nd St, NE

Alternately, I am traveling on smaller backroads and bigger highways.

N Spruce St, Valley, NE

Platte River Landing, Valley, NE

Highway 64, NE

Backroad, NE

Backroad, NE

In the area of Valley I have my lunch break at the Platte River. I use the opportunity to collect some nice shots of the river. Then I have some of these miniature apples as lunch. A local light truck driver also arrives. But this guy looks a bit weird. I am really glad when he leaves again…

N Broad St, Fremont, NE

Rd D, NE

Rd D, Shell Creek, NE

Rd D, NE

Just past one I depart.

E 19th St, Schuyler, NE

Rd A1, NE

Rd A1, NE

At Schuyler I receive a brief free car wash from a fully opened water hydrant.

Highway 22/N Elm St, Genoa, NE

Highway 22/Willard Ave, Genoa, NE

Then I drive through Genoa, Nebraska.

Valley Rd, NE

To my big surprise the arrival time estimation of my GPS software seems to really fit reality — even with the small construction zone traffic jam just before Fullerton on Highway 22.

On the backroads I am greeted by most of the other drivers. You can tell that you are slowly approaching the “Wild West” area. At least trucks like mine are being greeted. Whereas probably most of them think that I am one of these storm chasers. I will let them stay in their happy thinking and continue my travels.

Around half past six I arrive at the Super 8. On my drive through Grand Island I again remember where I had been there for dinner last time: The Texas T–Bone Steakhouse. This is the place where I will also have dinner this evening. At the check–in is currently a long waiting line. It seems that I have reached the peak again. So it is time for waiting. Eventually it is my turn. Unfortunately, there are no more single–bed non–smoking rooms available. Therefore I must take the two bed room. There is no other choice for me. As compensation I receive the AAA discount without asking. Whereas this does not really add something, because I have AAA. But it is very nice from her.

During check–in she realized that I had already been here last year. This saves me from doing all the address stuff again. When I tell her that I always go out for breakfast she recommends a new restaurant just down the road. There they have breakfast the whole day. This is a place I will try tomorrow. But dinner will be at the T–Bone. This steakhouse shall still be great. I say thank you for all the information and move my car to another spot.

This time I explicitly ask for an upstairs room to avoid having someone tromping on my head. Unfortunately, that idea didn’t worked out, because just on the other side are pretty noisy young people who permanently slam the door like they would like to slam it right through the wall. You can tell that the people around here are really reckless…

First I check again my video taping of today. Then I quickly try to get Internet access. Unfortunately that doesn’t work and I postpone this to after my dinner. Around half past eight I leave and find the T–Bone without any searching around — okay, maybe it helped that it is just down the road a couple of blocks…

There I have a Jack Daniels marinated steak, which is very good. Also the salad is really huge and I am totally stuffed. There is only the chance to try one slice of the bread — and from the peanuts I only have three. But I am completely full. Now I look really forward to my coffee in the motel room.

Around a quarter past nine I pay and drive back to my motel. This time I take my CDs with me to eventually start listening to them. Before I go upstairs I ask about the Internet access. There I must learn that it is currently not working and that it will probably take until tomorrow before it is working again. This definitely fits my current luck. But it is still not getting boring for me at my motel room. All in all, I must write my diary. Around half past ten I have finished this task and start with my pictures. Slowly my neighbors are also getting more quiet — or I might not hear them because of my headphones. But for any case, I still have my ear plugs for the night…

Just before eleven I have finished the work on my pictures and I take another look at my GPS software, just to avoid to run into the same trouble like today. Around half past eleven I make myself ready to go to bed.