28 August 2010

Pony Express. (Gothenburg, Nebraska)

Got up early to push on East, after enjoying the continental breakfast in the lobby of our hotel. French toast, English muffins & jelly, and little boxes of cereal where you can pour the milk straight into the bag. Mmm. Beers is taking the early shift, with the rest of us checking emails and fighting our bodies’ “hey, I was in the middle of R.E.M. sleep!” instincts. Everybody Hurts. (wokka wokka)

We’ve got about 10 hours to Dubuque today, covering the rest of Nebraska and all of Iowa, end to end. The landscape changes a bit between the two, with Nebraska lacking in hills and Iowa having plenty rolling away from the interstate. For those of you who haven’t made this trek, I-80 is dead straight for as far as you can see. We basically set the cruise control at 80 and the van gets us there. Almost zero traffic west of Chicago, just lots of blurry cows and corn stalks out the side windows.

We had absolutely perfect driving weather last night – 60’s and clear with a slight breeze. It’s a bit warmer today, but still nice… 70’s right now, I think. We’ve got all of the windows open in the van and we’re all feeling quite good.

Gothenburg, which we just passed, has a Pony Express station from the 1800’s. I remember stopping to check it out a few years ago on a road trip with my dog. Pretty cool to think about those guys riding this same route back in the day.

Here are some pics from the van this morning… more updates later.