Here is a little bit about our drive out to Nebraska to find a place to live. I picked Paul up from his last day of work in New York on Friday, 26 June, at noon, and we took off towards Nebraska. I chose to drive up Highway 17 and over Pennsylvania, instead of driving on I-80 through Pennsylvania because there are far too many construction sites, delays, and slow speed limits. Plus, 17 is more scenic than Pennsylvania.
Everything went fine and we made it to just West of Toledo, Ohio on the first day. It was after 10pm and I was getting quite tired so we pulled into a rest area to sleep. The rest area is one of those cool places that is a “service plaza” on the highway. These are very convenient because you can get gas, food, and go pee all in one place. It’s also nice because there are tolls in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois and the service plazas allow you to pull over without getting off the highway. You don’t have to deal with extra tolls or getting lost.
So, I slept until just after 4am. Then, I decided it was a great idea to get back on the road and start driving again. Yeah, not a good idea. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. They burned like someone had lit my eyes on fire. About 4:45am, I said to myself, “I can’t do this anymore. I need to find a service plaza to stop and sleep a little while longer.” As I was saying this to myself, I saw a sign that said a service plaza was 2 miles down the road. “Great,” I thought, “I’ll stop there.”
Now, this is me we’re talking about so nothing ever goes that smoothly. The next thing I hear in my head is, “Hmmm, that sounds like those rumble strips on the edge of the highway to let you know you’ve gone off the road.” That’s right, folks. I fell asleep at the wheel. When I opened my eyes, I was in the grass in the middle of the highway and headed towards the other side of the highway. I didn’t panic. I just told myself to turn the wheel and head back to the right side of the road. So, I did that, got back on the road, and then slowed down and stopped the car. I looked ahead on the highway and saw that I was about 500 feet from the service plaza.
I still don’t know when I fell asleep or how long I was out, but we were all safe. There was no damage to the car, however, we did collect a few green plants in the front grill, which Paul pulled out. I must thank whomever designed the middle of the highway. It worked as it was supposed to with no damage to the car or the people in it. I pulled into the service plaza and slept for a couple of hours more and we decided that sleeping on the road is not a good idea. The potential damage is too great and not really worth it to try to save $84 on a hotel.
The good news is that we drove all the way to Kearney, Nebraska that day. Kearney is only four hours from Scottsbluff, our destination, but I felt that I couldn’t go any further. It didn’t make sense to push myself that far, just to stay in a hotel there. Plus, I had been driving almost 15 hours. The good news is that I got to eat at Amigos. I got what I always get, a chicken soft taco and chips n cheese. Yeah, it’s not good for me but, damn it, I haven’t had Amigos in seven years! We had free Internet in our room but I was only able to check email really quick as the connection was kind of crap and I was tired.
The next day was the worst for driving. The four hours felt like four hundred. 15 hours. No problem. 4 hours. Shoot me.
Scottsbluff and Gering are decent little towns. Yes, when I want to fly away on vacation it will suck a bit, but that’s not a big enough of a detraction for me not to like the area. Our first day there, we spent taking a tour of Paul’s new school. The principal was really cool. He took us in his pickup and we toured all around Gering.
We had hoped to find a place in Gering to live, however, all the really nice homes and apartments, and I mean REALLY nice, were all Section 8 (for poor people). We’re not poor enough to qualify. On the second day of looking, we thought we’d have a look in Scottsbluff, near the hospital. The place listed in the newspaper was a duplex and looked nice enough, however, as we drove away from the duplex, we saw a fourplex with a “For Rent” sign in the window.
Paul called the next morning and we headed over to have a look at the place. It is similar in design to our place, except it has a usable basement. It also has a pool. That’s a HUGE selling point for Paul. The rent is also half what we pay here in New York. Fortunately, the lady who is moving out was super cool and she showed us her electric and water bills so we could get a rough idea of what everything costs to live there. We also have our own little patio and a small green space that we can do whatever we want with. The lady that lives there has some flowers in pots. I intend to have pots with some tomatoes, herbs, and whatever else I can grow and eat out there.
Needless to say, we liked the place. The living room is a little smaller than I wanted but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s three blocks from the hospital and about 7 miles from Gering High School, where Paul will be working. So, we took the place, paid the rent through October, and sorted out changing the bills into our names. Relieved that we found something that looks nice and decent (what wouldn’t after the slum we live in now), we decided to spend the evening at the movies.
We went to see The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Yeah, I liked it. Then again, I read FF and Silver Surfer comics as a kid. Just outside of the theater, and just inside the mall, is a Greek restaurant and they have excellent gyros. I think they are going to get a lot of my money. The hotel also had HBO. Normally, I wouldn’t watch HBO because the only thing good they have on is The Wire and, well, I can download that. The week we were out there though, they were playing several of the Star Wars movies. Yep, you guessed it. We planned our days around Star Wars.
The next day, I sorted out the car insurance and transferred it out to Nebraska. I could have also walked away with Nebraska plates but I’m a dumbass. I forgot the title to the car in New York. So, we have the New York plates until we leave at the end of the month. Since I couldn’t change the plates, we returned to the theater and saw Live Free or Die Hard or Dire Hard 4, whichever you want to call it. Again, I was not disappointed. I like the Die Hard movies. I have the first three on DVD and we watch them often. Well, not the second one. That one isn’t very good.
The next morning, we headed back towards New York. Somewhere past North Platte, Nebraska a rock hit my windshield. I now have a six inch crack in the windshield. Fortunately, it’s on the bottom left side and it doesn’t interfere with my driving. I am going to get it replaced, but that’s just my luck in life. We also saw a large rock, about the size of an eyeball, come flying at us. It didn’t crack anything but there is a nice dent in the windshield in the middle of the car, near the top. I never knew you could dent glass. Another rock whacked the metal near the hood of the car. We heard the distinct ding of “rock on metal” but we can’t find a mark anywhere.
Somewhere in Iowa, I didn’t pull over enough and ran over a dead raccoon. I’m not even going to describe the sound of bone and skull hitting the front and rear wheel well on the passenger’s side of the car. Yeah, I know. My luck sucks sometimes. Still, no damage. Just loud noises. I kept driving and made it to Joliet, Illinois before we decided to stop for the night. Don’t worry, we stayed at a hotel so I could get some proper rest. The only problems we had here was being screwed up with time zones.
The next day, I drove the rest of the way home, stopping around 10:30pm (about 14 hours later) at my Grandma’s house. My mom was there and they had bought some bread and lunchmeat for us. Paul also walked to the store to get some milk because there wouldn’t be anything open by the time we got home to get any. His five minute walk to the convenience store was a story in itself, which he plans on writing out to tell everyone about.
Shortly after midnight, we arrived home. Too tired to sleep, we stayed up until 3:13am. That’s the last time I looked at the clock before falling asleep. I woke up at 7:12am. I was tired all day but I had been driving for so long (27 hours if I did the math right) and went through three time zones that I really didn’t know what time it was.
So, we are safely home, and busy eating up our remaining food. I really don’t want to pay the movers to move food so I’ll probably give whatever is left to my nephew, David. He’ll eat anything so I know it won’t go to waste. We also packed up our books today. It took us about three and a half hours. The movers will be coming on the 25th and we will leave some time after that. My mom’s birthday is on the 28th and we’d like to stay for that. We’ll have to see the timetable for when our stuff is going to arrive in Nebraska to know if we can stay the extra three days.
