Nebraska

Lisa:  I would like to say a big howdy-do to all the people at the campground that we woke up this morning at 5:30 when the car alarm went off when we opened up the car door. It has only happened to me once in a grocery store parking lot, and I was embarrassed then. . .

Anthony:  Well, yesterday we made our way through Iowa and are now in Nebraska. We stopped in Omaha and rode our bikes about 14 miles. Omaha is connected to Council Bluffs, Iowa, by a 3000-foot long pedestrian bridge over the Missouri River.  There are many bike/pedestrian paths on both sides of the river, so it is a nice place to bike. 

Lisa:  Sorry, Anthony, I cut off your head:(

Anthony:  We camped at Smith Falls State Park near Valentine, Nebraska, last night. On our way there, we kept seeing ominous storm clouds in front of us. Neither of us know what a "weather front" is, but we are pretty sure we saw one yesterday. It was not blue or red like it is on the nightly weather report on TV.  A large "dirt tornado" crossed the road and gave us some excitement when it hit the van and shook us about some. That was the largest and strongest "dirt demon" either of us have ever seen and felt. 

Lisa:  about this dirt tornado, OMG!!! Needless to say, we were both a little excited. What's funny is that Anthony's excitement consisted of sitting there all wide eyed staring at it, and mine consisted of "oh, Jesus, oh, Jesus, oh, Jesus" really thinking I would see Him any second. All I knew was that if you think a tornado is coming and you are in a car, that the weatherman says to get to a ditch and lay there. So I was looking for a ditch to lay in. But Anthony was going 55 mph, so I didn't know what would hurt more, being slung around in a tornado, or jumping out of a moving vehicle. The weatherman didn't say anything about that. And I was a bit too excited to take a picture. 

Wish you could have been there. 

But this was what it looked like driving into it.  It didn't help that we just drove past Pilger, NE a few miles back and they had the road closed to what used to be that community. The double tornadoes wreaked havoc on that town. Very tragic.

Anthony: The campground was 4 miles off the main road down a dirt road that had what seemed to be "rumble strips" on it the entire 4 miles. We were unable to go much over 20 mph without shaking the van apart. Since it had rained just prior to us driving on the road, a lot of mud was slung on the van and our bikes. Fortunately, the ground is very sandy and the mud comes off relatively easy. 

Lisa:  This morning we had our normal eggs and sausage (Free range hometown eggs, Chattooga County sausage), and our tea with honey (Franklin County honey). I dread it when our hometown supplies run out.

We also drove through Norfolk, NE, the hometown of Johnny Carson. We decided not to stop by the museum and see the Johnny Carson statue and memorabilia.

We stayed last night in Valentine, NE, where "the largest tract of grass-stabilized sand dunes in the Western Hemisphere" are, according to our AAA book. Yup.

Today is South Dakota, hoping to get to The Badlands and possibly Mt. Rushmore. I love experiencing this adventure with this man of mine.