Day 60 - Thursday, July 22

Yesterday was a scary day with Lucky learning he was close to a trip to the hospital…

Today we rivaled that with a scarier and then hilarious Lucky episode. As you should know, Lucky does not wear a collar and runs or accompanies me around town with no leash. When I left this morning at 4:30am we were under strict orders not to let him run tomorrow. When I left Lucky he understood and jumped on the couch to wait for Chris. Chris broke down the rig and left Marysville City Park and went to Walmart to work through critical shopping list. Walmart was about 10 minutes away and then after shopping he returned to the RV after another 30 minutes and opened the RV to find that Lucky was not there. His initial instinct was someone broke in but he noticed that the lock was not broken into. Next, perhaps he got out while he opened the door in the parking lot - honk the horn which always brings Lucky back but no luck. Welling down his panic he decides he needs to go back to Marysville City Park. Another 10 minutes back and as he drives into the park, Lucky is with a woman named Gail and her dog. He befriended Gail who had fed him half her breakfast as he mooched his way into her graces and she told Chris he is so gentle with the food unlike her dog that snaps she couldn’t stop feeding him. And then he had her dogs dry dog food. Chris brought him back aboard and he ate even more which is the sign he is getting better. And, Chris thinks he aged 10 years over the incident. Thankfully he only told me when we met 5 hours after I left at 4:30am!

I Met Mrs. Schwartz who farms 2,500 acres and was very proud of the fact that it will be a fourth generation farm. She was kind enough to give me an interview and some insights into the farm life.

Today we passed 1,500 miles travelled and “only” 1,900 left.

We also crossed into Nebraska! Sadly we come in west of Schuyler where my great grandparents the Ditzlers had an 80 acre farm with corn and dairy cows so we will not be able to visit. As we passed over the state line, I was on a dirt farm road and only saw a road called State Line to know it was Nebraska. Immediately in the distance I saw numerous wind turbines - reminds me of Portugal where they are all over the country and account for 24% of the countries electricity demand.

On the farm road into Nebraska I picked up a friend named Whalen. He accompanied me for 3 miles in the mid-day heat and I was getting really nervous about how I could get him back to his home, where it was. I heard in the distance and ATV and I waved frantically at a couple riding towards me. As they approached they pulled over, smiled and told me Whalen is one year old and friendly so they thought he might have gone ahead with me as they saw me running by. We chatted for a bit about living on the border where they have a few thousand acres in Kansas & Nebraska.

Nebraska is a wide state, over 400 miles that will take us a 13 more days. Can’t wait!

Thank you for your continued support,

Cheers,

David.

Main Street Marysville at 4:30am

And the Pony Express monument in the middle of town

A few miles out I end up on dirt farm roads for the rest of the day

Nice farm house outside of town

Sun rising behind me from the east

Dreamy roads to run on in the cool mornings

This was groomed like a ski slope!

And then we got into a little more rustic area which was nice….

And then it got a little rougher

Uh oh

At least I saw a wild turkey

I see a lot of a abandoned homes. Down the road I met Mrs. Schwarz who told me that they have bought the farm with the house years ago and actually rented the house out to a family. But the family did not take care of the house they decided it was better to leave it vacant and to rent it to the wrong people.

Hollenberg is the last town in Kansas before Nebraska. They have a simple fire house,

An intersection with a flag and a plaque about the history

And the post office, that’s it.

Whalen join me on the farm road shortly there after,

But the fun was over 3 miles later when his owners caught up with me, thank God!

Nebraska!!

Cornhusker fans in the first town of Nebraska for us, Steele City

The post office,

And the Salty Dog Saloon

After our BLT dinner at 4 PM, which is our usual dining time we had to come back for a beer

By 6pm things were lively and we slipped out

Back to our home sweet home in the park of this small town