The Light Was On...

With working mirrors – Kathy and I changed lanes many times through southern MN to Des Moines and onto Interstate 80 heading west. We enjoyed the ‘green-ness’ of the corn and soybean fields and even noticed the light number of deer carcasses (aka deer smear). We were happy about that on several levels.

We gassed up Penske #2, switched places to share the driving, and rocked out to the tunes of Disney Classics, Cat Stevens, Dan Fogelberg, and John Denver. Maybe ‘rocked out’ isn’t the correct term here. Anyway – we enjoyed the companionship, the music, and putting the miles behind us.

We decided that we’d stop for the night in North Platte, NE. We didn’t have any reservations but didn’t think North Platte would be a crowded vacation destination. According to our trip odometer - we’d driven 707 miles – and deserved a good nights sleep.

We saw that the Motel 6 had “left the light on for us” and decided to forgo the higher rent accommodations - as we weren’t going to be staying there long anyway.  We got to the front door of the office and realized that they’d also “left the light on” for about 8 million bugs that had landed on the door in a light-induced frenzy!

We parked Penske #2 and got to our room - #225.  We immediately folded the bedspreads inside out and put them against the wall far from the beds.  We’d both heard enough news stories about what is often found on motel room bedspreads!  We considered putting them in the hallway but thought that might have been considered rude. 

The blankets rivaled your average Brillo pad and so those came off too.  I added the extra security of full body pj’s and a bath towel over the pillowcase.  Neither one of us walked around without shoes or socks.

It really wasn’t that bad - but why take chances.  Kathy was basically okay with it – being a world traveler she said she’d seen worse.   It occurred to me that sisters Erin and Ruthanne would have had to be sedated to have stayed there.  I was on the fence – I just wanted to be prone for a change – and get a few hours sleep.

That’s about all we got as both of us felt like things were crawling on us – they weren’t – but the mind is a powerful thing.  It also didn’t help that the vintage 1960’s air conditioning unit went on and off every 3 minutes.

The next morning we discovered that we had a room with a view.  The view was a cinder block wall and part of the parking lot.  No worries - as it was dark and a view would have been irrelevant anyway.

With bloodshot eyes - we packed up our stuff.  We probably shouldn't have - but we passed on taking showers – although the shower area looked new and actually quite nice.

We saw this license plate in the Motel 6 parking lot...don't know what it meant to the owner...but somehow seemed to fit our situation!

We went across the street to gas up Penske #2 and scraped another 8 million bugs off the windshield. We literally had to let the windshield “soak” for a few minutes to soften the carnage.  The station attendant had been watching us and we believe was impressed at our windshield-cleaning prowess. Like I said – this was North Platte, NE.

From North Platte we continued on through the rest of Nebraska, gutted out incredibly boring eastern Colorado, and passed through Denver to catch I70 for the beautiful drive to our next destination of Glenwood Springs, CO.

So - that’s my story so far and I’m sticking to it.