Day 3 – Cheyenne to Omaha

Last night, after a of couple hours driving across Wyoming in absolute darkness, I finally arrived at my all-suites hotel. Now, I know what you’re thinking. “Wow, Beth is such a high roller. All suites!? I never knew she was so fancy!”

While I appreciate you thinking I live a life of luxury, the reality is that I’m simply a very pragmatic and logical thinker.  I had a lot of time to weigh the pros and cons of where to stay during my drive yesterday.  I knew it was going to be too cold to camp, so I had to find a warmer sleeping situation.  In the end, I simply couldn’t argue with the multitude of “pros” that surrounded the all-suites hotel.

First and foremost, the hotel accepted pets. This was obviously my number one requirement.  Second, the room had a kitchen it in, so I could heat up some of that stew I had already cooked.  I mean, if you think about it, I’m practically saving money by not eating out.    Third, the all suites hotel was only $20 more, and had a 9.6 rating on Hotels.com. Granted, $20 is $20, but the original hotel I had planned for had a 6.0 on Hotels.com, so I felt like those extra 3 ½ stars were worth $20.

Finally, and most importantly, staying someplace that says “all suites” makes me feel fancy on the inside, even if I look like a lumberjack on the outside. This irony generally confuses the other hotel guests.  Watching them look at me like “who let the vagabond in?” and then learning I have a reservation, puts their entire elitist thinking into question.  Bringing them back down to earth brings me a tremendous amount of joy.

So with my ironic flannel shirt, my adorable yet rugged cattle dog, and my sense of empowerment, I marched into my fancy hotel suite and heated up my stew.

The following morning, I woke to this!

A winter wonderland!

When I left San Francisco it was definitely fall. A quick 1200 miles later and all of a sudden it’s winter! As someone who has never spent any significant time as an adult in a place that snows, I still get that childlike thrill when those little soft flurries fall from the sky! Where others see scraping windshields and shoveling the sidewalk, I see snow angles and snowball fights! Alas, today I was on an adulting mission which sadly left no time for childish snow games.

I gobbled down my free breakfast, warmed up my car and headed out the door. Unfortunately, on the way to the car Dingo had her first exposure to salt on her delicate little lady-paws. She went from fully embracing the youthful thrill of frolicking in the snow, to being completely incapacitated within 2 seconds.  The pain and confusion was evident in her face!  It’s like she was saying “who put acid on the sidewalk!?”

Thankfully, the staff at the hotel were wonderful! Not only did they help me wipe of dingo’s paws, but they gave me a trick of the Wyoming winter trade. Apparently Preparation H heals hurt puppy paws from salt (and burns of all shapes and sizes).

Thus commenced my first lesson of the day!  

(Sad dingo hates acid sidewalks)

As I hit the road, I decided to drive through Nebraska to Omaha, rather than through South Dakota due to possible weather challenges. I can’t say it was a particularly eventful drive, but I did learn more than the Preparation H trick.

(If I’m being honest, I most likely won’t be buying hemorrhoid cream on the off chance dingo hurts her paws on salt again. That said, it’s good information to have should the situation become dire.)

So, hemorrhoid’s aside, I did learn a few other things today.

First, this may surprise you, but Nebraska’s rest stops are the first rest stops I’ve seen in the United States with unisex bathrooms. As someone who frequently gets told I’m in the wrong bathroom, this is a wonderful treat! Granted, they’re not lush like those in Utah, but the gift of being able to avoid the side-eye of other bathroom goers made the rest stop experience quite enjoyable! 

In fact, I was having such a pleasant time at one of the rest stops that I wandered around and found something I never expected to find near a public toilet.  A Historic Placard!

Apparently at the site where they built the rest stop you could still see the indentations in the earth made by the thousands of wagons that brought families westward!

It was incredible to see that the markings were still visible and to think how many hundreds of thousands of people followed that path while dreaming of a new life on the west coast. I also thought about my drive over the last couple days.  Those settlers still had mountains, deserts and long cold valleys to get across before making it to California.  From this point, they were still around 1500 miles away.  It really put their whole journey into perspective.

My second lesson of the day is more of a theoretical physics lesson.  It’s simply that space is relative. You see, Nebraska is a state with a lot of excess land. So much so that you can drive a hundred miles and barely see any structures.  Just lots of hills, farmland and grass.

So, as a result, when you see a sign on the highway advertising, let’s say, Starbucks, you can’t assume that the Starbucks will be near the exit. The sign is merely saying, “somewhere in a 10 mile radius of this exit there is a Starbucks.”  While this is just a theory, my suspicion is that this is because there’s just so much space in Nebraska they spread everything out.

My third take away from today’s drive is that Nebraska has the friendliest God billboards. Unfortunately I’ve become pretty used to the billboards advertising my doomed soul, criticizing evolution and proclaiming I have one last chance before the Earth swallows me whole and I get pitchforked for eternity.  

In Nebraska they’re taking another approach. It actually made this little sinner’s heart smile seeing a sign that read “Jesus is your friend and he’s asking you to please read his book.” I mean, how could you not want to make Jesus happy when he’s being so polite. I feel like he’d be really happy to learn that his book is a best seller.

My final take away is a simple one, but one that made today’s long drive just a little easier. In fact, it’s less a lesson than a big broad thank you to the state of Nebraska. Thank you Nebraska for knowing how to drive. Thank you for using the fast lane to pass, for driving slowly in snow, and for being thoughtful of your fellow drivers. You made my day!