1 city bus to Des Moines IA

... spending the night at Omaha NE

Long day yesterday, for us. 550 miles.

Not sure what was going on last night. On both my two laptops that I carry with ... the mouse would not respond properly. When I was at the desk in the room. When I moved six feet away from the desk all was OK. But it took a while for me to move, not knowing why the computers were acting that way. Still do not. There was a loud humming at that time. It wasn't the elevator because that was not running all the time but was running later when the humming was gone and the mouse was OK at the desk.

They had a good spread but it was a yogurt day. They also had bottled juice, they kind I carry with so I took one of those also.

We leave at our usual time, but on local time.

Our first stop is at the WalMart in Sidney. Six rows of semi's across the parking lot. In Walmart we find the personal product BB was looking for and then the Allen Wrenches she wanted. These also come with the start wrenches we want so this is good. Hope the WalMart wrenches are.

2nd stop was to eat in North Platte. We had looked at a couple of other places but ended up at the Loves and eating shelf food. Our other choices were McD's and Subway. Today the shelf food looked better.

When we pulled off the freeway there was a large homeless man on the ditch bank. He seemed to have all his belongings wrapped in his quilt. He had been sitting there when we got there and by the time we left he was laying down. No snow here but the ground is not all that warm yet.

Our only fuel today is at the TA in Alda. I could see an empty island from the highway but when we got there, there was a line at all islands. Took a half hour today. Price for cheap fuel I guess. Still getting good mileage even with a cross wind. Close to 40 mph so it is throwing me pretty good. At one point where the highway was three lanes wide, I noticed four cars in a row move to the far lane to pass me. They must have seen how I was all over the lane.

We have seen a couple of rolled semi's in the last two days. Today they were going to try to flip the trailer upright in one piece. One place yesterday the contents were spread at least two truck lengths from the remains of the trailer.

We do a quick stop at a rest area near Milford. 150 miles is too far to go in one shot. And <> 500 miles is enough to go in one day. There is really only one nicer hotel between Omaha and Des Moines and to make it to Des Moines it is another 140 miles.

BB was able to get us a rental car. The cheapest she could find is actually one going to Mason City so we don't even need to drive it back to MN. Wish we'd find those when we are heading right back out.

Final stop is the Comfort Inn in Omaha ... and it may be the final time. The first thing we see is a (?) homeless person sleeping next to their pool as we walk in. Then we seen all their elevators are out of service. We don't want to deal with finding another hotel so once we agree to two Queens instead of one King they get us down to the 3rd floor.

Still, with a bus, we need to carry all of our stuff in every night. That was our workout.

Then the in-house restaurant is closed today so we get to go next door for some more shelf food. Another chicken salad sandwich for me.

We are in our room a few minutes and we get a knock on the door. They say they are from the front desk so I open. They say they have our luggage. But it isn't ours. Someone had left their luggage at the front desk. I'm guessing it was the couple who was checking in when we did. They didn't seem to be the kind who would carry their own luggage.

1st stop - WalMart in Sidney

2nd - Loves in North Platte food

3rd - TA in Alda for fuel

4th - rest area near Milford

5th - Comfort Inn in Omaha

6th - Casey's for food

Tomorrow. Two and a half hours to the rental car place. Then less than five miles to the truckstop and wash. I should have enough fuel but will need to add DEF.

Then another 10 miles are so to the drop. From there it is two hours to our car. 30 miles to return the rental and another 3 hours home. Should make it by tomorrow night.