973.8 Miles

We're home.  Settling back in.  Washer running.  Photos uploaded to Walgreen's to pick up later.  Everything put back in its place.

Vacation is technically over, and now it's time to reflect on all that we've experienced and enjoyed.

Our Hastings, Nebraska, experience was phenomenal.  Until 3:30 this morning.  But more on that later.  Yesterday was the beginning of a 3-day event celebrating Kool-Aid, which originated in Nebraska back in the 20's (under a different name).  While checking into the Comfort Inn on the south side of town, we enjoyed a wonderful visit with the desk clerk.  He proceeded to give us coupons for a free drink to Rivals Bar and Grill and gave us a menu for another place he'd give us coupons for the following evening.  Rivals was a great place and we were able to sit back and take care of emails and messages while enjoying a cold one.

Kool-Aid Days is a huge event than has attracted about 50,000 people each year.  We wanted to get a jump on it, and went to the Hastings Museum after lunch to get our fill of history, art, and Kool-Aid information.  As we were walking up towards the entrance, a local reported asked if she could interview us for a Kool-Aid spot on the news.  Heck, why not.  Most of you have seen this video we shot of the news over on Facebook, but here it is again.  I just don't want to lose this as we laughed so hard at what dorks we are.

Thought the iPad did pretty good actually - except it caught everything Bill and I said behind the 'camera'.

Didn't know we were going to be on TV, so shot a pic of ourselves off the hood of the car before we left.

I think we have both gained about 79.8 pounds on this trip.  Not eating in restaurants and eating in the hotel rooms means MORE food gets consumed.  (Yeah, the diet starts back up today.)  Bill thought it appropriate to wear his Pink Floyd t-shirt to the museum as their main display this summer is "Summer of Love - 1968 in America".  We absolutely adored the Kool-Aid portion of the exhibit!  It was bright, cheerful, colorful along with being interactive.  The 1968 exhibit was good, too, but realized that we probably had most of this stuff in our garage!  While looking at the guitar replicas that Paul McCartney and John Lennon had at that time and doing my own oo-ing and ah-ing, Bill chimes in and says, "Why don't they ever show the DRUMS???"  He was joking, of course, but it's a good question.

There were more animal displays in this museum that we'd ever encountered before.  Of course, there was a buffalo.......

.....enough said.

We totally enjoyed this whole experience, but decided it will be a LONG time before we do a museum or look at pioneer tools or Indian artifacts.  We are on history overload today, which isn't a bad thing at all.  We took the desk clerk's advice and went to Taylor's Steakhouse.  Yes, we took it back to the hotel to eat, and it was fantastic food!  The decor was right out of the 60's and 70's, but the food!!!  OOOOO, good stuff.  Highly recommend it.

Now back to why we are home a half day early.  At 3:30 this morning, our smoke alarm in our room started screeching and when we got up there was water coming down from the alarm, down the hotel door and a couple other places.  There was no fire, just someone above us forgot to turn the water off in his sink.  This same person woke us up at 3:30 the night before roaming around his room.  Anyway, by the time we notified the front desk, got more towels to wipe up the bathroom, put buckets and trashcans in place to catch the fast drips from the ceiling, we were stinking WIDE AWAKE!  We weren't about to move our junk from one room to another for only a few hours, and we had nothing super important planned for the day we wouldn't miss.  We just packed up and drove home.  Straight home, no stops, no coffee.

When the car was unloaded I was able to see all the beautiful yarns picked up in Scottsbluff at Brown Sheep Company.......

Yes, 7 bags full.  Two skeins had been pulled out mid-week to start a TygerLily bag and I've taken over my own OGI bag as the new knitting tote.

Life will now get back to normal.  Probably not many stories from us for awhile.  The coffee is on, and brunch  is being served (by Bill).  Bill really missed cooking - honestly.  He is happy to be back in his kitchen - I am, too.

A trip full of stories, memories and 973.8 adventurous miles.