BACK: Marathon Road Trip, The Saga Begins

Two Unexpected Adventures!

Day 2: Salt Lake City to Eaton, Colorado

So, the plan was to drive to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and stay the for the night. We were still in get-east-as-quick-as-possible mode, and weren't figuring on doing anything special besides look at the view from the window.

Here we are at a rest stop in Wyoming. I tried to get pictures of us in each state we visited. At this point in the trip, I was still succeeding. We didn't get to see as much wildlife on this trip as I had hoped, but here in Wyoming we did get to see quite a few prong-horned antelope, and the occasional buffalo!

Anyway, in SLC we were still in touch by cell phone^* with my folks, who were on their own road trip in their motor home (our trips would merge soon, as you'll see). They told me my cousin Scott Haley was now living in Eaton, Colorado, less than an hour from Cheyenne, and that he had invited us to stay with him for the evening!

So, at Laramie, Wyoming we left I-80 and headed down US 287 towards Fort Collins.

Back in SLC, when I was updating my travel plans, I noticed that Fort Collins was near Greeley, and I knew Nina's dad had grown up in that area, and somewhere around there was the town her great-grandfather had founded.

But Severance, Colorado was not on any of my road maps. I called Nina to try to find out where it was. After searching the internet, we discovered that it lies a mere 5 miles away from our destination of Eaton! So of course we had to stop there for a visit! We all sent postcards from there to Colonel Dave E. Severance. Severance consists of a post office, a gas station, an abandoned dance hall, and Bruce's Bar, where we opted not to eat, although the specialty was awfully tempting.

Then, it was down the road to Eaton, where we had no trouble finding the cozy home of my cousin Scott. It had been 20 years since I'd seen Scott, and of course none of us had met his family. We had a wonderful evening. The kids got along and we got caught up on many years of news.

Our hosts treated us to a wonderful dinner of homemade tacos. After a fews days of roadside fast food, this sure was a welcome meal! Seated around the dinner table, clockwise from left: Caleb, Jacob, David, Kelly, Sierra, Scott.

The kids played together in the back yard. We got to listen to a demo CD of Scott & Kelley's band. We talked about family, about travel, about where we want to live and what we want to do with our lives. It was great to get reacquainted with Scott, and to meet his wonderful family. His daughter has an amazing talent for painting -- expect to see her stuff hanging in a museum someday!

Day 3: Eaton to Lincoln.

The next morning, Kelly was off to work very early, but Scott made us bagels for breakfast and sent us on our way. Our original itinerary had called for us to reach Council Bluffs, Iowa, just across the Missouri from Omaha. With our recent adventures, this plan wasn't quite so realistic anymore. This was also the day we were going to meet up with my folks, who had been in Eaton the day before us, but who were traveling at a more leisurely pace in their Southwind motor home.

To make a short story really short, we scratched the council bluffs idea and we met up in Lincoln, Nebraska [I don't have any pix of this part]. The folks were having some trouble with the motor home and had to stay in Lincoln to have things looked at in the morning. We, on the other hand, were on a mission that required us to be in Omaha for breakfast.

NEXT EXIT:
Donuts, Norwegians and Mosquitoes

^*The struggles with my state-of-the art digital PCS cellphone were an adventure in themselves. Suffice it to say that Silicon Valley may be wired for digital service, but most of the country still isn't, so if you're planning a cross country trek, my advice is to go analog!