Saturday Night In Kearney Nebraska! PARTY TIME!

I left you kidz after breakfast this morning, we were packed & ready to roll!  As you may recall, the nice Hampton Inn people let us park under the canopy in case it rained overnight.  (Better security, too!)  As I started loading my bike, I noticed that it had gotten wet!  No big deal.  It's not gonna melt or anything!  I figured it was REALLY windy and rainy.  I looked around and everything else was dry....Hmmmnnnn....interesting.  I then realize that my bike is parked right next to an in-ground sprinkler!  Bahahahaha!!!!!  So I had a wet ass most of the morning!  Hahaha!!!!  Oh Well!  We were in a hurry to leave Davenport.  The skies were looking pretty dark and the wind was kicking up.  We were on the northern outskirt of Isaac and luckily he was a slow mover!  The ride this morning was AWESOME!!!!!  Lots o' cloud cover and cool temps!  We left the hotel and I immediately realized that I forgot to put my phone on "airplane mode", which means it's gonna chew up battery whilst searching for a signal in the land of corn & wind turbines!  Luckily, our first stop was only 20 miles down the road....The World Famous Iowa-80!  The World's Largest Truck Stop....and Dog-O-Mat, too!  YAY!!!!!  Here's Tom pointing it out!!!!

As we were exiting, I saw a Trucker that looked just like Santa Claus walking his Chihuahua.  I wondered if he used the Dog-O-Mat!  We took some pix and video and headed west, still beating the rain!

The sun finally came out and I was ready to take my leather off at our first gas stop.  I mentioned to Tom that I only saw 2 wind turbines so far!  He points over my shoulder...OK.  3 wind turbines so far!  There must be more turbines in Northern Iowa than Southern Iowa!  We gas up and head on down the road.  Not even a half-mile later....WIND TURBINES!!!!  TONS O' WIND TURBINES!!!!  They are the coolest things to see when there's a whole bunch of them.  It's almost eerie!  At one rest area we passed they had a turbine blade as a centerpiece monument!  Some places have totem poles, Iowa has a turbine blade!  The weather was awesome and the traffic flowed smoothly...Iowa has drivers that understand the purpose of the passing lane!  Pretty cool!

We passed a whole bunch of signs for museums and famous-birth places.  I didn't know Bob Feller was from Iowa!  I'm assuming he was since they have a Bob Feller Museum there!  We went through John Wayne's birth-town and also went past the Iowa Speedway in Newton.  They stole the date for the Mansfield truck race...but I digress!  We passed the Union Pacific railroad museum....so many places I would've like to seen if we had more time!  I saw another sign....by this time I was hot & tired...the best I could make out is that it was the Pure Prairie League Museum....but that makes no sense!  I must've read it wrong!

As we neared the Nebraska border...and our lunch stop in Omaha, it began to get pretty steamy and the traffic started getting heavier...and ruder!

Our lunch stop was at Starsky's, which was featured on Man Vs. Food Nation.  Their claim to fame is their "Pig Wings"!  From what I remember of the episode, they come from the "shins" of the pig, smoked and then sauced. We chose the Hot and the BBQ.  They come with a side of corn nuggets, which look like hush puppies but are filled with cream corn and chunks of kernels!  YUMMOOOOO!!!!!

The last 180 miles after that wasn't easy, with a belly full of food, sun in my eyes, and 90-degree temps!  I was happy to see our last gas stop!  We fueled up the bikes and fueled ourselves with water and Gatorade.  I soaked my shirt with the bathroom sink faucet....that should stay wet for about 10 minutes!  As we were leaving the gas stop, A group of bikes pulled up.  I noticed one guy was wearing a Hale's Harley Davidson shirt from Mansfield, Ohio. (Which is a coincidence, because I was thinking about the Mansfield Truck race earlier in the day....but again, I digress!)  We chatted with them for a couple minutes.  Half their group was from Missouri and the rest was from Toledo, Ohio.  They were heading for Deadwood and it was their first time there.  I told them they would LOVE it!  It's one of my favorite places on earth!  

All in all, Nebraska wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be!  Lots of corn...lots of dried-out brown corn.  :-(  It wasn't as flat as I thought it would be.  It's actually better than Kansas!  Kansas is AWFUL!  (I'm not sure how much more of Nebraska I'll see tomorrow...I just may change my mind!)

As we neared Kearney, there was this funky bridge-type thing across the interstate....I found out later that it was the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument.  Weird..... http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/9790 

So that sums up our day, I guess.  And it's really NOT a rip-roaring night in Nebraska.  We got a pizza and a six pack of Bud Light and here we sit, watching 48 Hours on the TV!  

I'm excited about tomorrow!  Dinner with friends in Colorado!  One is a Solonite that I haven't seen since the 80's!!!