North Platte - I don't know if it is our impeccable timing or what, but every time we stop in North Platte, the place is packed. North Platte is a third of the way from our house to my parents house, so it is a good landing spot when we are taking the trip in three days.
One time we got there and none of the hotels had rooms. We ended up staying in a little run down motel way inside town. It was some sort of Hunting/Fishing weekend. Another time we saw all kinds of birds in the sky while we were coming, turns out cranes were migrating, people were headed towards Eastern Nebraska to see the migration. This time the place was packed, which was strange because no one was on the road going Eastbound. Turns out there was a rodeo in town this weekend or something. Good thing we made a reservation in advance...
Except for the big cities, there was less people on the road today than yesterday. Kinda strange for the summer time. Things were fairly uneventful for us, except for two exceptions.
In Iowa, at a rest stop, I was at the van changing Adam's diaper, a lady came up to me and asked if I knew anything about cars. I turned around, and told her that I thought the smoke coming out of the engine was not a good sign. I went over there, and she was leaking fluid, it was all over her engine , brakes, tires, etc. I told her that was also not a good sign. Big help, I know. I don't know if it was transmission fluid or antifreeze, she told me she was driving, and the van started doing funny things, she was afraid to take it over forty. I guess she was less than an hour from home, her son was in the van, and tried to start it, but it didn't. She asked me if I thought it was ok to drive it to the next exit to get some motor oil. I told her it wasn't motor oil, and if it was me, I would be driving it. When we left, they were sitting there waiting for her husband to come. Adam took a swan dive out of the car at this rest stop while this was happening, he had a bunp on his head, but seemed ok. He still seems ok long hours later.
All trip long, I have been 4 miles per hour over the speed limit. Shocking I know. Shortly after crossing into Illinois, I saw two cops running a little trap. The one pointed our way jumped out as I passed, the other positioned to cover both directions. My only thought was "He is not going to pull me over for four miles an hour, is he?" He hung out in the other lane for a few minutes, right in my earhole, then finally got behind us and pulled us over.
When he came up tothe van, he asked if everyone had seatbelts. Then he asked if I had anything on my record, which I don't. He had me hobble over to his car while he checked things out. We shot the breeze for a few minutes, then he wrote me a warning. Looks like we will be going exactly the speed limit, at least to the Indiana border.
About a mile down the road, another cop was sitting there, facing the other way. When he saw me, he started backing out like he was going after me, but then stopped. We figure they were on the lookout for a white van. We went over a hundred miles into Illinois, there were a ton of cops out on the road. Kind of disportionate to the actual number of people on the road. I half expected to get pulled over again for no particular reason whatsoever, but it didn't happen a second time. Good thing I got the headlight fixed before we left, otherwise I would have been pulled over about a dozen times, I bet...
Tomorrow - Toll Road day.
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