After Father's Day brunch, I hugged my dad and aunt goodbye and shoved off. I am so glad that I made the trip to Chicago. It gave me a chance to spend quality time with my aunt whom I rarely see except in large family special occasions. As Debra put it, it was a 'special' visit and I am thankful for it.
Though there was quite a bit of traffic for a Sunday, the miles passed easily. I listened to Alex and Me, an audiobook given to me from my dear friend Lorraine. My first night's destination was to be Madison County, Iowa roughly 325 miles west. yes, that Madison County. I figured I'd sleep under a covered bridge and have breakfast in the Winterset cafe.
I reached the Winterset turn off around 5:30. I wasn't really tired and it was over 90 and humid. I grappelled with the decision to spend the night or push on. What was I going to do with myself for the 5 hours until I fell asleep? How would I endure the heat and humidity? On the other hand, I read the book and saw the movie and when else would I have a chance to go see Madison County?
I made the turn and drove the 22 miles to the campground. The campground was mainly populated by yahoos in RVs. There was a copperhead snake sunning himself in the road in the campground. I'm not a snake fan. Then I noticed that there was no cell service. I decided to push on.
There was a campground just northeast of Omaha next to a wildlife refuge near the Missouri River. I figured I could get up early and take a walk and admire the birds. After a few wrong turns and a few country roads, I righted myself on route 80. I was burning daylight. I arrived at the little access road to the campground around 8:30 pm only to find it closed. Oh no! What to do? I quickly pulled over and studied the maps for other campgrounds nearby and there was one just west of Omaha. I went to take the direct route to Omaha and it too was closed, due to flooding. Damn, damn, damn! I turned around and retraced the 17 miles back to route 80. No sooner had I turned around when my gas light went on. Damn, damn, damn. It was getting dark and I had no place to sleep and no gas.
I made it back to route 80 slowly to conserve gas. Luckily for me, I caught a break. The first exit on route 80 had a gas station and a camping sign. I inquired about the campground in the gas station and found out it was nice and family oriented. Big sigh of relief!
I pulled in to Arrowhead Lake campground around 9:00 ish and with a flurry of activity managed to get camp set up before nightfall. It was a humid little valley with mosquitoes and I was camped amongst RVs but at least they were families. I would later learn that these people had to evacuate their homes and were there for 2 weeks. I would also learn that this is the only campground open for miles. I noticed thunderheads in the distance and knew that I would be putting my new tent to the test. I had the foresight to bring an umbrella and rain jacket into the tent. Thunder came and the dog in the RV barked and barked. Can't I catch a break? I put ear plugs in and fell asleep only to be wakened by a heavy thunderstorm overhead. It's been a while since I have been in a thunderstorm. Was it safe to camp in a field? I didn't know and was too tired to reason it out so I climbed in my car. I slept only to be awakened by the next squall. I slept off and on like this until 8:30 when I packed up my wet tent (dry on the inside!), took a hot shower (hooray!), and hit the road.
I stopped in Lincoln, NE to resupply. I found a cracker barrel and went in to rent an audiobook since I had just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns and had none left. I got back on the road and noticed it had gotten windy with gusts up to 40. The Yakima Rack on top of my car is like a sail, so I had to hold on to the wheel with 2 hands at all times. Not the relaxing drive that I hoped for, but I prayed for nothing worse. I knew that more thundershowers were forecast. My next stop was a rest area. I checked the weather and severe storms with damaging hail and high winds were forecast. Shit. I pushed on trying to beat them at one point they were closing in on me. I kept going eyeballing potential places to pullover in case necessary, but there aren't a lot of exits from rte 80 in NE. I essentially made a decision every time I passed a rest area to push on. At one point the eye of the storm was only a few miles away or at least it seemed that way but it's tough to tell because NE is so flat.
In the end, I managed to avoid the eye of the storm and made it safely into Colorado. I arrived at my friend Leith's house in soul-less suburbia outside of Denver around 11 hours after I left camp.
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