The Eagle Has Landed

We got up pretty early, thanks to Nebraska being an hour behind home, thus waking up at a normal time did not feel all that hard and meant that we were up earlier than expected. Sal and I didn't get a good dinner last night because of when we got in and what was around the hotel. Sal was fine, but I was hungry. So, we headed down and got some breakfast at the breakfast bar. Sal really loves this part of staying in hotels. In fact, she talked about it all day about how we got to eat breakfast, and she stayed in a hotel. Thought she did not like the idea that we were staying in Nebraska. She kept saying, "No! It not braska!" Despite what I said the idea of being in Nebraska was totally not allowable. So we ate our breakfast and got on the road for a much shorter day on the road.

I have to say that Nebraska is the worst. There is freaking nothing there, it's so empty, but not in a good way. There was very little in the way of good places to stop, and the entire state smells like shit. Some areas more than others, for example the numerous cattle feed areas, which were unbearable. Like, I've smelled shit, but this was so much, and so terrible and was just so strong the even with all the windows closed and the vents closed it was still strong for so many miles after we passed it. We ended up stopping right before we left Nebraska to get gas, and can someone tell me how these moths ended up inside the gas screen? I also had to help these young kids with how to turn on the pumps because they were older pumps where you have to life a handle to get the pump to actually start working. It was amusing, and they were quite thankful for the help.

We made it to Colorado early in the afternoon, and it really wasn't quite what I expected it to be. At first it was a lot flatter on the north eastern side of the state. It had a kind of prairie feel to it, through it was a little more hilly than you would think. Not like big hills like the Appalachian sort of hills but still abundantly hilly. We then finished the drive to Denver and made it to Kara's house. It was kind of cloudy, so I couldn't see the mountains, and the area seemed nice. We're going to be here in the Denver area for a few days, going to see a few fun things, visit Denver, see some nature, and visit with the Schultz family. They keep advocating for us to move out here, though I feel uncomfortable being so far form large bodies of water. I don't know why. It's weird. Jasmine and Becky arrived later tonight. Thus begins our out west vacation.

Picture(s) of the Day: 
Picture 108
We had to stop at Target to pick up a few things, and of course Sal insisted that we go to visit the Colorado Target dog. She really loves that freaking dog.

On The Road

Today we headed out on our trip, that as I said yesterday that I haven't planned for anything. This trip was very stressful, and I couldn't really come up with a plan. As of right now, I still don't have a plan past getting to Kara's in Colorado. Well, today Sal and I set out on our big road trip across half the country. Our trip is going to get us out to Nebraska where we'll stay tonight and then drive the rest of the way tomorrow. It's going to be quite a drive for just the two of us, and I'm not sure how Sal will do with such a long drive. She's usually a trooper, and today she did a great job considering the long drive we took, but we made a lot of stops along the way.

Our first stop was for lunch, which was right over the border in Indiana. This actually was almost a calamity, because Sal was really ready for lunch, and was pretty excited that we were stopping at "Donald's" for some "nugs and fries." So, we get out of the car and head in, she's totally ready for our pitstop, and we head in to get lunch. So as I'm standing there in line waiting to order, I notice that for some reason the menu is still showing all the breakfast items.  What's the reason for that? It's 11 something, we are solidly in the lunch period, what the heck is going on. Well, brilliant me, we just shifted time zones when we crossed the border out of Michigan, and it's now 10 something. Well, luckily for us, while we're waiting and I"m contemplating the possible meltdown that will result from not getting her nugs and fries, we hit the lunch time, and we can order our happy meal and have a nice little lunch.

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. Sal was a trooper, she did well without freaking out too much. She got a little bored with her activities and watched a little Netflix. Thankfully Netflix lets you download some things for watching offline. We made a number of stops along the way, I found the Iowa stops to be interesting. We stopped at a couple and they had these strange sculptures, which were kind of interesting. I also appreciated that they had family bathrooms, because mens rooms don't always have changing stations, and Sal also has issues with the loud flushing noises. It was a peaceful drive, lots of fields. Sal enjoyed the corn fields, and remembers that our corn in the garden was attacked by raccoons, and they pulled down some of the corn to nom on it. So when I told her we were passing corn and she started noticing it when we passed fields, she started saying "Dat corn! Der a raccoon in it! GET OUTTA THERE RACCOONS!"

We finally arrived in Nebraska and got checked into our hotel. Sal seemed to have a problem with the idea that we were staying in Nebraska. Every time she asked where we were and I told her in Nebraska, she would get kind of mad and say, "NO! DAT NOT BRASKA!" I ended up not getting dinner because I couldn't stomach the thought of fast food, and there also were very few choices. I even looked at the hotel "cafe" but they were sold out of just about everything except some weird TV dinners and microwave burritos that I was in no way interested in. It was actually a pretty view looking out of our hotel, and overall was a quite peaceful drive. Tomorrow we are driving the rest of the way to Colorado, where we'll meet up with Jasmine and Becky who got to fly out to save us a day of vacation time.

Picture(s) of the Day: 
Picture 107
This was taken in Iowa while we were headed to Colorado. Sal was not happy about having to go in the family rest room so that we could change her diaper. As a reward for doing such a good job I let her pick a snack from the vending machine. She was super excited about this, and her first choice was jalapeño Cheetos, but I convinced her that she wouldn't like that, and she decided regular would work.

Travel Block

I can not plan this trip, and technically I leave tomorrow. I mean, the first part of the trip is kind of planned because we're staying with Kara and Fam. That makes things a little easier because I don't have to really do any planning for anything until Monday.

At the same time, I've also planned nothing. This is a problem

Picture(s) of the Day: 
Picture 106
The Whittaker Turkey tribute has a new addition, a windsock thing of a turkey. There was also an article on the turkey in The Atlantic.

Goals Check In - August Edition

Time stops for no one, and here we go with my annual goals check in after the first month of the second half of the year.

Goal Number One - Read at least 12 books: Thanks to grad classes I already have seven book down. So far I have finished Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade, The First Crusade and the Idea of Crusading, De Profectione Ludovici VII in Orientem, Lionhearts: Saladin, Richard I, and the Era of the Third Crusade, The Fourth Crusade, Carthage Must Be Destroyed: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Civilization, and March: Book Three. I'm a good portion through The Silkwork, which is one of the mystery books that J.K. Rowling did under the name Robert Galbraith. I'm also sure that I'll have to read some books for my next semester, so I'm not worried about this goal.

Goal Number Two - Lose 1.25 pounds per week: I'm still about 2 pounds down from the start of the year, and I've started working out more this week. I've also cleared out an area in the basement that I'm going to dedicate to gym activities. So, behind for the year, but progress for the month.

Goal Number Three - Log my meals and activity every day: I still have 100% on this one!

Goal Number Four - Digitize and organize my photos: Nothing new was scanned this month, but it's also been a crazy busy month. I'll see if I can get some done in August.  But still, the 400 old photos from relatives makes this year far more busy than last year.

Goal Number Five - Landscape the backyard: I'm worried this won't be a thing this year.

Goal Number Six -  Create a longterm goals list:  No list yet, but I do have a mental list of a couple dozen ideas. Mini-goal is to have at least a rough draft list started by next check in.

Goal Number Seven - Have Seven New Experiences:  Well, I've got quite a number of new experiences to add on to the list, thanks to our trip to NYC. I got to see three new shows that I've never seen before, Sunset Boulevard, with the amazing Glen Close, Anastasia (a huge disappointment), and Amelie which was absolutely fantastic. We also visited the Grange (Hamilton's home in New York), the New York Public Library, and Hamilton's grave at Trinity Church. I'm not sure if I should count all of those things individually or group them into new shows and new places. We also got to see Hamilton at the end of June, and I visited the new locations of Antietam, Yorktown, Monticello and Mount Vernon. I'm not sure how many that counts as. If I count each of them individually it's 12. If I bunch them I could say I saw a new play on Broadway, a play with a famous actress, visited Hamilton sites, saw Hamilton, visited Civil War battlefields, and visited presidential houses, and visited  Revolutionary war site, which would equal 7. I also have to add going to the Belfer Conference in July to my list of experiences, and it was quite the experience. So that would mean with grouping I'm at 8, without I'm at 13. We're also heading out west and I'll have another string of them soon.

That's a wrap for July, on to August.

Picture(s) of the Day: 
Picture 105
A lovely photo of one of my wild flowers. I really wish I had a macro lens, because this flower would be perfect for it.