Tuesday’s Start
The dawn broke in Omaha with a short rain, the temperature still moderate,
but threatening to soar. Deb and I rousted out and I started preparing the
car. Deb stepped out of the shower to the ringing phone. Clients wanting to
go ahead and book the huge cruise they had discussed the day before. She
talked them through it, sitting in her bathrobe, contacted the cruise line,
booked the trip and then called the client back to explain the necessary info,
along the way explaining to one of the couples how she needed to get her
passport updated immediately. Directions to the passport office were given.
Before she could finish the phone rang again with another client wanting to book their cruise. That done, she finished up
and got dressed, two major bookings completed
and another small crisis solved.
We loaded the sleek Toyota Avalon sedan that
was the purpose of this trip, and headed out at
10:30, about 2 hours behind our intended
departure. We texted our traveling partners,
Tom, Kevin & Liam (TKL) to let them know of our
late departure. They were only about 15
minutes ahead of us so not so bad. (By the way,
Liam is the wonderful black Scotty Terrier who is
the third person of this trio moving to Tucson.)
As we reached Kearney on I-80, traffic slowed to
a crawl and we learned that Kearney received
8.5 inches of rain overnight, causing the Platte
to overflow, flood parts of the city, and cause the
closing of the main exit into Kearney. The
flooded banks of the Platte continued on, past
Lexington and further as we traveled west.
We passed TKL just west of Kearney and agreed
to stop for gas, a stretch and driver change in
Gothenburg.
After Gothenburg, with Deb now in our driver’s seat, we continued our
western run. Just west of Ogallala, we dropped onto I-76 for the run towards
Denver. Having made this trip before, and given the time of day, we opted to
avoid the traffic around Denver, getting off the freeway at Ft. Morgan,
dropping due south on US 71, then at Limon to US 24 on our run into
Colorado Springs. Tom had told us in Gothenburg that he had booked at
LaQuinta in Colorado Springs, so we made the call and secured a room. Who
knew there were multiple LaQuinta hotels in Colorado Springs?
We arrived around 6:30 (7:30 body time due to time change) and settled into
our room after a 9 hour drive. We texted TKL and learned they were still 30
minutes out. Not sure if they stayed on the freeway the entire way or made a
second Liam stop.
As we had polished off our sandwiches for dinner, we opted to stay in and
dine on a snack of goldfish crackers and red wine. How haute cuisine we are. We walked around the hotel grounds a bit to stretch our legs, marvelled at the 14% humidity and fell
into bed around 10:00, tired but glad to be on the road again.
Tomorrow we separate from TKL as they continue direct to Tucson and we head across Colorado
towards Mesa Verde National Park for a look see.
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