Part Twenty

"Vacation Oddities"

It has been 20 years since I first came out to the Midwest. That day, October 12, 1997, was like something out of Oz. Other than going to see my kids before Christmas every year, that first trip came with a lot of firsts. Flying out of T.F. Green in Providence to Baltimore Washington International in Baltimore to Midway in Chicago. Getting my bags and then onto a shuttle to get my car, a 1997 Mercury Mystique which put my Plymouth K-Car to shame. Across Illinois, Iowa and into Nebraska and as far west as North Platte. That trip laid the groundwork for future trips.

One thing I have learned in putting these trips together is to get a list of hotels to come back to for future trips. Now some of these are the small operations compared to your larger hotel chains. Choice Hotels wins out as my favorite chain. Clean rooms. Great Wi-Fi. Very comfortable beds. HDTV.

Then there is the Western Midtown Inn when I stay in Kearney. HDTV is OK. Clean rooms. Good beds and WI-Fi. Great staff.

And then you come to the hotel I stayed at in Durango. The very shitty Wi-Fi.  Noisy upstairs clients playing the most obnoxious type of rap on a mini boom box outside their open room door, and no telephones in the rooms. And did I tell you about the full size bath towel that went Moses/Red Sea across my back after a shower?!

And another thing. Not to be prudish or anything or dirty bathroom talk, but what is it with the placement of toilet paper roll??!! Seriously, I'm not kidding!! In your home, you know where the roll is: to your left or right at knee level and just right there. Period. End of story. Not in some of these hotels. Some of them are way behind you to the point that you just might pull or pop a muscle. What is with  these room designers, anyway??!! End of putty rant.

Anyway, I saw a few interesting items on my way from Sidney to Kearney. UP kept the entertainment going as seen along US 30 just east of Sidney:

And a long double stack along US 385 in Julesburg:

And it appears that the grain elevators in some towns are full and the only place to dump the corn kernels is on the ground and in huge piles:

Once the UP can get more empties back here then the corn will be loaded up and be brought to market.

And one more item:

What you are looking at is the back end of a flatbed tractor trailer carrying hay bales. And these things are big!! If you look at this one photo:

The bails look like dropped chads from a bad election. A farmer runs a tractor across his fields and the baler binds together the hay with bail wire and spits them out the back. After all of the potty talk earlier, I will leave you to Google for the image.

Saturday it is back to my municipal parking lot office in Kearney to write, sit back and watch the trains roll by. Hate to leave but Monday is departure day back to Connecticut. We have one more part in this great journey. Please, stay tuned.

I am Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Kearney, Nebraska.