After being gone just over 19 days on the last trip we arrived home on very early on Monday January 7th. On the Morning of the 11th we left for work like any other day, but a few hours later we left San Jose to head back to Nebraska.
We left up through Jackson, and eventually hit highway 50. This trip wasn’t about adventure or sight seeing, but we still didn’t want to suffer through interstate 80 again. At Fallon we stopped for dinner and attempted a couple of local joints. One had a wait, and the other was closed, we ended up with option 3 which was a Pizza Hut attached to a Gas Station. As you can imagine it wasn’t worth taking photos of.
Stokes Castle was the only photography stop we made, and the same overly bright lights that drew our attention to the castle also made shooting it a bit tough. Of course the trips sense of urgency and bitter cold weather probably also played a role in that. We’ll try again sometime I’m sure.
We ended the day at a random camp site a few miles off of Highway 50.
January 12th…. Birthday wishes do come true.
I started off my Birthday by waking up to 14 below temperatures and then for added fun we continued it by cruising through Ely Nevada which was just down the road from our camp ground.
At Salina Utah we made a quick stop to freshen up before leaving Highway 50 behind and moving on to Interstate 70. The weather on tap was brisk with a side of freezing rain. You know to make things interesting.
This guy actually passed us for going too slow on the roads that were quickly icing over. There were already enough people stopped by the time we arrived on scene, so we did not stop to see how he came out.
Somewhere around 5pm we stopped in Eagle Colorado for dinner. After an hour at Luigi’s Pasta House, we ended up grabbing a hotel and calling it a day.
From Eagle to Omaha, was a pretty quick and uneventful drive. It was a bit cold and frosty in places, but when arrived in Omaha around dinner time.
Monday morning was the operation we drove back for. This was “we don’t know if he’s strong enough to survive it” operation. Most of the family was on hand and things we well. By mid afternoon we were visiting in ICU. Until the first time he moved he didn’t believe had even been through surgery yet. As it turns out, moving with a couple hundred staples in you will convince you in a hurry. To round out the day’s fun we stopped at Jack & Mary’s with my mom for repeat dinner from our last trip.
Before heading to the hospital on Tuesday we stopped by the outlet mall in Gretna. Friendly people and stores with room to walk made this a vastly different experience than California. In fact it was kind of nice. This might be why I buy more clothes on “vacation” than I ever do at home.
By Thursday pops was out of ICU and back to his “usual floor” to finish recovery.
We spent most of the day at my parent sewing machine store where I starting snapping product photos to help out with the upcoming website I’m working on for them. The other stop of the day was Creative Hair Designs to get freshened up. Prices have gone up since I came here 10 years ago, but at least the service was still top notch.
Friday started off at my parent store, but Omaha got hit with freezing drizzle. Smart people probably would have headed back to their hotel. Pops wanted Godfathers, and you don’t have to twist my arm very much to get me to head out for a Pizza this good. Since their Aksarben location was close to the hospital we stopped in and then took a to go order to pops. The roads were a bit sketchy in spots, but the Toyo’s hung on well, and we didn’t die, so that was a plus.
We did a bit of site seeing stopping at the Flat Iron Building and Memorial Park on our round about way to the hospital.
Sunday and Monday were the drive home. Sunday we a straight drive down good ol interstate 80. Rather than camp this time we went with the sub par hotel route. It was quick, mostly painless, and again not worth taking pictures of.
Monday was another fairly easy highway drive. Some strong winds and a bit of snow here and there, but overall pretty un-eventful. Until we hit that California boarder. The chain patrol was on full look out and while we were fine on the mostly dry roads in 2wd they were still requiring 2wd vehicles to chain up and slow to a crawl. It did give us a chance to snap a couple shots of the avalanche areas that were closed down on our last return trip.
To come full circle, we finished up the trip with a stop to the Sacramento location of Godfathers.
