23 June, 2000

States visited today: Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma

Total states seen: 5

Day 4

The next morning, I let Aaron sleep while I would see if the Ford dealership could fit me in. The truck was running much better, but I knew we needed to fix whatever was wrong with it. The Ford dealership said "Nope, not today", however no one was working on cars at this time, it was Friday-clean-up-the-garage-hour.

I went all over town looking for someone to think about dropping the tank. I did buy several fuel filters and the tool to help change them. Finally on the last place to check, they said no problem. They said that most of the auto shops in town "were lazy" as I had discovered. We raised the truck and first swapped out the fuel filter. The fuel was very dirty in the filter, and the truck now ran great. I decided that a tank drop wasn’t necessary at this time. I got Aaron, and packed our gear and had breakfast and hit the road.

We chugged down Kingsley Dam Nebraska and found the sign to Keystone. If you look to the left of the spillway, there is the campgrounds. The area below the dam was designed so that there are a lot of  nice spots with many of them having access to a "beach" We found the town; but the only paved road into town was the one we were on, the two roads out the other end saw turned to gravel. We chose the right one, for that one was headed closer to the freeway. The gravel road twisted and got smaller and we passed a farmhouse, then a stock pen. The road slowly turned NE, and we needed to head SE if we were ever to get to the freeway. . We were lost… we were just exploring. We backtracked ourselves to Keystone and stopped at the post office. They were closed for lunch so we asked a young mother where we were and how do we get Roscoe and I-80. She directed us down to a road we should have turned on. We headed down and found the road. No directional sign, just a street sign that said: "Keystone-Roscoe Rd". No wonder we didn’t see it.

We made it to a freeway and stopped at a rest area. We swapped CD’s and I had to laugh at a young couple caravanning in their mini-vans. They were swapping videotapes for the little ones to watch during the drive. Things sure have changed sense we traveled the southwest with up to 6 kids in the back of the pickup truck and old comic books to read. Talked with a man and his wife who were touring on a Harley Electra-glide, sure was a nice bike. Aaron looked at it, but then went back to the air-conditioned truck.. Aaron talks some tough Harley, but he’s got some toughing up to do…

The day was hot and we clogged up a gas station for a good 20 minutes filling up all three tanks. The gas was about 5 cents cheaper if you went north to highway 30 to fill up. The truck sputtered a little heading back to the freeway, but I wasn’t concerned. As we were tooling down the freeway, I spotted a Ford Explorer on the side and glimpsed a "need help" sign being out of the vehicle. We did a high-speed stop, and backed up on the side of the freeway to get closer to them. They were two retired teachers, on their way back from Goshen Oregon, (of all places) to there home in Omaha. She was thrilled when Aaron gave her the local paper he had bought "Look, local news!" Something had gone wrong with the transmission, and there was nothing I could do to fix it on the road. I suggested that I tow them to the truck stop some 3 or 4 miles up the freeway so they could see about getting help and get them off the freeway. We hooked up a tow strap and pulled them off the freeway. We left them at a truck stop and went inside for dinner. The server for the buffet was a 70+ year old guy that successfully "sold" the buffet to everyone. "Ham just like your paw use to make" "Bread pudding just like your ma use to make". He really enjoyed his job.

We had a good dinner and tried to hit the freeway again. The truck was running real bad again, so we sputtered around to the back where we had left our teachers. They were surprised to see us and we explained the problem. I changed out the fuel filter; it was dirty again, and the truck ran good. (I later received this letter from them) (soon to be posted)

We left them behind with my address and hit the freeway and saw this, I guess we should have stopped and figured out what it was. (I later learned that it was "The Archway", but can't find any good links on it ). We finally headed south on highway 81. into Kansas. It grew dark and we could see a thunderstorm building up. Every time the lightning would flash Aaron would be looking the wrong direction. (This wasn’t just with the lightning, it didn’t matter what it was. Nice cars, pretty girls or lightning, he’d miss it. I think we needed a fake TV screen and you needed to hold it in front of the object you were trying to show him) The storm was in the distance, so I stopped the truck and told Aaron to get out and "feel" the weather. In Oregon, we don’t get to see storms like you can see in the plane's states. The warm wind and the smell in the air, it is a different thing to experience. We saw lightning bugs; the first time for me! They are so cool!

We headed into Oklahoma and finally made it to a Motel in Oklahoma City after 2 am. I had the slowest hotel clerk, but it was a nice room.

24 June, 2000

States visited today: Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico.

Total states seen: 7

Day 5

 Up at 9 am or so to tour the Oklahoma City Memorial. What a wonderful job has been done changing such a sad place to a place of reflection and memorial. So much symbolism has been worked into it. I highly recommend all to visit this place.