Day 27 - Making Lots of Ground, and Changing Plans

So this one will be short, because, well, we're travelling through Wyoming and Nebraska, and even this cute kid can't do much for these places. We woke up in a backyard, er, KOA and had breakfast. Oatmeal and tea for me, yogurt/granola and free KOA coffee for T (by now it should go without saying that Gord eats anything and everything he can get, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week).

Waking up in the ugly Wyoming KOA, the view wasn't as bad in the pretty morning sun.

Without the hills in the background this could be any backyard in 'name your Ontario suburb'.

We hit the road and had a serious talk. I'd been thinking about our Chicago visit for a few days (since we left San Fran, really) - as planned, it would be our 3rd longest day of the trip, driving over 750 km from Council Buffs, IA all the way to the Windy City. We love Chicago, and we weren't giving ourselves much time there. I had an idea, a change of plans that would see us driving past our planned stop tonight (Happy Jack's Petrol Bar and Campground in Brule NB, seriously, could i make that up?) and onto somewhere closer to Chicago, likely a hotel. This would give us less driving tomorrow (or more, leaving us even closer to Chi-town). T was on board in theory but we decided to see what the day gave us.

So we drove through Why-oming. The landscape got a little more interesting closer to the capital, Chyenne, with grass making an appearance and some interesting rocks popping up.

These would be rocks anywhere else, but in Wyoming they are tourist attractions. 

We passed the (a) Lincoln memorial, and even saw some trees outside of Rawlins, but we didn't stop.

 

Doesn't it look like he's peeing on the great emancipator?

A great man, but not a looker.

When you see a tree in Wyoming you take notice.

So we drove on and on. We stopped in Laramie, WY for another Sub lunch and went to the local Wal-Mart so T could get a knitting needle and we could replenish the baby wipes and hand sanitizer. Then we were back in the car. We made it to Nebraska by about 2:00 and came up to Happy Jack's at about 4:00, right about the time the severe weather alert came on the radio. That made the decision easy. Since we left home I was a bit nervous about driving through tornado alley in the summer storm season, especially with my noun family and nylon shelter. We made the decision right there to head for North Platte and find a hotel.

My impression of what awaited us at Happy Jack's.

Gord had been having a pretty rough day teeth wise (another reason it to be in a tent) and T world really hard to get him to fall asleep. She was successful, just before I realized we needed diesel. I stopped, he woke up (angry), and I got back in the back seat to give my lovely wife a break from our toothy son. 

Finally, at about 5:30 we arrived at North Platte. Remembering our experience in California getting an unplanned hotel e headed for the first place we saw, a Holiday Inn Express just off the freeway. They had an Executive Suite and a Jr. Suite left. We said we'd check around town to see what was available (there were at least 8 other chain hotels in sight) and the nice lady working the desk told us that the Ramada across the street was just renovated and had cheap rates.

They did. Half if what the Holiday Inn was asking, and they had free wifi, a free breakfast bar, and a room with a king bed (Theresa's new obsession). It was perfect. I cooked our planned camp dinner on a picnic table outside the room (my 2nd parking lot kitchen of the trip, the first was Thunder Bay), we gave the little man a bath and were off to dream land.

Our dry and secure abode for the night. No more camping for the trip. :(

As the thunder cracked and the rain poured down I knew we'd made the right decision. 

TOTAL FUEL FILL UPS: 9

DAILY WILDLIFE: song birds, crows, vultures, dogs - come on people, we sent most of our day in Wyoming and West Nebraska, we were lucky to see mammals in the Wal-mart!