Oct 16, 2009 -- Johnson, NE to Bentonville, AR

We awoke this morning to the smell of the wood-burning stove warming up the rooms downstairs.  It was fun to be in "the country."  Ruth made a breakfast of pancakes for everybody and we stuffed ourselves.  Once we could move again, we loaded our stuff back into the car.

After time for a few more pictures, we bid our gracious hosts, Joe and Marta, goodbye and headed east.  Our route took us through Joe and Marta's town, Johnson.  We didn't see much town, but this sign implies we were a half mile away from the hustle and bustle of downtown:

The first event of note for us today was crossing the Missouri River as we entered Missouri.  The bridge was under repair:

Actually, we crossed the Missouri River twice today.  This first crossing was well upstream on the river, so it didn't seem very big here:

We began to notice a significant increase in people and traffic now.

Our course today took us southward through St. Joseph and Kansas City in Missouri.  The weather prediction was for more "wintry" weather to push down the eastern midwest, so we decided to turn south and go down US 71 into Arkansas.  It would allow us to go through the Ozark Mountains and avoid any freezing weather.

When we arrived at the Arkansas border, it was all Ruth could do to capture the sign:

We made a reservation for a motel in Bentonville, AR, home of Wal-Mart.  While it had not been a really long day, it was a good place to stop for the night.

Oct 15, 2009 -- Kearney, NE to Johnson, NE

Well, the motel we stayed in last night turned out to be the "lowlight" of our month-ling trip.  It seemed like everything in the room was broken -- TV, air conditioner, bathroom sink, etc.  To make matters worse, it sounded like a 400 pound guy with boots on the floor above us, stomping around the room all night.

However, we had been looking forward to today because we had made plans to stay with friends Ruth had met years ago at a dowsing convention, and had kept in touch with since.  They live on a farm near Johnson, NE, in the southeast corner of the state.  They are Joe and Marta Smith.

We left Kearney and stopped in Lincoln to get some provisions.  Then headed southeast, away from the big city and the interstate.  We traveled on two-lane state and county roads for the rest of the day.  Ruth noted we were seeing signs one only sees on two-lane roads.  This one says, "NO PASSING ZONE:"

We had traveled back into territory that had trees, and the terrain was rolling hills:

Before long, we turned onto Joe and Marta's street, "730 Road."  It is what is called an "all weather road:"

We arrived at Joe and Marta's home and got a great welcome from them, their Cocker Spaniel, Sugar, and their "20-or-so cats."  This is their home, which has had various rooms added since it was first constructed in the 1800s:

Once the car was unloaded, Joe took us on a tour of his workshop.  It is in his barn and is very extensive, covering three different rooms.  Joe is very skilled at making things:

After the tour, which included a look at a tractor Joe had built and many other projects, Ruth took Marta to look at a field that had a crop in it we didn't recognize.  It turned out to be soy beans -- a very common  crop in this area.  The fact they were brown and still on the plant threw us, more evidence of the earlier snows.

Marta cooked a delightful supper for us all -- pork roast, baked potatoes, green beans and stewed apples.  It was the best meal we had had since leaving home weeks ago, and the only home cooked one.  Delicious!

We had to have a picture of this very generous couple.  They are a lot of fun:

Bedtime came fairly early for us, sort of in keeping with being on a farm....

Oct 14, 2009 -- Rawlins, WY to Kearney, NE

We awoke to a steady rain and temperature of 47 degrees.  It was dreary out, but we managed to get the car loaded and get underway.  This is what the day looked like:

The wind was very strong from the south, blowing the spray from cars and trucks into the passing lane.  It was hard to see to pass.  Look closely to see the misty spray on the left of the truck ahead:

We gained a little elevation, and lost a little temperature, and now it looked like this:

We had traveled over 9.000 miles since we had the oil changed in the car, so we stopped at the Toyota dealer in Cheyenne, WY, to have it done.  We could tell the snow storm from a few days back had hit here as well.  This was in the parking lot:

Although the rain had stopped, the wind was still blowing hard.  There were almost whitecaps on the 1/2 inch deep puddle in the dealer's parking lot:

Once we got our car back, we headed east out of Cheyenne and as we got on I-80 we spotted a herd of Pronghorn Antelope.  We had seen them off and on several times.  This is the part of the country "...where the deer and the antelope play...."  But, we continued on and soon arrived at the Nebraska line:

It had warmed up to 61 degrees, the sun was out and, since we had fresh provisions we decided to stop for a picnic.  We stopped in the little town of Dix, NE, population 267.  The wind was still blowing hard, so we found an empty building and parked downwind of it for our picnic.  It was very pleasant.

We pushed on through the wind in Nebraska until we reached Kearney, pronounced "car-ney," we learned later.  This was to be our stopping place for the day.  Thank goodness we had left the rain behind.