Past The Half-Way Mark

About 80 miles into our trip today we were half-way. The kids tried really hard but everyone's bum is feeling the pain. The best distraction mid-day was watching the Princess Bride. "He was a farm boy. Poor. Poor and perfect with eyes like the sea after a storm." "Life is Pain. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something." Gotta love it.

We drove across Nebraska today in beautiful 60* weather with blue skies. We stopped in Sydney. Erron convinced me to move to Sydney a couple of years ago telling me it was about 50,000 people and not far from Denver. Ya right! If there are 10,000 people in that town I would be suprised. Probably not even a Target.

Next we stopped in North Platte and found a great park to eat lunch. They have a beautiful memorial to all of the soldiers from Nebraska in every war in each of the services. Each soldier has a brick and they add a new one for each soldier even now.

We actually found our Fort today. Fort Kearny is part of the Mormon trail and they had a great exhibit of the wagons and handcart companies. Kale's favorite part was the Blacksmith shop where they showed the bellows. Reagan liked the Mormon history part and Dane liked watching the 5,000 Sandhill Cranes take off out of the field. This part of Nebraska gets about 450,000 cranes each March and October. My plan is backfiring. Kale is liking this way to much. Not long after leaving Kearny we drove past Hastings, the birthplace of Kool-Aid. If only I had known we could have budgeted our time for it.

With the help of Erron and Mapquest we found a Sonic in Omaha and then hit our hotel. Omaha is about half the size of Portland. After being a bit disapointed by Lincoln, Omaha was almost a relief. Finally a decent size city. Oh no. Does this mean I am a city girl now too. I can see myself in Wymoing or Texas but not in farm country mid-west.

This was the longest day of our trip - hopefully. We are expecting rain the next couple of days and I hope that doesn't slow us down. Should I jinx myself and say that this has actually been pretty fun. The car is a mess, the kids have watched A LOT of movies and we have stopped every 1.5 hours for potty breaks but we have also been watching for license plates from each state, playing Going on a Bear Hunt and I'm Going to Take A-Z, Going to Omaha and I'm Going to Take A-Z, Moving to Tennessee and I'm Going to Take A-Z and have only eaten at McDonalds one time on the whole trip. They only way it could have been any better is if one of my buddies had come with and driven for a while in Nebraska so I could take a nap with my pillow:)