I got a jury summons for July 15 in Salinas. That meant I had 4 weeks to get back to Salinas, or I could postpone the jury service for 90 days. I decided to postpone, but that meant we had about a month less than anticipated to get to Canada and explore, then get back in time to vote in the Presidential election. At this point we had to scrap our plans to tour all over Wyoming and adjust all our other plans, which included driving all the way to Nova Scotia and back.
We came down from the Colorado high country, where it was so warm that I slept with only a sheet at 9,500 feet elevation, McClure Summit campground, within sight of snow fields. I can only imagine how hot it must have been at lower elevations. It also rained an entire day up at McClure. Days later, we are out of the area, but there is flooding down below McClure. That snowmelt means business when it happens all at once.
Out of Colorado, we headed north to Ogallala, Nebraska, then further north and east through the Sand Hills in that state. The Sand Hills area was beautiful. When we were within 90 miles of Sioux City, Iowa, at the eastern Nebraska border, Morrison began to shake and shudder like we were on rumble strips. We stopped at the highway junction of Nebraska State highway 20 and State highway 14. We turned the corner onto Hwy 20, started shaking again, pulled over and Dave looked under the van. We went a very short distance forward, pulled over again, and the drive line dropped. We were well and truly screwed. Clearly not going anywhere. I had one bar of cell service and used the Geico app to request roadside assistance. Unfortunately, one bar was not enough to complete the request. We had stopped in front of a farm house, luckily they did not seem to have any barking dogs, so I walked over and knocked on the door. A very nice young man came out and tried to help us contact Geico. When that didn’t work, he called the county sheriff’s office and they called a tow truck for us. About 26 miles away was Norfolk, Nebraska, where they had a Ford dealership, so we were towed there, left Morrison for repairs, and the tow truck driver took us over to a nearby Rodeway Inn.
We were out of touch with weather news, but discovered the following morning that Sioux City had experienced major flooding the day before, so much that Interstate Hwy 29 was underwater and closed. Guess it was a good thing that we didn’t make it to Sioux City the day before. Our plan had been to angle across the northwest corner of Iowa and into Minnesota. Now I see on the news that somewhere in Minnesota there has been a partial dam break and resultant flooding. Gonna need to study that road map and plot as safe a course as we can.
Tonight we have Morrison back, all fixed up. We went out for dinner, then decided to do our laundry tonight before leaving in the morning. The laundromat was only a short way from the restaurant. It was just beginning to rain. As we carried our laundry into the facility, tornado warning sirens began to blow. The national weather service blasted their tornado watch announcement over the TV. No actual tornado sighted yet, but a severe thunderstorm “capable of producing a tornado” was 16 miles away and moving our direction at 10 mph. We nervously did our laundry. The thunderstorm raged overhead, the national weather service intermittently interrupted the TV with announcements to “take cover now”. By the time our laundry was done, the storm had passed, rain was over, black sky was visible to the South. It was a relief that the roof was still on the building. Our time in Nebraska has been exciting, to say the least.
By the way, the dog that bit me was pronounced healthy after her 10 day home quarantine so I do not have to take the rabies shot series. My 10 days of antibiotics was rough. The longer I took it, the worse I felt; but now, four days after finishing the meds, I feel normal again. The bite is no longer swollen and is healing well.
