The thing about Nebraska. . .

 

Hiking in the Lincoln Nebraska woods

Nebraska is a very long state when you're driving across it. . . from West to East. Or East to West, I expect. When we came out in July, it was also so awfully hot and humid. We could hardly stop for a walk because the weather was so miserable.

But there are a lot of cool things about Nebraska. Lincoln, in our experience, is one of them. Being the home of Arbor Day is another. So I searched for "hiking trails around Lincoln", and came up with a boatload of them. this was one of them. It was close to town, but uncrowded. Lots of twists and turns and an abundance of variation in both trees and understory plants. It was a great hike.

Understory plant

This was, however, a point at which it seemed like we might never get to Maine. It really is a long drive, especially if one is focused on the endpoint rather than the journey. I know this is a failing, but it's hard not to be excited about reaching the house that we just bought. But I will work on enjoying the journey more.

Our night was spent in Coralville, Iowa, which had little to recommend it. I'll leave it at that. It was too hot to leave Jasper in the car while we ate, so we got a meal from a grocery store to eat in the room. This usually works well for us, but it really didn't this time. 

Jewelweed in the understory

 From there it was on to Fremont Ohio. I always say "Land of your Birth" to John when we pass through Ohio. I"m not sure he appreciates that. Still. It was a nicer place to stay, and we got a reasonably early start this morning. . . to go on to our last night on the road, in Verona, NY. We drove through rain all day along interstate 90, and I will admit to you that while I love the rain, driving on the interstate with poor visibility and a lot of trucks is not that much fun. We were both exhausted by the time we reaching the LaQuinta here. Because of the rain, we hadn't gotten ourselves and Jasper out for a walk, so we did a pre-prandial walk along a reservoir park in nearby Oneida NY. It was really something.

To go with dinner

After our hike (for which Jasper was especially spicy after being in the Moving Box for over 6 hours!), we found a Thai/sushi place in Oneida. It was a bit of a gamble (sushi in upstate NY?), but it turned out to be a very cool little restaurant. John had an almost-local brew, and I got a nice little Pinot Grigio to go with my drunken noodles. The staff was great, and one of the waiters was doing that fire-at-the-table thing (samurai cook?) which is great theater.

And Lest one thinks that beautiful sunsets are limited to the West, here's what we saw as we drove back to tonight's bed. Not too shabby.

Sunset in Oneida NY