Journey from the Mountains to the Ocean.

Heading into Thedford Nebraska, the entire car is filled with tension. The car continues to try to swap ends, Tim is fighting every turn of the tires to keep us straight and we realize we have left civilization without any water, ( the biggest no-no of all), we have no cell phone service, I am not sure if Kristofer heard all of our last conversation and knows where we are headed, and even though on the map the towns are only a minute distance of 7 or 8 miles apart, alot can happen in those miles and thats a long way to walk. Things look pretty grim.

As we pass the Welcome to Thedford sign, I glance over to the left and see a beautiful BIG horse running full speed down a hill through the sage brush toward the road we are on. It is so surreal I say to Tim, " Hey are you seeing that horse running toward us?" He says Oh yeah, but I dont think that gate is open so he will slow down here in a minute. " As we pass the gate we both realize it is open as did the horse who is now heading dead straight toward the snowpacked trail we are all on. Tim glances up at his rear view mirror just in time to see another Walmart Semi behind us, which is just about to collide with the horse. Tim yells," Dont look, dont look this is going to be terrible", just as I look in my side mirror. To see a horse galavanting through the prairie, making a wide angle turn and coming back up onto the road to run ALONG SIDE the Walmart Truck.
At this point we see the Greater Thedford Shopping Emporium, Grocery Store, Bank and Post Office and VOTE to pull in there to tell someone about the runaway horse as well as get some water, some directions and some weather news.
As soon as we can peel Tim's hands off the steering wheel, we go inside and tell the Nicest Ladies about the horse on the loose. By the time we have described where we saw them, Nadine is on the phone calling Holisters, " Your damn horse was out again, Buck left the gate open. Almost kilt a Walmart driver." Then turning to us, " Is this water all you need?"
She has no idea. Actually we need to know what the roads are like toward Whitman? She says,
Oh they are really bad, you just came over the only roads that have been plowed and sanded?
We had an icestorm here last night and it was really bad. "

It is now 3:10 on Thursday, I doubt we are going to make it for Dad's Dinner, and I dont know how much longer Tim can take these bad roads. We can't go back and we just came 21 miles and I am trying to remember if I even saw a drop of sand? Through the love in his heart, Tim says "Well, lets get going- we dont want to be out here when it gets dark."

We try to jump in the car with loads of enthusiasm, but it was just sheer terror . The driveway out of the store was sanded and plowed and that was the last of the sand and plowing we saw.
As we head down the road, Tim and I start to discuss the reason the car wont stay parallel to the road. This is really unusual. We drive about 8 miles and we are averaging a blazing 8 mph and its getting worse. Tim feels that it might be a brake locking up on the right rear. We " pull over" and jump out and the wheel wells are PACKED with snow. After suiting up in all the outerwear we can possibly find, I had two hats on and Tim had 2 coats, we jump back out with the only tools we have with us to dig the snow out from around the tires. ---A tablespoon from home and Tim's pocket knife.

Even though the job takes a few minutes we are now relieved to have found an answer. The car is better and we can now average about 23 miles mph if we stop every 14 miles and clean out the snow. " Just keep swimming" Just keep swimming" becomes our theme song.
We are both in such good spirits we can take in the Beautiful Nebraska Sunset, we pass a sign letting us know we are on the Sandhills Adventure Highway,( whoever wrote that has no idea what they are saying) and we also passed the very infamous Agusta Wind Golf Course.
Suddenly about two miles outside of Ashby, we see the familiar flashing of the Yellow Caution light on top of a snow plow. WOO HOO our plan is to follow him into Alliance, but we approach him, we realized he stopped to side of the road, he has no sand in his truck and no plow on the front, and is turning around behind us. He must have stopped for his coffee break. We feel more comforted knowing he is behind us though and has a radio at least, until he turns off on some little road we didn't realize was even there and we are back out here by ourselves again.
Another check, no cell service, its now 4:45 we have come approx. 45 miles in an hour and 45 minutes. I am thinking I will have to surprise Dad tomorrow. As I am mourning my troubles, the road literally opens up!! One tire lane of dry pavement. WE are SHOCKED!! we didnt even think this road was paved. Then all of a sudden our whole lane is dry with a few patches of ice.
We stop and dig out the wheels more time not realizing that its our last time, 100 feet up the road both lanes are dry and Tim sets the cruise on NASCAR. We REJOICE!! Its all over but the crying as Yogi Berra would say.
We fly into Alliance Nebraska, where the snow is piled on the streets so high we cant see the Arby's sign. They got dumped on. The streets and driveways are such a mess we plow our own trail to get our food. At Arby's I ask the young man taking our order if he knows how the roads are in Chadron, he replies," Pretty bad, not many people are coming down from there because we had ice storms last night. "
My heart breaks because its now 6:45 and I dont know if Tim has it in him to drive BLACK ICE after what we have just been through. So I tell Tim what the kid said and he responses, "well, we're this close, and I hope your Dad will be up when we get there." Me too. ( Im thinking --like tomorrow night)
We slip and slide out of Arby's toward the highway to Chadron and right at the underpass the road is clear and it remains clear, I mean really clear, no ice no icy patches just BLACK pavement. Back to Nascar speed and throw in some LOUD OBnoxious CD and we are gone with the wind. We hit Chadron in record time, we head to Lusk and greater Yoder, and are setting Focus land speed records, we zip through Keeline and are just counting the minutes before we will arrive. HOLY MOLY we have Cell service. Call Denver and tell them everything is ok for us. RED DOG has been hooked up to the snowshovel since we called this afternoon and it looks like more snow is heading his way. Called Cat BLUE and let her know where we are. She is out to dinner with Mom and Dad so all is well.
As we come to the top of the rise outside of Keeline, Tim does an" OUGHT O!" and the car immediately begins to slow down. I glance over at the speedometer and see the needle drop just below 77, What is the matter?whats wrong? did we blow a tire or something? NOPE, Just made a new friend.
The blue lights of Niobrara County Sheriff Ron Meeks, brings this buggy ride to a stop. As he approaches, Tim is a wreck. There goes the Christmas spirit.
Here is the conversation:
"Good Evening officer"
Good Evening, Do you know how fast you were going?
Not as well as you do probably. We were just heading home.
Are you from Wyoming?
Yes we are, we live in South Carolina now and are traveling back for the
holidays. We got stuck in the storm in North Platte Nebraska.
Did you come up through Alliance?
Yes sir, through Thedford and across to Alliance

Ok, let me see your license. When was the last time you had a speeding ticket?
23 years ago.
Ok well let me just run this through.
As he heads back to his car Tim says.
DAMNDAMNDAMNI knew I was going tooofast DAMNDAMN I was just trying to get there.I hope this doesnt ruin Christmas.
Elizabeth wakes up--Whats going on?
Just getting a 5 million dollar speeding ticket.
How fast were you going?
I din know--that's how fast I was going.
BUMMER , She says, with a hint of sarcasm.

Officer returns to car.
Tim, it looks like the last time you got a speeding ticket was 23 years ago. and I hate to ruin your holiday by giving you one now. I know you were delayed today, But you need to slow down and make sure you get your family there alive. Have a happy holiday.
Thank you thank you thank you sir, and we will honor you on our blog, and may GOD bless you and Santa reward you. Sheriff Ron Meeks, we Salute you!

We reset the cruise to 72 mph.
We drove into Casper and into my parents driveway at 9:35. We knocked on the door and surprised Granddad so much he turned white. IT was the time of our lives and even though he didn't have any idea what we had been through to get there, he was so overjoyed I would have driven back to Thedford and done it all again --with Tim of course.

Posted by Tim on Sunday, January 07, 2007 at 9:21 AM | Permalink