Day 3

Des Moines Iowa to Loveland Colorado
Miles 114.1 to 1808.0
Gas $$ spent today $113.52
Woke to Courtney looking for the car keys to get clothes out of the car with a towel on her head.
Turns out Brian was the last one w them n he left them w in the kitchen but no one but Brian who was sleeping knew they were there. Ah yes a morning wild goose chase for car keys. So not what I wanted to do at 7am
Soon after we found the keys shorts woke and welcomed us to help ourselves to breakfast. He is too sweet.
Courtney then tells me she decided she wanted to head out on her own road trip n started calling rental car places all of which would not do a one way rental with a debit card. So we found out that a grey hound would take her to a town that would allow a rental closer to where she wants to go. Upon listening to the band clutch Courtney kept saying she wanted to go to Memphis tenn to go to Beale st. She has been talking about blues n jazz clubs n how she has never been to memphis but has always wanted to go. Im sure she will have fun. I told her she should stop by elvis' house too. I wish her safe travels n will miss her greatly and hope she will come visit us soon.
Shorts lady friend Kim took Courtney to the bus station to save us from getting lost n Courtney missing the bus. Thank you Kim
We gathered our stuff and left shorts house at 8:30am
We Gassed up n stopped for coffee at fredricks world coffee in Clive IA. When we walked into the coffee shop it smelled like heaven. She was roasting coffee n brewing chai tea. I got the best latte I think I have ever had. Thank you shorts for sending us there.
West of Des moines is rolling hills w trees n wind farms in Iowa . It's actually really pretty
1130am we crossed into Nebraska i swear there is a meow mix factory over at the border the smell of meow mix was so strong. Eeewww
Around 12:30 we stopped at a cabelas to see if they carried a certain map. No luck n no map for me. Upon wandering the store I received a call from realtor nan isn't answering phone n the realtor needs to be let in the house I told her to let herself in cause I wasn't coming back. Turns out nan was getting her hair done so she looked good for her operation on the 4th. Go figure.
1:50pm we pulled off to get gas in the middle of no where. I think we were near seaward Nebraska .
Back on the road n upon starring off into the corn fields I noticed about 40 butterflies fluttering and playing over the fields. They looked so happy. Butterflies seem to have a pretty cool life.
I looked in the mirror n noticed i was getting a pimple. I grabbed the Tooth paste n smudged it on my face while driving Brian said he didn't want to be seen w me. Um we r in the middle of Nebraska who's going to notice let along care. This state is 99% corn fields n takes a whole day to drive thru and is beyond boring.
Brian spent alot of the day making jokes and being amazed by the industrial Farm sprinklers n how they know where to go.
Brian also says everything in the Central time zone sucks minus shorts n Kim.
2:54 stopped to check a map to see how far we were from our great escape from Nebraska. When I got out of the car at a rest stop, yes with blue tooth paste on my face still . The lady from the car parked next to us approached me saying they noticed our plates n they were from Nj too. we had been following them for miles n didn't realize it. We chatted for a bit while I washed the tooth paste from my face. They were heading to Nevada n were from up by the medowlands.
Back on the road n Brian needs to know Do cows have feelings? And Do cows ever have fun? Please leave answers in the comment section below.
4pm stop at Wendy's Walked in and it smelled weird. Brian went to the rest room n I looked down and noticed a giant roach strolling around on the floor like he owned the place so we decided to go across the street to kfc .

The car has been running hard for hours time to give her a break so we made Pit stop at walmart where Brian thought it was cute to walk around singing we r the people of walmart song. Thanks grandpa for sending me that video.
We wandered around the store for for a while . We ended up getting sunglasses n munchie food.
Back on the road at 5pm n oh joy we just bought sunglasses n now there is rain. But The car is happy the humidity broke n it's cooling down the earth
A little ways down the road the rain stopped n I look at the temp it said 80 degrees and now it's sunny we rolled down windows time to enjoy the drive
About 1491.4miles into the trip we crossed into a new time zone 6pm is now 5pm for us. Ah mountain time zone Brian is excited.
6pm we stopped for gas at 16232.2 miles and decided to grab dinner in big springs nebraska at sam bass steak house their motto is grub at gun point Brian got a sandwich n I got soup.
Upon pulling out of the lot we noticed Pony express signs we were at one of the stops from the original pony express so cool. I love history
Around 7pm we turned off into Colorado 1632.3miles behind us.
We stopped at the welcome center Rest area and got free map since neither of us are familiar with where we are heading.
North east colorado is noting but Rolling hills ,Wild horses frolicking in the plains, and hay. We got to see our 1st sunset from the road in the distance the sky was pinks oranges n blues. So beautiful.
We were a couple hundred miles from our destination for the night. And from the looks of everything around us a couple hundred miles from civilization too.
I noticed dark clouds off in the distance n started to get worried. I had heard the rolling plains of CO were notorious for tornados n hail storms. Next thing I see is cloud to ground lighting in the distance n it looked like we were heading straight for it. We considered pulling off the road for the night but there was nothing around besides camp sites and I'm sorry but I'm not camping in a tiny tent w that crazy storm that close.
We kept driving and soon enough were surrounded by the most amazing yet scary lighting storm I have ever seen. It was like watching the national geographic channel or the weather channel storm chaser shows . Brian grabbed the video camera n I grabbed my phone to get video. Driving 80 mph on I-76 tying to get thru the storm with no cell reception was nerve racking. I can officially say I have now seen lighting split into 4 bolts n connect from the cloud straight to the ground while hopping from cloud to cloud and hit earth n create sparks. That was a little too close for comfort.
We kept driving holding hands n making comments about the insanity of this storm and how this was gods firework show.
About an hour later we drove out of the storm and turned off onto CO 34. Well the storm was gone but now we were on a one lane road with not a light for miles and hay scattered all over the wet road. This was nerve racking we had no clue where we were but according to the map were going the right way.
Around 9:30 we started to see lights in the distance and were hoping there were hotels in our future.
Around 10pm we stumbled upon a big fancy hotel in Loveland Colorado that looked out of our price range but pulled in anyway. Asked the lady how much n she replied $150 with AAA discount. Eeekk a little out of my price range. The lady called a hotel down the road n they were a perfect price of $80 so we got directions and headed over.
All I know is everyone says colorado is known for it's mountains, I better wake n see some mountains. I am so over these high plains and rolling hills.
The plan is rocky mt national park tomorrow. Till then I need sleep. I just noticed I have blisters on my drivers foot from driving so many hours ouch.

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