i’ll be lookin’ for eight when they pull that gate

Day 13 – North Platte, NE to Rockford, IL

So it turns out that when you take a kid to the Kool Aid exhibit in Hastings, NE, but the kid has never heard of Kool Aid, there’s . . . significant confusion.

But thank god, we had rocks.

The Hastings Museum also had a car display, which was actually the first exhibit that we walked into, causing Ada to loudly exclaim “It’s a CAR museum? We already COVERED THAT.”

Fair.

There was also an exhibit called “Build It” which had a lot of Legos and other hands-on ways to build. Not sure if the bricks were provided intentionally after showing us all of the Kool Aid television advertising, but either way, same result.

We bopped our way along I80 for many, many hours, stopping only for food, gas, and our old favorites. At some point I decided that Zach didn’t know enough about George Strait and as the driver, I could change that. So I played him the ENTIRE Strait Out of the Box track list supplemented by the oral history of my entire life at the point in time each song was released.

I80 is real long and straight and dull, guys.

It felt appropriate that we introduced the new Jeep to the World’s Largest Truck Stop on the way through Walcott, Iowa.

We were home right around midnight but had one more stop to make – at the 24hr self-serve carwash, because Zach couldn’t stand the bugs on his new baby.

In summary, here’s our 2022 Summer Road Trip:

• Day 1: IndyCar practice at Iowa Speedway
• Day 2: IndyCar race #1 at Iowa Speedway, dirt track sprint car race at Knoxville Raceway
• Day 3: IndyCar race #2 at Iowa Speedway
• Day 4: Nebraska Capitol tour and Museum of American Speed
• Day 5: Travel & Wyoming roadside attraction day
• Day 6: Wings Over Warren air show, Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo and midway
• Day 7: Moffatt Road pass and Glenwood Hot Springs
• Day 8: Glenwood Hot Springs and Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park
• Day 9: Helicopter tour of Canyonlands and also part 2 visit to Arches National Park
• Day 10: Blew up our car at the top of Colorado National Monument, sweet disc golf course though
• Day 11: Bought a new car and Breckenridge
• Day 12: Breckenridge and Leadville
• Day 13: Every little bit of I80 home

That’s all folks. Thanks for reading along with our journey. Please exit through the gift shop. It’s absolutely filled with rocks.

Today’s title is from “Amarillo by Morning” by George Strait.