Full Moon over North Platte, Nebraska

Day one and 650 miles later the journey has begun.   Not much glamorous about a day in the car, but hanging out with the love of my life in a captive environment does equal a win!  Left home about 7:30 and headed east on Interstate 80.  Utah .... Wyoming.... western Nebraska.... North Platte to be exact.   There is a beautiful full moon out tonight.  The skies are clear, the bugs have been scraped from the windshield and the tank is full and ready for departure in the morning.   Thank you Fairfield Inn for the comfy bed and the internet connection!

I had no expectations of North Platte, but already I can see that this may be 28 days filled with surprises.  One of the many things I love about traveling with Brad is his eternal optimism and sense of adventure and learning!  When we had kind of picked a place to stop for the day, he picked up brochures at the stop before that (World Headquarters of Cabela's  in Sidney,NE - mostly just to stretch our legs) and by the time we arrived in North Platte, he had already told me more about the community than I could have imagined.   True to his nature, he got all excited about a restaurant called  "Whiskey Grill" (imagine a full bar full of various whiskeys and a woodfired oven ...... when in reality, we are in Western Nebraska so its just another restaurant).  

So we drove through the town, checking out both the North and South legs of the Platte River (think about 5 minutes total!) and came across a place called the Depot Grill and Pub.  It was the first pleasant surprise of the trip!!  Fat Tire on tap, a few beers from Colorado and Nebraska that Brad had never tried and good old home cooking, served up to us by our wonderful waitress Diane.

While admitting that I have "packed on " a few pounds since the marathon in May and need to shed them, my best intentions were met with Chicken Fried Steak on the menu!  Food from my childhood!!  How could I pass that up?!   So I didn't and it was wonderful.  Sitting there in the booth eating it brought back a whole onslaught of memories of post-game meals after high school basketball games!   Win or lose, we always seemed to unload the bus at a local diner and more times that I can recall, the meal was something like chicken fried steak.   Sitting there eating that, I felt like a 16 year old again .... hair still wet from the shower and either sulking over a loss or celebrating a win!

But the biggest surprise was our waitress - Diane.   What a wonderful woman!   Before the meal was over, we knew that she had worked at the same restaurant for the last 26 years, loved her job, had three kids, been married for 44 years and had a Pomeranian we were donating Brad's leftover chicken to!   She sat beside me in the booth and told me how her daughter had just moved back to the Omaha area from Iowa, so now it was only a three and a half hour drive instead of an ten and a half hour drive - but that she also suffers from panic attacks on the freeway, so it really wasn't any easier.   I know her husband is disabled from an injury working on the railroad and that her son is an engineer for the railroad, which is the major employer of the town.   I know the history of the restaurant and the fact that the three beers that Brad ended up ordering before it was over were the three least ordered beers in the restaurant (yeah Brad - love that sense of adventure!).    

But mostly what I was reminded of was my Midwestern roots.  Good people with a good work ethic and a willingness to share their lives.  It made me wonder about the hundreds of people she had waited on who had never bothered to look at her name tag, ask her about her day, or give a thought to her life outside of the walls of that restaurant.   I was happy to make her feel like I had connected with her - and I had!  I  can't remember her exact words but she made a comment about me being "a good person" and I just know that it as more than my belly that left full at the end of the night. 

THIS is that this trip is about!!  Making that connection and maybe making one day brighter for one person along the way.   Can't wait for day two!!!


So today's song is "Jack and Diane" by John Mellencamp .... in honor of my new friend Diane!  I didn't get her husband's name but I am guessing that if you listen to the lyrics of this song, you may get a glimpse into her life!