I will update this post later but I've arrived back in Lincoln this afternoon after a whirlwind tour of the state. I learned a lot on the trip but one of the things I learned that there is a beautiful stretch of road from Scottsbluff down to Kimball. The people are on the interstate miss that section of Nebraska.
UPDATE: I added the photos from the meeting room in Bassett, Chimney Rock and the Bluffs south of Scottsbluff. I could have gone to Carhenge. I was right there but oh well. Some guy at the meeting in Alliance encouraged me to go but I was on a tight deadline afterwards in order to get to Sidney.
UPDATE2: I thought I would give a rundown of my trip to western Nebraska for NET. Since my sister used to live in Ainsworth I was familiar with the area and even further west it was beautiful. The first night I arrived and went to eat at the Pizza Hut that was across the street from my hotel, formerly the Comfort Inn (where my sister worked) and is now the Rodeway Inn. It was a nice supper. During it one of the things I noticed were these people sitting outside of the restaurant with what looked like a cash box. I asked my server, Nikki, what they were doing and she said that they sell $7 on Monday nights and people can just drive up in their cars and pick them up. Cool idea! I got a good night's sleep.
Tuesday morning I headed to Bassett for the first presentation at the RC&D. As you can see from the photograph, the meeting room was really nice and it was a good place to start my trip. After the presentation I headed downtown to the post office and the senior center to drop off informational flyers. Then it was back to Ainsworth for a meeting at the library. They were promoting the meetings on KBRB from the moment I arrived in town so we were getting good coverage. I stopped at the newspaper and gave them a flyer to let them now about the early shutdown date of the transmitter. I also stopped at the Agency on Aging. The library had the poster that I sent them printed up and I was able to ask some questions of residents at the library. I dropped off more flyers at Red & White grocery and at Dollar General. Then I was off on my way to Gordon. I stopped in Valentine along the way and ate lunch at a nice restaurant called Jordan's. An hour later I was in Gordon and my meeting was in the basement of the city offices. They were really nice there and one man stopped in for a lengthy Q&A session. I still had one more meeting that night in Chadron and I dropped off information at the library, the Hacienda restaurant and the Pump and Pantry. I tried to call both KSDZ and the newspaper but both of the editors weren't available. I arrived a bit early (and hour actually) in Chadron and the meeting was to take place inside the student center. When I went up to the front doors, they were locked, which surprised me. I drove around to the main entrance and they too were locked. I kept thinking someone would come to unlock them since I had signed a registration form but no! A few minutes before 6 a man rode up on his bike and I figured he was going to unlock the doors but it was George from the newspaper and he was there for the meeting. We talked for a minute and then a few more people arrived but no one to unlock the door. So we ended up having a Q&A session on tables outside of the student center. I drove to Alliance to end a 13-hour day!
Wednesday morning the first meeting was at the Alliance library. It was a super nice place with a great meeting room. We had a good meeting and then I headed to Bridgeport to meet up with my friend, Mark Keszler. We had lunch at Subway and we also dropped off some of the flyers at the post office. Then it was off to Scottsbluff and a great meeting at the library. This area of the state is going to be affected the most because we are going to have to shutoff the tower/transmitter for a month and many of them weren't too happy about it but they understood. I drove south out of Scottsbluff and down to Kimball and the interstate on my way to Sidney for another meeting that day. It was beautiful driving down that way. There were a lot of hills, bluffs and other beautiful areas. The Sidney meeting took place at the library as well. I talked with Klark from the Sidney paper and he ran a story about my trip. I got a two-mile run in around the hotel, the Wal-Mart and the Chinese restaurant before the rain came pouring down on me while I ran. At least it was cool!
Thursday morning it was off to Grant with a stop in Ogallala to hand out flyers at the library and the Keith County News. The editor, Jeff, was nice and helpful. My big mistake in this town was driving the wrong way down one of their numerous one way streets. I'm not sure why they have so many. It was totally confusing. While I was in Ogallala, I heard my press release being announced on the radio. It was strange to hear my name and email being talked about. I arrived a bit early in Grant and had to wait while the children there for story hour finished up their spiders that they showed me. Robin was really helpful at the library. After the meeting it was off to McCook for a night meeting. It was the first time that I would run into the stormy Nebraska weather. It kept sounding like I would miss it but then around the town of Hamlet the rain and some hail came pouring down. It was still driveable but I had to slow down. I arrived at the McCook Senior Center early and then I stopped by the library to drop off some flyers. Then back to the Senior Center but it was a bad turnout due to the storms. I had hoped to have supper with a friend, Steve Stein, but he encouraged me to head up to North Platte and away from the bad weather.
On Friday morning, I had a nice meeting at the library, which included a reporter from the North Platte Telegraph. Then it was time to head home. I had a great time and I'm looking forward to a trip up to the Northeast part of the state, probably sometime in August.
Comments