The Road

These two words encapsulate the journies of the last few days. Sometimes it is hard to remember that everyone present in the towns that we pass through are living their lives in their individual towns and not moving around as much as we are. We have had the privilege and blessing to get to know so many people over the past few days, in places ranging from Beatrice, Nebraska to Denver, Colorado, though I currently write from Fort Collins, home of one of the most secluded and difficult to find universities in the country! Not really, we just drove around for about an hour before finally stopping and asking for directions at a Shell that eventually carried us to Colorado State University and the Old Town cafe where we now rest our travel-wearied souls. Not really! We're ready for a lot more!

After departing Ames on Sunday afternoon, we worked our way through Omaha, where we sought out and found Creighton University's chapel, an idyllic Catholic church on a beautiful Jesuit campus just across the border from Iowa. The church holds the pleasant memories of a wedding attended years ago of a good friend and former Chicago Cub Chad Meyers, as well as the bittersweet thoughts of the transfer I considered and later dismissed. I still do wonder what would have happened had I chosen to leave Iowa for Nebraska. Matthea Haecker did just that, and has found his passion. He and good friend Tyler are both youth pastors and were kind enough to let us reside with them for a night in Beatrice, Nebraska. Here we are pictured with Tyler's roommate Marshall and some other friends we met that night.



Twas a night filled with zombie-killing video games and conversation about the times passed at Iowa State. Matthea and I spent some time discussing that period of change in which I considered a move and he up and did it. I remained at Iowa State and studied Spanish, and Matthea moved and recently finished his degree in Psychology with a minor in Comparative Religions. I was struck by the simplicity inherent in the lives of these Nebraskans, and I hope to find this same simplicity and peace in the other places we may visit as well.

Next day we spent hanging out, took a morning walk around town, which is of course quite beautiful, but very reminiscent of what I imagine an old western town to be. There were drug stores, consignment stores, and in accord with the profession of our hosts, plenty of churches. The morning carried me to the Catholic church, St. Joseph's, which had a beautiful interior and a statue of St. Therese of Lisieux, whose intersession I sought before heading back to rustle Daniel, and off we went to the local library. A bit of research and some New Zealand jobs began to jump out, and so we applied.

The night brought an oh so glorious dinner buffet at the Chinese restaurant in town. Though Sonic went out of business, this Beatrice hallmark was going nowhere, and the food as it turns out went absolutely nowhere but to the pit of our stomaches. The conversation began..."you ever think twice about that second plate?" and we all assented with a groan. However we mustered ourselves up and decided that we were to camp for the night, though we had no tent, no idea where to camp, and no clue how to get around Nebraska apart from the interstate. As it turned out Tyler had a whole map of "recreation areas" provided and maintained by the Natural Resources District, for which he works. Thus, we parted ways with hugs and hopes to meet again, and an hour and a half down I-80, pulled onto Hwy 14 and the town of Aurora. Based on our atlas and the map Tyler provided us, we knew that the rec area was just north of town, past Hwy 34, but no signs held us up, so we drove well into the Nebraska corn and countryside before determining it was probably best to head back and see whether we had missed it. One road proved the only possibility, unless the area was to be found in the middle of an airfield, and so we headed down the road until we saw the blinking lights. We figured it was a dangerous crossing or something similar, and that's when our city kid upbringing became apparent, for shortly there after we found ourselves face to face with the bean-head of a combine! Obviously the smaller of the two adversaries, we backed down into a driveway and let the combine and following grain cart pass. After that, we hesitated but decided to continue down the road, and at last came the sign "recreation area 1/4 south."



We made the turn and happened upon one of the nicest rec areas I have seen. So after debating a bit, we decided on a campsite, brought down a pile of wood that was already gathered, and set the flame to what became a roaring fire.

The whipping wind helped a bit too, I suppose, but the night was beautiful and perfect, and right as the wind died down, we settled in to our 5' x 6' tent, only to find that it was altogether too short. A fitful night's sleep, and though the night before was perfect, the morning brought rain down upon our $20 Walmart water-resistant tent. 7am and life could not have been more perfect. Shivering, we threw our things together and hustled to the car.



From there, the drive on I-80 carried us all the way to Sidney, Nebraska where we saw the world headquarters for Cabela's, bought nothing and continued along until we reached Cheyenne, Nebraska. Let me tell you that there is not much between these two cities but sand and brush, but a new sight for me was that of several thousand bending sunflowers ready for harvest. And I realized that combines must also have a "sunflower head."

Cheyenne is a town unique in that it contains 50,000 of the states 500,000 total residents. The second largest town is Casper, which contains 40,000 people. In short, two towns comprise nearly 1/5 of the state's total population. I wonder how that compares to the Chicago to the rest of Illinois ratio. Nonetheless, this small character allowed for the lawn mower man outside the capitol building to stop working and encourage us to go inside. First of all, the fact that he would stop his work to talk with us, second of all that it was not to tell us to get out of the way, and third that we were actually allowed to walk in to the state capitol building without any reason other than to see it. Our reward inside was great as there were fascinating displays of the architectural plans for the building, the state bird the golden eagle, a bison, and the USS Wyoming.



Shortly before considering this final exhibit, we had seen one that included photos of all of the state's governors, past and present. Then as we were standing reading, there was some shuffling behind us and a man's voice, and I turned around just in time to see the governor himself return to his office. No need for security, just good down home people doing their job, from the lawn mower man to the governor himself. Enchanting town. Following we toured a state museum free of charge and learned about the "Sheep-eater" Shoshone Indians, Wyoming's coal industry, and what it was like for some of the first settlers of the United States.

After making the decision to head out, Daniel took the wheel and away we went at 80mph, and before you think him crazy consider that the speed limit in most places here is 75mph. The miles certainly do go, since I set my mind to a crossword puzzle and we rushed right past Fort Collins where we had intended to stop. Nonetheless, this meant that we arrived to Denver just in time for a dinner with Tim Danaher, his roommates, and a holy priest by the name of Fr. Michael. The dinner of gnocchi and pesto sauce was amazing thanks to the work of master chef Francis. Dessert was an amazing blend of berries and ice cream. To top it all off we took a dip in what turned out to be the pool's final night open, diving, and splashing, swimming and talking, it was all-in-all a great reunion of three great Steubenville families in the Malones, the Danahers, and the Heffernans! A little light reading followed and we bedded down for the night. Life is grand!