Lincoln, Nebraska

Well, ten hours later, here we are at the Holiday Inn Express in lovely Lincoln, NE. We've learned that the estimated travel times on Mapquest are not necessarily true in our case. We have to multiply the estimated time by 1.25--so instead of an eight hour drive, it takes us ten hours. The Penske truck only goes so fast, and I-80 has lots of construction (about half the time we're down to one lane).

We got a late start this morning because of an adjustment we had to make with the tow dolly that's hauling Jeff's car (now my car too--we got rid of the red cherry bomb Ford Explorer).

We've noticed lots of Penske moving trucks hauling cars along I-80, and each time we see the yellow Penske trucks, we both raise our right arm in a gesture of greeting and simultaneously utter the word "Brother!"

Then of course the highlight of the day was stopping at the world headquarters of Cabellas. We asked one of the employees what was different about the headquarters when compared to other stores, and she said that some of the "stuffed animals" (ie taxidermied animals on display) had been "taken" by the founders of the company. Jeff said about Cabellas, "Whoa!" and I for one did not appreciate the juxtaposition of the words "gun" and "library" in the same phrase (that's what they call their expensive gun vault). I had also hoped to buy a pack of gum, but alas, the store did not carry any. I was very disappointed and muttered bitterly, "Maybe we should have asked for gum jerky."

So, as you can see, all is going splendidly well on our trek to our new homeland, and we have luckily not lost our sense of humor. This is probably due to the fact that we listen to NPR and eat smarties, red vines, and cheese puffs all day long (thanks, Mom!)

See y'all soon!