This is Friday, and this is the first time all week I have had any time whatsoever to write anything.

Monday our new kitchen countertop came. Stan and I were a bit uncertain if and when it would actually arrive, as the contractors were very noncommunicative. (I HATE THAT! A courtesy call to confirm an appointment is expected!). We also got a nice new black sink and a nice fixture, so now we actually have a sink that works like it should instead of leaking all the time. The old cast iron sink was from the 1930s probably, and the former countertop had that modern 1950s white with gold sparkles look to it. It was sort of a neat setup, and I liked the retro look, but functional definitely has its advantages. The new countertop has a painterly blue texture...sort of like Sodalite. We were considering getting a granite countertop, or a manmade granite substitute--some of those materials are beautiful--but that would set us back 3X as much...maybe in another lifetime.

Tuesday I woke up at 3:30 am like I usually do, except this time I didn't go back to bed. We had a long travel ahead of us, so we got out of bed at 4 am. Traveling through southwestern Wisconsin was unusually beautiful this time, more than it usually is. The sunrise was the most incredible rosy red...it was almost sunset-like. I have never seen a sunrise like that. Then we hit some foggy areas, fog lifting from river valleys and ponds...very sculptural and Bryce-like. Then the fog got intense, almost scary whiteout, but fortunately we could see a few feet ahead of us! Fortunately it didn't last all the way to the Mississippi.

Iowa was uneventful, but we found some damn cheap gas in a little town called...um...I don't know...it was a couple miles south of the interstate. After the mandatory coffee stop in Lincoln, we didn't stay at the usual Comfort Inn...we spent the night in Minden, NE, home of Pioneer Village. We've seen PV a couple times before, once with Tim. This time, however, it was just a motel stay. I know it's crazy, but I wanted to hear the train at night like I remember hearing before when we stayed there. But for some reason the trains weren't running much that night, so there was no romantic little motel by tracks on an old highway sounds...just Deke and Delbert getting ready for bed and work the next day. We did eat dinner at the restaurant that was attached to the restaurant. That was a surreal experience. We were the youngest people there. Everyone else was at least 65. It was like the Early Bird Special out of a Seinfeld episode. What added to the surrealness is that there was no music in the restaurant...not even bad music. Restaurants with no music make me feel uneasy...I don't know why. Ill take bad music in a restaurant any day over no music.

Wednesday seemed to start out ok, and it looked like were going to make good time and maybe even get to Ft. Fun in time to hit a few greenhouses before they closed, but it wasn't to be. A "Service Engine Now" light came on. Naturally, I go in panic mode. Fortuitously, we came upon a Ford dealership in Holdredge, NE that also had a service area. It was also next to a motel...just in case. We were able to get the van in for them immediately for them to do a diagnostic check, however that did take a couple hours. They determined it was nothing major...just some emissions feature that failed, but they didn't have the part. They said it would not cause any problems to continue to drive the car, which was fortunate, because being holed up in Holdredge until they could get the part in didn't sound like fun. Since then, the Service Engine Now light hasn't come on again. Weird.

Driving through western Nebraska and eastern Colorado is so depressing. Too many dried up towns. The water table in the area where Stan grew up is down, so now they're back to farming dryland wheat instead of corn. It's a very economically depressed area. Stan is sure glad he didn't get stuck living there.

We got dinner at Avo's before we went to M&P's so that I could check my email on WiFi instead of wrist-slashing dial-up. Also, it was more expedient that way. But why did Avo's change their Creamations? The Creamation is an institution not to be messed with. They took out the sprouts and added tempeh. I told them to hold the tempeh. I hate tempeh. I love tofu, but I don't know what it is about tempeh. Ick. Wish I had sprouts though, but nonetheless, it was still good, plus I was able to eat AND check my email, something that I cannot do at M&P's. I gave them a call as we headed over there to alert them. She was wondering where we were because we were a bit late, and I told her we had car trouble which delayed us. No questions about whether we were ok, whether the car was ok, no, nothing like that. Just, "well, we're eating now." Ok, fine. Don't give a rat's ass about what happened to us, no, all that was important was that they were eating dinner and watching f*c*i*g Jeopardy. This is why I'm sure glad I didn't get stuck living in FC. Now I only have to deal with this kind of behavior once a year or so. But it wasn't over. Once we got there, I had to um...attend to taking care of a female thing, if you know what I mean, so then I needed to wash my hands. Was there soap? No, there was a shard. I can't wash my hands with a shard! I looked in the shower. No soap, just a shard of its former bar self. There were no towels either. I mean, when you are expecting guests, you set out towels. You make sure there is decent, if not a fresh bar, of soap. This was just too much for me. I had to ask her for soap, and it took her forever to figure out where she had soap, yet countless times she has offered me bars of hotel soaps where they've vacationed to take home with me. It was too much. I broke down and cried. They can't even put out towels and soap for us. Do I get depressed because they don't care? Do I get depressed because they're getting old and forgetful? Or do I get depressed because they're socially illiterate and don't know how to treat guests? The answer is D: All of the above.

Thursday morning we took off for the Western slope. I didn't want to mess with the loopy dial-up, so we decided to do breakfast at Starbuck's while we got our morning caffeine fix. STARBUCK'S IS EVIL!!! Yes, believe the hype. Starbuck's is indeed evil. I always knew it. We went to that Starbuck's on South College once before several years ago and it took forever for us to get waited on with giddy sorority type girls behind the counter. We swore it off, but we didn't swear strong enough, because we were duped into coming back. When I tried to connect, it took me to a t-mobile page where I had to enter my account #. Naturally, I just assumed if a place had internet access, it would be like Avo's...just power up your computer and get on their WiFi. (Avo's is still cool, despite their Creamation change). WRONG! The line for the counter at Starbuck's had grown, so I flagged down a worker and asked him about their intenet. I had to have a t-mobile account, or I could purchase minutes from them. I told him he had to be kidding, but he was nice enough to direct me to Panache next door that did indeed have free WiFi. Panache's coffee was much better and their food was much better anyway. Where does Starbuck's get off on charging for WiFi access? Evil. Evil. Evil.

Anyway, it's now Friday morning, and I'm pretty much doomed for dial-up the rest of the time I'm here. There are no Avo's or Panaches in Montrose where I can have a good cuppa joe and some tasty bites. But I'm here with my dogs, and Caligula is in the bedroom enjoying the views and the birds. I took a picture of him doing just that, but I can't post it because, well, I'm on dialup. Maybe in a few weeks or so when I return. It took 27 minutes to download Stan's email. He hadn't checked it since Monday 'cause he doesn't have a wireless Airport card like I do.

Labels: Vacation