Why Oming? Why not.

OK so this is two days worth because last night I ended up sleeping in the cab with the dog - no Wi-Fi. I'll get to that later, but first.

Motel 6 has been the place of choice because they are "pet friendly". But there doesn't seem to be much consistency between places, in just about anything. The first one was "no problem" with the dog but $3 for Wi-Fi. It worked so fine. The second one was OK with the dog but I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and Wi-Fi was free. The third one didn't have any "pet OK rooms" and basically tossed us out on the street.The first one recognized I got a discount, the second had a big sign "We already discounted the rooms so no other discounts apply". Who know about the third since I ended up sleeping in a truck.

Everything was OK in the first, the second didn't have hot water. After about 10 min it got up to luke warm (this was at midnight so I don't suspect a whole lot of showers had just depleted the supply. It didn't actually matter since it turns out they didn't put any towels in the room. And again with the third I wouldn't know since I slept in the truck (get a theme here?).

IF they advertised that they had a FEW pet rooms I wouldn't be so pissed but they say pet's, no problem.

Now my cousin would have probably gotten a few free rooms out of it all but really I'm driving 18+ hours a day with a dog and a hassle with the management is one thing I don't need to add to the pain. But I do think I will have some choice words in the survey they sent.

OK back to the real story.

After the towel-less, hot waterless stay we left in a light snow fall - O' the joy...You can kind of see it here.

It actually got a bit snowy driving.

You can see the slightly white out perspective. Not too bad but also not something you want to start learning how to do with 10 tons of truck dragging a car over the rockies.

I have to say the view was a lot more interesting than some of what we have been going through.

This is around one of the "continental divides" I say one because a sign flashed by on the highway saying "continental Divide" and then about fifty miles further another one said exactly the same thing. Neither had a rest stop so we couldn't really get the shot you of course want to see.

My question is what's between the signs? Does the west and east overlap or is it a big no-man's land? Or is it in fact the "middle" that politicians keep talking about? I have news for them, NO BODY lives there!

OK we passed out of Wyoming and in to Nebraska. Nebraska is I believe the "huckster" state. I was told they got the nickname because they convinced the rest of america that Corn was the only real food.

Nebraska is also known as the Silo state. All those ICBM's that they launch in Colorado shoot out of silos all over the prairie. The though that came to me looking at the prairie was "some body must own all this". It's america after all. Is there any land not owned by somebody? My second though was why would someone buy it? I can see national parks and all but why an individual would buy land out there is beyond me. But it's probably because I'm basically a city boy and there are, I am sure, folks who would rather drop dead than spend a week in a big city.

I'm probably being unfair to Nebraska but after a fair amount of miles on this trip this was the first state I had a truck try to drive me off the road. Actually two different trucks forced me and the great yellow whale to swerve into the emergency parking lane to avoid getting in a wreck. And in both cases they had a free lane to the left. It's also the state that made me sleep in the truck. Ironically in my search for a place that would have an open bathroom at night I ended up parking across the border in Colorado.

On the plus side Nebraska was the first place Monty actually interacted with snow.

And There was Buffalo Bill's "trading post"

And Penny's Dinner

I meant to get a better picture but I forgot till we were on our way out of town. It's in what looks a little like a train car or a big Old school RV, and it was really good.

OOOO fount a better picture on the Web

Not sure you can tell from this shot but the wind was howling and everything is kind of hazy because the air is filled with dust.

On other news I was wondering how loud it is in the truck. I know it's loud but how loud?

Well "there's an app for that", and I already have it.This is the "quiet" cruising level. It's a bit louder when it has to shift down for hills. I'll have to do a OSHA check but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't be doing 90dB 18 hours a day for very long.

We are now in Iowa, at a Motel 6... But this one I think is going to reset the high bar.

Oh and for a last shot. Monty finally relaxed a bit in the truck. Maybe because we slept in it last night???

Also I have some video but I need some time to look and edit so maybe in the final wrap up?Later