Day 20 Hamburg, IA to Ogallala, NE

A day of serendipity

Had a tasty coffee and fun conversation with Brett, a friend and former colleague of Dylan’s, who has spent the last few years writing his own programming language. Lincoln, NE is a cute town and we found a great little coffee shop, Crescent Moon. If Brett hadn’t been available, we wouldn’t have even stopped, but instead we wished we had more time to explore. However, the flat fields of Nebraska beckoned us.

Earlier on this trip, I started following my friend Annalee’s Instagram where she posts Haikus written by her dad. And then, I learned that her dad would not be writing any more poems because he had passed on. This was just a couple of days before we would be driving by Fort Collins, CO where she grew up. She is there with family and wanted us to visit and that’s how we decided to go to Colorado instead of Wyoming Saturday.

Bear’s final poem 💐 But he wrote so many the posts will continue

And because she said “if I were in Nebraska, I would check out the Sandhill Cranes” we learned about the amazing crane migration happening right here, right now that we would otherwise have entirely missed. And because her mom suggested we stop in Kearny, we did & the woman at the Tourist Information office (who also volunteers for the local bird sanctuary) hooked us up with a map and a few “locals only” tips. So now we know a plethora of crane facts (3 types of migratory cranes! Some go as far as Siberia! They stay here until they add a pound of fat for their migration! They catch rides up on thermals then glide and can go 500 miles in a day!) but more importantly we got to listen to them, watch them eat & socialize & fly, and marvel at their amazing journey. Dylan’s photos

Minor technological miracle: Dylan connected to the hotel WiFi, shared it with our portable WiFi base station, which sent a new network out to the parking lot , which the car connected to for the v.12 update with 30 days of free full autopilot. I didn’t really like the prior free trial of full self driving where the car changes lanes for you on the highway and takes the off ramp and drives in town, but I love the smart cruise control (changes lanes when you signal then turns off the signal/ suggests lane changes but requires you to opt in/gets you to the off ramp). It makes the long hauls much easier and less tiring. Dylan is very excited to try the newest full self driving and after watching some videos I’m willing to give it a chance. The darn thing can park itself in a crowded parking lot!

Plus we had a meeting in the car via zoom, ate our first ever Runza, enjoyed solid Indian butter chicken in a restaurant advertising Indian, Mexican and American food in a tiny Nebraska town and are back in the land of 85 mph driving where corn is king.