Weekend in Nebraska

I drove home to Nebraska last weekend for 3 days to help Mom and Dad around the house. Mom was 2 weeks out from Hip Replacement Surgery and doing quite well. The stipulation was that I would be able to workout in the morning until about 10:00am and then I would be available to do whatever she wanted me to do.

I arrived on Thursday night with a nice drive. With all the rain we have been getting the fields were green and it was actually a pretty drive and went relatively quick. Once I got into Nebraska the storm clouds were building and there were tornado watches being posted on the radio. I didn't see any but the sky was quite threatening. I made it to North Platte in about 4 hours and as soon as I got in I had heard on the radio that there were tornadoes in a few of the towns that I had just passed thru. I guess I was pretty lucky to get by it all with out much of a sprinkle of rain!

Got up early on Friday morning and headed out for a nice long run. Wasn't sure how my foot was going to feel but I knew that I needed to get in at least and hour and a half run. I decided on the canal road which is all gravel. I drove over to the start which was only a mile from the house but I didn't want to do that extra section as it was paved. I started off at 8:00 and it was quite warm but was happy that I was able to find dirt to run on. My foot bothered me most of the way but not enough to stop me from running. Dad had warned me about the rattlesnakes on the canal road so of course I had my eyes peeled to the ground hoping not to startle one. About 10 minutes into the run I saw a huge bull frog...belly up! About 10 min. later I saw a turtle crossing the road, I ran around it leaving it to it's own demise. I continued to look for snakes but instead found a few other creatures hanging out around the canal. I ran right by a blue herring as he was taking flight...if you have never seen one, they are huge! A few lizards were scrambling around and that was about it. I made my turn around after about :50 min. and looked for the same creatures on the way back. I finally saw my snake.....he was all of about 6 inches long and when I stopped to look at him he coiled up and hissed at me. Not sure he was able to do much more than that as he was so small. I think he was a rattler but my dad seems to think it might have been a hognose snake...

Finished up the 1:40 run and then headed back to the house to do some stretching and icing. Mom was watching the Tour de France so I had time to get something to eat before we headed to town for errands. No sense in taking a shower today as the weather is about 98* and humidity about the same. I took Mom into town for a few hours until we were both exhausted but it was a very productive day. I drove by our very first house in North Platte. It looked so small and to think there were 7 kids and my parents living in that house. We had a light dinner and then off to bed early.

Sat. morning I was on my bike by 7:30. It was nice and cool and overcast, so much better than yesterday. I road out past Dodge hill where we used to go sledding as kids and then down State Farm Road to Ft. McPherson. I rode thru the little town of Maxwell and then looped back to North Platte. I rode out to the pool where I used to work at in high school and by the old neighborhood. It was a great day for a leisure ride, got in 70 miles in 4 hours. Back at the house my project was to clean out the pond. It was a challenge but once we figured out what pump worked best to get the water out I was good to go. It turned out great, wondering how long it will stay that way??? Did some watering and a few other odd jobs and then had another nice easy dinner. Dan Keenan came over to the house for a visit, so good to see him and catch up.

Sunday was another ride day bricked with a short run. I just rode south of town where there were a few more hills and I got in about 2 hours of riding. Got back to the house and changed real quick and headed out for a :30 min. run, nice and easy. My foot was really hurting but I really didn't care. It loosened up after about 10 min. but boy was it hot. I was back at the house about 10:30 and had a list of things to do for mom. I got things cleaned up and left the house about 2pm. I decided I really needed to get in a swim and so I decided I would go check out Cody pool and see if it was crowded. No one was in the lap lanes so I made a quick decision and went in for a swim. I swam a nice easy 2000 meters. I must say, I love swimming in an outdoor 50 meter pool, something I don't get to do very often. The pool was crowded and with the lap lanes in the middle of the pool the kids like to swim under the 2 lap lane lines...however, their timing wasn't all that great and I think I nailed about half a dozen of them in the head with my freestyle stroke...of course I was aiming for them!

It was really nice being back home. I forget how nice it is, especially when no one else is around....so very quiet! It has been a year since I had been back but hopefully I won't wait that long again. I do like the riding out there but I miss having other cyclists and runners around.