Our last day of travel until we get to Yankton. We could have done it in two days, but since our first gig isn’t until the 19th of July, we were ok to just take our time, enjoying the slowness, scenery, and stops. As you may have gathered by now, we do love our local java shops. Tuesday’s discovery was “Normal Roasting Company and Coffee Lab”, a husband/wife ran gem in the little town of Burwell, NE. An agriculture and cowboy town through and through, this shop with its hyper positivity and ultra trendy/modern storefront and decor, stood out. The staff was absolutely as warm as their Butterfinger Scones and as filling. When we told them we were in a band, they played our music on the house speakers. Our hearts were happy and our smiles big as we said goodbye to Libby (marketing lady) and our barista (fellow PNWer). Once the trailer doors were checked four and five times, we were on the road to complete the remaining two and a half hour drive to South Dakota.
Simple and solid advice that serves as a constant reminder.
One game Jared and I have always loved to play is the always exciting, “Can we make it to the gas station?” game. We always enjoy this when we’re home and know where all the gas stations are, but there’s an added thrill when we’re on the road and the ability to get gas can be sketchy. One of our favorite parts of this game is sending pictures of the miles dwindling away to our friend, Bonnie, who always gets super nervous that we’re going to run out of gas. This one was almost a bit too close, even for our senses of humor. To be honest, we really aren’t THAT big of risk takers. We had found a gas station when we were much safer in the tank, but it only had the option of diesel fuel available. So even though we tried to make light of it, we were a bit worried. When I sent the first picture of us having nine miles of gas range to go, we had about seven miles left to drive. We thought we’d be ok. Within a few minutes we watched the gas range fall, one mile at a time until we still had four miles to drive, but only one mile worth of gas. I’m telling you, there was nary a loose sphincter in the car as Jared and I held our breath and crossed our fingers, hoping the station was indeed at the bottom of the hill we were climbing.
It was! We rolled up to the pump just in time. We were literally at “zero” for the last mile of driving. I sent the picture and a video of the last minute or so to Bonnie. She didn’t laugh.
So happy to finally land in Yankton. Greeted warmly by our dear friends, Nate and Heather, or as Rudy called them when he was young, “Heaven and Kevin”, and that’s what we call them at home! Amazing humans as they are, they brought their 5th-wheel for us to camp in during our stay here on the Missouri River. We really looked forward to a hot shower, some quiet time not driving, and a real bed to crash in…and whiskey. Plus, we got this sunset to greet us as we left the grocery store.
What a guy!!! After a long day of work, dumping and filling the 5th-wheel, setting it all up for us, and then driving all the way home, Nate came back to help us with a faulty water pump. We all fiddled around with it, only to find there were parts to be bought and a whole process of removing, replacing, and a lot of swearing. Do you see the wire stripper/cutter tool in Nate’s right hand? Well, my favorite part about the night was when Nate went to the hardware store to get a “better” stripper (insert ANY myriad of dirty jokes here) and returned with a shiny new set, only to break the clamp part with his BARE HANDS when he went to squeeze the new attachment around the wire. He said his wife always says, “You don’t know the strength of your own hands!” Well NOW he does. And then Jared made a dirty joke… (insert another batch of jokes, imagining what you think Jared said here). Anyway, I was so impressed with Nate’s positive attitude, his willingness to just figure it out and fix it, right then and there, and the whole time just laughing and chatting with us. So many others would have just said, “I’ll get to it tomorrow.”, or “Sorry. You guys will just have to do without for a bit.” But not Nate. A stand up guy, through and through. Thanks, buddy. We are really grateful and so glad to be here.
