BE MY VALENTINE....IN NEBRASKA THAT IS

Yesterday we vegged.  Joyce called to tell us Hank came through his procedure just fine and they were home from the hospital.  I know Hank thought he'd be up to going to Lintz's but we all knew better.

Bill and I decided to go to Lintz's for Hank's sake and as we were starting to leave the clouds came in again.  Since we were in the truck and within walking distance of the RV park we got our Supreme pizza to go.



It was a good thing we didn't linger.  As soon as we got back to the Mountaineer we heard this awful noise.  We looked outside and saw hail coming down.  




It lasted for a while and the hail pounding on the roof was very loud.  We watched it hit the ground in the tent area and it looked like popcorn popping.  



When it finally stopped everyone came out to check for damage.  There were a lot of people up on their roofs.  This rainbow made everyone feel better and the horses started scampering around after being pelted with the hail.   


We got on the road about 10 am and since the sun was shining and there weren't any clouds I offered to drive.  That was a big mistake on my part.  I got the sunny side of the truck and the winds were very strong.  While I was tooling down Highway 79 a Jayco with a white truck passed us and we thought it might have been a chapter member, Don Smith.  

I turned east on Highway 20 once we crossed the border into Nebraska.  

The scenery didn't change most of the day.  Windmills and some stacks of hay and a lot of construction.  

The road was grooved for paving and luckily we didn't see any motorcyclists trying to negotiate the rough road.  

We didn't stop the whole 225 miles. The few towns we passed populations were mostly under 100 people.  Valentine has over 2,000 people.  We pulled into a Passport America campground which has 50 amp, full hook ups with cable and wifi for $37 for two nights.  It has end to end spaces. 

After we got set up, we drove the few blocks to the visitor's center.  There was a huge western store that we walked through.  They had excellent prices but the only thing we bought was a beautiful belt for Bill for $15.  

This statue of a Lakota Indian was well done.

This bank had beautiful reliefs  which unfortunately didn't come out in the photo with the sun on it. 

The town really carries the Valentine theme everywhere.  I did find out that the town is named after Mr. Valentine.  

Our RV site is directly behind the movie theater.  We decided to walk over to the movie to see the Lone Ranger but forgot we lost an hour today as we are now in Central Time Zone.  

There's a lot happening in this town and  we'll have to choose what's most important to do tomorrow.  A lot will depend on the winds which never stopped today.  

One funny thing that happened.  We had a fly and usually I'm on target but this one fly kept eluding me.  I laid the flyswatter down and went to the closet and got another one.  One swat and I killed that fly.  

I told Bill "I needed to use the Valentine swatter" to kill that fly.  

Turtle Safely......